caroline luu

caroline luu

artist and designer in SF, she/her

artist, designer, runner, owner of YUNNY STUDIOS

a daydreamer who loves problems that require systems thinking, deep empathy, crafty people, and imagination.

Projects

Ongoing
Generational healing at YUNNY STUDIOS

Upcoming exhibition

Ongoing
Stories for Oranges at YUNNY STUDIOS

Upcoming exhibition focused on capturing stories from a multi-generational community – Feb 28 in Chinatown, SF 🧧

2024
Thanksgiving Coffee Gallery at YUNNY STUDIOS

What do you do when you have 1 week left of your lease and you already moved out? Host an exhibit.

Visitors enjoyed a fresh latte while exploring 4 multi-sensory rooms: Writing Room, Conversation Balcony, Drawing Room, and a Meditation Room. A peaceful art respite before the holidays.

2024

Immersive exhibition in Mission, SF. Think cave-themed, lavender-smelling, high-frequency-sounding, reflective-booklet-writing, flashlight-zooming experience.

2024
Design culture at SimpleNexus

Group lead and mentor. Taught, advocated, and created spaces that supported designers, team infrastructure, and organizational influence.

2024
eClose adoption at SimpleNexus

Researched ecosystem questions affecting adoption. I focused on R&D, vision and strategy, and speculative design.

2024
Admin user and role management at SimpleNexus

Led discovery, user research, and design architecture for Role-based access control on our core platform, collaborating heavily to navigate legacy and dependency constraints.

2023
nCino eSign at SimpleNexus

Product design lead on eSign. Think DocuSign but with encryption, tampersealing, and automated storage in a vault, our eVault.

2022
nCino eVault at SimpleNexus

Product design lead on eVault. It stores mortgage-backed securities for small brokers, large government entities, and all the investors in-between.

Work Experience

2024 — Now
San Francisco / Online

Creating safe spaces where people can heal and get wacky

2023 — 2024
Lead Product Designer at Verdi AI

Led design for an AI copilot for product managers. Explored concepts enabling play, creativity, and trust into software and user relationships.

2024 — 2024
Senior Product Designer on Admin team at nCino
San Francisco

Led design on ecosystem-level projects affecting Admins and related users across the Mortgage platform such as introducing Role-Based Access Control User Management and speculative design for multi-level Audit Logs.

2022 — 2024
San Francisco

Led design on nCino eVault and nCino eSign, fintech product bundle servicing large enterprise + government organizations. Launched go-to market.

Led R&D on eClosing core experiences. Known as the go-to facilitator for discovery, decision-making, and alignment workshops.

Coached designers and others on craft and collaboration. Started rituals that allow regular dialogue on design patterns, philosophy, and process. Responsibilities as a UX Manager.

Overall, big focus on leadership through big, hairy problems; designing for complexity with interoperability, scale, and elegance; and storytelling to wide audiences using data visualization.

2021 — 2022
Product Designer at Underbelly
San Francisco

Worked at a design and development agency, servicing small business to enterprise clients. Huge focus on craft with intense, fun craftspeople.

Worked at Meta, Vivint, and Progressive Leasing from concept to design to feature flags. Problems ranged in scale and collaboration. Vivint one was by far my favorite.

2013 — 2018
Education Service Designer at One Mind Learning
Newport Beach

Early employee in a startup, servicing celebrity clients. 5 years of non-stop building! Where I learned how to give top-tier service.

Designed + delivered user-centered curriculum based on user testing, adapting to user and client needs.

Concept + design for an EdTech game we developed.

Side Projects

Ongoing

Writing about creating towards a delightful life. Topics include creativity, psychology, and relationships.

2025

Inspired by handwritten love notes i've written and received

2024

Designed bespoke dinner menus curating an experience around the Chef's vision

2024

A guide to systems thinking for designers who work on complex, data-intensive applications and ecosystems.

2023
50K San Lorenzo River Run

Completed my first ultramarathon

2022
SF Marathon

Completed my first marathon

2020

Top Writer in Design on Medium 2020, Featured in UX Collective, Curious, Design Warp, Cofounderstown, and UX Design Weekly Newsletter.

Volunteering

2023 — 2023
San Francisco

Guided students through creative endeavors in a summer youths arts program. Really enjoying engaging with my community.

2021 — 2021
Oakland

Worked with a team of ambassadors to brainstorm, organize, and prioritize events that engage the running community.

Education

2013 — 2017
Psychology and Social Behavior at UC Irvine
Irvine

Minored in Biology and Management. Got to learn about systems in biology and human behavior. Wrote my thesis on org culture in US vs Japan.

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