Kleiner Perkins Fellowship Design Challenge
Prompt: Redesign the feature of any partner affiliated with Kleiner Perkins
Personal Statement #1
What impact do you want to have on the world and why?
I want to incorporate design with greater ease and feasibility; not only to build a seamless transitional period into the digital age, but to also create an inclusive, heightened experience for all. Growing up in Silicon Valley, news of the future and hope would be connotative to tech. An expectation for technological fluency and integration of the newest software and hardware was standard. Yet, it’s naive to expect that standard to carry through successfully for everyone. As I lived in Pittsburgh and grew out of my local bubble, I became more aware of the forceful “push” for automation and digital advancements in areas that are simply not meant to operate in the way cooperative cities would.
My family FaceTimes my grandfather–– who’s retired in Hong Kong–– to explain smart home features. Individuals with disabilities or are neurodivergent often have issues adjusting to minor UI and experience design setbacks such as a lack of close captions, poor audio adjustments, or an overall ignorant interface that triggers overstimulation. Criminals released from long periods of jail time often struggle reintegrating into society because they’re unable to keep up with technology’s rapid evolution. There’s an “attitude” adjustment issue regarding applicable design, but it’s not the users’ fault.
I love building better experiences: anything that can be entertaining, or simple, or make someone feel secure. However, building said experience requires design that’s meant to be shared and experienced easily. Whether it’s the visuals of a design interface, an inclusivity animation, or something else, I hope to improve universal experiences for others.
Personal Statement #2
Describe your most meaningful experience(s) and why they matter to you. Please limit your statement to 250 words maximum and provide your submission with a link.
As a child, I used to attend a storytelling festival at my local library for years: not to listen but to share my own. It made me a talker, a social butterfly, and a master contributor to anything with a narrative. I connected the words to pictures, and the pictures evolved into illustrations. Those shifted into digital graphics, and as I grew older I would look for more of those "stories" through various forms of content: hidden intentions in branding projects, the themes behind game media, the thematic motifs in a museum exhibit. Over time, I realized that my love for narrative building was derived by two things: the emotional connection, and the people I'm able to interact with because of it.
Narratives put a story into anything I create, and I see it bleed into the design projects I build today. I learned to combine illustrative elements with a game design pipeline, and motivated myself to create integrative projects. Currently, I am working on a personal VR project with three friends and classmates, where we combine the interactive elements of virtual sensory stimulation with the cultural storytelling of EastAsian parent-child dynamics. As a project assistant for the Carnegie Mellon University Entertainment Technology Center (CMU ETC), I build AR experiences that engage learning and entertain young students. Within CMU's ScottyLabs club of over 400 members, I help organize CMU's largest hackathon by blending technology with creativity. Working with a team allows me to flesh out the branding narratives and themes for each year's visual language, and develop a more attractive experience to the brand.
What I love about the Kleiner Perkins Design Fellowship is that it provides an ample workspace and integrative pipeline, where I can work with a team of mentors and cross-disciplinary experts for a target audience. I believe that under this program, I can continue to build connections through design.
