design lab designatucsd adobe wish salesforce

Design at UCSD Students Visit Leading Silicon Valley Companies

Design at UCSD Students Visit Leading Silicon Valley Companies

Design at UCSD Students Visit Leading Silicon Valley Companies

Design thinking and user-centered design continue to rapidly gain traction across a diversity of fields.  As such, it is extremely important that students are equipped with the design tools necessary to succeed in industry today.  The leadership team of Design at UCSD, the largest pre-professional design thinking organization at UC San Diego, recently embarked on their annual Bay Area trip to tour and speak with experienced designers at leading Silicon Valley companies.  Sponsored by UCSD Design Lab, board members were presented with the incredible opportunity to explore the offices of Adobe, Wish, and Salesforce in San Francisco over Presidents’ Day weekend. In previous years, the student group has toured companies such as IDEO, Google, and Workday.

The first stop of the trip was Adobe, where board members caught a glimpse of the artistic and energetic atmosphere of a company that has designed many of the creative tools that power our world today.  From the company’s gradient elevator corridor to the striking wall that reads “make” in a multitude of vibrant post-its, every corner of the office space is infused with creativity to inspire and motivate Adobe employees.  Following the office tour, board members spoke with a Senior Director of Design, user researchers, and interaction designers to learn about Adobe’s rich design process and understand how each group uniquely incorporates various principles of user-centered design in their cross-functional roles.

After visiting Adobe, the group headed to Wish, the fast-growing eCommerce startup in the heart of downtown San Francisco.  To kick-off the visit, Wish organized a lunch and networking session for Wish designers and board members to meet before sharing a presentation about the integral role that designers play at the company.  Next, board members were invited to participate in an interactive design sprint focused on conceptualizing and designing an app based on a specific user scenario and real-world constraints. The design sprint was followed by a critique session on a new feature for the Wish app where board members were welcomed to provide feedback and suggestions.  These immersive interactions helped board members to get a glimpse of the day-to-day life of a product designer at Wish.

The day concluded with an alumni mixer at Salesforce where board members had the opportunity to reconnect with Design at UCSD alumni.  The evening featured a recap of Design at UCSD’s current initiatives in addition to alumni presentations by Paula Le, a User Experience Designer at IBM, and Ed Ngai, a User Experience Engineer at Salesforce.  Le highlighted her journey navigating a career in design while Ngai shared meaningful advice about building a framework for designing one’s personal and professional design system.

It is a priority for both Design at UCSD and the Design Lab to identify opportunities to connect UCSD students with real-world design applications and exposure to potential employers.  This year’s Bay Area trip is another example of that commitment and provided board members with newfound insights and practices to share with the growing UC San Diego design community and beyond.

 

Design thinking and user-centered design continue to rapidly gain traction across a diversity of fields.  As such, it is extremely important that students are equipped with the design tools necessary to succeed in industry today.  The leadership team of Design at UCSD, the largest pre-professional design thinking organization at UC San Diego, recently embarked on their annual Bay Area trip to tour and speak with experienced designers at leading Silicon Valley companies.  Sponsored by UCSD Design Lab, board members were presented with the incredible opportunity to explore the offices of Adobe, Wish, and Salesforce in San Francisco over Presidents’ Day weekend. In previous years, the student group has toured companies such as IDEO, Google, and Workday.

The first stop of the trip was Adobe, where board members caught a glimpse of the artistic and energetic atmosphere of a company that has designed many of the creative tools that power our world today.  From the company’s gradient elevator corridor to the striking wall that reads “make” in a multitude of vibrant post-its, every corner of the office space is infused with creativity to inspire and motivate Adobe employees.  Following the office tour, board members spoke with a Senior Director of Design, user researchers, and interaction designers to learn about Adobe’s rich design process and understand how each group uniquely incorporates various principles of user-centered design in their cross-functional roles.

