There is a saying in the restaurant industry that goes, “People eat with their eyes first.” This is referring to how the presentation of something can affect one’s perception of it.
Figma is a design tool used by many top companies. We will use this tool to quickly iterate on a product design. In this homework, you will apply the principles of MVP, agile development, and good design to create an MVP of a product that is very relevant to your career: your resume.
Get started with Figma
On Figma’s pricing page, choose the free Starter plan and sign up. https://www.figma.com/pricing/
Watch this brief tutorial video to learn the basics of Figma: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhlNnf1711M
Lessons
Go through all of the lessons (the black boxes) on this page: https://www.figma.com/resources/learn-design/ Be sure to click “See 6 more” to view all lessons. The lessons are brief reads on various design topics.
Design exercises
At the bottom of that same page https://www.figma.com/resources/learn-design/, there are five design exercises. Click into each one and read the additional information. You don’t need to fully complete any exercise except for the fifth one, “Design your CV.” I also recommend exercise three as a way to practice with a tech interface.
On each exercise page, you can click the name of the Figma file (below the black box area) and it will open that file in Figma for you to edit. Make sure you are signed in. An example screenshot is below.
On the fifth exercise, relate everything back to MVP principles. What is a minimum feature set you need to have a resume? Can you incorporate any feedback you got on your old resume (validated learning) to iterate on your new resume? Tailor your new resume for your current or future company’s “job to be done.”
When you are finished, export from Figma as a PDF.
Your resume MVP does not need to be a complete resume or something that is very well designed, nor do you need to include every design principle. Good design takes a long time to master and do well and remember that we are going for a first iteration of a product. What’s important is that you go through the process of rapidly iterating on a product.
Deliverables
You will be submitting three deliverables on iLearn, all in the same assignment submission as attached files (not a text submission).
- Attach your current resume as a PDF. The content and formatting are not important; this is simply to compare to your new resume.
- Attach your new resume MVP as a PDF.
- Attach a third document (as a PDF) of three paragraphs maximum where you address the following questions:
a. What aspects of your old resume did you “fire?”
b. The most boring features are the most important. What are the boring features in the new MVP?
c. Which design principles (from the Figma page) did you incorporate into the new MVP?
