The week beginning of the 5th of September I started working at Absurd, a digital product and service design agency based in Manchester, UK

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Firstly, I will give you some background on me before I dive in… I have a degree in graphic design and in the final year I specialised in UX Design. After my degree, I worked at a start-up UX and CRO agency for two years where I worked closely with the Director who had over 25+ years of experience in UX and CRO. Working closely with the director and the nature of a start-up agency I developed at a fast rate and learnt a range of skills from, UX/UI, project management, CRO, SEO, front-end development and much more.

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Monday morning

I couldn’t have wished for a better first day, I was given such a warm welcome. We started the day with pleasantries and a general chat about myself, the company and the team. After the introduction, we had a meeting with the whole team about a plan for the week ahead. It was great to hear about what everyone would be working on this week and how they spent their weekends.

I was provided with a MacBook Pro and Mark (Design director) helped me set it up ensuring all the correct software and tools were installed. It was great to see what tools the business used to organise and structure projects. They used various tools that enabled the team to work efficiently and speed up workflow. It was interesting to see how Absurd and individual people work as everyone’s processes and practices vary.

For lunch, I was taken out to Piccolinos we sat in the sun with pasta and a glass of wine was a lovely treat. It was nice getting to know the design team on a more personal level.

After lunch, we returned to the office and I had some 1–1’s booked with the team. I appreciated slowly getting to know people and learning about them and their skills, previous experiences and personal interests. The 1–1 sessions were around half an hour long meaning I got to connect thoroughly with the team separately. On my first day, I had 1–1 sessions with Oli (Founder) and Ben (Developer).

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The rest of the week…

Tuesday I was welcomed into the office by Digby, Sally’s dog! He was very good at cuddles and great at posing in the team photos.

I was provided with some reading material for a new upcoming project, I made some notes about the project and the company we would be working with to get an understanding of the project before kick-off. Most of the day again was spent having 1–1s with the team and getting settled in.

Rowan one of the UI Designers sat down with me and talked through an e-commerce client that I would be working with possibly on a retainer basis to improve the user experience and conversion rate of the website. It was nice to be able to ask questions and gain a better understanding rather than be thrown into the deep end. We finished Tuesday by going for a few drinks after work.

Wednesday was similar in developing relationships with the team and getting to grips with some new and current projects. Eldon, a UX Researcher, got me up to speed on a client that they have been working with for around 8–9 months. Eldon did a great job of thoroughly explaining their briefs and processes, and he also provided me with some useful reading material on UI naming conventions and design systems. It was great to see how the team solved complex problems that this particular client had.

Thursday, I worked on some internal work, did some additional reading for a project in the pipeline and made some useful notes. Rowan a UI Designer introduced me to one of Absurd’s e-commerce projects, we spent one to two hours analysing Figma files and spreadsheets providing me with insights into the project. E-commerce is one of my favourite areas when it comes to UI/UX design and even CRO. I enjoy e-com projects due to the nature of them usually having high traffic volumes, you can measure how effective your design decisions are quickly using various tools to collect data and also getting creative with how to incorporate branding throughout the website.

Friday we worked from home which was good as I was able to get my head down and finish off an internal project that had been set. At the end of the week we checked in with the design team, this allowed us all to chat about how our week had been and if we had any questions etc… I had another meeting with Rowen who explained more in detail about the e-commerce client that we spoke about the day before.

I’ve come to Absurd to grow and collaborate as a designer, I can now see that it is an environment that is an advocate for my growth and career progression. The week couldn’t have been any better, I was gradually on-boarded and had 1–1’s with the majority of the team who all made me feel so welcome and supported.

Chloe and Digby in the office

Keep up with the culture at Absurd…

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