After visiting Adobe, the group headed to Wish, the fast-growing eCommerce startup in the heart of downtown San Francisco.  To kick-off the visit, Wish organized a lunch and networking session for Wish designers and board members to meet before sharing a presentation about the integral role that designers play at the company.  Next, board members were invited to participate in an interactive design sprint focused on conceptualizing and designing an app based on a specific user scenario and real-world constraints. The design sprint was followed by a critique session on a new feature for the Wish app where board members were welcomed to provide feedback and suggestions.  These immersive interactions helped board members to get a glimpse of the day-to-day life of a product designer at Wish.

The day concluded with an alumni mixer at Salesforce where board members had the opportunity to reconnect with Design at UCSD alumni.  The evening featured a recap of Design at UCSD’s current initiatives in addition to alumni presentations by Paula Le, a User Experience Designer at IBM, and Ed Ngai, a User Experience Engineer at Salesforce.  Le highlighted her journey navigating a career in design while Ngai shared meaningful advice about building a framework for designing one’s personal and professional design system.

It is a priority for both Design at UCSD and the Design Lab to identify opportunities to connect UCSD students with real-world design applications and exposure to potential employers.  This year’s Bay Area trip is another example of that commitment and provided board members with newfound insights and practices to share with the growing UC San Diego design community and beyond.

 

Design thinking and user-centered design continue to rapidly gain traction across a diversity of fields.  As such, it is extremely important that students are equipped with the design tools necessary to succeed in industry today.  The leadership team of Design at UCSD, the largest pre-professional design thinking organization at UC San Diego, recently embarked on their annual Bay Area trip to tour and speak with experienced designers at leading Silicon Valley companies.  Sponsored by UCSD Design Lab, board members were presented with the incredible opportunity to explore the offices of Adobe, Wish, and Salesforce in San Francisco over Presidents’ Day weekend. In previous years, the student group has toured companies such as IDEO, Google, and Workday.

The first stop of the trip was Adobe, where board members caught a glimpse of the artistic and energetic atmosphere of a company that has designed many of the creative tools that power our world today.  From the company’s gradient elevator corridor to the striking wall that reads “make” in a multitude of vibrant post-its, every corner of the office space is infused with creativity to inspire and motivate Adobe employees.  Following the office tour, board members spoke with a Senior Director of Design, user researchers, and interaction designers to learn about Adobe’s rich design process and understand how each group uniquely incorporates various principles of user-centered design in their cross-functional roles.

After visiting Adobe, the group headed to Wish, the fast-growing eCommerce startup in the heart of downtown San Francisco.  To kick-off the visit, Wish organized a lunch and networking session for Wish designers and board members to meet before sharing a presentation about the integral role that designers play at the company.  Next, board members were invited to participate in an interactive design sprint focused on conceptualizing and designing an app based on a specific user scenario and real-world constraints. The design sprint was followed by a critique session on a new feature for the Wish app where board members were welcomed to provide feedback and suggestions.  These immersive interactions helped board members to get a glimpse of the day-to-day life of a product designer at Wish.

The day concluded with an alumni mixer at Salesforce where board members had the opportunity to reconnect with Design at UCSD alumni.  The evening featured a recap of Design at UCSD’s current initiatives in addition to alumni presentations by Paula Le, a User Experience Designer at IBM, and Ed Ngai, a User Experience Engineer at Salesforce.  Le highlighted her journey navigating a career in design while Ngai shared meaningful advice about building a framework for designing one’s personal and professional design system.

It is a priority for both Design at UCSD and the Design Lab to identify opportunities to connect UCSD students with real-world design applications and exposure to potential employers.  This year’s Bay Area trip is another example of that commitment and provided board members with newfound insights and practices to share with the growing UC San Diego design community and beyond.

 

Read Next

Daniel Suh Designer-in-residence

Meet Designer-in-Residence & Data Analyst Daniel Suh

Daniel Suh has always been passionate about creating partnerships to uplift others. While he was an undergraduate at UC San Diego’s Thurgood Marshall College, he founded one of the university’s first student consulting organizations, Cornerstone Community Consultants, which provides pro-bono opportunities for students to empower the local community. Suh also established UCSD’s first chapter of International Justice Mission, a student-led organization that centers around human rights, anti-human trafficking, and law enforcement. "Growing up in an underprivileged community, I've discovered a passion for social justice and contributing to causes larger than myself," Suh says.

