“...His expertise with tools like Figma and his dedication to mastering advanced features have significantly elevated our team's capabilities...”
Albert Lo
Product Design Lead, Vodafone
This three month booking turned into nearly two years working on Vodafone’s flagship product, the My Vodafone App and design system, Source.
Situation
The Design 10 team are responsible for Vodafone’s flagship product: My Vodafone App (MVA). They set the bar for all markets to follow in terms of how MVA should look and behave. Any new feature enhancements or capabilities had to be directed through them.
In addition to requiring a hands on senior UI designer, one of the biggest challenges the team faced was their impending migration to Figma. A complete shift in how things were done—best practices, components instead of symbols etc. Apprehension amongst the designers in the team was almost palpable. The team needed a designer proficient in Figma, ready to share their knowledge.
Task
My responsibilities were to work on general tickets, providing design solutions for new capabilities or enhancing existing ones, whilst also mentoring other designers in the team.
Although Figma training was provided and ticket story points were adjusted to allow for the learning curve, most of the designers struggled to grasp a lot of what was needed.
As the resident Figma specialist, they looked to me for guidance in areas such as; best practices for refining and building components, contributing to Source (Vodafone’s design system) and creating advanced prototypes for testing.
Action
Provide design solutions for new capabilities and enhance existing features based on user research and testing across all journeys within the My Vodafone App, establish patterns and make sure they’re consistent throughout all the journeys.
Fortnightly sprints, with mid-sprint reviews, exploration, and final show & tell, then retro meetings meant plenty of opportunity to give and receive feedback, in a caring and constructive manner – these sessions always pushed the designs forward and greatly benefited the designers in the process.
I really enjoy Mentoring designers, it’s a lovely opportunity to make lasting connections, get to know my colleagues and share knowledge. I held daily one-to-one’s teaching all aspects of Figma to a number of designers—from the basics to building components, how using auto layout will propel their designs to another level and how it links to CSS Flexbox, prototyping and animation.
This lead to producing a number of guidance documents for the main sticking points, like; creating components, how to add them to the design system and basic to advanced prototyping.
After my first three months I was placed on the UI governance team, which consisted of three individuals. We met once a week and were tasked with establishing patterns across the 30 or so epics and keeping them consistent. Discussing UI direction, new trends and keeping on top of up-skilling the designers within the team.
We communicated this with a call once a fortnight with the design team to provide guidance, discuss anything that related to UI patterns, Figma questions or general housekeeping of design files.
Direct and regular contact with developers, answering questions and solving issues as and when they arise.
Before Agile was introduced in the last year of my booking, I was regularly trusted as part of the release team—following processes in place to deliver the new journeys within a sprint.
Results
I worked across all areas of the App in my time here, but was notably responsible for revamping the Rewards scheme, Billing and Products & Services platforms. Enhancing existing features and adding new ones. Taking part in user testing and implementing results into final, delivered, designs.
I quickly became an integral part of the team, whom managers entrusted with complex design tasks and designers came to for Figma (auto layout, component, prototyping) and general UI / UX related advise.
Original Reward platform designs
Refining cards
Final delivered Reward platform designs
Delivered Reward cards added to design system
Prototype + guidance doc examples
“
I've had the privilege of working with Nathan for nearly two years at Vodafone, during which time we closely collaborated on numerous design capabilities and feature enhancements. One of Nathan's standout contributions was his invaluable guidance in streamlining our team's processes, particularly through refining our prototyping workflows.
While Nathan may be soft-spoken, his work resonates loudly. As one of our senior UI designers, he has played a pivotal role in shaping the success of Vodafone's Design System, Source. His expertise with tools like Figma and his dedication to mastering advanced features have significantly elevated our team's capabilities in prototyping and user testing.
Nathan consistently demonstrates a willingness to explore new ideas while pragmatically addressing any potential challenges within Vodafone's design framework. His passion for his craft is noticeable, evident in his ownership of every project he undertakes. It's this level of commitment and accountability that I deeply admire.
Without reservation, I would eagerly collaborate with Nathan again in the future. Working alongside him has been a pleasure, and I'm hopeful that our paths will cross again.
Albert Lo
Product Design Lead, Vodafone