My name is Joyce. I’m a UX/UI designer living in Vancouver, Canada. If you would like to know more about me, here are a few bits about my life.
Before learning to read and write in school, the 6 year old me discovered the activity of water calligraphy. On many hot summer days, with a calligraphy brush in hand, I copied characters after characters from Chinese script books onto stone tiles using water as the ink. I sat and waited for the tiles to dry and the characters to evaporate - a queue to start writing again. I knew little of the scripts but the act of imitating strokes and watching them morph away created a fun lasting memory. My mom noticed this little hobby of mine and found me a great calligraphy teacher. It was with him that I started my over ten year journey in calligraphy and developed an appreciation for the beauty of type.
I went on to college to study engineering and later business in grad school. I hadn’t thought at the time that a career in visual arts could be a possibility for me. Yet whenever opportunities arose to produce visual outcomes, I always treasured and enjoyed the moments I spent tweaking layouts, designing charts, and experimenting with type and color until my presentations were both visually pleasing and communicative.
After I began working in a venture capital firm, I was given the opportunity on a case to work with design and video production companies. I enjoyed working with designers and media artists and it was then that I first began wishing to become a designer myself one day. In my spare time, I started to take graphic design courses on Coursera and also began to sketch out app ideas that I thought could help me solve complicated tasks in my life.
One of my sketches, an app that helps me practice chords on the piano, even became reality, after my best friend helped to implement it for me. I use the app every day during my piano practice and have come to realize the impact that practicing design can have on my life. That’s when I decided to take design more seriously.
In 2018, I enrolled in an online program to learn UI/UX design. I found that my engineering and business background helped think critically about problems which is vital as a designer. I had a wonderful mentor, whom I admire, who taught me to diligently follow design rules, but also taught me to break the rules when warranted. He taught me to learn from others, but also taught me to take out my own creative ideas in a systematic way. I learned to be a responsible designer and was inspired to explore more on the design journey. I am eternally grateful for all I’ve learned with him.
As a young designer, I still have much to learn. Meanwhile, I feel delighted to finally be empowered to work where my passion lies. I’ve begun to contribute to my own communities with my newfound tools of design. I want to continue to create meaningful digital experiences for them as well as myself.