Published on | Prototyping: From UX to Front End — Medium Matilde Figueiredo

Hey world, Matilde here!

I’m a 27 year old curious, observer, portuguese girl. I’ve been working as a designer for 5 years now.

I have a Bachelors degree in Industrial design, but mid-way I realised I was missing some communication skills, so I took optional classes such as Typography, Webdesign, and so on.

The first thing I did when I finished university was work at a startup called Betapp, a social network for social betting, where you could challenge your friends, create your bets and post your videos and photos – I’ll try to write a post about my opinion on working at a startup.

Since then I’ve worked in different companies, from Advertising Agencies to Strategic Design Consultancy, doing different things, but there’s always something that doesn’t really ever change no matter which job it is – the user centered design.

Whether you’re designing an interface, an ad campaign, a new strategy for a business, there’s always a starting point – the user, the environment while using the product, their state of mind!

A couple weeks ago I read about the test Pepsi did in the 80’s, where people chose Pepsi over Coca-cola, in a blind taste sip.

Forced to do something about it, Coca-cola decided to create a new product New Coke – lighter and sweeter. But the results were far from what they expected. Do you know why New coke didn’t sell, even though it was as sweet as Pepsi? Because the test was made with a few sips. After taking just a sip of two drinks, the majority of people would state a preference for the sweeter of the two.

But that’s not how people drink beverages.

The test was not made in an environment where people usually consume the product, neither with the right amount.

That’s why, for every product, I consider fundamental to first research the user, the environment and its intervenients. And last (but not least) to test it with real users, in the same conditions it was designed for.

Testing a low-fidelity prototype

I’m passionate about the whole research, test and implementation process. Follow me to get to know more about my projects and thoughts on several design centered topics!

Find me on dribbble, behance and Instagram.

Why I love what I do was originally published in Prototypr on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Why I love what I do

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