During my last year of undergrad at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), I was a Design Intern for Robolink, a San Diego startup that specializes in building robots that help kids of all ages learn how to code.

I was always fascinated by coding, and have had experience through my Java LAUNCH courses, but have never seen it been applied in a way like this. I was always so excited to come in and see the fun and ingenuity that the company created.

I was responsible for many different things - I learned that when in a startup, you may often have to wear a number of different hats.

Marketing:
• I created digital ads for CoDrone that we AB tested and generated up to 23.7 ROI.

Web design:
• I learned Lunacy, the Sketch alternative at the time (I only had a Windows laptop), and created some mockups for a couple of pages we were redesigning.

User research:
• The sole UX Designer on the Robolink team and I would go to schools in the San Diego county to conduct user testing on the newest product, Zumi
• The goal was to improve the onboarding process, and seeing it in person with real users was one of the best ways to do that
• I would go around taking notes, as well as survey them about their experience

Graphic design:
• I worked on stickers for Zumi, which would go to 800+ Kickstarter backers
• I also helped create the user manual for a CoDrone team kit, which involved all of the individual pieces

Thanks to Wes and his mentorship at Robolink, I gained a variety of skills to help me in my upcoming UX journey. I learned what it was like to be in standups and retrospectives, and how different team members worked together to meet their deadlines. Every day I was there, I was so inspired by the amount of dedication all of the members had, who were really putting their all into something they believed in.

I enjoyed my time there so much that I became a robotics instructor for the summer to help the kids learn how to use the products.