Summer UI/UX Site Experience Intern
About Boater Group
Boater Group is the parent company behind BoaterUSA and Curacations—two startups building modern platforms in industries that are still dominated by outdated websites, scattered information, and clunky user experiences.
BoaterUSA is modernizing the marine industry with a cleaner, faster platform that brings together boat research, ownership information, listings, member benefits, and experience-driven water-based travel in one place.
Curacations is building a modern travel platform focused on experience-driven trip planning and discovery, making it easier to find adventures, plan itineraries, and book the right mix of experiences and stays.
This internship is part of the Boater Group product team. Depending on your skill set, platform experience, and interests, you may work on BoaterUSA, Curacations, or a mix of both—with your work directly impacting engagement, clarity, and conversion as we grow.
Role Overview
We’re looking for a UI/UX & Site Experience Intern to help improve how our platforms look, flow, and function across key pages. You’ll work on page layouts, navigation, on-page hierarchy, and mobile responsiveness—turning “good enough” pages into polished, easy-to-use experiences.
This is a hands-on role where you’ll make real improvements to live startup websites, with the chance to contribute to both a modern marine platform (BoaterUSA) and an experience-driven travel platform (Curacations).
What You’ll Do
- Improve layouts for key site pages (home, category hubs, article templates, directory pages, landing pages)
- Refine navigation and site structure (menus, internal linking, page hierarchy, breadcrumbs)
- Create simple wireframes or mockups for new pages/sections and iterate based on feedback
- Ensure designs are mobile-friendly, consistent, and easy to scan (typography, spacing, section hierarchy)
- Collaborate with the team to align UI/UX decisions with content strategy, SEO, and user behavior
Tools/Skills (Not All Required)
Because Boater Group operates two different platforms, your day-to-day tools may depend on which product you’re working on:
Curacations
- Strong comfort building UI in React and Next.js
- Ability to implement UX improvements in a real codebase (components, routing, state, forms, responsiveness)
- Familiarity with modern web styling (CSS, Tailwind, component libraries, or similar)
- Working knowledge of backend integration patterns (fetching data, APIs, auth) and comfort with Supabase/PostgresSQL or similar
BoaterUSA (WordPress-based — secondary need):
- Ability to implement UI/UX improvements in WordPress (themes/templates, blocks/page builder, and/or custom HTML/CSS)
- Nice-to-have: basic PHP/WordPress theme familiarity, but not required if you can build clean front-end updates and layouts
Across both platforms:
- Strong UI/UX fundamentals (hierarchy, spacing, typography, mobile-first responsiveness)
- Comfort translating mockups into production-ready UI (from Figma or written requirements)
- Good debugging habits and attention to detail (cross-browser, layout edge cases)
- Familiarity with Git/GitHub is a plus
What We’re Looking For
- Strong eye for layout and hierarchy: You understand how to make pages easy to scan with clean spacing, readable typography, clear section structure, and intuitive CTAs.
- Organized and dependable: You can manage tasks, hit deadlines, and keep projects moving without needing constant oversight.
- Comfortable with feedback and iteration: You take direction well, make revisions quickly, and enjoy refining designs until they feel polished.
- Genuine interest in UI/UX and digital product work: You’re curious about how design affects user behavior, engagement, and conversion.
- Clear communication & documentation: You can explain your design decisions, share progress updates, and document changes so the work is easy to maintain and build on.
What You’ll Gain
- Portfolio-worthy work: You’ll ship real improvements to a live site, complete with before/after examples, reusable sections, and polished page layouts you can confidently showcase.
- Visible impact in a startup environment: Your design decisions won’t sit in a folder. They’ll directly influence user engagement, SEO performance, and conversions as BoaterUSA grows.
- Real-world UI/UX reps: Learn how modern content platforms and marketplaces structure pages for clarity, scanability, and navigation, so users find what they need fast.
- Experience in a dynamic setting: Weekly check-ins, clear priorities, and feedback that helps you improve quickly and understand the “why” behind changes.
- Cross-functional experience: Work alongside content and product efforts to ship updates that users actually see.
Website URLs: https://boaterusa.com