My overarching mission is human flourishing: how can we all live good, fulfilling, and purposeful lives, and how can we ensure this at both the individual and community levels? This main goal of mine can be seen in everything I do, whether it's training as a dancer or being a generalist in tech.
I've worn all kinds of hats (e.g. technologist, community builder, artist, and more...), but I see these all coming together in my role as a gardener. I plant seeds and tend to them so that they can grow — eventually to the point that they can be harvested for everyone's benefit. Here's how I do it:
For almost half a decade, I've worked as a generalist designer for tech startups, venture studios, etc. 🚀 across fields like edtech, Web3, and AI. I've also nurtured local tech communities as an educator 👩🏽🏫 and community builder 🤝🏽, helping Filipinos navigate their journeys in tech — whether it's through teaching design software or facilitating critical discourse.
As a writer and researcher, I'm always thinking about how technology can bring power to and away from the people, having written several essays exploring tech's intersections with education 📚 and labor. 🧱 I'm also curious about how design-centric futures thinking approaches (e.g. speculative design, design fiction, etc.) 🔮 can expand people's creativity and agency.
When I'm not staring at a screen, I find joy in my movement practice. You can probably find me breaking (a.k.a. breakdancing) 🤸🏽♀️ or doing calisthenics. 💪🏼
For my undergraduate thesis project, I created a virtual exhibition of research-based design fictions to explore Filipinos' relationship with technology.
The Lexicon aims to raise the standard of effective curation in the Web3 space by leveraging experts in instructional design and knowledge mapping.
In this magnum opus of an essay, I illustrate a radical new future for education and the internet where student agency takes charge, and how this can be brought about by a Web3-powered Metaverse.
A free Notion template designed to help you live intentionally. You can set your goals, break these down into milestones, connect your to-dos to your purpose, and track your overall progress. 100+ downloads.
Firesite Studio is a website design & development studio specializing in no-code. We partner with tech startups, VC funds, and other innovators to ignite their presence online.
A deep dive into edtech programs like MOOCs and bootcamps, and how their empowerment of students can often be masqueraded exploitation.
A comic anthology about the lives of the women of YAKAP, an organization that aims to help fisherfolk living in Laguna Lake, Rizal. Finalist in the Ateneo Socio-civic Engagement for National Development (ASCEND) Awards.
A critical analysis of how creative industries (especially tech) exploit maintenance work in the Global South.
A preview of my toolkit as a design educator, shown through a workshop series I created for a student-run community evangelizing human-centered design.
An all-in-one tracker & community for learning a.k.a. the Strava for personal growth. First Place Runner-Up of the Interhackt designathon (by peer voting).
A research report for guiding a student-led tech non-profit in providing community-centered experiences.
A special membership program where people can get life insurance from top providers in the Philippines.
Visuals I created for the online portal of the Ateneo de Manila University's creativity & innovation hub.
A conceptual video I animated for an app that helps ballet-based dancers correct their technique.
Pieces I contributed to "365 Wonders 2019", a creative planner that aimed to spark feminist consciousness through Filipino art.
A compilation of design work for mental health, tech, and more over the years.
For my undergraduate thesis project, I created a virtual exhibition of research-based design fictions to explore Filipinos' relationship with technology.
The Lexicon aims to raise the standard of effective curation in the Web3 space by leveraging experts in instructional design and knowledge mapping.
In this magnum opus of an essay, I illustrate a radical new future for education and the internet where student agency takes charge, and how this can be brought about by a Web3-powered Metaverse.
A preview of my toolkit as a design educator, shown through a workshop series I created for a student-run community evangelizing human-centered design.
An all-in-one tracker & community for learning a.k.a. the Strava for personal growth. First Place Runner-Up of the Interhackt designathon (by peer voting).
For my undergraduate thesis project, I created a virtual exhibition of research-based design fictions to explore Filipinos' relationship with technology.
