Who am I?

Hiii, I’m Yitian 👋

I’m an architect-turned UX designer. I adopt system thinking to create enjoyable solutions that scale. 🛸

What brought me here?

About my design journey...

A childhood passion

With an interest in arts, engineering, & social psychology, and a passion for creating things to better the world, I excitedly started my journey as a designer.

In 2019 and 2022, I graduated from Tsinghua University with a Bachelor’s and a Master's degree in Architecture.

Handling the complex expectations, limitations, and trade-offs, I designed with creativity, logic, and empathy with people, from a small villa to a large-scale urban design, etc.

Can I do more?

Having worked as an Architectural intern in different firms, I realized that I wanted to design something that could iterate faster and react to people’s needs more flexibly.

With the pandemic hitting our world at almost the same time, I saw how people got disconnected due to geographical distance while the digital tools enabled us to stay united.

I felt the growing eager to create things that could empower people on a larger scale and the passion to leverage the potentiality of cutting-edge technologies. Then I came across UX and HCI.

I resonated with the human-centric values and design thinking deeply, and all the connections I drew and the transferrable skills made me excited about the new adventure.

Can I do more?

Having worked as an Architectural intern in different firms, I realized that I wanted to design something that could iterate faster and react to people’s needs more flexibly.

With the pandemic hitting our world at almost the same time, I saw how people got disconnected due to geographical distance while the digital tools enabled us to stay united.

I felt the growing eager to create things that could empower people on a larger scale and the passion to leverage the potentiality of cutting-edge technologies. Then I came across UX and HCI.

I resonated with the human-centric values and design thinking deeply, and all the connections I drew and the transferrable skills made me excited about the new adventure.

Finding my place & still growing

Though the first few steps of pivoting were not easy, I’m grateful that I sticked to it. I had the privilege to work as a UX designer at Google, Tencent, and ByteDance, which not only enabled me to mature in design and cross-functional collaboration, but also solidified my passion for this career.

To further polish my skills, I completed my Master’s degree in HCI and UX at UC Berkeley in 2024. I was also stoked to find out that my background enabled me to create more thoughtful UX, such as seeing a bigger picture, navigating through complexities, and balancing the multilateral constraints & needs.

And I can’t wait to see what the future holds (:

What I’ve brought to my design journey...

Hover on each item and they will tell you more about me!

My 7 years in architecture & urban design enabled me to deal with complex goals & requirements and be creative across mediums & scales

I had a life-long passion for maps—making sense of the world & how things are connected, and I’m grateful that it led to my strength in vision & system thinking

Literature is my secret garden - it planted the passion & gift of storytelling in me and allowed me to emphasize with people of all walks of life in various scenarios

I didn’t excel at sports growing up. However, they’re now a big part of my life—making me strong, persistent, and confident when jumping out of my comfort zone

Mentors and peers have been a huge support in the journey. I cherish these connections and I’m also thriving to share my learnings & help more designers!

I take social justice & accessibility as a serious calling. My time at UC Berkeley helped me to identify the gap & opportunity, nudge the change, and advocate for more

What I'm up to outside of work...

Getting a bit sporty & closer to the wildlife
Hiking in nature for a deep breath of the wild
Going to the theatre with friends
Being creative with food and fusion inspirations
Collecting everyday artifacts
Curating a carefree little island

Currently reading...

Just started...

Adventuring into...

Hey, thanks for coming over!

I see design as an explorative & never-ending journey, and I cherish the opportunities to learn, improve, and grow. You can always drop me a line if you have ideas to fulfill, challenges to address, thoughts & suggestions, or just want to chat!