I'm Jesse, an interaction designer from Irvine, California.

About Jesse

Home is Cali (kal-lee)

Specifically, I'm from SoCal (so-kal) but before that I was born and raised in Taipei. Since I spent most of my childhood there, I can read and speak chinese fluently. 我會講中文!

foo bar baz

I have a B.S in Information & Computer Science. First programming language I knew about was BASIC back in elementary school. First program I wrote was in Pascal back in high school.

I enjoy...

Riding my Brompton, playing with Waffles, cappuccinos, ramen, snowboarding, the Clippers, Fruit Ninja, and reading. Check out what I'm reading and what's on my bookshelf.

career timeline

How did I get into Design...

My first job out of college was a web application developer doing data analytics. Since then I worked as a consultant for a global firm. My consulting experience changed the way I saw development and the importance of Design.

A perfectly engineered product can still fail. I was convinced that interaction design is the answer to making better products. Once I realized that, I started reading a lot of books. As a result of that I started noticing interaction design everywhere.

I then worked for a digital design and development consultancy as an UX Integrator. I worked on numerous projects across platforms and enjoyed the ride. However, I decided to attend grad school to learn how to make a killer product.

My Resume

I'm currently pursuing a Masters of Design in Interaction Design at Carnegie Mellon University. I am available for full-time employment starting summer of 2012.

Download resume
EDUCATION
CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Master of Design Interaction Design, Expected May, 2012
Completing thesis in designing note-taking for meaningful learning.

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA IRVINE Irvine, California
Bachelor of Science Information & Computer Science 2003
Specialization in Software Systems and Network & Distributed Systems
EXPERIENCE
YOUTUBE San Bruno, California
User Experience Design Intern | June 2011 – August 2011
• Designed high fidelity user interfaces, workflows, and prototypes for envisioning the future Video Editor.
• Designed user interfaces for YouTube video enhance and titles feature to Video Editor.
• Aligned product team by establishing the target user and core scenarios of use.

IDENTITYMINE North Hollywood, California
User Experience Integrator | September 2008 – June 2010
• Developed highly polished user interfaces as a facilitator between the visual design team and development team.
• Developed applications on various form factors such as web, kiosk, Microsoft Surface, desktop, and mobile.
• Consulted clients including Nero AG, Microsoft, SolidWorks, Seesmic.

AVANADE West Region
Senior Consultant | July 2005 – September 2008
• Consulted with Fortune 500 companies in various industries as a certified Microsoft technologist.
• Developed and executed a comprehensive recruiting strategy as the UC Irvine lead.
• Led development team in Philippines to deliver production-ready software for a national healthcare program in a three-week timeframe.

PHILIPS MEDICAL SYSTEMS Irvine, California
Software Engineer | November 2003 – July 2005
• Enabled supply chain visibility through the development of a digital dashboard providing business metrics and analytics for global sales and service regions.
ACTIVITIES
University of California Irvine, Computer Science Alumni Chapter
Director, Engage/Website | October 2006 – June 2010
Irvine, California

University High School
Assistant Freshmen Basketball Coach
June 2006 – September 2006
Irvine, California

University of California Irvine Alumni Association
Volunteers Relations Committee Member | August 2009 – June 2010
Irvine, California
METHODS
Bodystorming
Cultural Probes
Directed Storytelling
Experience Prototyping
Participatory Design
Persona & Scenario Development
Rapid Prototyping
Speed-dating (Needs Validation)
Surveys
TECHNOLOGIES
ActionScript
Arduino
C#
Flex
HTML/CSS
Javascript
Processing
SQL Server
WPF/Silverlight
TOOLS
Adobe After Effects
Adobe InDesign
Adobe Catalyst
Adobe Fireworks
Adobe Flash
Adobe Edge
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Photoshop
Balsamiq
Keynote
Microsoft Expression Blend
Microsoft Expression SketchFlow
OmniGraffle
paper sketching
LANGUAGES
Fluent in Mandarin and English