Notes from 2025 Records from a year of deepened self-understandingNotes / 2025
December 1. In my design presentation, I’ve noticed that the word “you” doesn’t come as naturally to me as “a user.” As designers, we are expected to walk people through how a design actually works. In that process, in English, we often say things like, “When you click this…” I think one reason for this is that using “you” makes the presentation more engaging.
But for that very reason, whenever I say “you,” I can’t help feeling as if the audience is judging me through my design. It also makes me feel as though I’m guiding them to experience the design not from an objective user perspective, but from a more subjective, personal one. I see this as subjective because design is created for multiple types of users, whereas each audience represents only one of those possible user types.
2. Back in middle school, I first heard Yiruma’s “27. May,” which is one of songs I love the most. While the title suggests a day of confessing love, for me, it marked the moment I had to give up something important. Because of that, May 27 became meaningful to me in a negative way.
Later, I confused May with March and remembered it as March 27. Good things happened on that day and I thought my jinx had been broken. I later realized I had remembered the date wrong. Since then, March 27 has meant a beginning, and May 27 an end. Looking back through my diary, I realized that March 27 this year was a good beginning again. It feels strange.
3. I really want to be in an intense, competitive, but truly inspiring environment. One with strong accountability, competition, and clear performance-based rewards, but with freedom. Just for half a year, to grow dramatically.
October1. I’ve started to notice that emotion is slowly fading from my design work in a good way.
2. As I learn more, I find myself becoming quieter. Design has made me observe things in everyday life. It has given me a deeper understanding of how the world is structured and how people think. It reminds me that there is always an unseen side of everything, allowing me to see the world with a sense of quiet contemplation.
3. What makes you wake up in the morning?
Responsibility to my past self. If I don’t work hard today, all my past efforts would go to waste.
September1. There are designs that begin with a clear problem, but there are also designs that start from users’ needs. We call this needs-driven design. While not everything can’t be neatly categorized, examples include Instagram Story filters, Apple’s Liquid Glass UI, and designs that aim to generate strong business impact. Back in college, I believed my role as a designer is to tackle social problems such as poverty for a better world. Now, I find myself more enjoying the process of creating designs that enhance people’s joy by bringing their hidden desires to life.
2. Nothing in the world is truly binary. But I believe we can still say which side something is closer to. If we assume that everything in the world is ambiguous, it becomes difficult to make any kind of claim. I believe that only deepens the complexity of the world.
3. While looking back on the works I’ve done so far, I feel that the dots are finally connecting. I realize that everything I’ve done so far has shaped me into who I am now.
4. In my Type class, I got an assignment to take pictures of typography in the wild. I gathered logos, posters, store signs, and more. This activity changed the way I perceive Pasadena. I had always thought of Pasadena as quite. But now it feels like a noisy space filled with shops, each carrying its own distinct visual voices.
August1. I met one of my best mentors today. As always, he offered just the right amount of guidance, at just the right time and in the right way. While we could easily keep things light and pleasant, he never hesitates to guide me onto the right path when needed. And because I believe in him and understand his intentions, I don’t mind his words at all. We only meet very occasionally, but every time, he leaves me inspired.
1-1. Today, I came to understand the meaning of So what on a deeper level.
2. During my summer internship, my main responsibility was to generate new ideas. I came up with more than 20 ideas, and through this process, I discovered my own pattern of idea creation. I noticed that I would often sense something odd in functionality or usability, then try to pinpoint the reason behind that feeling. That reason usually turned out to be a hidden, right problem. And that problem often pointed me toward a direction for the solution. From there, I worked to develop a proper solution, going back and forth throughout the process. I believe the key lies in my sensitivity and intuition. Before this experience, I couldn’t confidently say that generating new ideas is one of my strengths. But now I can—because I understand the logic behind my ideation process.
3. I’ve always wanted to be an irreplaceable person, and I still do. It’s because to me, that means freedom. And that freedom doesn’t mean having power. I just want to be a non-harmful, yet free person who can act according to what I believe is right and spend as much time as possible doing what I love.
Revisited, Sep 2025. In a similar context, there’s one thing I really want to do after settling down in the US and in my industry: removing my photo from LinkedIn. I want to be a designer whose personal info remains unknown, but whose work is widely recognized. It is one of my dreams and the greatest freedom for me.
