About
Mabuhay! I'm Kate, a user experience designer, game designer, and community builder from the Philippines.
Driven to craft interactive experiences and empower diverse talent, I strive to ensure those experiences are meaningful for users & players by putting sustainability, accessibility, and inclusivity at the forefront of my design thinking process.
Work Experience
• Responsible for the creative decision-making for character interactions and story development in Bardic: Quest for Love, a Medieval Fantasy Dating Sim game inspired by traditional TTRPGs.
• Crafted an immersive visual novel experience, allowing players to shape the narrative through choices, skill checks, and romantic pursuits of fellow Adventuring Heroes using Unity & Yarn Spinner.
• Designed compelling dialogue options and skill checks to enhance gameplay depth, ensuring an engaging player experience and replayability.
• Currently rebranding the GigaLife App to Smart App. Revamping the user experience of the app to reflect its new digital strategy.
• Responsible for the design & shipped 6 SIM registration & exclusive offers features for GigaLife App users which resulted in a significant boost in user engagement using Figma & Notion.
• Responsible for the design of a few shipped features of Prepaid & Postpaid brands for Product teams to implement various monetization strategies such as daily top-up & promo registration, which resulted in higher retention rates, redemption rates, and increased ARPU/LTV/Stay Rate.
SeeYouDoc is a startup that helps doctors and patients connect with each other online.
• Revamping the user experience for the telemedicine platform, overhauling the organization's web presence to reflect its new digital strategy.
• Redesigned user flows, user journeys, and UI prototype of the website design solution and mobile design solution of SeeYouDoc from version 3 to version 4.
• Co-led the UX/UI design by managing the end-to-end delivery of hi-fi website and mobile design prototype.
MullenLowe TREYNA acquires control of Quiddity Usability Labs and launches joint venture Qairos.
• Assisted Project Manager with content management and uploading on staging and production websites.
• Assisted UX and UI Designers by participating in brainstorming sessions for product features and functionalities.
• Assisted QA Engineer with bug reporting and tracking.
Experienced some work for the company and their clients using various web and mobile app development. Created and designed a Node.js Video Recording App that can record and save video locally and remotely, and add logo overlay on recorded video.
Volunteering
• Overseeing the fastest growing online design community, with over 40,000 members, through daily moderation of channel discussions.
• A member of the Events Team, responsible for coordinating, organizing, hosting, and/or moderating online Design Buddies events.
• Helps the Founder & Leads of Design Buddies coordinate events with other companies such as Discord, Adobe, Spline, Bravo, Game Jams, and more.
• Addressing questions and providing advice about design to aspiring/junior designers.
• Spearheaded and managed the ADPList partnership to build the mentorship program.
• Coordinated and planned any partnered events with UXPH and ADPList.
• Organized the kick-off event to officially announce that UXPH is partnering with ADPList to provide mentorship to the community.
• Responsible for creating a Discord server from scratch and launched the Discord server to the public on August 1, 2021.
• Helping optimize a digital space for community growth and engagement.
• Moderating virtual events on Discord and helping out conduct events on other social media platforms.
• Sharing resources and giving advice to members on their design work, portfolio, and more to elevate their careers.
Projects
• Created game flows, gameplay mechanics, design systems, & game UI prototype of Eclipse’s narrative-driven platformer game using Figma & Unity.
• Led the design for 5 team members to deliver end-to-end game experience.
• Currently developing the game to present to the stakeholders.
• Designed the user interface, user experience, and brand design of Starcrossed’s interactive fiction detective game using Figma and Twine.
• Created, tested, developed, and presented the alpha release to stakeholders within 15 days.
• Designed the user interface, user experience, narrative elements, and brand design of the hidden object puzzle game using Figma and Unity.
• Created, developed, and presented the MVP to stakeholders within 4 days.
• Designed the user interface, user experience, and brand design of the Tamagotchi simulation game using Figma and Unity.
• Created, tested, developed, and presented the MVP to stakeholders within 4 days.
• Designed & shipped a gamified experience for Swarm's reputation system to encourage peer-to-peer exchanges of value within the community using Figma, Miro, & Notion.
• Created user flows, user journeys, UX research, and website UI prototype.
• Conducted the design sprint to evaluate our idea for Swarm's reputation system.
• Created, tested, developed, & presented the solution to stakeholders within 5 days.
