About (E)MI
Hello! My name is Emily Lin (she/her), and I am a Product Designer with eggxtra background experiences in graphic design, motion graphics design, and illustrations. With all my experiences whisked together, I am able to ideate and create extraordinary solutions.
My design (creative) background…
When I was 5 years old (first grade), I was intrigued by a pretty lighthouse that a classmate of mine drew. The moment my mom picked me up from school, I immediately told her that I wanted to take drawing lessons. For 10 years, I was actively taking drawing or painting lessons, competing in every possible competition I had time for. I also loved taking school projects to the next level – whenever I had the opportunity to get crafty, I take it and everyone knew it too. Back in the day, art was just considered a hobby.
Similar to many second-generation Asians, I was encouraged to pursue the medical field, law, engineering, or business. After being accepted by UC Davis as an Economics major, I had this gut feeling that this wasn’t it. Honestly, I didn’t even know “design” existed or ever heard of “graphic design” let alone “product or UI/UX design.” My dad was the one who suggested graphic design since I had many years of drawing experience. I spent all summer during my freshman year taking as many classes as I physically could to catch up on design classes that I couldn’t get into during the school year. By my sophomore year, I was able to land my first graphic design job, and that’s where the ball started rolling.
I graduated from UC Davis in 2018 with a double major in Design (emphasis in graphic design) and Communication. Upon landing my first full-time role, I found that my day-to-day was not as fulfilling as I wished it to be. I felt like the work I was doing was not impactful or helpful to anyone. In late 2018, I took a leap from my comfort-zone in graphic design and self-taught into the UX Industry. Through hard work, long nights, and multiple iterations and critiques with designers in the industry, I succeeded in breaking into the field as a Jr. UX Designer with Outward, Inc. As a Jr. UX Designer at Outward, Inc, I dug deeper and researched everything surrounding UX practices and flows at a workplace to not only achieve my highest possible performance but to also take in as much knowledge and experience possible.
My design priorities…
MEANINGFUL USER FIRST DESIGN
Be conscious of what you are doing. I strive to deliver the best experience to ALL my users. While the typical answer is the user of the end-product, I also like to consider anyone who crosses paths with my design delivery to be a user as well. Whether it is a project hand-off to developers or another designer in the future re-opening my project, I find that taking the extra-care to organize or document ideation, versions, testing, discussions will lead to a more seamless system.
UNDERSTANDING BUSINESS GOALS
Help them, help you understand the why. It is imperative to understand why a particular project or feature can help the business and how it can either translate to loyalty, conversion rates, brand perception, etc. If I receive an answer such as “we just want to do it, it looks cool” or “look at (insert-big-name-tech) or (insert-another-big-name-tech), they did it,” it is more important to spark a deeper conversation so both sides will have a better understanding of either why they wanted this or how I can design this.
COMMUNICATION & COLLABORATION
It takes a village to raise a [product]. Any team member you come across is important to the development process. It is important to collaborate and communicate with empathy. Communication is not just exchanging words, but being able to fully understand and hear ideas or concerns while taking necessary (design) actions to follow through.
Why eggs?
Upon watching The Final Table on Netflix, I was greatly inspired by the Season 1 Episode 9 “Egg”. Chefs from all over the world are competing to have a seat with some of the reputable masters of cooking, and they were judged on cooking “egg.” Watching something so simple being made into many different styles of dishes was an epiphany moment in my design career. The egg can be made into some of the simplest every-day dishes yet also transforms into a high-end delicacy. Similarly, as a designer, I am very versatile in my skill sets and can create simple marketing graphics as well as large-scale end-to-end products.
Also, I grew up loving eggs, and all my friends know that eggs “bring me joy” and the ridiculous amount of egg-puns I have on my social media. How can you not like eggs? Eggs in ramen, eggs in salad, eggs in burgers… it’s that one thing that makes your meal a whole lot better (not to discredit butter but that’s a whole other story) 🍳