4. I love imperfection. Because every flaw holds the possibility of being better when it’s organized.
July1. Two months of my internship have already flown by. I only have about a month left. I’m truly enjoying my time here. I like my progress I’ve made so far, and will keep doing my best to make the most of this opportunity.
I think this internship has been a very ideal experience. They gave me a real high-level problem the team is facing and asked me to solve it freely, in my own way. Especially for me who love freedom and self-learning, it’s been an amazing opportunity. I’ve been able to learn from their past works, cross-functional meetings with stakeholders, real user data, upcoming user interviews and feedback from my manager and mentors, while still working in a way that feels uniquely my own. Also, result from their previous A/B testing experiments have even helped shape the design requirements for my project.
I know that when I start working full-time somewhere next year as a junior designer, I probably won’t have this much freedom. But this internship has made me dream of becoming a top position—someone who can create with freedom and confidence.
June1. After I got the PM intern offer, a few friends asked me if I had shifted paths from being a designer to a PM. It was after I said in my position, wireframing is optional. Officially, it might seem that way, but at the core, my answer is no.
It’s basically because I’ve always believed that design is the entire process—not just about creating something, but also thinking through what should be created for a better future. I’ve never seen design as something limited. While my current title is PM Intern, I still consider myself a designer. And that’s exactly what I want to keep doing in the future. An end-to-end designer who excels not only in making, but also in bridging user needs with business goals.
2. Life comes full circle, and the same opportunities always seem to return. Maybe it’s a sign from God to make up for past mistakes. More precisely, a chance to do better this time, learning from the past. Perhaps, a reminder to let go of unnoticed regrets and start fresh.
May1. I believe true happiness isn’t necessarily about the absence of negativity, but more often about having something that helps us rise above it quickly. In life, we inevitably face challenges and negative experiences. But when we have something or someone that helps us move through them, that’s when we find real happiness. At least for me, it is.
1-1. In this kind of context, I love the word Nevertheless.
2. A week of my internship has already gone by. Feel a bit sad. Learning a lot, especially about the dynamic ecosystem of the business, products and technology. Analyzing real user data is deepening my understanding of users.
April1. There’s something about genius that makes my heart beat faster. Genius, by its very nature, is noble. When I see them immerse themselves in their work, my mind feels overwhelmed with admiration.
2. Eventually, my goal is to contribute wherever I belong—the world, the community, the workspace wherever.
3. It is much more challenging to come up with a practical and innovative solution within many restrictions than to suggest a noble idea by freely using the imagination without any. At least for me, it is.
March1. Every single day is precious.
2. Why do I usually follow the user-centered design process? Which benefit this process gives me?
Revisited, Apr 2025. I believe that a conventional workflow (user-centered design methodology) is not always necessary. Sometimes, building a hypothesis based on a designer’s personal experience, observations, or philosophy, and then testing that hypothesis, can lead to even more creative outcomes. I call this approach speculative problem-solving. (In fact, speculative problem-solving usually refers to design based on foresight, so it’s a bit different from what I mean.)
3. I think one of the moments I feel most comfortable and happy is when I can fully express myself without having to hide anything.
December 20241. I feel like my design approach comes from two distinct perspectives. On one side, I focus on practical problem solving through empathetic mindset and user-centered design methods. On the other side, I take a more conceptual approach, often starting projects with a big idea that reflects my own philosophy on the better future.
Throughout my first term, I often felt overwhelmed, even though I had plenty of time. After reflecting on my last semester, I realized that my burnout stemmed from the fact that user-centered design and speculative design required me to use different side of my brain. It was so tough to convert from the one to the other. To prepare for an internship, I needed to adopt a user-centered mindset—focusing on the user as the top priority, understanding how they interact with a system, and identifying the value they gain from my design. However, for my school projects, I had to take a speculative approach, which is fundamentally different from the practical one. Speculative design usually starts with my own design philosophy about the world rather than fulfilling people’s needs, and it often remains open-ended. In this context, “open-ended” refers to projects that aim to convey a broad concept rather than providing a tangible benefit through direct user interaction. How and where this concept is applied depends on the situation.
Revisited, Mar 2025. Hmm.. I want to immerse myself in research beyond typical company settings. But I also want to see people benefit from my design. Still need to figure out how to combine a practical user-centered design process with a speculative mindset. I hope to find my own answer to this before my grad studies finish.
Revisited, Mar 2025. Key difference between these approaches is whether I prioritize users’ needs or my own inner thoughts. It is similar to the criteria that distinguish design from art.