Takeaways from Nadienka Cisternas, Senior Experience Designer at Ogilvy

Nadienka Cisternas graduated from MSU Denver in fall 2017 with a degree in communication design. After taking an introductory web design course, she developed a passion for UI/UX and knew that was the path she’d want to follow. She applied to 30 different places, and heard back from two, one of them being Fossil. She worked in-house for a while but ended up getting hired at Ogilvy. They are a UI/UX agency located in Colorado.

She talked about the pros and cons of working at an agency. Cisternas said it offered her more flexibility within her schedule and allowed her to meet new people from around the world. On the other hand, one of the challenges she faces is the different working methods of people that their clients bring on. She said there have been miscommunications, or that she’s been left to correct their work. But she also pointed out that those bad experiences with clients don’t last forever, you only have to work with them for the duration of the contract, then they just hand off the brand and collateral. Ogilvy mostly sticks to a consistent schedule and pay, and Cisternas says that they are respectful of her limitations as a designer. They have bi-weekly check-ins with their staff to get an update on their progress and see how they feel about getting it completed by the deadline. For the most part, she hasn't pulled any all-nighters, but there have been a couple of times where she said she had to break out some wine and crackdown. She says that Ogivly tries to hire like-minded people, so their team gets along really well and they don’t have any issues internally. It's a fast-paced environment, but she said it's exciting to see the long-lasting mark it leaves after you finish. Cisternas said that working at an agency after graduating is ideal because you can get a lot of experience packed into a short amount of time.

One of the projects she presented was for Abiomed, a company that sells medical devices globally. They had to design different websites to cater to the unique cultures of each online store. Cisternas and her team created modules to send off with the final site which allows the client to add new content while sticking within the brand guidelines. Their process starts with research. This is her favorite step because she loves to learn new things. They try to pinpoint what their current branding system is lacking and take into consideration what their audience needs. They provide visual aids through mood boards. When the proposal is accepted, they go through multiple rounds of revisions, then a usability test. Then the website is ready to be sent off to the client.

While UI/UX is not my strong suit, her talk was still easy to relate to Cisternas's presentation. I'm interested in working at an agency that's geared towards branding or video, but I think the general structure of agencies tends to stay consistent no matter where you work. It's just the body of work and people that make them different.