Agoda Design
An exciting adventure in the travel industry
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Joined the Agoda Design team is not only a career path but also a life-changing experience for me. The opportunities to work with people from many different cultures is challenging but engaging. Other than that, I want to share some memorable stories when I worked here.
Timeline
June 2019 to present
June 2019 to present
Team I joined
Flights, Product Marketing, SEO, Pricing
Flights, Product Marketing, SEO, Pricing
My role
Competitive Analysis, User interview, Design Research, UI/UX Design (Web & App)
Competitive Analysis, User interview, Design Research, UI/UX Design (Web & App)
When I just joined Agoda
It is my first time joining such a big company. There are many events such as all hands, year-end party, town hall, gathering all the employees to know the company better and have fun together. I am surprised how a big organization with 5,000+ employees makes sure everyone is on the right track and works in the same direction. I won't forget the day when my avatar was projecting on the big screen as the 5,000th employee. What a glory as a new joiner!
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User interview with internal & external users
We conducted user labs when we have enough lead time and resources for some projects. With the help of our user researchers, we worked together to plan the discussion guide. In some sessions, we worked with the translator to make the interviewee more comfortable to describe their experience in their native language. As designers, we also conducted the user interview session ourselves to collect initial feedback from internal users.
By interviewing with the observation room, the interviewees are getting more comfortable to share their experience.
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Internal workshop for brainstorming
Some projects heavily rely on technical constraints, so we get engineers to involve in the design process as early as possible. During the pandemic and WFH period, we even conducted brainstorming by the online tool to collect ideas, share insights, and vote for the excited one. Most of them have been include in the milestones by the product manager for the upcoming quarter.
It was productive to conduct the brainstorming session online, that participants were involving to drag the post-it and write down their ideas. And so environment friendly!
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Design System is Everyone's Duty
The design system is new to the Agoda Design team. Some dedicated designers built the fundamental elements and shared library, still heavily rely on the rest of the designers from other teams to contribute and maintain the system for future needs. I'm lucky to be the first designer to introduce a new component and collaborate with the design system team to compose the comprehensive documentation, such as definition, dos, and don'ts, and variations of the design components. We also figured out the working process along the way and shared the experience in design all-hands.
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TDC Recruitment program
It is a valuable opportunity! I co-host a recruitment program with another designer to recruit talents by coaching and mentoring the participants to complete the design challenges. At the end of the evaluation, we offered a scholarship to those who achieve the expectation. We partner with Thammasat Design Center, a Thailand-based design institution that provides various design-related courses, to reach out to a broaden designers community in Bangkok.
From participants' feedback, we are glad to hear that they learn something out of design skills, but communication, research methods, and measurable testing. I learned a lot along the way by providing feedback and guide direction. It was also my first time giving a public speech about design topics and let more people know about Agoda Design. Many people got interested and came to have a chat after my sharing.
After two batches of the program, we handed it over to other designers to continue coaching the potential talents, and it becomes a regular program within the Agoda Design team.
I gave a speech to 20 students at TDC, talked about the working process, design projects, and culture in Agoda Design.