BlackBerry

4 month User Experience Design Internship

Context

From September 2019, I embarked on a journey to Waterloo, Ontario to take on the role of an User Experience Design Intern at BlackBerry. BlackBerry creates software solutions and various products that focus on endpoint management/protection, secure communications, and enabling the Internet of Things that helps their customers feel confident in the security of their data.

I was part of the Mobile Apps & Suite team at BlackBerry, specifically working on SecuSuite, a secure enterprise and government calling and messaging mobile application. The recent work I did on the internship has not been made public yet so I am unable to disclose any details but I am more than happy to talk about my time at BlackBerry in an interview.

Learning Outcome 1: Designing with Familiar Patterns

Unlike designing for school projects, I learned a lot about the consideration of pixel-based constraints when designing for various screen sizes. This knowledge stems from familiarizing myself with Android Material Design as well as Apple’s iOS Human Interface Guidelines to ensure a more cohesive visual and interaction design pattern for our users’ mental models and to increase the brand’s reputability. This was the first time I was exposed to colour contrast which I am excited to immerse myself into!

Learning Outcome 2: Collaborating across Cross-Functional Teams

As a designer who was first exposed to working with cross-functional stakeholders such as developers and Product Managers, I learned how to consider diverse perspectives when communicating my design proposals. I have always heard that design is 50% communication and I really started to see this unfold when I participated in our Scrum reviews!