Flush — A Design Blog by Ivan W. Lam at ivanwlam.com

UI/UX Design at Zynga

Since I last updated, I have begun working on a project at Zynga as a freelance UI/UX designer. Originally, I was asked to work on only one aspect of the project, but I have since been asked to work on a second part. I am becoming more familiar with the project and am curious to how it’ll turn out in the end.

I’m not going to lie; I’ve enjoyed the work very much. I have mentioned last time that I haven’t done anything exactly like this before, so it is exciting, fascinating, and eye opening, and I’m learning a lot. I myself have started thinking of ways to further enhance the experience in future releases, if I am given the opportunity to continue.

The Team and the Integration

For the past four weeks that I’ve worked on this project, I have gotten to meet almost every member of the team. From the type of things that I hear them talk about and the type of things they’ve done on the project, I am truly impressed with what they can do and am inspired to step up my game and do my part, and do it well.

Their work has shown me mountains of stuff that I don’t know but that I want to, even though they’re not necessarily part of my job or directly related to my career.

There is a pattern when working with others that doesn’t necessarily manifest when working by yourself. The skills and knowledge you gain in a team are different from those when working solo. It’s refreshing, actually.

Another point about teams is that it takes time to integrate yourself into one. It does not occur all at once. How quickly you start speaking the lingo and communicating on the same channel and understanding one another without saying anything depends on the personalities of both parties as well as the environment you work in. For me, in the past week or so, I have been introduced to a few more members of the team and have become more aware of the team’s progress (and not just mine), so I have a better picture of what we have done so far and what more we can do in this project before the release. So hopefully, this will all lead to something that we can all be proud of in the end.

Flush.

P.S. The monthly update for November may or may not be written because I will be out of the country, in Macau, China for a few weeks. Depending on whether I have time and access over there, postings may be fewer than normal (yes, it’s possible to be fewer than this.)

I have posted two Photomerges showing minute glimpses of Macau so far. I believe there will be one more next week. Hopefully, I’ll have better stuff to show when I get back.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 12th, 2009 at 21:49 and is filed under What Am I Doing?. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.