Working out what an internship means in 2022 (Pt 2).
Laiqa explored digital play as a vehicle for introspection during her 3 month internship at Companion. This is the story of the project and our reflections on it.
This is the second of two posts about this.
The TLDR of the other post is that we wanted to try and create an internship that was a bit different from the norm, and Laiqa went on that adventure with us and is retelling the story of her project Memento along the way.
At the end we reflect on how it went for us and if we’d do it again 🔮.
App Design V1.0
Once again, we had three possible routes to go down, but we simplified it down to one approach that combined all three mood boards into a unified vision.
Round 1
I went through a series of visual iterations, only designing key app pages to test out various design routes. Moving from the final mood board I picked out colours from the blob and began to create giant cards or blobs that would be easy to navigate. I tried to simplify the feature set into two or three user decisions while using the app.
Round 2
I made the colours lighter and brighter to refreshen the design, developed the typefaces to be cleaner and simpler by picking one or two core typefaces, and made elements a bit bigger, cleaner and bolder. In this round we simplified all the experiments into two design paths, and we seemed to be moving towards.
The first path was flatter, with outlined and childlike elements that were bold and opinionated. This route had rounder bubble-like shapes using only single colours.
The second path had more depth, where the gradients formed the shape and pushed a softer flow in the visual hierarchy. We used a soft gradient to focus content, and a neutral colour approach. There was one core element starring in each frame while the other elements were secondary.
App V2.0
This stage of the design process was looking through the smaller details in individual elements – checking if the overall shapes through the flow are unified and make sense. We also tested if the structure followed a refined grid and visual hierarchy, and alluded well to the correct next step the user should likely take.
We added a second colour to add emphasis on certain elements and to make the UI more gestalt. We also corrected the design of some UI elements to correctly represent its wireframe counterpart, with modal elements instead of a full page. We improved the input area during the new entry flow, so as to urge the user to type anywhere on a blank canvas. Visually this reduced the clutter and stress of using the app – we implemented this approach on a micro level throughout all the flows.
We added symbols as a core communicator in the new entry modal to move backwards and forwards and also made the navigation bar smaller and evenly distributed. Finally in the entry detail page, we simplified the design by making it a long scrolling page instead of a model that popped over. And to make reading easier and add focus towards the centre of the page, I added a fade over the top of the page.
Object V2.0
Here I used a blender tool to bring the previous 2D blob experiments to life and further refine the blob design in a real world use case. This also gave us more of an insight into what some of those parameters could be to control the form and colour of the blobs within the environment mapped sphere.
I followed several tutorials that pushed us closer to the visual direction we wanted for the blob. Removing the gradient from the blob and keeping it as a unified, single color worked better for us to then create a parameter based system from individual blob designs.
After trying out the 2D experiments in 3D, the blob seemed to look more interesting without the environment. Just emotional qualities of the metaballs movement and colour was enough to communicate the input’s meanings for the user. It also gave us a surplus of parameters to control.
After picking the aesthetic, I formed a system for each base input selection. The plan was to combine those visuals from individual inputs and create a visually averaged out version as the final bubble.
There would be a back and forth approach in designing the app and the blob, as the iterations and development in each design needed to match the other to make it look more unified and not out of place.
Once we settled on an aesthetic for the blobs that we were happy with, as well as a system of how to get to those final outputs, we started visualising it in the application and adjusting the visuals of the app to match.
Final Design
Finally we stitched all of this together into a final walkthrough of the application showing one user’s potential journey through the app which you can see below.
Users can also delete entries and navigate to a map view of the journal entries.
Reflections
Laiqa on her experience
My experience with the studio was enlightening but also filled with several challenges.
I think working in a studio environment has a pressure to produce creatively driven work in a very systematic setting which can be great for some but wasn’t always the case for me. My ideas and designs would be amazing at 2am but not have that same level when I tried to force it at 10 in the morning!
However, Companion was always supportive and patient with me, teaching me some essential technical fundamentals during designs as well quicker methods to streamline the development of a hefty concept such as this one.
My experience was overall a unique one where I got to push a digital design space with concepts that wouldn’t usually be requested for in a commercial studio.
I’m now working as a freelance designer & technologist and you can find out more about me & Memento on my website. If you liked this post & would like to work together please say hi! 👋
Companion on their experience
Being a very small studio that has been established for just over a year, taking on an intern was a bit of a risk for us because we were still working out our own day to day structure and processes.
However, we believe strongly that emerging creatives need to be given opportunities. Job adverts for ‘junior’ positions that require 2-3 years experience are unrealistic and create a lack of talent in the industry at all levels as companies only seek ready-baked solutions.
First up — the challenging things — because we are still establishing those processes as I said, creating a process for Laiqa to gain constructive feedback in time to progress was difficult. We often found that client work came up and took the teams time, meaning that Laiqa could go a few days without our input which isn’t what we originally envisaged (a close mentor-like relationship).
Additionally, doing a remote internship during the tail of a pandemic is difficult! We’re very used to sitting side by side and being able to feed off each other, input on things in short burst and pick up learnings by being amongst the studio hustle and bustle — but when remote, you have to carve out and plan this time and the passive & spontaneous learning doesn’t occur.
This issue isn’t exclusive to internships though and is something that we are finding difficult across the board. Generally it feels that remote work suits people that are relatively settled and have established careers, but can be a harm to those just getting started. This is something we’ll be trying to work out this year so that we can ensure we don’t just cater for more senior staff and instead still bring through emerging creatives & technologists.
Outside of the difficulties with scheduling and time, we would certainly do this again.
We think that being able to explore an experimental idea within a set time and commercial setting that focuses on creating a meaningful product for people helps to focus the internship. It also brings a dose of creativity and inspiration to the day to day team outside of the client work and gives the whole team the opportunity to guide & mentor less experienced members of the team.
Rather than the pressures of client work which can often be more high-stakes and therefore either not given to an intern to work on, or is given and then revoked in time pressures if it is ‘wrong’, we believe that balancing a self-initiated project that the studio has an stake in, as well some more ‘traditional’ internship tasks is a better way forward for us at this moment in time.
Additionally, when chatting with Laiqa we learnt that many of her friends and peers were doing internships in circumstances that weren’t conducive to good learning, or just outright unfair. This relates to renumeration primarily, but also touches on responsibilities and guidance.
Because of this I threw out a tweet (in a bit of a flippant way) where it sparked the idea of creating a code of conduct around internships, whereby employers agreed to a set of guidelines around treatment, structure and pay.
Apprenticeships in the UK have a lot of strict guidelines and laws around them, but internships do not. They are very similar experiences and propositions, so for one to follow strict criteria and the other not, we believe is unfair.
We haven’t got very far with this at all (you can see the notes starting here), but we are open to discussing it and having others involved to create it together. Please reach out to myles@companion.studio to do so.