Through an internship program, I supported features for healthcare and wellness practitioners at SimplePractice.
Client
SimplePractice
Period
August — December 2021
Impact
Led the redesign for the customer community platform where clinicians can contribute ideas. I took initiative creating a strategy and proposed designs in close collaboration with product managers and designers.
Designed for experiences slated for release in the following year including navigational menus for the iPad, onboarding experiences for web portals, and practice-focused features for clinicians.
Contributed in user research studies and team workshops to improve clinician-client features in web and iOS experiences.
SimplePractice's UserVoice platform before and after redesign
iPad navigation of clinicians' account settings
Learnings
I learned to be adaptable in situations where resources are limited and scope is low. This pushed me to foster stronger connections with cross-functional partners, relying on their expertise and support for devising the best strategies for delivering designs.
Articulating my design decisions in front of different audiences played a pivotal role in refining my storytelling and presentation skills. This helped facilitate team alignment and the collection of meaningful feedback, ultimately driving projects forward.
Prioritizing design file organization and etiquette in my collaborative process became essential. This guarantees that partners across various disciplines, including product managers, designers, and engineers, can effortlessly navigate my design mocks.
Last thoughts
I have deep gratitude to the talented SimplePractice team for welcoming me into the internship program and providing a nurturing environment to ask questions, learn from mistakes, and encourage my growth as a more skilled designer and partner to stakeholders. This experience has left me with a newfound confidence in my design abilities, and I am eager for the opportunities that lie ahead.
“I had the pleasure of managing Nikki directly for her first product design job as an intern. From the moment I met her during our interview process, I knew she had a lot of potential. She has this curiosity and growth mindset that allows her to absorb, adapt, and learn. She's a quick learner, always ready and willing to help out, and provided great feedback to all levels of product designers and product managers in the company. She's also very creative, analytical, and a very great collaborator! I truly appreciated her work!
We did not have intern projects separate from the regular projects and initiatives here, so I made sure she was brought into highly visible and impactful products, and expose her to the many facets of product design. We needed the extra help in our squads/pods, from UX user research, user flows, prototyping, to high fidelity UI (her visuals were very clean - she definitely has the "eye" for great design), she picked up pretty quickly and was a valuable addition to the team! I spoke to many of the designers whom she worked directly with, and they were always very positive feedback.
Our usual internship duration was only for three months, but we extended it one more month. She was as much as part of our team, as other mid or senior level designers, and it was really amazing to see her growth in such a short period of time. We weren't able to extend due to headcount reasons, but would love to reconsider in the future if there's ever another opportunity! She has SO much potential, and she is just getting started!”
— Marvin Tabangay (Product Design manager)