I want to share my experience of the program, what I’ve found particularly interesting, and what my internship looks like. After the first year of a two-year program, the internship has finally begun, and I’ve had the great honor of doing it here at Esatto.
Which part of the program appealed to me the most?
During the first year, we learned a lot about accessibility, user testing, and the importance of working user-centrically, meaning what it truly means to always keep the user in focus. It’s easy to forget who the solution is actually for. I personally became especially interested in accessibility and how to build accessible solutions. One of my teachers is color-blind and showed us examples of different contrasts where he couldn’t see anything, and that really made me stop and think. Something as “simple” as colors is not so simple for everyone.
Another thing that stuck with me is how much “settings” in, for example, an iPhone can affect the design of an app. I have the largest and boldest text settings on my iPhone, and that caused text in one of the apps I tested to overlap. Of course, you can’t always design perfectly for every single setting, but with user-centered design you should always make sure that everything works for the user or users you’re designing for.
Learning about and testing different concepts and methods has been incredibly helpful now that I’ve actually begun my internship.
My internship so far
On my first day at Esatto, after climbing my way up all the stairs (6th floor), I received a warm welcome from the entire team. After an introductory meeting with my supervisors, I was given my first design tasks.
At first, I worked very carefully with my tasks because I was afraid of making mistakes. It felt big to be doing something “for real,” but with help from my supervisor I gradually became more comfortable. It has been very interesting to see what I learned in school being applied in practice. not just reading about it, but actually seeing how it’s used in daily work. What I like most about Esatto is how willing everyone is to help each other; it creates a very safe and effective working environment.
What do I think is important going forward?
In the future, I hope the industry continues to develop, both when it comes to human expertise and how we use different AI tools. As we’ve all noticed, AI tools are evolving at a rapid pace, and I think it’s especially important to keep up with that development and learn how to take advantage of these tools to make work easier, save time, and above all strengthen the industry.
AI is definitely something I want to learn more about. To do that, I usually watch video clips or read about the various AI tools available in my field, but above all, I believe you learn by testing, testing, and testing.
