At Plecto, we know that our most valuable asset is our employees - so we are always proud of sharing their insightful stories with the world! Every one of them brings something unique to the team, and that’s the best source of inspiration we could hope for.
Today, we bring you a sneak peek into a UX Designer’s day-to-day at Plecto. For that, we talked with our own UX Designer, Kevin Jeppesen, who shared with us his experience, learnings and most useful tools.
How did you start at Plecto?
I previously worked at a digital agency where we helped a diverse portfolio of businesses with optimizing the user experience of their digital platforms. We often spent many weeks or even months researching and conceptualizing intuitive solutions. However, after publicly launching the solutions, the customers often did not dedicate resources to continuously test and improve the product – which is a huge part of the UX design process I felt was missing.
I wanted to work at a company, preferably a software company, that was passionate about developing an extraordinary product while also being considerate of the customer experience through and through.
Plecto definitely felt like a place where I could utilize my expertise to deliver impactful user experiences backed by a leadership team that was willing to pour everything into doing just that.
How’s your day-to-day as a UX Designer?
Although I work cross-functionally with all silos internally to assess every aspect of the customer journey, most of my time is spent in close collaboration with the development team to relentlessly optimize our product.
As the only UX designer at Plecto, my day-to-day consists of a wide variety of design-related tasks aimed to ensure the continuous development of our products, incl. research, customer interactions, ideation, conceptualization, and testing. Furthermore, I’m also responsible for planning and executing on our strategies and visions with the product.
What software do you use the most for your job?
We love testing out new software that may help us improve our workflow. However, at the moment our palette of tools mainly consists of Sketch (for wireframes and design), InVision (for prototyping and collaborating with the development team), Hotjar (for analyzing user behavior tendencies), and various usability testing platforms.
Personally, I also benefit from a wide range of Chrome Extensions and Sketch plugins to help streamline the design process including WhatFont (for identifying fonts used for websites), ColorZilla (for online color picking), Window Resizer (for quickly emulating various screen resolutions), Grammarly (for optimizing our copy), SVG-grabber (for quickly previewing and retrieving SVG assets from websites), Muzli (for inspiration and noteworthy designer news), Craft by InVision (a must-have Sketch plugin for streamlining the design process and Sketch/InVision syncing).
Lastly, we use Jira to run our product sprints, Slack for internal messaging communication, and Zoom for daily virtual meetings with our development team in Warsaw.
What do you like the most about working at Plecto?
Two things that immediately jump to mind. First, the work culture, which does an amazing job balancing both the social and professional relationships at the offices; and second, the trust and responsibility shown by the management, which gives everyone the space to contribute with their unique strengths and professional insights.
What would you recommend to someone who wants to be a UX Designer?
It’s hard to get a foot in the door as a UX designer today, as the increasing number of strong candidates doesn’t seem to slow down in the foreseeable future. My advice is to do everything to stand out from the crowd and be unique in your own way. Nearly every graduate within UX Design today has followed a similar curriculum - therefore, candidates that are looking to catch interest should try to develop a specialized skill set playing to their strengths.
While it’s important to have diversified knowledge of all design-related processes, I believe true UX-centered companies will increasingly look into hiring individuals to perform specific jobs, like pure UX research, testing, prototyping, UX copy, and interaction design, etc.
Want to know more about Plecto’s team? Keep an eye on our blog - more stories are on the way!
