Know What’s Inside UX Engineer Intern Starter Pack!
Perhaps you know how to code, but it seems that you do programming things because of your responsibility as a Computer Science student. You enjoy choosing the color palette and right font size more than logically write some code lines to parse data from a database on your website project.
You are full of doubt and often wonder, “could I work with all of this jumbled programming language for life?”
No, I’m not only talking about you right now but also about myself a few months ago. As we know in Indonesia, most of the campus has an Internship program as a requirement for graduation, so do my campus. I was confused about deciding what job exactly I want to do back then to fulfill it. After I went through a long way searching for the right intern position here and there, I was destined in the Blibli.com User Experience team as a UX Engineer Intern.
“Wait, what? There are Engineers in UX? Is it just another term for front-end programmer? Okay, so is it just the right position for someone who knows how to code but also a design junkie like me?”
Brace yourself, I will tell you something about it from now on.*
*Disclaimer: All the information given is based on my own intern experience and other articles that I used to learn from during my internship period. Experience may be different from others.
What UX Engineer actually does?
There are 2 islands with different tribes living on each of them, one is the designer tribe and the other is the programmer tribe. They are completing each other.
One day, the tribes agreed to make a bridge that helps them cross the island. The designer tribe do their job designing the bridge beautifully to attract the tourist. When it has been done, they send the blueprint to the programmer tribe, ask help to build the bridge up.
After analyzing it, programmers point out some obstacles that make them disagree about the design. The construction of ‘designer’s dream bridge’ requires a long time and needs many sources. They quarrel. So, in a time like this, UX Engineer comes to the rescue. UX Engineer would be a mediator and make a balance recommendation between both the aesthetic and technical side.
Agreement settled, the bridge is built, all tribes live happily ever after. The end. 🙌
Actually, in real life, the situation will not be as dramatic as the story above, but surely it will be more complicated than that. Obviously, UX Engineer and Front-End Programmer are different. UX Engineer is ‘the bridge’ between UI or UX designer and Front-End Programmer. Although UX Engineer named after UX that more related to interface and interaction design, they are still responsible for technical matters. To survive, especially as an intern, there are things you should prepare before getting started to live in both worlds.
Inside UX Engineer Intern starter pack
UX Engineer was my first intern position ever and of course, I was entering the position with lacks in many ways. Eventually, I managed to survive. I realized some essential things that are very helpful to overcome all the challenges and better if you prepared earlier. Here is the must-have starter pack! *drumrolls*
4. Know how to code
The main reason of ‘Engineer’ title behind it is because you will do coding. In my case, experienced in using HTML, CSS, and Javascript are useful and know some frameworks are even better.
“What if I have zero experience in any framework?”
That’s alright *because me too😭*, you can learn by the time. Fyi, Blibli.com uses Vue.js and our beloved senior RnD, Pak Febi, published an article about it.
“What if I only know other programming languages?”
Also okay because you have already got the programming logic. You can go into HTML, CSS, or JavaScript online courses after reading this.
“What if I have no idea about coding but still want to give it a try?”
Okay, at least you want to try.
3. Have visual sense
The main goal of UX is to deliver a pleasing interactive visual product to users. Therefore all of the team, including UX Engineers, must have that visual sense lingering every time. Programmers who also aware of visuals are rare, so if you master both design and code, be proud of it because you got the superpower! 👏 👏 👏
2. Rich of empathy
As the one who prioritizes experience of the user, working in the UX team means putting yourself in the user’s shoes. I was taught to remember this phrase:
“U in UX is User, not yoU.”
1. Strong will to learn 🔥
Can’t code? Learn to code.
Don’t have visual sense? Learn to be aware of it.
Not used to empathy? Learn to put others in mind.
Learning is the top of everything. Learning is the only thing that could help when I have no idea how to resolve the tasks given and it’s worked. I often learn from seniors on fellow UX team, Stack Overflow, Medium articles, etc. The key is to stay on fire to dig more and more because both UX and technology are growing fast all the time.
How was it?
My 5 months journey in Blibli.com as a UX Engineer intern was not easy, but all things are genuinely precious. The interesting part of it is I can live for design yet not losing my coding ability at the same time. I was helping up mostly in Design Language System but I also get the chance to explore more about UX field. I would say thanks to Ci Mel, Mas Win, Cak Son, all seniors and colleagues for being an ineffable UX (Also PM) family that always showered me with warmth love.❤️
I learned a lot here, and I hope you do too. So if you’re interested and want to challenge yourself, say no to hesitation and go drop your cover letter, CV, and portfolio to recruitment@blibli.com.
PS: They’re also on the lookout for UX Designer, UI Designer, and UX Copywriter. Don’t miss your chance and go check the requirement on @bliblidesign Instagram!😉
