Portfolios that got designers Internships at Meta
In a recent installment of our series spotlighting designers at Top 100 companies, we dished about the portfolios that sealed the deal for designers landing gigs at Uber and Designers from Cashapp and Dropbox that transitioned from graphics design to Product design.
Today we’re going to be highlighting Jesse Prague; a Product designer at Meta and one of her case studies
Jesse Prague
Jesse is a senior product designer on the Video Player Foundations team at Meta. Passionate about solving problems and crafting beautiful, intuitive experiences. Having graduated from Cornell University in May 2020 with a degree in Information Science, focusing on User Experience and Digital Culture and Production. In Summer 2018, Jesse served as a product design intern at Vox Media, contributing to the design of a personalized watchlist experience for Eater. The subsequent summer saw Jesse interning on the Video Design team at Facebook, eventually transitioning to a full-time role at the company in August 2020.
Today were going to be taking a deep dive into one of Jesse’s case study for an eaters app she worked on at Vox Media.
During her summer internship, Jesse joined the Consumer Products team to help design a cool feature for the Eater App. This app gives restaurant suggestions based on where you are, what kind of food you like, and general interests. Jesse’s job was to add a new feature to make the app more fun. Working with other designers, Jesse and her team came up with a really cool watchlist feature.
Jesse started off by understanding the current eaters app, coupled with the problem statement, this set a clear direction for the project. In her goal and objectives section she crystallizes the purpose which was to enhance richness and engagement within the app, elevating it to an experiential level.
Moving to “User Research,” the inclusion of real user interviews and conversations reflects a commitment to understanding the audience. And after that she created affinity diagram that visualized the research findings in a user-friendly format, making complex data accessible.
It’s not just about gathering information but distilling it into actionable insights.
One thing I found really fascinating next was the user personas she generated which encapsulated the diverse user spectrum. The Foodie Spectrum was a stroke of brilliance, adding a touch of personality and relatability.
During brainstorming, she birthed three potential features to elevate the user experience which she paired up with the user personas. She initially loved the first idea but realized there were constraints.
At the point she realized you can’t fall in love with any idea because it may not be the best solution.
Thus, she decided to move forward with the WATCHLIST FEATURE which involved creating personalized collections of lists, that users can interact with by creating and editing them, adding restaurants, and sharing with friends.
Jesse then conducted a competitive analysis, drawing from other apps like Instagram and Yelp which is a thoughtful integration of learnings from competitors, showcasing a broader perspective. The Information Architecture phase involved the creation of user flow diagrams, determining the hierarchy of screens and design decisions.
Jesse then created medium fidelity mockups to capture the essence of adding restaurants, navigating watchlists, and savoring the restaurant details. The design decisions included revisions to accommodate user feedback, determining when to prompt users to log in, and implementing a sharing feature for watchlists. The final flow of the Watchlist Feature and the “Share with Friends” interaction were detailed in the prototype
Conclusion
In essence, Jesse’s case study was more that just a presentation of design work; it’s a narrative of a designer’s journey, a problem-solving process, and a commitment to creating a meaningful and user-centric product.
In this series we will continue to dive deep into portfolios that got designers hired at companies like Spotify, Apple, Airbnb, Etsy and other companies on your radar. Later this month we have another on a senior designer at PayPal’s journey (also coming from a graphics background).
Join our WhatsApp community to follow our articles and access more resources to aid your journey as a designer.
