SPECIAL INSIGHT INTERVIEW
Aja Deren, UX/UI Designer: Let’s Talk Technological Tools
An interview with Information Design Student turned UX/UI Designer
Picture this: You are a second year Information Design student in their Winter semester working on assignments that seem to never end, and you have that one little thing on your to-do list that you keep pushing off…
You need to start applying to summer internships.
Ah yes, that stress associated with having to finally spread your info design wings and go off into the real work to find a grown up job sets in. Am I ready? Is my portfolio good enough? What kind of job do I want, and in what industry? Well if the answer to that is UX/UI design, then lucky you, this is your sign that it can be done! Aja Deren is an Information Design student turned UX/UI designer who graciously sat down with me this past month for an interview. During our discussion, she provided me with a run down of the main technological tools she has used within her position, adding her unique perspective from an information design background. Before we talk tech tools, I will introduce you to Aja.
Are you more of a sit and listen type of person? I’ve constructed a video presentation to give you an overview of my interview with Aja. Watch below.
Let’s Meet Aja Deren
Aja is a fourth year Information Design student at Mount Royal University (MRU), and the Information Design Society President. In her second year of the program, she too had to start applying for summer internship positions. As if it were meant to be, she was able to secure a job through the first company she interviewed with: Appoxio. Appoxio was a small start up company working in the UX/UI design field in Calgary, Alberta and where she began her career within the industry.
Aja has consistently worked with Appoxio since then, employed full-time through the Spring and Summer months and part-time during the school year. About four months ago, the company was acquired by a larger U.S. company called Thirdera. This is relevant as the shift from a small, start-up company to a larger, established company saw an interesting change in the technological tools. Aja discussed how this shift specifically affected her team in the tools they use daily, giving me a walkthrough of her experience B.T. and A.T. — before and after Thirdera.
Appoxio: Her UX/UI Design Roots
Appoxio is a UX/UI design agency located in Calgary, Alberta that creates and builds custom applications, service portals and integrations. Right out of the gate, Aja grew with this company — when she was hired there were a total of 15 employees, and over two years it grew to 36. She was grateful for the chance to work at a startup as she wouldn’t have had as many opportunities to learn and grow were it a larger company, where she believes she would have been “pigeonholed” into one role specifically.
Being hired on officially as a “UX/UI Design Intern”, she really only understood what her position would be at a very basic level. Interestingly enough, her direct boss and mentor was a previous MRU student in the ‘Electronic Publishing’ program, which was a predecessor to the Information Design Program that exists now. Because of this, she shared some of the same professors and similar educational background as her mentor, and so a strong working relationship was built. Through this, a hands-on learning experience began for the main technological tool Aja had to learn in order to complete work on UX/UI design projects: Adobe XD. This tool is shared across both Appoxio and Thirdera, and for that reason is the tool that will be discussed last. For now, though, let this be a lesson for us as information design students: you don’t need to know everything about everything going into internships — they are learning opportunities where we will find mentors to support our growth, understanding, and professional development.
Other than Adobe XD for UX/UI design needs, the main technological tools used for team organization, collaboration, and client communication at Appoxio were: Google Workspace, Slack, Zoom, and Monday.com
Google Workspace
Google Workspace is a collection of Google tools and products meant to support cloud-based productivity and collaboration, including Gmail, Drive, Calendar, Docs, Slides, Sheets, Forms, Sites and more (Google, n.d.). According to Google (n.d.), there are four different plans that range from $7.80 CAD/month for the Business Starter, $15.60 CAD/month for the Business Standard, $23.40 CAD/month for the Business Plus, to undisclosed for the Enterprise. With each plan level the product assets increase, including number of participants, ability to record, and video enhancing features for meetings, strengthened security and support offered, and larger storage availability (Google, n.d.).
At Appoxio, the main workspace tools they utilized were Drive, Gmail, and Calendar. Since Mount Royal University uses Google as their main platform, Aja is very familiar with its use and because of this it made the shift from school and work projects seamless. Beyond already having experience with the tools, she appreciates the professional interface and usability features that Google presents. In her opinion, other web-based platforms such as Microsoft 365 do not compare.
Google Drive
Digital area where Appoxio designated the sharing and storing of project files. It is a secure space within the Google Workspace where Aja could not only store her own files, but also view any project materials and co-projects through shared drives with clients, other members of her team, or partnering departments. She called this her “digital filing cabinet”.
