Welcome!
Hi there!👋
I'm Eric Yang, a UX/UI/Product Designer, currently attending UMD's HCI Masters program. One of my principle concerns is diversifying my abilities as a designer, whether it be being able to personally translate my Figma mockups to working React components, to integrating marketing goals into my design process, my goal is to be as cross-functional as I can with engineering, marketing, and business strategy when tackling design tasks.

        I design under the assumption that a user's first impression is make-or-break, thus I strive for designs that are both visually unique and enjoyable to use to capture both attention and engagement.

        What led me here
was a mixture of my background in digital art and graphic design, coupled together with my academic focus on psychology and cognitive science which combine to inform and guide my user-centered thinking and visual design work.

Education
August, 2023 - Present
M.S. Human Computer Interaction, University of Maryland College Park
September 2018 - 2023
B.A. Cognitive Systems, University of British Columbia
February 2021
Responsive Web Design Certification, Freecodecamp
July 2022 - August 2022
Google UX Design Certification, Coursera
Work Experience
September 2022 — August 2023
UX/UI Designer, CIAAN Security, Vancouver
Delivered user-research-based product designs of CIAAN’s SCAS(Security Controls & Assessment System) cybersecurity risk management platform, which has been awarded a licensing and development contract from T-Mobile amongst multiple bids from competing software vendors.  
• Producing designs to help the entire product team understand the desired user experience: sketches, storyboards, wireframes, visual mockups and prototypes based on user-centered principles and research.
• Conducting user research using qualitative methods such as interviews, surveys, and observational user testing to inform and iterate on product designs.
• Collaborating and discussing prototyping outcomes with product managers and developers to ensure high quality implementation and technical feasibility of designs
• Creating production-ready, interactive user interface/product mockups using Figma.
January 2022 — September 2022
Graphic Designer, UBC Esports Association, Vancouver
• Coordinating with various internal departments to design graphics for events and advertising campaigns.
• Designing print-ready merchandise designs and mock-ups(Shirts, Jersies, Hoodies, etc) using Illustrator, Photoshop, and Indesign.
• Vectorizing pre-existing asset libraries and defining design guidelines
September 2018 - 2022 (intermittent; usually during summers)
Freelance Graphic Designer, Calgary / Vancouver
Worked individual clients to design various branding, merchandise, and marketing graphics such as social media posts, website banners, stream overlays, and logos.
Coding
• Proficiency in HTML and CSS
• Familiar with Javascript
        • Translating Figma mockups into React-based UI components
        • Implementing and customizing components from UI libraries such as Next-UI or Prime React to realize mockup designs
        • Exposure to full-stack development using Next.JS and MongoDB
Tool Familiarities
Figma
Proficient
• Creating interactive UI & product mockups
• Creating and using design systems
• Creating prototype wireframes & user flows
Adobe XD
Familiar
• Creating interactive UI & product mockups
• Creating and using design systems
• Creating prototype wireframes & user flows
Adobe Photoshop
Proficient
• Photo-manipulation
• Compositing 3D render passes from Keyshot to create concept art
• Creating and using graphic templates
• Non-vector-reliant graphic design
Adobe Illustrator
Proficient
• Vector-reliant graphic design
• Creating bespoke vector UI elements
• Vectorizing raster graphics for scalability & web-use
• Creating CYMK, print-ready merchandise designs

Webflow
Familiar
• This personal portfolio website!
• Prototyping Figma designs (sort-of a sanity check to ensure mockups are feasible and performant)
Clip Studio Paint
Proficient
• Digital painting & sketching
• Touching up non-vector reliant graphics & photos
Adobe Indesign
Familiar
• Creating lookbooks to present large amounts of designs
Adobe After Effects
Familiar
• Video editing
zBrush
Beginner
• Sculpting out 3D scenes for concept art
Keyshot Renderer
Beginner
• Taking zBrush scenes and exporting various render passes for compositing concept art in Photoshop
Hobbies
• 📷 Photography & photo-manipulation
• 🎨 Digital concept art & graphic design
• 🎮 Video games