The Lexicon aims to raise the standard of effective curation in the Web3 space by leveraging experts in instructional design and knowledge mapping.
A free Notion template designed to help you live intentionally. You can set your goals, break these down into milestones, connect your to-dos to your purpose, and track your overall progress. 100+ downloads.
Firesite Studio is a website design & development studio specializing in no-code. We partner with tech startups, VC funds, and other innovators to ignite their presence online.
A preview of my toolkit as a design educator, shown through a workshop series I created for a student-run community evangelizing human-centered design.
An all-in-one tracker & community for learning a.k.a. the Strava for personal growth. First Place Runner-Up of the Interhackt designathon (by peer voting).
A research report for guiding a student-led tech non-profit in providing community-centered experiences.
A special membership program where people can get life insurance from top providers in the Philippines.
A compilation of design work for dance, mental health, tech, and more over the years.
For my undergraduate thesis project, I created a virtual exhibition of research-based design fictions to explore Filipinos' relationship with technology.
In this magnum opus of an essay, I illustrate a radical new future for education and the internet where student agency takes charge, and how this can be brought about by a Web3-powered Metaverse.
A deep dive into edtech programs like MOOCs and bootcamps, and how their empowerment of students can often be masqueraded exploitation.
A critical analysis of how creative industries (especially tech) exploit maintenance work in the Global South.
A comic anthology about the lives of the women of YAKAP, an organization that aims to help fisherfolk living in Laguna Lake, Rizal. Finalist in the Ateneo Socio-civic Engagement for National Development (ASCEND) Awards.
Visuals I created for the online portal of the Ateneo de Manila University's creativity & innovation hub.
A conceptual video I animated for an app that helps ballet-based dancers correct their technique.
Pieces I contributed to "365 Wonders 2019", a creative planner that aimed to spark feminist consciousness through Filipino art.
For my undergraduate thesis project, I created E-MAHINASYON: a virtual exhibition of research-based design fictions made to explore Filipinos' relationship with technology.
Ways of using and designing technologies often reinforce inequalities, disproportionately affecting those in the Global South — particularly Filipinos. Being deeply embedded in technology, they bear the brunt of how major social media platforms like Facebook are run. For instance, Filipinos have served as guinea pigs for Big Tech companies and politicians, given that The Philippines has been the primary testing grounds for misinformation campaigns. Furthermore, many Filipinos work as content moderators for these platforms, struggling to filter traumatic content with little support.
In general, it is clear that the tech industry is fueled by the exploitation of Filipinos. If the dominant systems, values, norms, and practices (a.k.a. the imaginary) surrounding technology are not problematized, then the future will continue to be inequitable.
To question these present realities, I want to use the power of unreality/fiction to stimulate the imagination. Guided by the framework of design justice, I set out to accomplish the following objectives:
For this initial iteration, I decided to make my target audience Filipino knowledge workers. While I knew that an informative website was not capable of engaging the entire Filipino population, I also believed that tech workers weren't the only ones who could benefit from this. Knowledge workers are not only literate enough to access the website, but they are also undeniably afflicted by technological imaginaries, given how their roles are enabled by technology. Moreover, I believe that they have an active role to play in shaping the future for all Filipinos, whether or not they're working in the tech industry. Thus, gaining more critical awareness would be crucial for them.
E-MAHINASYON is a virtual exhibition of Filipinos' technological futures. Intertwining research findings and design fiction, it explores various future scenarios in order to illustrate Filipinos' relationship with technology. Overall, it seeks to inform and provoke Filipinos about the social, cultural, and ethical implications of emerging technologies in the Philippines.
The website features three scenarios: optimistic, pessimistic, and probable. Each scenario is described through themes and subthemes, which are then further visualized through galleries of insights. Each insight comes with the following:
The website also has an overall findings page that discusses the implicit systems, values, norms, and practices behind Filipinos' conceived technological futures. Each subtheme has its own page, where rich descriptions are accompanied by vivid images.