Gmail
Gmail was the main email platform within the company, and again proved simple for her to use as she was able to easily switch from her work to school profiles as both were hosted in the same place. Whether she was corresponding with group members for school projects, or waiting on an email from her boss on how to proceed with a project, she enjoyed the convenience of not having to go far for either.
Google Calendar
Used within the company as a way to keep track and schedule meetings, either with the design team or clients. Because she had both her work and school schedules both integrated within Google, she had the ability to easily track her meetings and project deadlines all in one place. This feature was most useful during the academic year, when she stayed on part-time with Appoxio and had to stay organized and split her time efficiently between the company and school.
Slack
Slack is a collaboration platform meant to bring teams and partnering individuals together in one place, taking away the formal atmosphere that comes with emailing (Slack, n.d.). According to the Slack website, their offer pricing plans ranging from Free, $6.67 USD/month for Pro, $12.50 USD/month for Business+, and undisclosed for Enterprise Grid. The variety in these plans rests within access to messages, integrations with other applications, group voice and video calls, improved security and support features, and number of organization users (Slack, n.d.).
Appoxio utilized Slack as one of its main applications for team communication and collaboration. Within the Information Design program at MRU, the professors favour the use of Slack within courses, so once again Aja found this a simple and convenient tool to use that required little to no learning adjustment.
Zoom
Zoom is a video conferencing tool used to bring people and organizations together within the digital world (Zoom, n.d.). According to their website, their pricing plans include a free Basic option, $200 CAD/year/license for Pro, $270 CAD/year/license for Business, and $319.20/year/license for Large Enterprise-Ready. The plans are distinct within their features of participants, amount of group meeting time, social media streaming, recording storage and transcripts, and company branding (Zoom, n.d.).
Overall, she says that of all the video meetings tools out there, Zoom is more of a business standard between other companies and preferred by clients as it is simple to use and known for being secure. Zoom was how she would meet with her team throughout projects, whether it was to go over proposals, project timelines, feedback sessions, or to meet with clients. Because she started working at the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic, Zoom was a tool put to constant use.
Monday.com
Monday.com is a work management platform which aids in organization, productivity plans, and operational efficiency for businesses and their projects (Monday.com, n.d.). According to their website, they have five different plans: free for the Individual, $11 CAD/seat/month for the Basic, $14 CAD/seat/month for the Standard, $22 CAD/seat/month for the Pro, and undisclosed for the Enterprise. With each plan level, the product features increase within categories of prioritized customer support, storage, automations and integrations, reporting and analytics, and number of boards to work with (Monday.com, n.d.).
The company used Monday.com for project management. This included creating timelines for projects, tracking the different phases and updating progress within them, and supported collaboration of work across the other departments.
Thirdera: Her UX/UI Design Future
Thirdera is a consulting company based out of the U.S. who works within scoped apps, service portals, customer service management and integrations on the ServiceNow platform. Within the last couple of months, they acquired Appoxio, integrating them under their larger company umbrella, which is made up of about 500 employees. Now that Appoxio has become Thirdera, you might be wondering what this means for Aja. Not to worry folks, upon graduation this upcoming spring she has been offered an official position with the company! Again, let this aid in easing any fears with the upcoming internship search — as exemplified through Aja’s success, the company you end up working with may be the company you end up staying with.
Now with the merging into this larger company, the technological tools she and her team worked with decreased substantially. In order to keep everything under the same roof, Microsoft 365 is utilized company-wide. The only other tools her team uses within their work aside from this are Adobe XD and Mural.
Microsoft 365
Similar to the Google Workspace, Microsoft 365 is an integrated service platform that is inclusive ofa wide range of Microsoft products, including those within the Office product line (Microsoft, n.d.). According to their website, their product plans are: $7.70 CAD/user/month for the Business Basic, $11 CAD/user/month for the Business, $16 CAD/user/month for the Business Standard, and $28.20 CAD/user/month for the Business Premium. The variety in these plans is largely seen within increased apps and services, cloud storage, desktop versions of the Office applications, and advanced security (Microsoft, n.d.).
This drastic change from the Google Workspace to Microsoft 365 was one of the hardest transitions Aja has had to make, and as a UX/UI designer she often recognizes challenges within its interface. That said, she does think it makes sense to simplify shared tools across the larger employee scope that comes with this merging in order to facilitate organization and clear communication routes. With Microsoft, the two main tools they utilize are Teams and OneDrive.
