Team
Product Design Team
Role
UX Design Intern
Duration
Jun. – Aug. 2026
Tools/Skills
Figma, UserZoom, Codex
OVERVIEW
During my 10-week internship, I transformed Rent-A-Center’s traditional store-finding experience into a digital storefront experience designed to better support customers throughout their shopping journey. The project focused on replacing a third-party solution with an in-house experience that better supports customer needs while creating long-term business value.
Throughout the project, I also explored how AI could enhance the design workflow. I experimented with AI tools to accelerate prototyping, improve design iterations, and create more efficient collaboration workflows between design and engineering.
Due to NDA restrictions, I’m unable to share the final solution, but the experience gave me the opportunity to work on a large-scale product with meaningful customer and business impact.
THE IMPACT
Although the project is under NDA, here are a few highlights from the internship.
$1M+ Saving
Annually by bringing the experience in-house
1,800+ Stores
Supported through a scalable digital storefront framework
100+ Screens
High-fidelity designs across desktop and mobile
20+ Participants
Across 2 rounds of usability testing with interactive prototypes on UserZoom
REFLECTIONS
A few things I'm taking with me
AI can become a powerful design partner
With the rapid growth of AI tools, I actively explored how AI could support different parts of the design process. I found valuable use cases in creating realistic prototypes, accelerating engineering collaboration, and improving workflows like SEO audits.
Design is advocacy for every stakeholder
Even within business, engineering, and timeline constraints, a designer's job is to think about all stakeholders — especially users — and use design to find the balance that serves everyone best.
Design for the vision, not just the first release
Throughout this project, there were moments where the ideal experience required more engineering effort or scope than the first release could support. One of my biggest lessons was learning that constraints do not mean compromising the vision.
Instead, I learned to think in roadmaps — breaking down ambitious ideas into meaningful phases that continue moving toward the long-term product vision.
PHOTO GALLERY
Meeting awesome people
A huge thank you to my manager Michael, my mentor Tanuj, the entire Product Design team, and everyone I met throughout this internship for making this summer so amazing!
Photo with Executive Leadership on Presentation Day
Final Presentation to Executive Leadership
Intern Group Photo
Team Happy Hour