UX

Mizuki Travel is a boutique DMC (destination management company) in Japan serving Japanese, English, and Chinese-speaking clients. Their previous web presence could not support three languages, creating friction for international clients and making it difficult to convey the personal, high-touch nature of their service.

Worked closely with the client to map three distinct user journeys (by language and cultural context), identify the key decisions a prospective client makes before reaching out, and define what "trust signals" look like for a premium travel company. Reviewed competitor sites in the DMC space to understand baseline expectations.

Owned the full project solo, from initial client brief through design, development, and deployment. Designed in Figma: wireframes, component library, and high-fidelity screens across three locales. Built with Next.js 14 App Router and next-intl for clean, maintainable trilingual routing. Iterated with the client on copy, layout, and imagery through Vercel preview deployments. Full handoff including a simple content update workflow.

UCSB's research computing site was difficult to navigate. Researchers couldn't quickly find relevant tools, documentation was buried, and the visual design was outdated. High bounce rates confirmed that users were arriving, not finding what they needed, and leaving.

Worked closely with librarians, data scientists, and developers to understand how different user types (students, faculty, external researchers) navigated the site. Mapped content gaps and structural issues in the information architecture.

Led full UX design and implementation on Drupal 9/10. Restructured information architecture to match the mental models of different researcher personas. Redesigned layout, typography, and content hierarchy to reduce cognitive load and surface high-priority resources faster. Iterated on UI using session duration and bounce rate as feedback loops. Built a scalable Twig-templated architecture the team could maintain after handoff.

Japan's tax filing system involves deeply nested regulations, bilingual complexity (Japan and US cross-border filers), and high-stakes calculations. Yet the product UI presented them as raw form fields with no contextual guidance. Users were confused, made errors, and flooded support with questions that clear design could have prevented.

Conducted scenario-based usability testing and structured surveys with users navigating live tax flows. Key findings: users frequently misidentified which form applied to their situation; bilingual label inconsistencies caused distrust in calculated values; edge-case inputs (part-year residents, foreign income) had no inline guidance, forcing mid-flow abandonment. Synthesized insights into prioritized pain-point maps that became the design backlog.

Led end-to-end design across 30+ financial modules. Mapped user flows to surface decision points and branch logic in tax pathways. Created wireframes and high-fidelity Figma prototypes using progressive disclosure to hide complexity until needed. Wrote detailed user stories grounded in empathy to communicate design intent to engineering without ambiguity. Collaborated with compliance and engineering to ensure every prototype was technically buildable and regulation-accurate.