Reflections
I am immensely grateful to the Product Design team at AirAsia for all my learnings spanning vast areas under the product umbrella.
These learnings have been divided into categories, but like the design process they are interconnected and overlapping and together create the bigger picture.
Design Process
Theory doesn't do justice to actual practical application. In reality user factors have a much larger impact than just a bubble in a mind-map!
Objectives
We aren't designing just screens, rather crafting multiple interlinked experiences. So it is necessary to zoom out ever so often and see how it fits into the bigger picture of the product!
Research
Testing shapes not only the designs/flow being tested but has the potential to pivot the direction and even the value proposition of a product.
The depth of analysis in research, especially in a large organization was beyond anything I had perceived before. This helps generate insights that are then streamlined and simplified to help product teams understand the impact and intervene accordingly.
Another aspect I received a lot of clarity regarding are personas and how when they are crafted with adequate analysis of the target users, they widely shape the designs and tune them to the users' needs.
Collaboration
Additionally during workshops, the different thought processes brought to the forefront and the considerations different roles lean towards was insightful.
Understanding how features and updates are shipped in a such a large organization, especially when multiple lines of businesses are involved, increasing the scale as well as the number of stakeholders involved.
Communicating with PMs and developers through JIRA tickets and how to make them clear was both a unique and learning experience.
Communication
Accepting that it's okay to ask questions or share thoughts that I used to fear make me sound uninformed. Either we are incorrect and learn from it or we may have highlighted something important!
Learning to explain my thoughts and ideas better, balancing complexity and abstraction with clarity.
Presentation
Personalization and details leave a lasting impression. To create this seamless story, it helps to not look at exclusively presenting designs and instead include research and ideation details in the form of naming designs and effectively using personas to populate the content. This creates a connection and gives a flow to follow
Design System
A design system used in a large organization, especially when it works for multiple lines of businesses across computer and mobile web and the app has many layers and maintaining the uniformity is complex.
The AIrAsia Design System has additional layers of complexity with a widget library and creating the widgets using the design system taught me more about figma as a software as well as the construction of components.
Initially, another learning curve was editing the design system without breaking a component, especially when so many design files use them.
Value & Success
I had the opportunity to join business stakeholder interviews where I learnt further about what success looks like for them and value propositions for that line of business.
In addition, I learnt how these interviews help shape the roadmaps for each quarter.
Documentation
Going further I came across different types of documentation and write-ups like weekly reports to monthly reports on platforms such as confluence that gave deep insights into everything the design team has done and is doing.
Reviews & Learning
Through opportunities like weekly lunch & learn sessions and quarter long 1-on-1 coaching sessions, I learnt a variety of topics related to design, research, storytelling and collaborating outside of learning through experience.