ANGEL: UX/UI INTERNSHIP

My name is Angel and I am a second year student of Computer Science and Mathematics at the University of Edinburgh. I usually spend the summer in Bulgaria doing internships and working on various social projects.

I heard about Quikfox from a job ad in jobs.bg (a Bulgarian careers portal) while I was looking for a summer internship. The job position drew my attention not only because it combines technical, analytical, and business skills, but also because of the interesting background of the company. The firm is based in Sofia and is run by a Swiss manager.  The firm has mainly German, Austrian and Swiss clients. The company gives young and talented people the opportunity to work in Bulgaria but to be exposed to an international environment. 

I was very impressed from the beginning because I was not expected to know everything and my colleagues spent all the time I needed to introduce me to the job. My mentor, Victor, was very patient with me and thanks to him I learnt the foundations of several computer languages.

My main tasks during the internship were to create wireframes for websites and iOS applications. For these tasks we use Adobe Illustrator because it helps in making the prototype look more realistic. In addition, I participated in developing and maintaining WordPress websites.

CMC-C Ltd. Website
The first project that was assigned to me was to develop a website for the electrical engineering company CMC-C. I started the project from scratch and communicated with the client to clarify his requirements. After completing the wireframes I had to research different templates and to present their advantages and disadvantages to the client. Later, I became responsible for the technical development. While I was working on this website, I needed to identify the specific tasks in each stage of the project. That helped me develop my project management and teamwork skills (one of my tasks was to pass on technical information to our front-end developer Andrey and to discuss various technical matters with him. He performed the most complicated tasks and advised me when I experienced difficulties. When the site became ready, Manuel (the CEO) and I went to the client’s office and I conducted a short training session for an employee who will be responsible for maintaining the website.

Bridge Careers’ Platform
This is a project about a big careers platform which targets mainly university students and is designed to protect their rights. My task was to prepare a customer journey maps for every type of user on the basis of the client requirements. Then I had to analyse that diagram and to present a structure for the database that will be used to create the platform. This would help the developers create the website. The task was extremely interesting because it required analytical thinking and was closely related to some outside projects in which I am involved.

Quikfox website
During the internship I had several tasks involving the update of the content and the design of the company’s website. I made some important changes: I restructured the Careers page and developed the “Our Team” section. While performing the second task I had to communicate with all my colleagues and had a great opportunity to socialize with them.

Infoprim
Infoprim is a website that presents statistical information on pension funds. The client wanted some upgrade of the system and I had to analyse all types of the visualized data and to evaluate which pieces can be visualised on a single chart.

iOS application
This task involved again creating wireframes but here the product was iOS app for a cosmetics Swiss company. It was very important to prepare a realistic layout that would be absolutely clear to the client and would not cause any confusion. That is why I had to research the trends in developing iOS apps.

The time I spent in Quikfox was extremely pleasant and productive. The people are very helpful, easy-going and friendly. My colleagues taught me a lot of new stuff involving the technical side of developing websites and I learned invaluable lessons about the business and client communication.