I came to design by way of stories.
Before product design, I worked with words, in journalism, advertising, and content marketing. Across those experiences, I kept coming back to the people behind the story: what matters to them, what gets overlooked, and what makes them feel understood.
Over time, software became another medium for that curiosity. A product can carry more than content or functionality. It can carry care, in the language it uses, the choices it leaves open, and the way it helps someone through an unfamiliar moment.
That’s the kind of work I want to make: useful in everyday life, and thoughtful about the person living it.
In 1935, Shi Jianqiao shot and killed the warlord Sun Chuanfang in a Tianjin Buddhist temple to avenge her father's murder.
A historical study built around a handful of legal cases, this book examines how the Qing state regulated sexuality. especially among marginalized people, in order to uphold a particular vision of the “normal” household.
A series of compelling personal stories of 5 individuals navigating the internet boom in China under a strict authoritarian system.
Underneath, it's a brutal commentary on who gets to tell queer stories, the publishing industry's obsession with trauma, and the ethics of turning real lives into entertainment.
On the surface, it's a darkly satirical thriller about a desperate author willing to exploit someone else's pain for success.
Having spent much of my early life in a digital landscape where many Western apps were inaccessible, I found its stories unexpectedly resonant, echoing the ingenuity of dancers finding their way through today’s censored digital world.
Lean in this book explores how public passions was used by Shi to weave her own narrative in the mass media and turn her act of filial revenge into a public spectacle, generating massive popular support that ultimately led to her pardon
My earliest memory of that feeling is a silver iPod Shuffle my dad gave me in sixth grade, loaded with Faye Wong songs. It was tiny, impossibly sleek, and deeply considered. I do not remember it for being “frictionless,” intelligent, or AI feature-rich. I just remember how it felt, present enough to disappear in the moment, yet memorable enough to stay with me years later.
That is still the kind of work I want to make: useful, yes, but also human enough to leave a trace.
Design is clear thinking made visible. Bob Baxley's 35 years of product wisdom keeps my concepts honest before the pixels get pretty.
Clarity is something you wring out of chaos, not something you're handed. (thanks, Sarah Paine)
Sinica on the Murder House case: what a "decent" Silicon Valley life really costs, and how much we're worth in the race toward AI.
British post-punk bones with a Chinese soul flowing right through the drum line. Made in the 2000s.