Reece USA Internship
UX | UI | Reflection | Internship
Overview
From June 2021 - May 2022, I worked as a UX Design Intern at Reece USA, which is one of the leading U.S. distributors of commercial and residential plumbing, waterworks, and HVAC, with showrooms across the country. When I started my internship, the company was named MORSCO INC and I was part of the first-ever company's UX Team.
My primary role was to participate in the five key phases of the UX Design Process (empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and test). My team and I worked on designing prototypes of the company's website features and presented them to peers and key stakeholders. We also conducted user research (surveys, interviews) to craft responsive user experiences and establish consistent mobile, tablet, and web/desktop interaction patterns.
*Due to the confidentiality of this project, I cannot present the visuals of every feature or elaborate on how do they work.
Time
June 2021 - May 2022
Methods & Tools
User Research Methods
Interviews, Competitive Analysis, Survey Study (Qualtrics and SurveyMonkey), Heuristic Evaluation
Design Tools
Figma, Axure
Practices
Design System, Product Thinking, Interaction Design, Visual Design
The Challenge
Improve the user experience on Reece USA's website
Reece USA is a Plumbing & HVAC company based in Texas USA. They strive to improve the lives of tradespersons and contractors and provide them with the necessary tools to execute their business needs.
As an intern, I was a part of several different projects at Reece USA
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The main one was working on features on their e-commerce website.
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The second one is the Bath & Kitchen Showroom website.
During the first few weeks of my internship, I conducted a comparison of their old website and the new website. Evaluated the old website using the 9 criteria set by Nielsen Norman for Heuristic Evaluation. Conducted UAT testing to identify key user issues on the new website that was partially deployed.
Throughout my time at Reece, I have utilized JIRA to keep track of design tasks and to make sure I am communicating and presenting my designs or research to my team.
I also took part in design reviews where I presented my designs to the Product Owner, Business Analysts, and the Development team and gathered their feedback. Once the feedback was incorporated, the designs were finalized and handed off for development.
Design Process
My design process involved the following key steps:
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Website Features
Some of the features I designed and improved for Reece USA were
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Product List
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Previously Purchased Products
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Job Forms
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For Bath & Kitchen Showroom website, I developed the "Sale" page.
*To maintain confidentiality, I can only show the wireframes and prototypes of Product List features as it is in production now.
Reflection
Design is a learning process
From the regular critiques, design reviews, and communication, I realized that design is a learning process in a way that designers, developers, and stakeholders exchange experiences and learn from each other.
Knowing what I don't know
Earlier in the internship, the biggest problem for me to improve was that I don't know what I don't know. Now, after completing my internship, I think I have a clear sense of what should I learn, which skills should I focus on, and what good looks like. I'm sure that after the internship ends, I will be ready to face my next adventure with a strong purpose and a solid plan for improvement.