I believe that E-MAHINASYON is capable of...
To accomplish my first objective (investigating imaginaries), I needed to do in-depth research and sensemaking. Wanting to gather a diverse range of voices and perspectives, I decided to embark on parallel research approaches:
The personal visions gathered from the ethnographic research served as a micro perspective; they were then further enriched when situated in the general technological landscape described in the foresight research, which provided the macro perspective. Once I was done with all the interviews, they underwent reflexive thematic analysis: a combination of both inductive and deductive approaches to coding. I also conducted desk research to find supporting resources for the interviews' insights. Then, I wrote out my research findings as 4 chapters of my thesis, which then served as the website's content.
Next, I worked towards my second objective (materializing imaginaries) by designing and developing the virtual exhibition. Speculative and critical design were utilized to visualize the future scenarios, while UX design was used in creating the container for these scenarios. After this, I used Webflow to bring these designs to life. The design and development of the website was a circular process, with me often cycling between stages. Finally, once I had an MVP of the website, I conducted user testing with a small sample of people.
Based on the interviews, Filipinos expect to see ubiquitous computing in a future Philippines, whether it is optimistic and pessimistic. What differentiates the optimistic and pessimistic scenarios is their motivation for development; the former is centered around the people, while the latter is centered around profit. And while the probable scenario contains elements from both scenarios, it leans more towards the pessimistic, reflecting a prevailing sense of cynicism amongst Filipinos.
Additionally, the interviews also showed that Filipinos...
To start translating the research insights into a website-ready format, I began by constructing a sitemap. At the same time, I drafted sketches of the website to help with envisioning specific page structures, given that I'm a visual thinker. This process helped me come up with the general structure of a scenario page: Scenario → Theme → Subtheme → Insight.
This process also helped inform the design of the website’s content management system. Thanks to knowing how I wanted to structure and visualize the research findings, I was able to determine how to group these into collections of content, along with the relation of these collections to each other. To envision these collections and their relationships, I created a simple entity relationship diagram (ERD). Thanks to this ERD, I was able to have an easier time developing the website in Webflow.
Now that I had an idea of how to structure information on my website, I was able to start making low-fidelity wireframes. Once I was happy with the basic form, I then proceeded to designing high-fidelity mockups, which were more polished and accurate simulations of the website. To guide my designs, I created a simple style guide consisting of a color palette and typography. With this, I was able to design consistently styled components for the website faster.
I used AI art generators (i.e. DALL-E 3 and Pika) to create the visuals in my website because of the following reasons. One reason is personal constraints; since I was doing all the research, design, and development by myself, I needed help to ensure that I could finish my thesis on time. Another reason is the aesthetic; I thought that the quirks of AI art suited the topic of my thesis.
I chose to use Webflow because it is not only a no-code website builder, but also an integrated content management system. Once I created my 6 collections: Themes, Categories, Insights, Examples, Quotes, and Interviewees, I was able to connect them to existing design elements on my site, which Webflow would then automatically fill up for me. For instance, after building a list of Insight cards, once I connected the Insight collection to it, Webflow automatically populated it with data from my collection. Furthermore, Webflow automatically creates template pages for each collection too; once I designed the page template for Insights, I was already able to see populated data there.
I gathered feedback from my respondents through both quantitative (User Experience Questionnaire) and qualitative approaches.
What respondents liked about the website was that...
However, they thought that the website could be further improved because...
Working on this project for almost two years has left me with several reflections:
While I only got to accomplish a fraction of my original vision, I am excited for all the ways this project could evolve in the future. Here are some recommendations:
After taking a break to recharge, I plan to further develop E-MAHINASYON by 1.) expanding to popular social media platforms and 2.) crowdsourcing design fictions. These developments would not only improve the project’s reach, but also its engagement with the Filipino people. If you have any ideas, please don't hesitate to reach out! :)
The Lexicon aims to raise the standard of effective curation in the Web3 space by leveraging experts in instructional design and knowledge mapping.
