I Design, Research, Hike & Write.

Hi, I’m Mengxuan Zhang.

A UX/UI Designer & Researcher in Southern California with experience in delivering end-to-end UX/UI design. I am passionate about improving people's lives through research-based design.

What leads me to UX?

With a passion for studying humans’ thoughts and behaviors, I enrolled in the experimental psychology major for both Undergrad and Master's programs. I started developing my research skills and joined several research labs since undergrad.

Within 6 years of involvement in research projects, I work both cooperatively and independently on different projects which strengthened my research and teamwork skills. My day-to-day responsibilities in the labs include designing surveys, conducting research, cleaning data, performing statistical analysis, and presenting the outcomes in professional reports. During this time, I realized that most of the studies are mainly concentrate on answering “WHAT” and “WHY” questions and have difficulties moving forward to the solution phase where “HOW” questions are answered.

An example of “WHAT” and “HOW” questions:

WHAT – “What challenges the college students have to reach their academic goals”?

HOW – “How the universities could help students to reach their academic goals? If any program was offered, how did the students feel about it? Is there anything that needs to be improved?”

With the eagerness of looking for solutions after identifying the paint points (WHAT & WHY), I started my journey as a UX Designer and Researcher.

UX Design perfectly blends both design and research. More importantly, it looks forward to providing solutions based on the findings. As a UX/UI Designer & Researcher, I am excited to find the pain points of the users by conducting interviews and usability studies; then improve the products to resolve the users’ pain points.