https://rafa.work Rafa Torres • UX and Product Thu, 04 Jun 2020 12:43:50 +0000 https://rafa.work en http://rafa.work/ux-officehours Thu, 04 Jun 2020 12:43:50 +0000 Rafa Torres • UX and Product 369872  ✨Free UX Office Hours✨ I’m offering 1-on-1s with Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) that are interested in learning or have questions about User Experience Design. Anything about your work, portfolio, prototypes... Hi!I’m Rafa and I’ve been working in Product and UX for about 10 years. I have experience with Interaction Design, UX Strategy and Mentorship and I want to invest my time in you, to help you build something amazing and progress in your career. I’m here to help you with: 👉 Brainstorming concrete functionality based on a&nbsp; strategy👉 User-flow and Journeys👉 The IA of your site or on a specific page👉 Communicating through Wireframes👉 General critique and feedback👉 ...or anything else that saying out loud would help.I want to donate 30-minute blocks so you can tell me a story, I’ll do my best to help you iron anything out or put you in touch with someone who might be able to help.If this is something you might be interested in, please get in touch.✊✊🏻✊🏼✊🏽✊🏾✊🏿 ✨ New to UX? I put together a handful of favorite resources here.  ✨Free UX Office Hours✨ I’m offering 1-on-1s with Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) that are... http://rafa.work/ux-noob Tue, 23 Jul 2019 16:40:34 +0000 Rafa Torres • UX and Product 331775 New to UX? Looking to get started in User Experience Design? Here’s a couple of pointers.  Hi there! This page contains a couple of things I usually share with entry-level UXers. Do you want to know my number 1 piece of advice? Don’t ever be anything else than your absolute self. None of that “fake it till you make it” bullshit.——— 🍺🍺🍺 If you’re in London and want to chat about my job (or yours), hit me up. Let’s grab a coffee or a beer. <img width="1678" height="2560" width_o="1678" height_o="2560" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/180535163e565507ce6c6bdc1df963bbbe6b0aae23530ebfc9636b7e7e9d14da/Don-Norman---Design-of-everyday-things-Large.jpg" data-mid="748062" border="0" /> Design of everyday thingsDon Norman Start here. This is a holy book for UX designers and Don Norman is, by osmosis, some kind of messiah I guess (?). Read this book. Let the realisation of the importance of experiential design sink in.*Gospel music plays* ——— the Feynman learning technique When learning something, don’t memorise, find the logical explanation the makes it obvious (that’s how I got top marks in A-level Geography! Thanks Mr. Coffee!). Make sure you can teach what you just learnt to a 10 year old. Mike Monteiro Arsonist at heart, Monteiro will teach you more truths about design and life that any manager is willing to share.This video made me feel terrible during my first year as professional designer but, oh boy how it guided me and helped my grow. ——— <img width="1046" height="1350" width_o="1046" height_o="1350" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/3ac8ffea0ca8fb7b21891d500baa21e65037006c6eee4bd9d1c3854069072524/71cbcPhOabL.jpg" data-mid="748063" border="0" /> Don’t make me think Steve Krug This was the first UX book I bought and read. It was a moment of realisation that deeply reassured my decision to pursue a career in UX. It’s an incredibly solid introduction to the discipline and takes you through every little nook of web usability, from research to wires to testing. It’s my go-to gift for friends who ask me about changing careers into UX. <img width="1557" height="2400" width_o="1557" height_o="2400" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/98923e99785e37e564bcc4ff83f95d25be2ed0e5392abd4d44cebca0d8a4f233/Colson-Whitehead---The-Intuitionist-Large.jpg" data-mid="748066" border="0" /> The Intuitionist Colson Whitehead One of my favourite things is to find non-design books that have valuable design lessons. The Intuitionist taught me about the power of experience and gut feeling over the hard numbers. There’s a point on any project at which you’re going to go with a hunch over empirical data and that’s ok. Always have research inform your design but take chances and let your work reflect your personality. ——— It’s ok to feel dumb Surround yourself with people that make you feel like you’re the dumbest person in the room. Listed to every word they say. Ask every question, (specially ‘why?’) even when you think it’s not worth it... Find something that’s worth itThere’s pros and cons to every job, but... a) Finding a boss who’s interested in investing time and energy into teaching you the ropes will catapult you into success. b) Finding a job in a company that’s really making a positive impact on the world will help you sleep better. ✨ ✨ ✨ ▲ Back to top // When the user scrolls down 20px from the top of the document, show the button window.onscroll = function() {scrollFunction()}; function scrollFunction() { if (document.body.scrollTop > 20 || document.documentElement.scrollTop > 20) { document.getElementById("myBtn").style.display = "block"; } else { document.getElementById("myBtn").style.display = "none"; } } // When the user clicks on the button, scroll to the top of the document function topFunction() { document.body.scrollTop = 0; document.documentElement.scrollTop = 0; } New to UX? Looking to get started in User Experience Design? Here’s a couple of pointers.  