Hi there! This is Michelle wavin' at you from the Pacific Northwest🌊
An Interaction Designer & Digital Art Enthusiast made in a rainy mid-summer's Beijing; Exported to England and New York City; Currently settled in Vancouver, BC as her natural habitat🍃
Hey there 👋
I started my design career when I was 19. Over the years, I found myself obsessed with product innovation over stability, which leads me to choose to work with fast-growing startups I believe in rather than staying at big techs. Currently I'm designing at JobGet, with the mission to help people who live from one paycheck to another get a job easier and quicker.
Some random fun facts ✍️
💻 Got into a BFA program by accident. Engineering was actually my first choice (as I was a science major in high school).
🎞️ Studied Film Critique in the UK for a while, where we watch Casablanca 20 times and mimic the style from The Guardian.
🎒 Been to 15+ countries and lived in 4 countries (China, UK, US, Canada) and counting :)
But wait, let me tell you a bit more...
Why design & What motivates me as a designer?
Make complex technology approachable & accessible to everyone.
Make complex technology approachable & accessible to everyone.
This comes from my experience as a “slow kid” who always only got to sit aside to watch my Engineer mom assemble a PC or fix something — technology was scary and complex for me that I couldn’t imagine getting into it. Let’s admit it — technology was exclusive to the “smart ones”.
However, with the aid of design, I’m surprised by the elegant solutions that can make technologies more approachable — google cardboard makes VR no longer a fantasy to people who can’t afford a headset; Canva made it possible for the non-designers to create beautiful graphics; The no-code tools make it possible for people who are not from an engineering background can also set foot in the tech industry making their ideas to life; Daniel Shiffman’s coding tutorial can help artists and people without engineering background like me bring the projects inside of our heads to reality — technology is no longer an exclusive tool to the elites, good design can bring it to everyone.
This mission also guided me to companies working on consumer products serving underserved communities, willing to invest in accessibility, and the contrary elitist mindset throughout these years.