In the summer of 2022, I interned at AKQA San Francisco office as a UX Design Intern. I collaborated with the UX and Strategy team to work on JiffyLube coupon UX usability testing, Enphase website redesign, and Robinhood ignition.
Role: UX Design Intern
Team: UX Design team in the SF office
Time: 6.6.2022-7.29.2022
Involvement: JiffyLube, Robinhood, Enphase
My contributions:
1. Jiffy Lube: Coupon UX short-term and mid-term usability testing
2. Robinhood: Community features
3. Enphase: Homepage, Installers page redesign
Timeline
01. Jiffy Lube Usability Testing
Jiffy Lube International, Inc. is an American chain of automotive oil change specialty shops founded in Utah, United States, in 1971.
We conducted short-term and mid-term usability testing for Jiffy Lube's coupon UX. Made UI changes based on user feedback.
Goal
The purpose of this study is to gauge user experience, task flows, and perceived value of the updated coupon feature/page. The following elements were tested and evaluated:
- Searching for Coupons
- Saving Coupons
- Setting Preferred Location
What We Measure and Evaluate
Methodology & Approach
Prototype A: Short-term solution
Prototype B: Mid-term solution
Jiffy Lube Design System
During the design process, we constantly referred to the Jiffy Lube design system to make sure the prototypes we make are up-to-date.
Test Script
I collaborated with one UX design intern and wrote the test script for both short-term and mid-term usability testing. Click here to see the document.
Overall Insight
The improved experience proved to be efficient, effective, and satisfying. Most users reported how easy it was to find and save coupons and set a preferred store. The overall user rating of the tests was great (on average 88.5% rated level of ease) with a low average of time spent on tasks.
My Observations & Solutions
1. Short-term solution:
Observation: The coupon link is hard to recognize for users.
Solution: Make the coupon link more prominent on the location screen.
Observation: The ‘Email’ button on the coupon detail screen was hard to recognize.
Solution: Increase the prominence of the ‘email’ button on the coupon detail screen.
Observation: The successful state of coupon redemption was hard to recognize.
Solution: Increase clarity of the success message for saving coupon.
Increase prominence by taking over the page.
Observation: Hard to distinguish services cards and coupon cards.
Solution: Better distinguish between service cards and coupon cards.
2. Mid-term solution:
Observation: It is hard to recognize there are more than one coupon available at locations
Solution: Better indicate there are more than one coupon available at locations.
Result
The mid-term search approach tested better than the Short-term: The average task completion was slightly faster for the mid-term, while the ease of use and user guidance were also rated higher.
02. Robinhood
Robinhood Markets, Inc. is an American financial services company headquartered in Menlo Park, California, that facilitates commission-free trades of stocks, exchange-traded funds and cryptocurrencies as well as individual retirement accounts via a mobile app introduced in March 2015.
I collaborated with PM, Strategy, and UX interns at AKQA's San Francisco studio on a one-week Robinhood design ignition.
Goal
How can we help foster a sense of community among Robinhood investors?
Research:
Target Audience
Interview
We conducted user interviews and learned that Gen Z + Millennials are interested in investing and the wealth-building opportunity it represents. But self-directed investing can feel:
Design Principles
Design Solution
Main Features
Investing Personality
We came up with 9 investing personalities to represent different types of users.
Investing Community
In the long term, we hope to help users find their own community where they can connect and chat with like-minded investors. Also, they could follow investing influencers and see what stocks they are investing in. Finally, they could make the profile public and share the profile and investing list with their friends.
Help users to better navigate:
For the "Join the Community" page, I designed two solutions, the first one is to put the people bubble first, and the second one is to put the category first. And we chose the second solution to move forward since it's more clear and intuitive for the users to see the primary information: the name of the community and then hit the join button.
Investing Influencers & User Profile
Quarterly Report
Users could see their quarterly investing report. This report helps them understand their investing behaviors or patterns better and helps them make a better choice next time.
Impact
The Robinhood team at AKQA was very pleased with our design solution. They said they would discuss it with the Robinhood company to see if they could launch these features in the long term.
03. Enphase Website Redesign
Enphase is a global energy management technology company that provides residential and commercial solar plus storage solutions.
I collaborated with a senior visual designer and a UX design intern to redesign the homepage, homeowners page, and installers page. I was mainly in charge of the installers page.
Goal
Before (Current Website) ➡️ After (Final Design)
Design Strategy
For the Installer's page:
Installer content should be focused on support.
Ensure the Enphase e-commerce site is easy for Installers to use.
Reinforce connection to tools outside of the ecosystem (zip code, local tax initiatives).
Deliver a comprehensive dashboard experience focused on delivering support.
UX Wireframe
For this page, I break them down into these 6 blocks, Join our installer network, system configurator, discover our product, documentation, installer app, and newsletter. The goal is to deliver support to the installers.
The first block here is "Join our installer network", once the users click the CTA, it directs them to the subpage, where they can join the community and get a sense of belonging.
And then we have the "System Configurator", also click the CTA to launch.
For the "Documentation" section, here, installers could easily find the documents they need by filtering from different types of products and documents, also I designed a like feature so that they could save the documents they use the most.
Here is discover Enphase's "products", click the CTA to find out more.
And then it’s the introducing installer app section, here I have a proposal, what Enphase has on the current website is promoting the homeowners app, I think it makes more sense if we introduce the installers app only, to differentiate these two apps.
Finally, we have "Newsletters", click the CTA here to subscribe, get all the latest news, and find the resources they need.
Final Design
After finishing my design, I handed off the wireframe to a senior visual designer, he designed the final website based on our wireframes and presented it to the client.
For the final design, we moved the documentation section to the first block, since it's the primary goal of the installers and it saves some time for the installers: they don't need to scroll to the third section to see the important information.
Key Takeaways of the Internship
1. Be open to feedback:
To meet the needs of the clients, always prepare to be open to feedback, stay open-minded, and don’t take it personally. Take everything constructively and try to learn and grow from it.
2. Storytelling:
A compelling, engaging story really helps your audience/clients understand your design process better.
3. Communication skills:
As a UX designer, it's crucial to communicate with team members to get design review feedback, not only within the design team but also with other teams.
