About me: The "How" to my "Why"

Psychology Research > Tech Recruiting > Product Design

During my formative years, I had the fortune of being immersed in 3 different cultures — Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Canada. This spawned a fascination with how the environment influences human behavior and our thinking processes, which spiralled into my pursuit of a specialist degree in Psychology at the University of Toronto.

While studying social and cognitive aspects of human psychology, I became even more interested in “why” and followed my budding, inquisitive mind to be a research assistant at the Mind and Body Lab. Under Dr. Spike Lee’s tutelage, I learned how to conduct good research, but I was eager to apply that knowledge towards some sort of creative outlet. This is where I first sought out UX.

The course CSC318 The Design of Interactive Computational Media at the University of Toronto allowed me to engage in the full design process and taught me the fundamentals of the how’s and why’s of user experience. My group even won Best Presentation by the end of the course! See the case study here. I was enamored by how UX lets me dig into my understanding of users, how I could combine art and logic, and how the field is driven by active problem solving.

Then, I was a tech recruiter for 2 years, where I worked with small to large startups to scale their engineering and product teams. I gained business knowledge about tech orgs, which solidified my interest in roles that involve product decisions, aka a Product Designer. In combination with my cultural insight and deep understanding of human behavior, this experience fuels my passion for creating human-centered designs to address the complexities of human interaction.

There's still so much for me to learn as a Product Designer, and I'm excited to continue exploring the growing field of UX!