Finding the value of working together
My experience learning from a fellow designer
I came to San Francisco bright-eyed and hungry. I was excited for the opportunities to discover new things, meet new people, and embrace the unfamiliar. For the past ten months in this city, I’ve been finding my way through the world of product design at OpenTable. As I settle into place, I maintain my enthusiasm by keeping one fundamental goal in mind: to learn as much as I can, especially from my fellow designers.
When I joined the diner web team, my manager gave me the option to choose the project I wanted to work on. Rather than thinking about what, I thought about whom I wanted to work with. I chose Yuebo because I admire the way he thinks. He always takes notes, asks thoughtful questions, and approaches everything with curiosity. I wanted to see things from his perspective and understand how he explores a problem.
Together, we worked on lists. One of our initiatives at OpenTable is to be the starting point for every dining occasion. Lists play a significant role in our goal to promote restaurant discovery — we want to be a place people can rely on to find restaurant inspiration and the best places to dine. Lists allow us to leverage our content in various digestible ways that provide fresh value to people. They also provide an opportunity to express our brand voice.
The problem we were addressing is that while we already have lists such as Diner’s Choice and 2018 James Beard Award Winners on OpenTable, they lacked discoverability and usefulness. The lists were difficult to find and didn’t exist across every platform. They also lacked a clear story around why people should dine at the restaurants on the list and only featured restaurants bookable through OpenTable.
We kicked off the project with a design sprint, involving people across various teams. We used our internal user research about lists and the ways people use them as a basis for what our list experience could be. The outcomes of the sprint included some fun and crazy ideas, along with a set of design principles that we continuously returned to for guidance throughout the project.
When we delved into the execution side, Yuebo suggested trying out new tools. It was refreshing to explore new processes and not being limited by what we currently use. We collected inspiration with are.na and evaluated the examples based on what we thought worked well. Next, we crafted a story around how our lists would be consumed and what content was important. Yuebo created delightful illustrations with the Paper sketching app to help our story come to life, which showed me there is always room to showcase your unique style. We sketched and worked through how restaurants could be represented on individual lists and how lists could be represented on our homepage and across the site. While some designs we decided to divide and conquer, others we talked through together.
Yuebo has taken the project to the finish line. The lists have launched in Chicago and Washington, DC, with more metros coming soon.
Working on this project has been a great experience. My takeaway is this: when you get the opportunity to work with someone, do it! It is great to have someone to ask questions and get exposure to new forms of ideation. It’s insightful to see how other people to think and work; some people are incredibly decisive, while others need time to process ideas. I appreciate what everyone offers and hope to take my learnings with me into the future.