Interdisciplinary Powerhouse: Pinar Yoldas is a Perfect Fit for the Design Lab

Pinar Yoldas describes herself as an interdisciplinary designer, artist and researcher whose current research revolves around speculative biology, in which she designs and creates what could possibly be the next steps of evolution regarding human tissues, organs, and bodies. Evolution, in the eyes of Yoldas, includes the potential for humans in the future to possess modular bodies in which humans can interchange or add on additional sexual organs. 

She is currently an Assistant Professor in the Visual Arts Department at UC San Diego and a member of The Design Lab. While she earned her PhD in Visual and Media Design from Duke University, her interests and credentials don’t stop there. Yoldas also holds a MFA in Game and Interactive Media Design from UC Los Angeles; a MA in Visual Arts from Bilgi University; a MS in Information Technologies from Istanbul Technical University; and a Bachelors of Architecture with a minor is Sociology from Middle East Technical University. Combining her passions for science, art, and undoubtedly, education, Yoldas has impressively served as a bridge throughout her career between five different disciplines and serves as an inspiration for the pursuit and practical application of interdisciplinary science and art studies.
Ucsd Extension Design Bootcamp

Design Lab and UCSD Extension Team Up for Design Bootcamp

This past July, San Diego high school students embarked on a five-day dive into anthropology and design as part of Design Bootcamp, a collaboration between the UC San Diego Design Lab and UC San Diego Extension.

The class first emerged from the demand for design workshops in San Diego coupled with UC San Diego’s interest in offering classes to pre-collegiate students. “This first Research Scholars ‘Design Bootcamp,’ if you will, is our first prototype,” says Michele Morris, Design Lab Associate Director. “The needs of the University, the expertise of the Design Lab, and the community platforms of UC San Diego’s Extension all came together seamlessly.”

Mayya Azarova, a Design Lab Anthropology PhD candidate, joined the team as the Bootcamp’s inaugural instructor.  Coupling her background in anthropology with design, the team customized an offering focused around ethnography and empathy-building.
Ucsd Designers In Residence Community Driven

Designers in Residence Support Community-Driven Design Initiatives

In 2019, Grace Reiger and Brian LeDuc uprooted from Washington, DC and set out across the country together for San Diego. They brought them with a wealth of knowledge in community building around design, education and career development. Driven with a mission to spearhead community design initiatives and active communities across San Diego they saw a huge opportunity in bridging their work in Washington, DC with the needs of the San Diego community around service and career design.

"Grace and Brian really exemplify what we strive for in the Design Lab. A community first approach to design - one built on identifying challenges and jointly coming up with tangible solutions with and for those in need of them. We are extremely lucky to have two Designers in Residence on board who embody those principles."

- Michele Morris, Associate Director, Design Lab

UCSD Design Lab & the National Cancer Institute organize workshop on Human Systems Integration

On October 20 and 21, the Design Lab jointly organized a workshop with the National…

The Design Lab’s Srishti Palani Wins Google’s PhD Fellowship

In continuing excellence among UC San Diego Design Lab researchers, Srishti Palani, a PhD student and Department of Cognitive Science at the Design Lab, was named a 2021 Google PhD Fellow for her work in Human Computer Interaction focused on improving web search and intelligent guidance during creative work. The fellowship is open to researchers in computer science and related fields. Palani was one of 60 students throughout the world to be selected for a Google Fellowship–an award that supports outstanding and promising PhD candidates of all backgrounds who seek to influence the future of technology by providing funding, mentorship, collaboration and internship opportunities.

Palani’s research takes an interdisciplinary approach involving cognitive, computer, and learning sciences to better web search and intelligent scaffolding of complex creative information work. “We use web search almost every day to search things, and it affects how we learn and work and create and collaborate. I’m really passionate about researching this area and building novel computational techniques that integrate web search into people's larger work context. Google, of course, has the most state-of-the-art web search technology that has existed in my lifetime, so I’ve always wanted to collaborate with the researchers, software engineers, and data scientists there to understand how we can get a better web search when people want to search for more complex information needs.”
Back To Top