“Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.”
Steve Jobs
Who is Alex?
As a human-centered designer, I’m passionate about accessible, ethical, and inclusive solutions.
I received my BA in Visual Communication with a minor in Digital Media Art at Seattle Pacific University where I served as a SPU AIGA board member for every year that I attended.
I will be receiving my M.S. in Human-Computer Interaction from DePaul University in the near future.
At DePaul, I founded the Veterans HOPE Project, a human-centered design and research project that educates nurses about veteran suicide prevention and mental health treatment. I currently run that project with my partners from the School of Nursing.
Outside of my work, my interests include boxing, chess, cycling, cooking, environmentalism, music, and video games. You can find a wide-variety of genres and artists on my Spotify playlist such as the Beatles, Lorde, Jay-Z, Linkin Park, Rise Against, Green Day, the Beastie Boys, Kid Cudi, and Rihanna.
Born in Saigon, Vietnam and raised in the Seattle suburb of Lynnwood, I knew that design was something that I was passionate about from an early age. As a teen, I was drawn to creativity and technology. Knowing this, I enrolled in the graphic arts class on my first day of high school.
Where is Alex?
I like to say that I’m everywhere and anywhere all at once, at least in the cyberspace… but physically I’m based in Chicago, IL. I also frequently visit my home state of Washington.
How is Alex?
I’m doing great! Thank you for asking.
Why is Alex?
I got into design because Mike Shinoda (MC, guitarist, keyboard player for Linkin Park) was a graphic designer. Mike Shinoda was not only my favorite musician at the time, he was someone that I looked up to as a role model and Asian-American icon in genres that lack representation.
In high school, I came across an award-winning documentary by Berk Icel that educated me about an issue regarding gaming accessibility. The documentary highlighted Toby Ott, a gamer who has bilateral anophthalmia, a rare condition in which he was born without eyes. I had a hard time coming to terms with the fact that these games, which brought me so much joy, would be so inaccessible to many others. When I eventually learned the role that designers had in creating accessible technology, I felt a moral responsibility