• Designed the user flows, user journey, and UI prototype of the mobile app design solution of Edukasyon using Figma, Miro, & Notion.
• Co-led the UX research & agile project management via end-to-end of UX research from conducting 14 user interviews and delivering research insights to senior stakeholders.
• Co-led the UI design by managing the end-to-end delivery of hi-fi mobile design prototype.
• Co-led UX design delivery through agile project management, specifically creating and preparing 50+ wireframes, designing user interactions, 1 complete prototype, 14 user interviews, UX research workshops within the team, and 2 usability tests in < 10 days.
• Created & pitched the final solution to senior stakeholders within 12 days.
• Designed the user flows, user journey, UX research, and UI of the website solution of NextPay’s educational content website using Figma, Miro, & Notion.
• Co-led the UI design by managing the end-to-end delivery of hi-fi website design prototype.
• Co-led UX design delivery through agile project management, specifically creating and preparing 20+ wireframes, designing user interactions, 1 complete prototype, 6 user interviews, UX research workshops within the team, and 2 usability tests in < 10 days.
• Created & pitched the solution to stakeholders within 12 days.
• Conducted initial research, game flows, gameplay mechanics, design systems, and game UI prototype of Hungry Hound’s food-inspired point-and-click casual game using Figma and GameMaker.
• Created, tested, developed, and presented the MVP to stakeholders within 8 days.
Eassay is an AI app that helps teachers grade essays faster and more efficiently. This is our submission for the Impact Hackathon 2021 for Education hosted by Impact Hub Manila where our team won 1st Runner Up.
• Collaborated with a team of 4 to create an AI app that allows teachers to grade essays faster and efficiently.
• Responsible for UX Design, prototype, branding, logo designs for Eassay and ED TECH.
• Won 1st Runner Up with cash prizes and incubation support at "Impact Hackathon 5G" 2021 for Education.
• Will join the Incubation Program to start and scale our project.
Wastely is a food waste reduction solution that starts in the home and extends to local and global communities. This is the result of a four-day design sprint conducted remotely by a group of designers from around the world who wanted to find a novel solution for reducing food waste. AJ&Smart’s was chosen for the Design Sprint methodology.
• Conducted an in-depth interview with a food waste reduction expert.
• Designed a prototype and produced a minimum viable product.
• Conducted user testing virtually with participants.
CAPSTONE PROJECT: An online platform to gain knowledge and awareness about intellectual property. It is a community where users can share their reviews and recommendations towards the project. An education platform that informs users about intellectual property, their rights as an individual, and how it promotes innovations. Lastly, it allows its users to create meaningful interactions by sharing insights, suggestions, and feedback.
3k Cheesecakes is a home-based dessert shop selling Premium Cakes: New York Cheesecakes, Carrot Cakes, Chocolate Cakes, Brownies and more. For our final project, we were tasked to create an e-commerce website using WordPress for a real-time client outside school. 3k Cheesecakes launch their website on February 22, 2021 for faster order processing.
Skin RX is a face and body wellness clinic that aims to provide the best quality care and service at an affordable price. For our final project, we were grouped to create a responsive website for a real-time client. Aside from designing and developing the website, I also designed the banner ads and redesigned the logo.
• Designed and developed a responsive website from scratch using HTML and CSS.
• Created and designed all the banner ads found on the website.
• Redesigned the Skin RX's logo.
The Wholesome Gum is 100% natural and biodegradable, from the packaging to the gum itself. It is a bubblegum concept made for students who are environmentally conscious and adopts a zero-waste lifestyle. We created a product and marketing campaign that encourages them to be healthy. I led the Project Launch phase of the project.
• Assisting the creatives team in creating digital collaterals.
• Collaborated with the Art Director to create the marketing campaign strategy.
• Led the Project Launch Phase of the project.
Side Projects
• Assigned as Team Head for the MMA Event that celebrates the 20 years of the Multimedia Arts Program of SDA at Benilde.
• Planned and coordinated with the event organizer of ‘MMA one to 20/20’.
• Understood the entire flow of the event, cascaded information, and divided responsibilities among video team leaders.
• Oversaw production processes and ensured that the video team leaders were able to follow the overall vision for each project and submitted on schedule.
• Earned a grade of 4.0 or A for the project.
Writing
Joining my first hackathon and won 1st Runner Up.
Awards
Our team developed an AI to help teachers check essays using a mobile device by just capturing the essay on paper modules of the student.