UX Designer in Emory’s Backyard
Spotlight on UX Designer Yun Ji Chung
Yun Ji Chung (20B), hailing from Seoul, Korea, is a junior in Goizueta Business School, concentrating in Consulting and Marketing with a secondary depth in Entrepreneurship. She is the Chief Innovation Officer of Emory Entrepreneurship and Venture Management (EEVM) and the founder of Envisions, Emory’s only design consultancy group. I interviewed Yun Ji to understand how she pursues her passion for UX design.
How did you first get interested in design?
I wanted to be a consultant when I came to college. What I realized was that businesses were focusing on people as they were customers, not users, so they were trying to attract people because they wanted to gain money. For me, I was attracted to the side of investing in the people. I believe that if the people are happy with the products if users are given what they want, that leads to a business’ success. Users’ happiness leads to money. I was just reading a lot of trends reports and Medium articles and realized that something called design thinking existed. After my sophomore year, during the summer, I spent 10 weeks at General Assembly in Atlanta, where I not only gained more the knowledge regarding UX design and design thinking but also got to work on client projects and passion projects using those methodologies. I really loved graphic design since I was in middle school, so I was happy I could combine my passion for design with the strategy side of business. Since then, I’ve tried to implement the design thinking methodology not only in client and passion projects but in organizations I’m involved in, like EEVM. I’ve tried to implement some ways to help members think more about their roles within EEVM and EEVM’s purpose. What does the community want from us as the premier entrepreneurship organization? What does the Atlanta community want from us? How can we deliver and satisfy those needs using the assets that we have, such as the people and the skills?
Jumping off of EEVM, can you tell me more about Envisions? How did that idea come about, how is it going, and what is your experience is like? Envisions is Emory’s only Design Consultancy group that Yun Ji founded in January 2018.
When I first really fell into design thinking, I researched a lot of meetups, looking at Eventbrite and Facebook events to see which events I could go to, to learn and meet people who shared the same passion. There seemed to be a lot in the community, such as the Speculative Futures at SunTrust. Recently they started UX Helpers. It’s started by a Home Depot UX designer who wants to build this strong UX community in Atlanta. Even at Georgia Tech, they have Design Bloc, a lot of different design initiatives, which makes sense because their Industrial Design program is super strong. I wanted to find others on Emory’s campus who shared the same passion. I realized that Emory didn’t really have any resources or platforms at the time. Now I think there are a lot more, like the entrepreneurship class that Dean Hershatter teaches. She’s implementing a lot of design thinking and next semester Professor Jan Barton is teaching a Design Thinking class too. When I first was interested, I couldn’t find any resources for myself. I was like, might as well create my own thing, find the people. Because I have some knowledge I gained from General Assembly, I can teach them that knowledge and we can do projects together. That was my train of thought.
What is Envisions currently working on?
Right now, it’s really at the beginning stage. I’m trying to teach people what [design thinking] really is because I know it’s hard to learn this by yourself. Last semester, we did more of the UX side. The research side of it at least. This semester, I wanted to focus more on the UI side. We’re still doing UX side because they’re interrelated.
Last semester was more user research, understanding the user, and what it means to build something based on the users' needs. This semester, it’s more of how can we use the findings and construct a wireframe, construct user flows and site maps to prioritize features that users wanted, and create a user-friendly interface. I wish to get into more apps this semester, such as teaching people how to use Sketch and Illustrator.
Could you talk about the app you created for HackATL?
I wanted to do a passion project and I wanted to do something that was meaningful. HackATL is one of the most meaningful experiences I’ve had on campus. I realized that every year when we execute a new HackATL, we always thought in our perspective. We never really thought about the participant’s point of view. We never really thought about what frustrated them and never did anything to relieve that frustration. Every year we’re getting a more diverse pool of participants. This year, we had students from 20+ universities and obviously, someone flying in from the west coast to participate in HackATL has different needs than a freshman who lives in Complex and walks 30 seconds to the venue. Understanding that we have a diverse pool of personas, I wanted to design an app that would satisfy the needs of the different personas and relieve the pains of these people.
Can you tell me about your process and approach to the case study?
If you look at my case study, I talked to five participants from five different universities, gained their perspectives, did research on hackathons in general, sent out surveys, did affinity mapping and all the design research methods. Then I drew multiple wireframes, tested that with users to see if the flow was okay. I connected some people I met from General Assembly’s web design class with EEVM’s Tech team and they worked together to build this app. One mistake that I made here was I didn’t really loop them in when I was designing. I designed the whole case study and handed it over to Tech. But what I should’ve done was looped them in while I was designing. Last year, because the Tech team was assembled at the last minute, their intentions didn’t align with my intentions. Hopefully, for the next hackathon, we can build upon what we already have and create an app that enhances the experience of all HackATL participants.
How do you see your business background influencing who you are as a designer?
That’s actually a question I get at a lot of interviews, since I applied mostly for tech-related roles in UX design. They would always ask, “how does your business background help?” It actually does make a huge difference that I have a business background because when I’m designing for a specific audience when I’m designing an experience, it’s important that I’m still aligned with the overall business goals. At the end of the day, businesses have to make money to sustain themselves. If the user experience and the design don’t align with those goals, then the company can’t really function. Consulting is all about discovering what the problem is and trying to find a solution. Design thinking is basically doing the same thing but the end product is a more tangible design. Just in general, having a business background allows me to align with business’ goals. That’s the biggest plus.
Can you tell me about your summer plans interning at Coca-Cola?
I’m on Coca-Cola’s E-commerce team and I will be working for cokestore.com, which is Coca-Cola’s online platform. They sell everything from merchandise to customizing your own bottle. This ties back to how business helps because being able to understand Coke’s business models and goals will hopefully help me. And even during my strategy class, Coca Cola was a topic that we covered because the business side of it is so influential. Understanding the business side of it will definitely help me throughout my internship.
Do you have advice for Emory students who are interested in entrepreneurship or design? What have you learned throughout your time here, through General Assembly, or as a designer?
The biggest thing is a lot of people come to school and they know what they want to major in. It’s normal for people to do stuff that completely aligns with their major, but there is a reason college is 4 years long. There is space for you to try something new and if you find that that’s your true passion, then I don’t think you should be afraid to move away from what you initially wanted. I know someone who was pre-med for his first 1–2 years and now he’s a UX designer at Facebook. A lot of people do end up shifting to other career paths. The best way to figure out if a new path is suitable for you is to try new things, like working for a startup, pitching for a pitch competition, doing hackathons for 48 hours. These things open up so many new perspectives.
Written By: Annie Li | IQ Associate
