Adobe Experience Design Internship
Role
Experience Design Intern
Timeline
Summer 2021
12 weeks
Skills
Interaction Design
Product Thinking
Visual Design
User Research
Tools
Adobe XD
UserTesting
Miro
WHAT I WORKED ON
Reimagining the future of search and content discovery
During my internship, I worked on the Adobe Spark team, which was reintroduced as Adobe Express in Fall 2021. Adobe Spark is a web and mobile application that allows users to create social media graphics, videos, and web pages. Now rebuilt as Adobe Express, a light and accessible all-in-one content creation system, the main goal is to empower users (design beginner or expert; individual or team) to efficiently create social media content.
With thousands of social media templates and assets to choose from, my intern project focused on redefining the search and browse experience. How might we make it easier for users to find exactly what they’re looking for? But also, how might we provide personalized recommendations that fit the user’s brand identity, but also empower them to experiment with new styles?
this work is under NDA.
if you’d like to learn more about my work in detail or overall experience at Adobe, please shoot me an email :)
or, if you are a recruiter, you can access project details with the password on my resume
challenges & learnings
🔍 search is far more than just a UI component
Working on search was eye-opening; it was an exciting project to tackle, especially when it came to thinking about the back end (metadata, taxonomy, queries, etc).
I joked that usually in school projects, many of us just slap the search bar UI component on the screen without really thinking of what’s behind it. I left this internship with a greater appreciation for all the behind the scenes work.
🌎 designing integrated products in an app ecosystem
Designing for a company like Adobe with an entire ecosystem of apps is complex. Search needs to be consistent across multiple platforms and apps, as well as have parity with other teams’ work.
I constantly met with other Adobe teams to ensure that I was up to date with the most recent designs as well as communicate my design recommendations to them too.
🍌 low hanging fruit vs. 🚀 blue sky thinking
Even though I was tasked to reimagine the search experience for Adobe Express in 2023, I still identified low hanging fruit that we could tackle to make immediate design changes for Adobe Spark.
I prioritized design changes, backing up our proposals with user research and data. Through this internship, I learned that I enjoy a balance between “blue sky” visionary and utilitarian thinking.
❤️ mentorship and a design-centered company
My internship reaffirmed that I thrive at a company that provides mentorship and highly values design. I enjoyed being a part of a larger company with an established design team that had high visibility within the company.
#thanks
Even though my internship was 100% virtual, I feel grateful to have built an amazing supportive system within my team. Thank you to my manager Claude for pushing me to come up with “blue sky” visions—your ability to think beyond boundaries and prototype everything is inspiring; Kino for being an amazing mentor and someone I could always come to with questions; and to the Spark team for making WFH fun (and somehow managing to survive in a 2-week sprint on gather.town).
