Design Systems & Brand Experience

I joined Porsche Car North America as their first Interaction Design intern—a unique position on a two-person UX team responsible for dealer tools across the United States. Working under Diane DeSeta, Director of User Experience Strategy & Creative, I collaborated with designers at the Germany headquarters while supporting nationwide dealer experiences.

As the first intern of my kind, I faced the challenge of establishing foundational resources that didn't yet exist. There was no design system library for UX work (separate from marketing), no standardized process for dealer brand compliance, and limited documentation for future interns.

My role required me to: - Build reusable design assets from scratch using Porsche's brand guidelines - Ensure brand consistency across 93 independent dealer websites - Collaborate across time zones with Porsche AG in Germany - Create documentation and systems that would outlast my internship

The work I delivered continues to serve as a foundation for Porsche's UX team and future interns four years later.

Mentorship & Learning: Working directly under Diane DeSeta, I learned how to operate within a large, established organization while maintaining design excellence. Her guidance helped me understand the balance between creative exploration and brand consistency.

International Teamwork: Collaborated regularly with Interaction and UX Designers at Porsche AG in Germany, navigating time zone differences and cultural approaches to design. This experience taught me the importance of clear documentation and asynchronous communication.

Stakeholder Management: Led design reviews with Porsche Marketing teams and business stakeholders, learning to present work confidently and incorporate feedback while advocating for user needs and design principles.

Building for the Future: As the first intern, I took responsibility for creating resources that would serve future interns. This required thinking beyond my immediate work to consider long-term organizational needs and knowledge transfer.

Third-Party Collaboration: Partnered with external vendor Movable Ink to explore interactive email capabilities, learning how to work with technical partners to push platform boundaries while maintaining feasibility.

Systems Thinking: This internship taught me to think in systems rather than isolated deliverables. Building the design library required understanding how components would be reused, maintained, and extended by people I'd never meet.

Brand as Foundation: Working with Porsche's rigorous brand guidelines showed me how strong brand systems enable creativity within constraints. The guidelines weren't limitations—they were tools for maintaining consistency at scale.

Legacy Building: Being "first" meant everything I created would influence future interns. This taught me to prioritize documentation, organization, and long-term usability over quick solutions. Four years later, knowing these assets are still in use validates that approach.

Scale & Complexity: Auditing 93 dealer websites revealed the complexity of maintaining brand consistency across distributed, semi-autonomous locations. This foreshadowed similar challenges I'd face at User Interviews with enterprise teams.

Cross-Functional Communication: Collaborating across continents, departments, and vendors required clear communication and cultural sensitivity. I learned to adapt my communication style for different audiences—from technical designers in Germany to marketing stakeholders in the US.

Foundation for Growth: This internship established my foundation in design systems, brand consistency, and large-organization collaboration. These skills proved essential in my later senior-level work, where I regularly design scalable systems for enterprise teams.

What I'd Do Differently: In hindsight, I would have pushed for more direct customer/dealer interviews to understand how brand guidelines impacted their daily work. More qualitative insight would have strengthened the audit findings and recommendations.