Hi there! This page contains a couple of things I usually share... http://rafa.work/sky-italia Thu, 04 Jul 2019 14:44:17 +0000 Rafa Torres • UX and Product 329891 Sky’s web renaissance Helping the #1 TV news source in Italy bring those numbers to their online news experience.  SKY TG24 ⟶ SKY Sports ⟶ SKY Spettacolo ⟶ the problem In the ever shifting and evolving media landscape, we were tasked with elevating the digital Sky Italia brand and experience globally, across their verticals - entertainment, sports and news. As a premium TV provider with quality content, changing the public’s perceptions and awareness around their digital offering was the main priority,&nbsp;with the end goal of dominating the Italian news market the result &nbsp;We collaborated with the different teams, on location in Milan, not only to create a modular and scalable design system, but also establish a solution framework for a multi-brand offering globally and across their three verticals. We worked on improving storytelling, pathing, loyalty and retention, interatives, video, navigation, monetisation and personalisation. Each one of these tactics was tested, iterated and implemented in an agile process to ensure we were designing the best experience for the user based on market, region and user type. the highlight Leading not only the original project’s design stream but making sure the quality of the work and the relationshio was at a level that secured the follow-up CMS project on which I led client conversations, product strategy and esperience design, with oversight onto the rest of the design team.Breaking their established process down and building a new way for the internal Sky team to communicate, collaborate and move the project forward.———— <img width="4032" height="3024" width_o="4032" height_o="3024" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/72883f6afb87959b42accfc3df60aeda77731f87e4c941044ee2290492297308/IMG_1656.jpg" data-mid="740312" border="0" /> ——— Designed, prepped and facilitated multiple workshops that brought together design, tech and editorial staff. This was the first time the chief editors participated in a product ideation workshop. <img width="3024" height="4032" width_o="3024" height_o="4032" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/5cd265fcfca50fcc86e28d2b1dfcc69d99dfe3dfffe09446ab73c0908c28fec5/IMG_1924.jpg" data-mid="740322" border="0" />——— It’s italy, of course there is food in this case study! <img width="3024" height="4032" width_o="3024" height_o="4032" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/061465943a9374d789e1731d4113913cc06896a919086b5a8e43a6f4aae6d599/IMG_1934.jpg" data-mid="740323" border="0" /> ——— As part of a UX Sprint 0, we created&nbsp; representations of all the needed components of our design system. These were used in sprint kickoff workshops with the editorial leads for each brand to create the structures needed to tell each vertical’s news best. Sky’s web renaissance Helping the #1 TV news source in Italy bring those numbers to their online news experience.  SKY TG24 ⟶ SKY Sports ⟶ SKY... http://rafa.work/invesco Sat, 23 Mar 2019 13:54:45 +0000 Rafa Torres • UX and Product 316875 Invesco Global Account Guiding the finantial giant to a new digital presense.  no live link yet the problem Helping Invesco define their global digital strategies and partnering up with a new internal design team to wrangle the sites created by 32 regions into one cohesive visual language and experience. the result &nbsp;The deifinition and execution of a strategy and design MVP that would not only be designed under extremely tight deadline but would also be modular enough to become the base that’s reutilized for iterations to come.A single, lean design system, shared by all Invesco regions and built on a new global CMS platform, AEM. the highlight Intrapreneuring and leading a multinational design philosophy and process that helps New York and London teams share a unique, atomic design system through Airtable. This new approach changed the way UX, VD and Dev teams organize at Code &amp; Theory. (And designing and facilitating workshops for 34 people from 4 continents.) published personal learnings&nbsp;⟶ Tips On Planning And Running Your Workshops Like A Pro Invesco Global Account Guiding the finantial giant to a new digital presense.  no live link yet the problem Helping Invesco define their global digital... http://rafa.work/thescene Fri, 09 Feb 2018 19:36:44 +0000 Rafa Torres • UX and Product 250694 The Scene for iOS Translating Condé Nast Entertainment’s video experience for an on-the-go audience.  link ⟶ the problem Even with an abundance of high quality and unique video content, user engagement numbers for The Scene (CNE’s video platform’s agreggator) were not meeting the company's expectations. the result &nbsp;A bold take on a video-only website and iOS app that offered users a personal video feed with an offline video feature on iOS for the on-the-go commuters. the highlight A houghtful first and consequent visit UX that featured personalized video content curated by a behavior-fed algorithm which resulted in increased return user rates and doubled the videos watched per visit. ———— awards the webby awards 2017 Best Streaming Video Honoree digiday publishing awards 2017 Finalists Best Overall Design (no link)new york design awards 2016 Silver Winner min magazine editorial &amp; design awards 2016 Best Website Design press ad week Condé Nast Updates The Scene Video Hub For&nbsp; Mobile, Social World wwd Condé Nast Entertainment Courts ‘Cultured Millennials’ To Grab Ad Dollars The Scene for iOS Translating Condé Nast Entertainment’s video experience for an on-the-go audience.  