About
Designer and developer in Tokyo. From canvas to code.
I'm an Applied Math and Fine Art double major, which is really just the short way of saying I think analytically and feel deeply, and that mix runs through everything I make.
Before freelancing I shipped product features in fintech as a PM and QA engineer, built full-stack tools for a UCSB research group, and ran data operations for cross-border trade. Different industries, same instinct: understand the system, then make it work for the people actually using it.
Now I get to fold all of it into one place, building things that are both beautiful and built to last.
Now
Right now I'm in Tokyo, working freelance as a web designer and developer and building things I'm proud of (most recently a trilingual travel site I designed and shipped end to end). I'm also looking for my next role on a team where I can do product, UX, QA, or development work in an English-speaking environment.
Off the clock I'm usually out on a hike, hunting down a restaurant I've never tried, or three episodes deep into a K-drama I swore I'd only watch one of. This summer the plan is to climb Mount Fuji, which feels like either a great idea or a terrible one. I'll report back.
Things I love
Traveling slowly, reading widely, and eating things I've never eaten before. A good workout, and a trail with a view at the end of it. I'm slowly working my way through the parks of Japan, where my ideal afternoon is a nap on the grass with the sun on my face, the wind in the trees, and every worry quietly filed under "later." I think in Chinese, English, and Japanese, which is occasionally useful and frequently chaotic.
Mostly I love the moment a messy idea finally clicks into something clear.
Background
Math and art, same brain.
Everyone treats math and art like opposites. For me they turned out to be one habit in two outfits. Math taught me to find the structure underneath things: why a layout feels balanced, why a flow falls apart, where the load-bearing idea is hiding. Art taught me that the structure was never the point. The feeling is.
Design and code did not feel like a pivot. More like the place where both finally asked the same question: what is the simplest thing that still means something?
Experience
Independent designer and developer
I design and build multilingual websites and products end to end, from UX and visual design to production code, working solo with clients in hospitality, tourism, and AI.
- Shipped a trilingual (EN / 日本語 / 中文) marketing site for a Japan tourism company: design, Next.js build, i18n architecture, and launch, handled entirely alone.
- Won 1st place at the AI Meets Her hackathon with Daijoubu, an AI app that helps foreigners in Japan understand official mail.
QA engineer and product manager
I owned end-to-end UX for 30+ financial product modules, translating complex Japan and US tax regulations into interfaces people could actually use.
- Ran scenario-based usability testing and surveys, turning findings into design iterations that measurably reduced user confusion in high-stakes tax workflows.
- Authored 500+ GitHub issues and coordinated engineering, compliance, and QA to hit 100% on-time releases with zero critical defects at launch.
Operations and data analyst
Before that I sat closer to the numbers, mapping how a cross-border trade business actually moved, market by market.
- Visualized sales and operations data across 40+ global clients and 5+ markets in Power BI, sharpening forecasting and decisions.
- Automated workflows with Zapier, cutting order processing time by 20% and dispute resolution time by 30%.
Web development intern
My earliest real seat at the table: leading UX and development for a research computing platform relied on by thousands of people every week.
- Led full redesign and development of rcd.ucsb.edu, a Drupal platform serving 3,000+ weekly users.
- Increased average session duration by 20% and cut bounce rate by 15% through iterative, feedback-driven UX.
Tools and languages
- Design
- Figma, prototyping, user flows, design systems, usability testing
- Development
- Next.js, TypeScript, Astro, Tailwind CSS, JavaScript, HTML/CSS, Python, Drupal
- Data and workflow
- Power BI, Zapier, GitHub, Jira, Notion
- Languages
- English (business), Chinese (Mandarin native, plus Cantonese and Chaoshanese), Japanese (conversational, studying toward JLPT N2)
Education
University of California, Santa Barbara · June 2024
B.S. Applied Mathematics and B.A. Art, Honors · GPA 3.87
The math/art split this whole page is about started here.
