Chronicles from my first internship
I now get why designers are paid for making those rectangles
Preface
My internship at Razorpay ended recently, and I wanted to pen down the experience. It was my first internship, and needless to say, I enjoyed experiencing everything new around me, metaphorically, since remote :(
I spent some time thinking about what to write as everything that needs to be said has already been said! But, André Gide's addition that since no one was listening, everything must be repeated boosted some confidence in me.
Honestly, I don't know how to categorize this article. I leave that up to the reader. I hope you'd enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it!
#1: Internships are a place to learn
Before starting my internship, I imagined I'd have a project that I'd ship at the end of just three months! But it doesn't work that way. Don't just dream of completing a project to add to your portfolio at the end of your internship. You get a chance to work on actual products and problems! Focus on refining your design process.
You should know what you want to learn during your time and communicate them effectively to your mentor.
Don't shy away from asking questions. Ask until you clearly understand what the other person is talking about, and you get answers to whats, hows and whys.
#2: A little preparation hurts no one
I got the chance to do some real user testing while working on the product, and I felt like Poirot for a moment, understanding hidden meaning in conversations!🕵🏻♀️
During some initial video calls, I planned to go with the flow of the chat to understand a candid perspective and not make them oblivious of what I was looking for. Don't do this.
In general, leaving discussions open-ended increases the chance of them going off-topic, leaving no room for the actual one to take place. It'd save a lot of time if you have a framework ready for any activity you're going to do. Once I started this, interviewing became simple, and the right questions came naturally to my mind instead of what I had initially done.
#3: Notes are probably the best gift you can give your future self
Take tons of notes; you won't remember the details afterwards. By writing, you're making sense of things.
Take them when you're in a meeting or the moment a thought strikes. Write it down or take a voice note. You'll be amazed at the discoveries you make every time you revisit them.
Way back in 1994, Bill Gates bought one of Leonardo Da Vinci’s notebooks, the Codex Leicester, for a whopping $30.8 million, making it the most expensive book ever sold. It contains a wealth of sketches, diagrams and ideas and offers a glimpse into one of the most famous minds of all time.
With the help of my mentors, I prepared comprehensive spreadsheets to keep track of our hypotheses and user insights. This also helped me define a clear problem statement.
I was amazed by the number of insights just seventeen people could bring to the table. There were significant contrasts. Even a little user research and insights you derive from a small sample of users can go a long way in multiple projects, and you won't even realize it at the time.
#4: If you copy from one, it's plagiarism. If you copy from many, it's research😋
While doing competitive benchmarking, initially, I was copying the elements I liked from different products!😛
I later realized that this analysis helped me understand each product's context and unique selling points in the market. I compared various payment checkouts on different pointers- onboarding, trust markers, support, recovery, perceived efficiency, number of clicks for checkout, variety of payment options.
Competitive analysis should help you spot the areas where your product has a headstart and where it's lacking. Then you can work the whys (it's lacking) and hows ( to increase efficiency)
#5: You're ready; start making stuff.
Imposter syndrome seeps in if you keep listening and reading stuff without making or doing anything about it. Simultaneously read and do.
You can start doing this by focussing on one task at a time. An "Information architecture" where my mentors helped me lay out steps to approach the problem- creating hypotheses, user testing, finding insights, scribbling new ideas and in the end prototyping, helped me start.
Make things how you would like them to be. I don't enjoy making presentations, so I tried to spark interest by adding interactive components like prototypes and quirky pieces like comic strips.😋
#6: Pen & paper are powerful tools that go underrated.
Scribbling your thoughts on a piece of paper is easier and less time consuming than making changes in a Figma file. Editing these iterations is also easier. It'd also save the hard work of making multiple screen iterations and focussing only on the valuable ones.
Austin Kleon, author of Steal Like An Artist, shared an interesting thing about his workspace in the book.
Since you don't start with a blank canvas but have a blueprint of the idea, you're less likely to run into a creative block and the loop of procrastination.
#7: Documentation is a part of a designers job.
As a designer, your job doesn't end as soon as you hand over the designs to the team. You have to make sure other people understand it as well as you do! (remember, they are also users!)
I realized this while preparing presentation decks. I had a lot of content, but it wasn't organized properly. It led me to draw attention to unintended details.
Vague documentation doesn't provide any indication of what we're looking for. It's essential to document the entire context clear and crisp. You never know who's the audience and don't want them to feel lost.
#8: Have patience; it'll all make sense.
It isn't easy to make good things better. You can't understand all of it at once, just like the plot of a movie! Sometimes going with the flow helps to ease out these floating thoughts.
I understood how Razorpay values its customers by iterating a lot of times to optimize the same flow. I had never made so many screens before.
The thought that went behind every pixel of the product made me understand why designers get paid for making rectangles!😝
#9: Don't forget to relax every once in a while
Probably the best thing about Razorpay's culture is the focus on "unlearning the hustle."
My team always tried to incorporate fun at work during our bi-weekly catchups or designing together sessions. Since I am a fan of connecting with people, finding out about their views on life, and receiving "pro tips", I enjoyed these sessions enough, even in the remote environment!
Also, being a PCM student, not rushing through the day felt like a vacation to me! It was also a reminder that I should focus on my well-being after putting in hours of hard work.😎
I'm not so good with endings…
I always feel abrupt while wrapping things up. Maybe because I overthink the meaning of stories. So, I'll end this with one of my favourite quotes,
"We write to taste life twice, in the moment and retrospect."
~ Anais Nin
Thanks for reading:)
Ps: Long press that claps button for a sweet surprise!😉
