Becoming a designer was a tough journey

No one believed that I could succeed as a designer when I was starting out.

I grew up in a family where my parents believed that studying engineering or medicine was the key to success. I did earn a degree in Computer Science and Data Science, but soon realized that my true passion was in designing better products that could improve people's lives.

I started my journey as a designer through self-education and taking on freelance projects while working part-time. Over time, I found my place as a designer in multiple companies, including designing a singing app that collaborates with Warner Bros and Universal Studio, an AI-driven diabetes management app, a WebRTC online streaming tool,

where I played a key role in launching their products from scratch, including FoodyLife (2018), Organ.AI (2019), AiBetic (2020), VdoTok (2021), and PipeRider (2022).

To me, design is a small magic that makes people's life a lot better, and I am here to work as a designer as I am committed to unlocking this magic for others.

I believe that great design is a result of collaboration and experimentation. Thus, one of my design superpowers is to run workshops like Design Sprints to increase collaboration between different teams and leverage my experience in Data Science to analyze data and make data-informed design decisions.

Currently working at Lokalise as Senior Product Designer, responsible for Growth and Collaboration.

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Work Experience

2022.04 - Present | Remote | Full-time

Senior Product Designer @ Lokalise

Led design for developer & integration experiences. Contributed to design system and DesignOps practices. Currently leading design for growth and collaboration experience.

2021.04 - 2022.04 | Remote | Full-time

Product Designer @ InfuseAI

As the first Product Designer, I established the company's design system and design culture. Led the team in designing and launching a new product through user research and collaboration with cross-functional teams.

2020.10 - 2021.04 | Remote | Contractor

Founding Product Designer @ VdoTok

Led design and research for a full enterprise-facing SaaS WebRTC API platform, facilitated design thinking workshops, and developed design guidelines as a Product Designer.

2019.09 - 2021.04 | Stockholm, Sweden | Full-time

Lead UX Design Engineer @ RISE

At RISE, I led UX design and development, driving a 40% increase in app learnability and a 65% surge in usability through user-centric research and testing.

2017.06 - 2019.06 | Taipei, Taiwan (Remote) | Contractor

Product Designer & Data Researcher @ Junyi Academy

At Junyi Academy, I designed user-centric features for an e-learning platform and conducted machine learning research to predict user behavior.

2017 - Present | Netherlands, Taiwan, Sweden, Vietnam, UK

Freelance Full-stack Designer & Developer

Led product design, strategies and development for 10+ startups and NGOs across Europe and Asia. Main works involved developing conducting user research, creating design systems, designing, and implementing data tracking mechanisms. Some notable projects:

AiBetic (6-month) — Enhanced the design of an iOS app for an AI platform for diabetes patients, conducting user research to inform design decisions.

Singalong (8-month) — Served as the first designer for a singing app targeting teenagers, collaborating with major labels such as Warner Records, Sony Music, and Universal Music Group. Conducted user research and a redesign that boosted the SUS score from 52.7 to 82.5.

Some other organizations that I worked for: Amnesty International, Microsoft, Better Life Vietnam, Junyi Academy, AiBetic, ModernLeaders.

Some organizations I worked with:

Education

KTH Royal Institute of Sweden

MS Human Computer Interaction & Design

Minor in Entrepreneurship & Innovation

University of Twente

MS Interactive Technology

Minor in Entrepreneurship & Innovation

Queen Mary University of London

BS Computer Science

Specialization in Data Science / Interaction Design

What I enjoy outside of work

Writing articles on the weekend

I write weekly articles reflecting on my day-to-day design work, as committed to my mentor, Andy Budd. You can find some of my best articles through the links below.

English Articles

Mandarin Articles

Hosting design events

I run two communities for designers in my free time. One is a community of Taiwanese designers where we've organized over 100 events and connected over 300 designers through our mentorship program. The other is a workshop facilitator community on Butter, offering a range of workshop tips on design and facilitation.

UX East meets west

Butter Community

Creating and designing apps

I'm an indie developer who has created multiple successful apps, including one that secured funding. My apps have been downloaded over 100k times with 10k daily active users.

OpenDesign Taiwan

MoodQuotes

Foodylife

Organ.AI

Observing the world with camera

I have been passionate about photography for over 10 years, using it as a way to observe and capture moments. I particularly enjoy using film cameras, with my favorites being the Leica M6 and Mamiya 6.

Leica M6

Mamiya 6

Flickr

Some achievements

Talks / Articles
- Guest speaker at NN/g Podcast
- Write articles for UX Collective Weekly
- Write articles for Smashing Magazine
- ADPList Panel's speaker
- 10+ Conferences speaker
Awards/Certificate
2022 - Growth Design
2021 - Workshopper Master
2021 - Design Sprint Certificate
2021 - NN/g Certificate
2020 - KTH Innovation, Incubator program
2019 - EIT Best Entrepreneurship Idea Award
What I can bring to your team
I do not just #UI Design and #UX Design, but also

#Data-informed Design

#A/B Testing

#Growth Design

#Community-driven feedback loop

Good designers move things forward, so I do

#Design Sprints

#Workshops

#Pretotyping

You are hiring a designer, but I also do

#Website Development

#Machine Learning

#React/HTML/CSS/Python

#App Development

#Swift/Flutter

Interested in working with me?
Reach me out on LinkedinEmail me
Want to get mentored?
Schedule a call on ADPList

Grab some free workshop templates I made

Super Mirio Kart Icebreaker

The Super MIRiO Workshop not only enables the team to get energized before the workshop but also get to learn how to use Butter and Miro at the same time. The participants of the workshop will learn the basic control of Butter and Miro while playing with the elements on the board.

Ikigai Template - Career framework

The Ikigai Miro template is a visual tool with four intersecting circles representing what you love, what you are good at, what the world needs, and what you can be paid for. It helps individuals and teams identify their purpose in life.

Christmas Retrospective

I created a Christmas retrospective template for our team's holiday event to reflect on the previous year and identify areas for improvement and future goals, with a focus on our experiences during the holiday season.

Ben Shih.

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Made with ☕️ and 🐶 in 2023