Designing experiences as a remote intern for Graphy app
How I drew parallels in interning and playing Among us!
Graphy app aims to innovate new way of reading and learning so why not my article? I feel obliged to provide one of its kind article reading experience. This hopefully will encourage you to empathise better in a fun manner. Lettuce sip a coffee and dip in my Graphy enriching game!
Introducing the game :
Context: .You’re a clueless intern aka design generalist willing to hop on any project that comes your way. You’ve entered the lobby of the Graphy app where you’ll be expected to perform various tasks and challenges helping to build the mobile-first learning app.
Graphy is mobile-first learning content app by Unacademy which makes learning live, fun and interactive.
You’ve to work with your brilliant design team and deliver on time. But the catch is, there’s an imposter who’ll try to sabotage your work uff! Find your way amidst these challenges the game and pandemic is trying to throw at you in 2020 as you navigate your internship journey virtually. May the odds be in your favor!
Tasks you need to perform :
This is the list of tasks I performed in Graphy in my three month internship period. Though I had started off as a generalist, I later gravitated towards UX:
01. Documenting work as a UX Researcher
If you’re anything like me who thinks writing will be a piece of cake for you? Oh boy, you’re mistaken! Documenting is an art where you need to carefully curate, synthesize, and show only what you want. Being concise, treat it as a product. Answer all the questions you think stakeholders might have. Be it any new direction or a re-designing of a feature, documentation acts as a written timestamp to record your process.
While I worked on documenting and redesigning the search experience of our web-app I played many roles in my head as I wrote it. Once I was a developer who would geek out with technicalities of the user journey, and other times a social activist voicing out the user pain- points helping the designer to empathize better!
02. Collaborate with other game-players.
Working on cross-functional projects helps us to understand the inner- workings of the organization. I collaborated with the business, content, and tech team to get diverse perspectives. Not everyone understands your design jargon but has their own way of expressing and perceiving it.
Working on designing a handbook for the creators of Graphy exposed me to talk to everyone who was part of their onboarding process. It was fun and challenging to categorize and make a no-code Notion website which I ended up designing with Roshnara (Designer at Graphy).
Analyzing 80+ detailed responses was no easy task. The project did not end up getting executed the way we had planned initially but it did teach me to look at the bigger picture and the business aspect of the product.
03. Design visuals for the app
This was the task where I got to practice my creative freedom. Let me loose and design without thinking for once. The entire process was meditative for me to take a break from analyzing and reading information. I ended up making covers for graphers with diverse backgrounds.
04. Make things playful and fun
This was my motto throughout my internship experience to ‘gamify stuff’. Looking at play beyond gamification helped me to make things interesting as basic as this article. This doesn’t mean you need to add badges and points to everything you make rather push yourself to think beyond the obvious.
We did end up adding gamification to features I’m quite excited for it to get launched!
But wait, whose the Imposter?
Well, while working you’ll encounter numerous imposters disguised in various forms. It could be business and stake-holders' decisions that align with the company’s growth and not your project. Even you yourself with poor decision-making skills, lower self-esteem, and self-doubt could be one who will sabotage your own work.
You as a good player should learn from the mistakes and look at your work with a broader perspective. Focus on the impact and meaning you add rather than the number of projects.
Why did I draw parallels between Among us game and my internship?
Similar to all those fun exercises a theatre instructor makes you do to increase the team bonding and understanding, some things don’t literally and directly have implications rather hidden meanings. Few things I’ve deciphered over time are :
01. Calling out discussion meetings is important
While you work remotely it becomes harder to get hold of everyone and have their attention. In these cases, standup calls are the only interaction you’ll have. Among us teaches us that, to solve any problem all you need is to have clarity in communication within the team. If you articulate well then it's a win-win!
02. Be vocal or you’ll be kicked out
Voice out your problems, concerns, or places you’re stuck at as quickly as you can otherwise you’ll be misunderstood. After all, playing a team sport is all about clear communication. In real life, you might not be kicked but not given the responsibilities you deserve.
03. Working under pressure is part and parcel of life :
Hustle culture makes us believe to constantly be part of the rat race. Don’t over-work yourself but learn to adapt to situations and work smartly to finish your tasks. Identifying your own self-sabotages will help you to work better!
Huge shoutout to A1 design team who made my remote internship experience seamless and fun! Firstly, grateful to my witty-and-sassy mentor Sneha Sankar, who trusted me enough with this responsibility and guided me throughout. Also, shoutout to Abhishek Damodara, the most genuine person I came across who showers you with well-articulated feedback!
I’ll surely miss Rosh, Neil, Mohan, and Sheryl the talented troop and kind collaborators. This journey wouldn’t have been possible if I didn’t have amazing co-interns now turned friends Sanyam and Abhay to share this with!
Cheers to yet another enthralling journey which I will surely cherish! Hope this helped you to gain some insights with a pinch of gamification! If you wish to check more of my work see :http://simplysaloni.com/
