Hi, I'm Zay.
I'm a product designer who started as an engineer. I think about design in terms of systems, constraints, and what actually ships. With over six years in product design, I have helped organisations to create better user experiences through user-centered design and a genuine love for solving complex problems.
Currently, I'm part of the Podium design team, where I own the Podium Design System and designing tools that make building construction design and planning faster, easier and more intuitive in property development process.
When I am not designing, I enjoy working out, running, cycling and bouldering. I like to read design articles, watch youtube explainers about design, geopolitics and F1 on race weekends.
Experience
Professional Highlights
My design career started in 2018 when I pivoted from software engineering. I used to work as a web application developer for about 2 years until 2017 after I finished school.
I started as an design intern at Inspireo, where I worked with Xael Tan, Wenting Poh, Junze Zheng and other colleagues where we worked on multiple small to large applications and platforms together. Invade.co, Auto-Website, and Continental Bookstores are notable projects that help me learn about different domains, navigating complexity and constraints in design.
After spending 3 years at Inspireo, I transitioned to Podium as my next opportunity. I came on board as a Senior Product Designer, focused on product design, and later on, took the lead on the Podium Design System. I had to work with incredible people like Ansell Chiu, Tyla Lim, and many others. It’s a rare opportunity and a good challenge to help shape the next generation of design tools for the built environment, to build products in a complex domain alongside people who are sharp, driven, and genuinely enjoyable to work with.