The voice of a new designer in an ongoing project
Walking into a project at the final line involves a considerable amount of challenges, and requires a lot of team collaboration. Otherwise, the results may not be as good as expected. Nicolás, a UX/UI designer at Bixlabs, shares with us his experience.
Date My Friend is a mobile dating app that allows users to choose potential partners for their friends or themselves. How does it work? Users act as wingmen to find a date for their friends. The app allows them to chat with other wingmen and make sure their friends would be the right match.
We’ve been working on Date My Friend’s project from the beginning. Throughout these years, we’ve created the branding, the user experience and developed the mobile version of the app for both iOS and Android.
Nicolás’ testimony shows the challenges a new designer has to face when joining an ongoing project. His experience sums up the importance of teamwork and the abilities a new team member needs to have to find the perfect balance between established guidelines and a personal point of view.
“When I joined Date My Friend’s team, the project already had five years of continuous work. That meant other designers had taken decisions regarding usability, user experience, and branding, and the project owners had shared their vision for the product.
So I had a ton of things to learn.
My first goal was to understand the reasoning behind the current design state. So I had to walk through the same path my colleagues had taken before me. I needed to understand what were the motives and decisions made regarding the look and feel of Date My Friend’s app.
Since the project was fast-moving towards the deadline, I had little time to catch up. In this sense, if I hadn’t had the complete support of my team, my job wouldn’t have been successful at all, as I wouldn’t have understood the design goals and the vision for the product.
If something characterizes Bixlabs’ company culture is teamwork. During this project, we held periodic meetings, and the team’s communication channels were always open and active.
I found myself always backed up by my team on every doubt I had along the way. It is also worth mentioning that the predisposition of the client was of enormous help.
Having a new person on the team might mean having different design ideas for the project. Nonetheless, Trish, Date My Friend’s CEO, welcomed me and was open to all of my suggestions.
As a UX/UI Designer, I had to find a balance to follow the project guidelines while also adding my point of view.
It was thanks to teamwork and the great job from the designers that came before me that I had such a great experience at Date My Friend’s project.”
“I found every person from Bixlabs to be very reliable and knowledgeable in their respective fields. Strength included the ability to strategically guide startups and communicate with non-technical clients.”
Trish Gilbert
CEO & Founder.
Visit the Design case study of Date My Friend.