Design x Minjun Chen
UX Designer at Amazon
Illustration by Casey Magnuson
Interview conducted by April Yang on June 2, 2021
To kick things off, tell us a little bit about yourself.
I’m a UX designer at Amazon; I help our Prime members explore what benefits are included and understand the value of our membership. Before Amazon, I was a Product Designer at Wayfair, working on the products for our fulfillment center. I built the tools for both associates and supervisors to help them safely and efficiently complete their work and stay connected. It was a very different product domain compared to Amazon. Before Wayfair and Amazon, I was a Product Designer at CollegeVine, a startup providing online mentorship to high school students looking to apply for colleges. I was the designer on the consultant platform.
This is a summary of my working experience: I got two Master’s degrees in two different majors. I earned my first one in Learning Sciences and Technologies from the University of Pennsylvania in 2015. Then, in 2017 I studied Human–Computer Interaction Design at the University of Washington in Seattle. During my time at UPenn, I chose lots of design classes as my electives to hone my design skills and bring more design thinking into the process. I worked on many projects specifically around UX design and research and how we can better understand user problems, define them, and think of tangible solutions for them.
You mentioned you completed a Master’s program in Human–Computer Interaction, which included a capstone project. How was your experience with the capstone, and how did it contribute to you becoming a designer?
The capstone project was a Virtual Reality (VR) project sponsored by HTC Creative Lab. We had a couple of months working with our sponsor HTC for this project. We already had the VR technology, the challenge was identifying the user problems and who we were designing for. In the discovery phase of this project, my team—three other designers and myself—spent a lot of time on research. We interviewed VR experts from academic and industry backgrounds to understand what both domains looked for in VR use. At the same time, we also read lots of academic papers on how VR is used to solve specific problems. We narrowed the problem space down to where we wanted to use the technology to help artists overcome creative mental blocks. With this problem statement in mind, we started interviewing different artists in music, art, performance, and other domains. We discovered it was easy for us to use it as a tool to bring environmental change to the artists to unlock the creative blocks.
There were three key takeaways from working on this capstone project. The first was that it honed my UX skills, especially my user testing skills. The second one was that when conducting user testing on such an emerging technology, how could we make this work, especially with limited time and resources? How would we simulate the environment for the VR when we did the mid-fidelity prototype? In the end, our solution was to use a TV projector to simulate the VR environment to save time and get more in-context feedback. The third takeaway was that it sparked my interest in designing for the intersection between physical and digital space. I had been working at Wayfair building warehousing tools but was able to apply a lot of the learning from that to the VR project even though they were completely different domains.
It’s great that you could translate what you learned in your capstone project into a different domain, specifically, working on e-commerce with growth as the focus. What are some of the unique challenges of growth design, and how do you approach them compared to a general design project?
One major thing to consider is that with e-commerce, we don’t have a comprehensive understanding of the entire customer journey. There's a lot that we don’t have data on. We don’t know when they see the ads or where, whether through email or other marketing channels. Nor why they drop off. When designing for the customer entry point, we have to consider how to bring them into our landing page and the right moment to do that. If we’re not thinking about customer behavior holistically, we can easily find ourselves in a dilemma.
Finding the right moment to communicate with customers is extremely important, so we continuously improve the user experience around it. The second thing is that because Amazon is a global platform, we’re designing for people of all different ages and backgrounds. I have learned a lot about user research data—both qualitative and qualitative—and human behavior in my quest to fully understand our users.
“The design process for strategic, vision-driven projects can be very different to that of small or medium-sized projects which tend to be more tactical.”
How would you describe your or your team’s design process?
It really depends on the project. The design process for strategic, vision-driven projects can be very different to that of small or medium-sized projects which tend to be more tactical. For tactical projects, we follow the design process—discovery, define, iteration, delivery, and implementation—and adapt our timeline for each step based on the overall project timeline. Another thing I learned from the industry is how fast things move. In school, we were expected to create personas, journey maps, storyboards, etc. However, at work, we rarely use personas or journey maps because everything moves so fast and deadlines are tight.
Once we understand the user’s problem, we jump into Sketch or Figma and start designing, utilizing our design system components. Sometimes, even at the beginning of the product cycle, you will already see high-fidelity mock-ups because we leverage the design system. We have a form of design infrastructure for strategic projects. A good understanding of our business goals and missions is a must. We have conversations not only with PMs but also senior leadership. Usually, I will spend more time reading business documents and existing research to understand specific user problems and similar areas. Then I start playing with my design ideas and collaborating with my PM. Sometimes I don’t have all the answers and move forward with assumptions, looking for further evidence to support them. I’m hoping to work on more strategic projects in my career.
You mentioned in your LinkedIn profile that your childhood dream was to become a product designer. What inspired you to want a design career at such a young age?
My mom is a fashion designer. My dad is in business, but he’s really into drawing. I started drawing when I was just three or four. I used to go to drawing class and enjoyed it so much, I continued to draw every day. Still, I never considered a career in drawing because my parents used to warn me about the hardships of being an artist. I was very confused about my future career path. Then, a friend told me there was a HumanComputer Interaction (HCI) major at her school. The students within that major were so skilled at creating and drawing, they went on to work at places like Apple, Google, and Amazon upon graduation. That felt like something I wanted to pursue, where I could naturally merge my passion for art into a career path. I didn’t do any research on the HCI programs, I just had a powerful feeling that this was my major and this was the career for me.
During my undergrad, as a Chinese Literature student, I would constantly be looking for opportunities to hone my design skills. Working as a Graphic Design intern at a local magazine, I was able to teach myself how to use design tools like Photoshop and InDesign.
What a journey! What topics are of particular interest to you right now?
Having worked in B2B and B2C domains, I’m very interested in designing tools for those underserved by technology. Even a tiny change in their workflow can have a considerable impact on their lives. These are real people with real challenges. How can we make their jobs easier? This is what empowers me as a designer. I have such empathy for underserved people. Talking with them, I get a sense of how challenging life can be for them. These are the people who have helped us so much during the pandemic, the essential workers. So designing in this space and building tools for these people is something I’m looking forward to.
“I’m very interested in designing tools for those underserved by technology. Even a tiny change in their workflow can have a considerable impact on their lives.”
What advice would you give to fellow designers or junior designers?
First of all, focus on your goal! My goal was always to be a product designer, so even though I had a somewhat circuitous journey with many challenges, staying focused enabled me to keep moving forward. If you focus on your goal, everything else will follow.
Secondly, be patient and persistent. It takes time to learn and hone your skills, and it’s not an easy process for everyone. If you genuinely want something, be patient and commit to learning. Don’t be too concerned if you are not where you want to be right now; if you focus on personal growth, honing your skills, and continuous improvement, you will get there eventually.
Lastly, find a mentor. I have learned so much from my mentors and the people I met along the way. They all shared so many career insights with me, ultimately helping me grow.
“Don’t be too concerned if you are not where you want to be right now; if you focus on personal growth, honing your skills, and continuous improvement, you will get there eventually.”
Rapid Fire Questions:
What or who inspires you?
I think Apple products, specifically iPod Touch. I had one in high school, and it truly inspired me and made me want to be a product designer.
If you could live anywhere, where would that be, and why?
I’d love to live in Japan. I love sushi, and want to experience authentic—and cheaper—sushi than what’s available here in Seattle. I’ve never been to Japan, and think it would be a truly fantastic experience to learn about Japanese culture and meet the people there. I don’t speak Japanese, so I wonder what it would be like to get around without knowing the language.
How would you describe yourself in three words?
Persistent, positive, foodie.
