What an internship at Life.AI taught me about product design workflows
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In 2017, it seems to be rare that interns are paid. It’s even rarer that interns are working on anything more than grunt work.
Don’t get me wrong, I completely value how important it is to cut your teeth somewhere and do the work that makes you valuable to the company you’re interning for. Internships, ultimately, are an exchange. My time for your knowledge.
My experience was different. This summer my internship at a small but insanely ambitious startup called life.ai provided me a very rare experience. One that I am endlessly grateful for.
I, as an intern, was actively shaping the course of the product.
In a small team of 5 designers we brainstormed, collaborated, and iterated on the product for three whole months. We went through countless iterations of the product, trying out various solutions to problems that are on the cutting edge of technology and design.
However, one of the biggest learning points for me personally was centered around design workflow and process. From the plethora of design tools to UX documentation and process, to the final dev handoff, I had a collaborative hand in deciding what was best for us and the problems we were solving for.
Figma —> Sketch.
When I and the other interns came on board we inherited the old workflow using Figma.
Figma has some amazing features. Most important to us was the multiplayer modes, where you are able to have your whole team working on one file at a time. This, however, also came with a good amount of crashes and bugs.
Despite our love for the team features of Figma, we needed to be quicker. That’s when we decided to make the big switch back to Sketch.
Coincidentally, Abstract came out right when we were starting to get cold feet with Figma, making the transition seamless.
Our Beautiful Sketch Workflow
Let me tell you, I’ve never felt more productive than I did the week Abstract came out and we were able to fully integrate it into our process.
Here’s what it looked like:
- All files and version history in Abstract
- Craft Sketch plugin for the component library (synced through Dropbox for live updates)
- User Flows Sketch plugin for flow documentation
- Principle for interaction prototyping
- Framer for complex interaction prototyping (if needed)
- Design language/style guide documentation with Docsify (on GitHub)
- Zeplin for commenting/documentation and, obviously, dev handoff
(Also, our team used Webflow & Kirby CMS for our marketing sites, Trello for task management and Slack for communication.)
We were flowin’ smoother than butter.
Using Craft to sync all of our fonts, colors, and symbols allowed for really quick and effective global changes to UI elements. User Flows allowed us to clearly document how a user navigates through the app, while also allowing those flows to appear in Zeplin for dev to review.
Principle and Framer helped us communicate how exactly the user interacts with various elements. Additionally, this level of prototyping pokes holes in your experience quickly and early.
The real lifesaver for our workflow was Abstract, though. Abstract allowed us to quickly work on separate pieces of the product while simultaneously keeping us all in step with one another.
When you make a new branch you’re able to enter a title and if it’s a work in progress. Being able to see at a glance what’s being worked on allowed for seamless communication, and almost entirely squashed version conflicts.
Near the end of my time at life.ai we began considering adopting Lingo for asset management and were patiently (and still are patiently) awaiting the arrival of Picnic.
(I also found several Sketch plugins that helped me speed up my own personal workflow, but that’s a whole other post.)
If you want some one-liners to walk away with, here you go:
Prototype everything you design. You will find holes quickly, and that’s a good thing. It also gives you something with which to conduct user tests.
Optimize your workflow. When you don’t have to worry about version control, you can focus on creating amazing interactions.
Don’t be afraid to pivot when something isn’t working. Whether that’s product direction, or tools. It’s scary and difficult, but listen to your instincts.
The Big Takeaways
Along the way we had the opportunity to touch almost every hot new design tool to see what it was all about, finally settling on what felt like the best solution for our product.
The sands of design are always shifting and there are many new and exciting ideas being uncovered. The life.ai team taught me to embrace change and keep my ear to the ground to adapt to the shifting sands.
Most importantly, I learned you should always optimize a workflow to match a product’s specific needs. Embracing a truly rapid iterative design process is just as important as the design itself.
Just as a user’s experience is inherently different given their context, a product’s process needs to be adaptable and scalable. Every problem is different and calls for a custom and careful solution that is catered to its nuances.