There is a plethora of great content online (i.e. articles, videos, podcasts, tweets) that attempts to explain crypto/web3 concepts. However, curation around this content is almost always superficial — usually an aggregation of links on a page or people to follow in a Twitter thread. Most attempts at curation don't consider a reader's prior exposure to a topic, include no key takeaways or excerpts that provide a preview of the content, and have no knowledge mapping between different pieces of content.
The Lexicon is a curated Web3 learning resource for individuals of all proficiency levels. Initiated by the Crypto, Culture, & Society DAO, it aims to raise the standard of curation in the space as a public good that's evergreen and open-sourced for new contributions.
We wanted to make this resource useful for the following personas:
For our MVP, we decided to focus on a single persona and topic: DAOs for beginners.
We started off with workshops. First, I facilitated a persona workshop that would help us further profile our target audiences. This was guided by the following questions:
The descriptors we gathered helped me visualize how The Lexicon's design would be personalized for each of our personas.
Then, we decided to create a mindmap of DAOs. This would allow us to understand and define our scope (i.e. how much are we going to cover?). Members were encouraged to make their own mindmaps first before adding to the master mindmap; this way, people wouldn't be afraid to start contributing.
Soon after, many more contributors started to get involved with this project. We were split into the following teams:
I worked with a lovely brand strategist (shoutout to oddstout.eth!) to figure out the identity of The Lexicon.
I started by collecting inspirations for the project's look and feel. He then put these all into an organized spectrum, which helped me be more intentional with my design approach.
He also came up with an insightful creative brief. This started with diving deep into people's increased interest in Web3. An immense structural and psychological shift factored in this (e.g. The Great Resignation); beneath this shift is the desire to be equal with everyone else.
To best respond to this desire, The Lexicon would take the form of a digital garden. I see digital gardens not just as personal, free-form, & work-in-progress wikis, but also as pluralistic & interdependent ecosystems. The Lexicon isn't the product of someone who collected links and then called it a day; instead, it was intended to be a collaborative project that was continuously tended to. Learning complex topics on your own like Web3 can be difficult, but coming across collaborative curation efforts helps with this burden.
Overall, the Lexicon's branding was grounded on the following core values:
Since we were starting out with beginners, I wanted to design the Lexicon's MVP as a guided learning experience. I took inspiration from various knowledge hubs across Web2 and Web3.
As soon as they opened the website, I wanted people to already feel like they were being welcomed into a digital garden. This was done through cozy visuals and delightful copy (thanks Sandy!)
Building on the library theme, I decided to present each chapter as its very own book. The chapters' visuals were inspired by retro book covers, such as Penguin and Pelican classics.
I wanted the chapter experience to feel like reading a page of an actual book; I tried to embody this in its design, as seen in the paper background and the delicate typography. Helpful narration would be interwoven with each chapter's curated resources, which were then organized by subtopic. Clicking on a resource card would provides a detailed summary of its content. If someone liked what they read, they were free to go to the full resource or share insights on their Twitter.
At the end of the whole experience, people can sign a library card. This was inspired by projects like A Declaration of the Interdependence of Cyberspace and Legacy.xyz, which both showed how digital signatures could be done through crypto wallets. By connecting a wallet + posting a verification tweet, one can create a signature that truly belongs to them. This process also worked as a form of marketing; seeing verification tweets on their timelines made others curious about these projects. We hoped to do the same for the Lexicon.
After building out the other personas, we wanted to open source the Lexicon process to maintain quality, dive deeper, and scale to any topic, including ones outside of crypto. We also wanted to add a social layer, so that people who are interested in meeting with others learning the same topic can form study groups or learn directly from educators. To build this out, we could partner with value-aligned organizations (e.g. Gitcoin/Kernel).