link ⟶ the problem Even with an abundance of... http://rafa.work/xfm Fri, 09 Feb 2018 19:28:26 +0000 Rafa Torres • UX and Product 250692 XFINITY Mobile Designing the way people approach a new mobile carrier.  link ⟶ the scenario Comcast wanted us to help them with the strategy and experience behind the launch of their mobile service with an offering customers had never seen before. the result &nbsp;A human-first experience that cares about every touchpoint of the service; from explaining the principles behind the groundbreaking data plans to making device personalization and checkout as friction free as ever with a transactional design that focus on maximizing conversion. the highlight Stepping away from&nbsp; marketing and ecommerce design to reach out to users in order to map out their journey—covering behaviors that go from initial brand exposure to service cancellation. ———— <img width="1932" height="1296" width_o="1932" height_o="1296" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/57bf4361c0c30c8b0133488b221b49467c5b6702a5a8dbc3b07754a1e6410e37/xfinity-mobile_tool-wires.png" data-mid="752491" border="0" /> ——— Wireframing was done at a super high fidelity as UX was shared amongst the entire structure of the client. Mixed feelings. The positive side was constantly testing in a lab setting with wires ensured fast and constant (a little too constant) iteration. ———— <img width="2000" height="364" width_o="2000" height_o="364" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/3a8d1e4d0845992cb7b83a2da39795ee60e0d7fa07039a3fde94aad7ddd47133/xfinity-journey.png" data-mid="672195" border="0" /> ——— User journey created to map out the experience and call out pain points and reasons for cancellation. XFINITY Mobile Designing the way people approach a new mobile carrier.  link ⟶ the scenario Comcast wanted us to help them with the strategy and... http://rafa.work/nbcnews Fri, 09 Feb 2018 17:34:51 +0000 Rafa Torres • UX and Product 250655 NBC’s news sites Redefining how stories are told on NBC News, Today and MSNBC.  nbcnews.com ⟶ today.com ⟶msnbc.com ⟶ the problem Years of reactive product management had created a towering repository of single-use templates and modules that was causing teams to move slower than the fast-paced digital journalism environment demanded. The new system would need to accomodate multiple brands, content types, velocities and the necessity to spin up new front pages in seconds. the result &nbsp;During a year of work, we turned NBC News’ editorial team strategy to stop writing about eevry piece of news and start being a leading voice on the subjects that matter. We designed a single front page template that could house over 30 variations of content, allowing editors to create narratives and innovative, flexible details pages for three different brands and millions of monthly users. the highlight Getting to work with world-leading journalists and editors to design their workflow and CMS experience as well as designing a new way for them to tell the stories they had to tell. In addition, we built modular yet robust functional documentation ecosystem that covered, in detail, each module’s components, behaviors and logic. some data +110%cross-brand traffic +1M new users/mo +2-3 timesmore video views +30% HP video views +29%Ad viewability (+12% sitewide) ———— awards Digiday Publishing Awards 2019 Best Mobile Innovation the webbys awards fast companny innovation by design awards 2018 Honorable Mention — Web Design (x2) the webbys awards 2018 Honoree — Websites, News and Politics editor and publisher 2017 Best Redesign/Relaunch press VP of product &amp; design at NBC News digital 3 Brands, 1 System: The NBC News Digital Redesign digiday Fewer stories, more spinoff brands: How NBC News is shifting to loyal visitorsadweek NBC News Digital Begins a Redesign With Two New Verticals NBC’s news sites Redefining how stories are told on NBC News, Today and MSNBC.  nbcnews.com ⟶ today.com ⟶msnbc.com ⟶ the problem Years of... http://rafa.work/home Mon, 17 Aug 2015 23:34:03 +0000 Rafa Torres • UX and Product 250621 R•TUX&nbsp; —&nbsp; Product ✨&nbsp;Free UX Office Hours for BIPOC designers ✊🏻✊🏼✊🏽✊🏾✊🏿 Rafa Torres is a father of one and Interaction Designer &amp; Experience Strategist living in New York, London working remotelyHe works as Director of Experience Design at Code &amp; Theory creating experiences that humans enjoy and clients love, driving innovation and creativity at speedHe’s turned students into designers by sharing his knowledge at General Assembly &amp; NYU and has judged world-class design professionals at dsgnrsHe enjoys walking down supermarket isles and laughing at himself, lolSay hello 👋 Looking to get into UX? Click This CTA! 🧑‍🏫 Project highlights (case studies available upon request) 2019  Invesco,&nbsp; Sky Italia 2018  NBC News 2017  XFINITY Mobile2016  Conde Nast ... and on the sideClub Clandestino de Cata Sirius Heuristics “Rafa’s Regular Roundup of Above Par Shit” twitter threads(#RRRAPS) &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;  R•TUX&nbsp; —&nbsp; Product ✨&nbsp;Free UX Office Hours for BIPOC designers ✊🏻✊🏼✊🏽✊🏾✊🏿 Rafa Torres is a father of one and...