I’m a...
Winter homebody, summer adventurer
Self-starter, forever student
Gamer, puzzler, problem-solver
I’ll let you in to a secret: I started my UX bootcamp completely misunderstanding what UX was. I had experience with visual design, and when I began the bootcamp I thought I’d just be making some pretty screens. I wondered what could be so difficult about it. Then I found out that it would involve research and actually talking to people (?!?) and I very quickly realised that my perception of UX was just wrong. Was it too late to turn back? Could I actually do it?
It turns out that the parts of UX that scared me are the parts that I most enjoy, and that the skills I need to do those things are actually the skills I’ve been practicing and perfecting during my whole career. Yes, I know my way around Figma, but what really sets me apart as a User Experience Designer is my ability to understand people. Coming from an education background, that’s exactly what I’ve always done.
As a UX Designer I aim to leave no one out of the equation. I aim to learn the needs of those who most depend on it, to never make assumptions, and to bring neurodiversity into the conversations around accessibility. I aim to hear every voice.
I’m someone who always wants to learn new skills, so in 2019 I embarked on the journey to teach myself graphic design from the ground up. I started out by tracing my friend's cute illustrations with the pen tool on Illustrator, and quickly experimented with my own colourful, geometric digital art, which you can see on my Dribbble profile. I then learned the fundamentals of graphic design, including typography, colour theory, Gestalt principles, and visual hierarchy, which I now apply to my user interfaces with ease.
Since 2020, I’ve taken on a number of successful freelance projects, with deliverables ranging from logos and business cards, to photo books and flyers, and packaging. My visual design skills and my experience dealing directly with stakeholders were invaluable when it came to transitioning to UX, and I'm glad that I had the ambition and drive to not only learn everything from scratch, but to create designs that go beyond what my clients expected. Five years ago I had no idea that something I decided to learn for fun would end up being the first stepping stone in my design career.
When I moved to Vietnam in 2016, I knew it was going to be the adventure of a lifetime so I invested in my first camera. From that point a fire in me started to burn and I completely fell in love with photography.
When I moved to Taiwan two years later, I wanted to challenge myself even more so I bought my first film camera and that initial fire turned into a raging inferno. With film photography, it’s not about snapping away and choosing the best photos out of hundreds: it’s about carefully crafting the shot. The excitement that comes when you look at that freshly developed roll of film after so much anticipation and patience is unequaled, and my memories of Taiwan are even more special because I documented those 3.5 years in the best way that I could have.
After I started photography, I realised that the way I moved around the world had changed – I looked at everything through a different lens, literally.
I've always been told that I have an eye for photography. I see compositions that others don't. This innate appreciation of what looks great in a frame translates so well to user interface design. My theoretical knowledge of photography plays into a lot of the visual design decisions I make, whether it's subconscious or not.
