During the summer of 2023, I interned at JPMC as a UX Design Analyst on the Payments team. I designed a new platform and proposed an easier and more efficient design intake process for my internship final project. The platform fosters faster communication between the two parties, eliminating many unnecessary and time-consuming responsibilities from both ends. As a result, this product can potentially serve as the start to solving a company-wide inefficiency problem.
UX Design Intern
June to August 2023
Figma
Lucid
Miro
Jira
Visual Design
Product Thinking
Prototyping
Research Workshops
Payments
Currently, the request for design work from partner teams, such as product management and technology, to design and research teams is ambiguous
What is a Design Intake Process?
A design intake process refers to the procedures and steps followed by a design team when receiving and onboarding a new design project. This process is crucial for understanding the client's requirements, project goals, constraints, and other relevant information that will guide the design team in creating a solution that meets the client's needs. The requested design artifact will then be sent to the partner teams for submission.
As a newcomer, I was confused when faced with the initial ambiguity of the project prompt. Thus, after I met everyone on the product team, I summarized general frustrations that could potentially be causes of the overall theme of inefficiency in the design intake process. This was a crucial step for me to wrap my head around this problem and discern a direction path to move forward with. Overall, the problem centers around four key issues: inconsistent requirements, time-consuming side tasks, poor deadline management, and delayed responses.
Project Timeline - Starting with the Double Diamond
For the first month of my internship as part of the UX Design team, my time was spent meeting everyone in Product and Program Management, Tech, Visual Design, Content Strategy, and User Research. With one month left to craft a solution for my personal project, I decided to structure a design brief after consulting with Program Management, and start with the reliable, traditional Double Diamond method for my design process. Each stage is one week in the month of July 2023.
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I started by analyzing the pros and cons of existing solutions used to communicate and exchange materials in the design intake process. Since it was my first time being introduced to Jira, I met up with the Tech team multiple times to understand how and why the company uses it, and why it's not a sufficient solution.
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To understand the problem at hand better from the perspective of its expected users, I conducted a research workshop, invited all the teams involved, and asked for their challenges and insights on potential solutions during the design intake process. The process of brainstorming with teams with different areas of expertise was truly inspiring.
Challenges
Designers are unable to see and manage all active design requests in a single location.
Needs and priorities of other UX stakeholders and product owners are unclear
Ensuring that all work streams are directed to the appropriate person in the product team
The specific file format required for visual design requests is often unclear
Difficult and inconsistent retrieval of assets if stored in specific applications
Design assets are stored stagnantly and management is difficult
Solution Direction for Request Inefficiencies
Create a digital request form that allows any stakeholder to request a design artifact from the Visual/UX Designer/Researcher in question.
• Supplied with a standardized, individual set of requirements for each design artifact as a reminder of what to upload.
Solution Direction for Tracking Difficulties
Create a portal that allows partner teams to:
• Receive spontaneous updates and feedback from designers with noticeable notifications on their desktops
• Submit additional material required by designers and change the status of their requests as feedback to designers
Create a backend platform that allows design teams to:
• Manage active and closed requests for design work in one place, filtered and organized by deadline, type, and status for efficiency.
• Submit completed work to partner teams and automatically create a Jira ticket of the request in progress.
On the Partner Teams' Side:
Log in - File new request - Check request status - Submit additional material if required - Review submitted design - Close request
On the Design Teams' Side:
Log in - Review active requests - Change status of request - Create design - Review feedback - Make changes if needed - Request closed
With the limited scope of my project, I chose three types of design artifacts to standardize material requirements for partner teams to submit. The listed components are the essential information needed for designers to create the specific design artifact. Some artifacts require collaboration between different teams of expertise, so there will be secondary requestors available in the request form for multi-functional submission of resources.
This is the Design Request Form, where partner teams like Product Management and Tech can send materials and requests to design teams designated for the specific product. This eliminates any confusion and problems concerning standardization.
Designing with Accessibility
After receiving feedback, I realized that screen readers can only read top to down, and putting requirements for the design artifacts only on the right along with the graphics will prevent them from addressing this vital information. Thus, I made sure to add the same information as part of the form to accommodate needs of users with impaired vision.
The backend part of the product is for Designers and Researchers to manage active requests, new updates/notifications, and past requests and submitted files. Users can filter through active requests by their due date, request status (New, In Progress, or Requirements Not Met), and product team.
Clicking on one of the active requests will lead to a detailed view of submitted materials and information. After the design request as been made, a Jira ticket is also automatically created, saving time for the user. The user can then change the status of the request based on whether materials are sufficient and if they have completed the desired design artifact. This change of status will send a desktop notification to the requestor, who will be notified immediately for spontaneous review.
This internship was an incredible experience, and I’m truly grateful for the opportunity to lead my own design process. However, given the one-month time constraint, there are areas where I know I could have improved. I wish I had explored more iterations to optimize the prototype’s layout, created a wider variety of design artifacts, conducted user testing to gather feedback, and further developed other sections of the platform. That said, I’m proud of several achievements. I approached the project with accessibility in mind, ensuring that the screen reader function supports users with visual impairments—a commitment to inclusivity that I hold dear. I’m also proud of conducting research workshops for the first time, guided by the insightful support of my wonderful manager. Overall, I’m incredibly thankful for this experience and the meaningful friendships I built along the way.
