Hi, I am Elaine, my legal name is Yiran Li (李怡然). I was born in the beautiful and historical city of Nanjing in China, now I am living in Boston, MA, also a beautiful and historical city in United States. in English speaking countries, I usually ask people to call me Elaine as it sounds close to its Chinese pronunciation, and it’s a lot easier to pronounce.

My interest of design developed very early as my dad spent 20 years of his career in a newspaper agency. Although he is mostly working on the writing and editing side, he introduced me expertise in layout, illustration, and advertising. Those design fundamentals I learned then prove to be still very handy today. But most important, I realize that purpose of design goes beyond its aesthetic value. Design promotes connection. Design of newspaper connect readers to the writers’ and illustrators’ point of view.

I fell deeper in love with design ever since.

I studied industrial design for my undergraduate degree, where I learned human centered design methodology. My graduate degree is industrial design as well, with a more specific focus on human computer interaction. To pay for my tuition, I was using my industrial design skills to help with wheelchair design research, while hanging out with folks from computer department, building apps.

It did not take long for me to realize how much similarities exist between building wheelchairs and building apps. Over time I modified my understanding of design to “design promotes connection and enablement”. Design of a wheelchair enables users to move with comfort, design of a software enable users to achieve code functionalities with ease.

I landed my first product design job after I graduated from Georgia Tech, as many software started to understand the importance of connecting customers to their code better. Since then I have worked in a few other companies, and occasionally I helped small business owners with design works. Through my professional experience, I realize that, not just designer can provide design suggestion. Customers, product managers and developers all have ideas as they have been with the products for so long. Designer is that person with loads of patience, who collect everyone’s ideas with loads of empathy, and explore beyond that with loads of curiosity. Designer promotes the connection and enablement, not just between customer and product, but also between business request and development effort.

My journey as a designer continues, as my understanding of design deepens.