Teams
Used by Thirdera for internal and client meetings. For quick communication, Teams has a group chat feature that Aja describes as a very lack lustre version of Slack. Though this application is the preferred method for videoconferencing within the organization, she says that they will sometimes pivot to Zoom instead of Teams for client meetings as it is requested by the project management on their side. Again, she attributes this to being considered a more secure and business standard tool.
OneDrive
Replacing Google Drive, OneDrive is put to use in the same way for storing and sharing files. All departments across Thirdera use OneDrive, making this the one-stop shop for personal and shared project files.
Mural
Mural is a digital artboarding tool meant to support visual collaboration (Mural, n.d.). Per its website, the various pricing plans are free for a Basic option, $9.99 CAD/member/month for the Team+, $17.00 CAD/member/month for the Business, and undisclosed for the Enterprise.
I particularly found the new company’s use of Mural within client relations to be interesting. Her department at Thirdera uses Mural to create project workshops where they can walk clients through wireframes during initial meetings, enabling them to receive immediate feedback and an understanding of desired user flows before getting too deep into projects. This includes discussing added features and styling the client imagines, and asking relevant questions as they walk through low-fidelity mockups. A great idea that not only supports client satisfaction within work, but a way to include them into the design process and potentially avoid major project mistakes.
Adobe XD: A Key UX/UI Design Tool
Finally, we have made it — the main reason I am sure you have all stuck around for in order to learn exactly what you need to know about an actual UX/UI technological tool: Adobe XD. Before we hop in with the many many insights Aja shared about this, I’d like to briefly mention Figma. If you have started your intern job search, you will have come across this name within many postings associated with web-based design. For this reason, I did ask Aja her thoughts on it and inquired into why her company prefers to work outside of this popular UX/UI design tool. Her response: they are considering shifting to Figma at some point, but because that will mean training and a complete derailment of many collaborative projects on the go, they will continue to only operate within XD for now.
Adobe XD is a powerful UX/UI design solution used within the creation of websites, apps, and other digital assets (Adobe, n.d.). From start to finish, Thirdera (and previously Appoxio) complete all of their projects within XD. This includes but is not limited to: user flows, user personas, wireframes, and both low and high fidelity prototypes. Aja describes it as easy to test and share, with collaborating made simple by enabling multiple people to work on the same document at the same time, and consistent with their tagline “design at the speed of thought”. She said, as long as you understand the basic operational tools and hot keys, wireframing and prototyping can be done extremely fast. Not only that, but she described the process of learning these controls to be relatively simple for anyone that is in the Information Design program, as the interface and features are relatively consistent across the other Adobe programs we use, such as Illustrator, Photoshop and InDesign.
In no particular order, Aja’s favourite Adobe XD features are:
1. Supporting Adobe Products
Because it is an adobe product, you have easy access to everything within the Creative Cloud including adobe fonts, stock photos, and importing files from Illustrator, Photoshop, and Sketch.
2. Components & States
The components and states feature enables you to save developed UI elements such as buttons, and their different “states”, such as what they look like when being hovered over, enhancing productivity within projects.
3. Document Assets
Document assets are consistently saved on the go so that you are able to access and reuse elements in a flash.
4. Plug-Ins
There are an abundant amount of plug ins, which she describes as probably the best feature as you can download anything from wireframe elements, to icons and lorem ipsum fillers which again increases efficiency during projects.
5. Sharing Capabilites
The various sharing capabilities within XD are what not only aid in collaboration with her team, but feedback from clients as well. Some of the options you have are to share as a design review, presentation or user testing.
Adobe XD Workshop
For a better understanding of what she does on a daily basis as a UX/UI designer, and to allow you to start creating in Adobe XD yourself, you can view a recent beginner workshop Aja delivered. Within the workshop, she went through the fundamental tools and a walkthrough of her process when designing for both web and mobile. She explains her experience learning the program and provides tips and tricks, such as hot keys, smart application of features, layer organization, and a list of the plug ins she uses most often. If you want to follow along, use the links below to download the working files. Of course, you will need to have Adobe XD downloaded if you want to do this.
