assisting with ux/ui design for commercial space
In spring 2022, I began interning with the Axiom Space UI/UX Team. Under the guidance of my mentor, Amanda Parrish, my work focused on assisting the team with researching for and designing necessary screens that would be used by astronauts and ground operations. At the end of my spring internship, I presented my work to the Chief Technology Officer and a team of designers, engineers, and HR. In my spare time, I also helped the VR team with setting up and testing virtual mockups of the space station.
Jan-May 2022, Sep 2022 - present
Figma, Miro, Jira
competitive research, storyboarding, wireframing, testing
As a new intern, my responsibilities involved learning as much as I could about the company as well as educating myself on space terminology. I was allowed to work on any projects that I was able to take on in my schedule that would contribute to my UX design knowledge. I also attended sprint planning as well as general design meetings in order to learn about the work that other teams were doing.
Designing for space truly helped me to understand the importance of keeping our users in mind, especially the astronauts. While certain screens involving the comfort of the astronauts were simply a matter of design preference and/or consistency, the content of other screens was a matter of life and death; it was crucial that the user was able to process and manipulate content correctly for the sake of their own safety.
My team comprised of not only UX and visual designers but also numerous industrial designers, space architects, and VR designers. I learned how to break down my design decisions and communicate my thought process effectively to ensure that others could understand my work. Communicating with them also gave me a holistic perspective on how my designs were interconnected with their work.
Working in the space industry often meant getting overwhelmed by technical documents, diagrams, and confusing terminology from engineers. Although this discouraged me at first, I learned quickly that a designer does not need to know everything or do things perfectly at first. Creating lots of rough designs and soliciting feedback through informal and formal presentations boosted my confidence and resulted in a lot of progress.
As a fall intern, my work has been focused on as well as designing a tool for ground operations people to generate telemetry visualizations. This involves researching telemetry that various teams would need to view during a mission, designing charts and graphs with real data, and building out flows for a visualization tool.
My experience at Axiom Space was unforgettable and filled with opportunities for growth. From the very first day, I was warmly welcomed and swept into a fast-paced, dynamic environment. Working in a studio environment allowed me to interact closely with not just my team of UX designers but also the VR and industrial designers. From having almost complete control of my schedule to participating in almost every design and sprint meeting, to often staying late after work hours, I learned and grew as a designer with my team.
Between meetings and design sessions, I took time to unwind by playing around with borrowed VR headsets. I also took the time to chat with the people I worked with, learning about their backgrounds and learning about their work.
Bonus: I was also lucky to be able to attend Axiom’s first mission, AX1, in April!
