Facebook EMEA university design summit 2020
Find out about what it is like to be designing at Facebook and how you can become a better designer with a few tips
Facebook EMEA University Design Summit 2020 was an opportunity for students to find out about what it is like to design at Facebook and how to move a step closer to achieving every designers dream. At the current climate finding opportunities has been difficult especially for recent graduates. Entering a competitive market where most positions are mid-senior level but thankfully to these kind of events students can learn, ask and connect with professionals in their potential field.
A number of students had applied to attend and those invited joined a facebook group to connect with the designers, recruiters among other attendees. Shared was a glimpse of what was to be anticipated at the event being shared a talk from one of the Product Design Directors at Facebook:
At the beginning of the event we were introduced to three disciplines: product design, content strategy and UX research. Facebook looks for from a designer is product thinking, interaction design and visual design, and soft skills like pro activity & drive, intentionality and having self-awareness. It was really interesting to learn about their design process and what it was like for designers to work collaboratively for a huge company.
What does compromising look like in Facebook?
“That is an excellent question with many different answers. We have more clarity on what we don’t want to compromise on: our principles (https://about.fb.com/company-info/). As a more day to day example though, this could look like a delayed go to market date as we iron out quality or security details.” — Marco Sousa
As well as, Facebook’s ways of researching:
When going over to a place to research about it, what information do you gather? What have you noticed in the difference in information you gather from new users compared to existing users?
“Great question.
Different research trips have different goals.
In my example in Kenya, we were there to try and understand how people use Facebook while having low internet connectivity. This obviously affects the experience and delays a lot of loading, so we wanted to see how we could show the most important information as fast as possible.
New vs. Returning users are always challenging — When trying to onboard new users to a product, it is always very challenging to know what is the best way to display the information (Information Hierarchy)” — Adi Binder
During the event students were divided into groups to speak to a designer at Facebook and learn more. Here are some of the questions that designers would ask while designing a product are shown in the picture below.
These questions highlight how a product can become more inclusive just by answering these questions as they can have a huge impact. It also demonstrates to the audience when presenting the product that you made sure that the design was as well informed as possible because such questions were raised or context was presented. Therefore, the audience can offer constructive suggestions to improve the design.
When the project is complete and you have permission to display it in your portfolio it suggested to structure case studies by setting the context, framing the problem, showing the process and the explaining what happened. Having a good project structure will give anyone reviewing your portfolio the ability to scan and find the areas they want to dig deeper on.
They also introduced new features of Origami Studio, Facebook’s prototyping program which I experimented with designing the interface for Verifoxx, a facial verification app to access events with the best experience.
One last thing that will help to maximise your potential to get a recruiter on your side is getting their attention in 3 minutes! Here is what you need to do:
