A senior designer from Tencent tells his story: How did I grow in the past 8 years at Tencent?

I didn't plan to write this summary. I've been through some things recently, and I'm not feeling very comfortable. This may be the most uncomfortable experience in the past 8 years. Of course, I don't plan to talk about this in detail, so don't gossip. I want to use this summary to bring you some experience references. Maybe you are a college graduate or a confused designer who has worked for two or three years. I hope that reading this article will give you a little inspiration for your career or life.

Speaking of these 8 years ago, first allow me to briefly introduce how I came to Tencent.

8 years ago, I was a very ordinary UI designer, doing a very ordinary UI design job in a photo software company in Guangzhou (of course it is still very ordinary now). Because I had a good relationship with my superior, we communicated a lot and often expressed my aspirations to him. To be honest, one of my dreams at that time was to join a company like Tencent to do design (I believe it is the same mentality as many of my friends now). By chance, my supervisor said that he had a friend in Tencent and asked me if I wanted to have a try, and he could help me with an internal recommendation (I was very excited when I heard this), so I finished my portfolio in a few days, sent it to them, and waited for an interview opportunity.

After waiting for almost 2 weeks, I finally got a chance for an interview. I remember it was a weekend morning. Because the Internet was not so developed at that time, it was still a telephone interview. After passing the first round, I took a bus from Guangzhou to here for an on-site interview. At that time, my on-site interviewer was our current department head, Master. The whole process was relatively smooth (there was a small episode at that time because I spoke a little loudly, and Master reminded me to speak softly). This time the interview was also with the HR. After the interview, I returned to Guangzhou to wait for notification. About a month later, the offer came down.

I want to tell everyone from this experience: Opportunities are not reserved for those who are prepared, but for those who are ready. If I was in a relaxed state and had no goals during that time, I might not have this situation.

The keywords I give to this stage are: hard work, seriousness, passion, and clear goals.

Before I knew it, it has been eight years since I joined Tencent. Back then, I never doubted myself at all. I just went for it and did it. But now I feel a little confused, as if many things are just right but not so good. This may be the perfect interpretation of the meaning of ordinary.

Next, I will talk about my experience in the past 8 years and the projects I have worked on at Tencent.

To be honest, when I saw the Tencent Building for the first time, I was shocked. I didn’t know that I could work in such an environment. The whole building belonged to our company. There was also a tea room (what, what is this), a mail center (wow, so awesome), and a company-specific parking lot (I had no idea about cars at that time). I was extremely excited. I believe that every young person who steps into Tencent will have the same feeling as me.

I divide these eight years into three stages. Each stage seems to be indispensable. There are hard-working stages and unhappy stages, but overall it is still OK, just very ordinary.

The first stage: relying on projects and continuous output

This stage is about 1-4 years after joining Tencent. There are too many things that need to be changed from a small company to a large company. It is not just the way of working, but the whole way of thinking, model, and dimension need to be greatly transformed. In the past, I was just doing design. After I came here, I heard the most: Why do you design this way? What is the value to users? What is the value of design? Where is the rationality? Only after the value increases can I thoroughly think about why I do this. After all, we are a company that relies on user value for everything. This kind of thinking is very reasonable. After a period of edification, I gradually became familiar with it (I usually integrate into the environment very quickly).

Back to the project, the first project I was responsible for was "QQ Space Touch Screen Edition". Now it seems that this project is not a particularly important project, because there was already a set of design specifications, so when I first took over, I followed the specifications more, but I needed to think more about how to make the overall consistency. I won't go into details during the period. After this project, I was successfully converted to a full-time employee and officially became a member of Tencent-ISUX.

About a year later, due to structural adjustments, our team was reorganized and started to be responsible for the design of QQ Space APP. I also had the opportunity to continue to try new projects. That stage was a difficult period (can I say it was a mess?) But it was also an opportunity. Everyone was very excited to do something different. With the encouragement of the leader (spiritual victory method), everyone worked hard and there were both good and bad feedback in the process.

I remember that at the beginning, my mentor Xiaobai was in charge of the overall visual control of the project, and I was more of an assistant. I worked on several contents: feed optimization, flower vines, and personal homepage. I remember that we changed many versions of our personal homepage at that time, but none of them were approved by the leaders. In the end, it seemed that we passed it with the help of the design of the visual team leader next door (because our team leader was interactive). I remember that TA (I won’t say who it was) said: "What are you doing?" And he said it in front of me. This was the first time I felt the cold shoulder, and I still dare not tell my leader (because I was not the kind of person who liked to talk behind people's backs before, and of course I am not now).

After this project was almost finished, my mentor left because of some personal arrangements, and the team gradually became busy. We went through several projects of varying sizes, including: QQ Space-Applewatch version, Space Live, Space Photo Album, etc. (I can’t think of more). Please bear with me for those that are not included.

The design of Apple Watch is quite interesting. This is one of the projects that I worked on side by side with Dandan (interaction) and Xinlei (animation). I still remember that the development at that time was really uncomfortable in terms of animation implementation. I couldn’t do anything and couldn’t realize it (it may be that there were really restrictions at that time). Finally, Xinlei and I thought of many ways and finally implemented it in the form of sequence frames. The whole project process should be about 2 months. During this period, the plan has been modified several times. Finally, a direction was determined, which was to use the sign-in function with the best data at that time, combined with the mobile phone and computer terminals for linkage.

Another project is Space Live, which is a visual design project that I completely independently promoted. I don’t know how many design drafts I made in the middle (it’s normal that the product keeps changing direction), and I probably changed about 7-8 versions before I finally decided on the design plan. At that time, the overall direction of Space Live was based on the relationship chain of acquaintances. The overall design was lighter than some live broadcasts on the market, and more thought was given to some gameplay content, including some visual graphics for likes, voice interaction, video interaction, etc., which were of course not as mature as the current products on the market.

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One of the biggest things I did at the beginning was to promote the unification of multi-terminal live broadcasts (now I think it was not so necessary, but I did it anyway). The three ends were: Space live broadcast, Penguin FM live broadcast, and K song live broadcast. With the help of my leader's influence, I brought three different design teams together (it seemed that no one liked each other at the beginning, this is a joke, don't take it seriously). In the end, we came up with unified components and grid standards, and the overall UI style and design content were determined by their respective design teams.

After the live broadcast, I think there were some other projects, such as the topic circle in the space. This project was mainly similar to the type of celebrity ranking (which I guess couldn’t be done now), but due to resource issues, there was no real celebrity interaction, and it was more of a self-entertainment for fensi.

After working on some projects, I was mainly responsible for the Space Album project before leaving the Space team. Now it seems that this choice is not a particularly good one, because during the entire project, there were too many obstacles other than design. There were many obstacles in product promotion and development. Of course, it was also difficult to make highlights in design (maybe I was not capable enough). Looking back now, the entire project was a bit chaotic during the album stage, and it was a product-based product. There was not much room for design, and the overall UI was more of the basic UI of QQ itself. Some of the achievements gained from this project may be the progress in motion effects. Combined with some attempts in this project, I developed my own design capabilities for demos and motion effects, which I used more and more in some other subsequent projects.

The above is some of the content and summary of my first stage in Tencent. Although this stage was a process of exploration and experimentation, I also found my own positioning and direction of effort. Therefore, after the fourth year, after comprehensive consideration, I also switched to a new team to continue doing those unfinished ordinary things.

The keywords I give to this stage are: try, transition, and learn something.

The second stage: Finding a systematic design method

This stage is about the 4th to 6th year. After the first stage of basic ability polishing, I am more looking for a proposition in this stage: how to make the design more systematic. Although the previous design output has some merits, there has been no complete methodology for overall systematic thinking. Therefore, I also hope to find the answer to this question through this change and exposure to different design atmospheres.

The first project after joining the new team was the revision of QQ red envelopes. It coincided with the Spring Festival. The product side hoped to have some differentiated designs compared to the past visually, so it hoped to improve the overall brand. The time for the entire project was quite tight. The early stage was a stage of blind exploration, and a lot of abandoned drafts were made. The overall rhythm of the product side was very chaotic because there was no direction. But in the end, the complete plan was finalized before the Spring Festival. I still remember that I was still working on the design draft until more than 1 o'clock in the morning the day before the holiday.

Through this case, I want to tell everyone not to think that big companies will not be chaotic. When there is a new project, they just mess around without any direction, and then they find a direction as they go along. In addition, many product managers at Tencent have a strange common problem, which is that they start designing when the boss is not sure about the general direction, and finally get killed by the boss in the report. This practice is a complete waste of resources.

There is another situation where the direction is constantly changed from top to bottom. From the start of the project to its final implementation, it was changed three or four times. In the end, the project died one month after it went online. This is something I have experienced personally.

After the red envelope project, the entire team began to explore innovative projects. What is interesting in this case is that we can design from 0 to 1 and do a relatively complete project from a systematic perspective. My understanding of design systematization has also been relatively fully integrated at this stage.

During this period, I worked with my teammates on an innovative project:

SEENEW, the entire seenew project has undergone several changes in direction from project establishment to final implementation. At first, we wanted to create a trendy community, similar to Xiaohongshu, but after product discussions, we wanted to add social interaction, which led to the stranger matching gameplay... and finally evolved into a trendy community (similar to Dewu). My main feeling about this project is that we often only see the surface of things, because everyone has been talking about trends during this period, so we want to make a trendy product, but from product content to foundation, how to build the platform, and the penetration of gameplay, these do not seem to be so deeply thought about. This may be doomed to the uncertainty of whether the product can survive, and the product itself relies more on the design surface, hoping to get a hot spot through design.

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During this stage, we also tried some operational design for the QQ red envelope Spring Festival activities. My main job was to grasp the overall visual tone and rules, while other students in the group followed up on the operations and header images. The entire project was divided into three stages. The visual design of the three stages needed to have a consistent perception, and different gameplay was designed according to product needs at different stages.

During this phase, I was a bit confused. I did a lot of things, but none of them were implemented perfectly. In the process of trying some new projects, I was also challenged by many external forces on my design ability.

The keywords I give to this stage are: confusion, vacillation, and thinking.

The third stage: from determination to loss and then awakening

This stage is from the sixth year to now. This stage is the most stressful stage in my work so far, including family pressure. This family pressure does not come from money, but from illness.

In the past, I might have thought that this kind of TV drama plot would never happen to me, but it is a good interpretation of what art comes from reality. My family member got cancer. When I heard the news, it was not like a TV drama plot. I firmly asked my family to cooperate with the hospital's treatment, but after all, it was not me. My family was a little resistant at first, but they still stayed in the hospital at my request. The most difficult part was to communicate with the doctor about how to perform the operation, and then persuade my family to cooperate with the operation. It was really difficult to persuade and coax them together, but this was the only way to save lives.

Finally, after three days of communication with the hospital director, the date of the operation was confirmed. The operation took 7 hours and he needed to stay in the ICU for 2 days for observation. Any carelessness could cause serious problems. Due to his old age, he could only rely on his willpower. My brother and I stayed at the door of the ICU for 2 days and 2 nights, and finally came out and returned to the ward. The pain and powerlessness caused by the operation made the originally strong family members become extremely fragile, and they even wanted to jump on the bed. Several nurses and my brothers took a lot of effort to hold him down, and he slowly accepted it after calming down.

This experience made me feel that no matter how strong a person is, once their defenses are broken, they will become extremely fragile and even want to commit suicide, because only they can feel the pain of illness, and others can only advise you: It's okay, it will be fine. In addition, I am very grateful to the director and leader (Brother Niu and Brother Chao) for their help at the time, which allowed me to take care of my family wholeheartedly, which is why we can become friends.

Back to the work itself, I have been in charge of QQ Game Center during this stage. From the first revision I took over to now, it has undergone four or five optimizations. I have always played the role of the main designer. I started thinking about the overall brand tone from the first version. Now I have gradually faded some of my own ideas. It is a bit of a pity, but this may be the experience. I believe that QQ Game Center will get better and better.

When designing the first version, we brainstormed and discussed many times, and finally decided to design the worldview of "subspace", but the overall external performance will be reflected in the sense of technology, including some technological lines, corners, highlight gradients and other effects. What is interesting from the first version to the third version is that we had a lot of ideas about the interaction and animation design that we were playing with recently.

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The second major revision was a temporary optimization. Since the new boss did not approve of the previous design, we were forced to carry out a new design (this is very common in Tencent). After a round of plans, we finally determined the new plan. The concept and worldview this time were relatively vague, and could only be generally defined as a "colorful game universe." The color attempts were more colorful, and some top covers or background graphics were designed with 3D effects to express the concept of the universe. However, due to time constraints, the implementation was not as perfect as we imagined.

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The third revision also happened in the last few months. A lot of things happened during this period, but I don’t want to talk about it in detail. Maybe I will talk about it when I leave or when there is a 10-year anniversary. Anyway, we finally determined a direction and ended the short-term unstable state.

During this period, I also output several versions of the design plan, thinking from different angles, as follows:

In the past few years, the form has been relatively simple, and there has not been much breakthrough in business. The only thing that makes me feel relieved is that the public account I operate has reached tens of thousands of followers. However, due to the busy daily work, it is still difficult to make breakthrough progress. Perhaps my time arrangement is not reasonable enough. Because the original intention of preparing to write an account was to share some of my experience and professional knowledge, and I hope to publish more original articles, so the output is bound to be less than that. Although the output is not much, there are still some good articles that have received the attention of many friends, which is worth my effort.

In addition, I have also been updating my skills and learning 3D design. I started by following tutorials and made my first attempt - 3D icon design. Later, I tried to restore my old works and made 2D characters into 3D designs. I can be said to have taken the first step into the door of 3D. I need to continue to strengthen my abilities in this area in the future.

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There are also some character designs

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In addition to the game center business, I recently participated in the design of a QQ applet of a more operational nature - Spark Alliance. It was originally defined as a functional page, but during the process, the boss felt that the design here needed to be more operational, so one week before the launch, everything was torn down and rebuilt, and two new plans were given. The new version has been developed and released. This is also one of the few operational pages I have currently.

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There are some other daily work design drafts

King's Square: Interactive Mode

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King's Camp

Game center themed operation: promote new designs around new games or major game versions

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The keywords I give to this stage are: perseverance and the starting point for a new start.

The above is a brief summary of the past eight years. I would like to share with you some of my thoughts on the process based on my own project track. Eight years is not a long time, and many people have undergone qualitative changes. Some have become directors or leaders, but my pace seems to have slowed down, and my achievements are not as great as I imagined.

Some honors I have received in Tencent in the past 8 years

But what makes me feel gratified is that I still maintain my true love for design. I still love design. This is probably why design has become what I have decided to do for the rest of my life. Even though the current situation is bumpy, the future still seems promising.

I changed four years ago, and I am pursuing change again four years later. I don’t have much time left in the current team. I hope to have a different qualitative change in the new team. I believe that my accumulation will impress everyone I come into contact with. Goodbye, I am still that DD.