While most of the workshop is very hands-on, giving you the opportunity to test out all these amazing features of XD, you can also skip to 1hr and 58 minutes (1:58) to get a quick look of how Aja would work from a low-fidelity wireframe to start fleshing out a webpage mockup. I found this very helpful as she talks through her process and decision-making on the go, without the stop-and-go of the participatory activities within the rest of the workshop.
Overall, through this demonstration, you get to see the idea of “designing as fast as you think” in action. She is seamlessly flowing through the process of bringing this wireframe to life through playing around with different layouts, images, content, and usability features. While her job as a UX/UI designer is made up of much more complex processes, this should give you a taste of the type of work she does every day within her role.
Happy Learning!
Download the working files here:
Want to connect with Aja? She would love to via LinkedIn.
References
Adobe. (n.d.). Adobe XD, Design the incredible. https://www.adobe.com/ca/products/xd.html
Appoxio. (2021, May). Have you ever wondered what APPOXIO means? [Photograph]. LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/company/appoxio/posts/?feedView=images
Google. (n.d.). How teams of all sizes connect, create, and collaborate. Google Workspace. https://workspace.google.com/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=na-CA-all-en-dr-bkws-all-all-trial-%7Bmatchtype%7D-dr-1011401&utm_content=text-ad-none-any-DEV_%7Bdevice%7D-CRE_%7Bcreative%7D-ADGP_Desk+%7C+BKWS+-+PHR+%7C+Txt+~+Google+Workspace_Google+Workspace+General-KWID_43700064799237793-%7Btargetid%7D&utm_term=KW_%7Bkeyword%7D-ST_workspace&gclid=CjwKCAiAyPyQBhB6EiwAFUuakhewOFuEnenay8IXyGImoAApnAjpueWxD2jR0ZlHclHtPHZGp5V7lRoCefIQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
Kolde, B. (2017, October 5). Laptop computer screen that says, “I design and develop experiences that make’s peoples lives simple.” [Photograph]. Unsplash. https://unsplash.com/photos/bs2Ba7t69mM
Microsoft. (n.d.). Reimagine productivity with Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Teams. Microsoft. https://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/microsoft-365/business/compare-all-microsoft-365-business-products-b?&ef_id=Cj0KCQiA64GRBhCZARIsAHOLriKUYWKhlj2OtlbzJtGh2TeenWmNU_An19F4LJugoGfh3v2MLCtdXqwaAkkREALw_wcB:G:s&OCID=AID2200006_SEM_Cj0KCQiA64GRBhCZARIsAHOLriKUYWKhlj2OtlbzJtGh2TeenWmNU_An19F4LJugoGfh3v2MLCtdXqwaAkkREALw_wcB:G:s&lnkd=Google_O365SMB_Brand&gclid=Cj0KCQiA64GRBhCZARIsAHOLriKUYWKhlj2OtlbzJtGh2TeenWmNU_An19F4LJugoGfh3v2MLCtdXqwaAkkREALw_wcB
Monday.com. (n.d.). Supercharge your teamwork. Start free. Monday.com.
Mural. (n.d.). Solve hard problems and create new ideas together. Mural. https://www.mural.co/pricing
Slack. (n.d.). What is Slack?. Slack. https://slack.com/events/webinars/what-is-slack?utm_source=hppromo&utm_medium=promo
Zoom. (n.d.). Choose a plan. Zoom. https://zoom.us/pricing
[Photograph of Adobe XD banner]. (n.d.). Anima Documentation. https://docs.animaapp.com/v3/adobe-xd/getting-started/
[Photograph of Google Workspace banner]. (2021, June 14). Chrome Unboxed. https://chromeunboxed.com/google-workspace-individual-tier-announced
[Photograph of Microsoft 365 banner]. (2020, November 5). Stringfellow. https://www.stringfellow.com/2020/11/m365-security-the-basics/
[Photograph of Monday.com banner]. (n.d.). Monday.com. https://monday.com/
[Photograph of Mural banner]. (n.d.). Mural. https://www.mural.co/blog/transforming-teamwork
[Photograph of Slack banner]. (2020, June 14). NextPlane. https://nextplane.net/blog/managing-multiple-slack-workspaces-in-2020/
[Photograph of Thirdera banner]. (n.d.). Thirdera. https://www.thirdera.com/
[Photograph of Zoom banner]. (n.d.). Chaparral Hawks. http://www.chaparralhawks.com/virtual-meetings