Unfortunately, the development of the MVP has stalled due to several factors -- namely the impact of the bear market and contributors dropping off due to lack of capacity. Thankfully, Crypto, Culture, & Society still hopes to push this out by later this year or early next year. If you're a developer who's interested in helping out, please contact me!
Again, creation can't be done without collaboration. I wouldn't have been able to accomplish this much if it weren't for CCS. I'd like to thank specifically:
A preview of my toolkit as a design educator, shown through a workshop series I created for a student-run organization advocating & practicing human-centered design.
"One must look at the next step on the path ahead, rather than the mountain in the distance, or one would never reach one's goal" — Cassandra Clare
When I started pursuing design, I found myself lost in a space of confusing ambiguity and information overload. I was only able to get to where I am today thanks to my peers and mentors. Now, I want to do the same for aspiring designers. This motivated me to start sharing my knowledge as a student. It's intimidating to begin practicing a craft when people around you are years ahead in experience; I want to be an accessible and approachable guide for others.
Ever since the pandemic started, I've dived in teaching online. Here are some talks I've given:
A talk I gave with Chia Amisola on landing internships in product design and multimedia arts. We covered everything from crafting materials like portfolios to succeeding in the application process. We had a second run of this talk, iterating on feedback we got from our first; watch it here!
A talk I gave with Chia Amisola on personal branding. While we talked about the technicalities of developing a professional identity, we also emphasized the need to stay true to oneself.
I've also taught in private, facilitating small groups and mentoring 1:1. While some sessions are planned, most often happen on-the-spot while we'd be coworking together!
As User Experience Society's AVP for Design Training, I was responsible for holding events that would kickstart the members' design journeys. In the past, workshops conducted by the organization were sporadic and inconsistent. Now that I was in charge, I wanted to ensure that they were more intentional. Thus, I decided to create Introductory Workshops, which aimed to turn an aspiring rookie into a seasoned designer. This series consisted of four classes, each subsequent one progressing in difficulty.
In this workshop, I introduced the elements and principles of design. These were shown through examples of interfaces so that students could understand their application to product design. To build on this, I had an application section where I compared two interfaces and asked which one was the better one. This was inspired by the Can't Unsee game and UI-centric accounts like @ui.sia.
At the end, I made the students do a website study. They had to paste a screenshot of their favorite website, then analyze how the elements & principles of design were applied.
If there was one thing I could've done better, it would've been the onboarding for the activity. Initially, the students didn't know what to do. Many of them were new to Figma so they didn't know how to navigate the interface. I had to do a quick demonstration in order to get the ball rolling. If I had the chance to redo this workshop, I would've prepared simple instructions for using Figma along with how to do a website study. That way, there wouldn't be as much confusion.
In this workshop, I taught the basics of Figma: how to navigate its interface, use its built-in tools, and make components.
Here, I took an unconventional approach: I invited the students to simultaneously try out what they were learning while I was presenting in the Figma file. This was for the mini-activities I inserted throughout the talk, where the students were asked how to replicate a certain design.
At the end, I had everyone take part in a Figma Quilt; each student had to contribute one square frame. The only constraints I had were to make use of a prescribed color palette, and to use components (if possible). Here's what we all came up with at the end!
Things students liked about the workshop were:
However, points for improvement were:
In this workshop, I taught how to prototype designs with Figma, from creating connections to adjusting animations. The learnings from the talk were supported by product design examples, along with real-time demonstrations.
I also did a walkthrough of my designathon project, showing the interactions I incorporated and how I was able to do them.
At the end, I challenged the students to quickly prototype a delivery app. They were divided into 4 groups, aided by experienced facilitators. Despite me telling the students to prioritize function over visuals, they still took a lot of time in crafting the UI of their prototypes. If I had the chance to do this workshop again, I would've provided a wireframe kit so that they could focus more on prototyping.
Things students liked about the workshop were:
However, points for improvement were:
In this workshop, I introduced design systems. I discussed what they are, what their value is, what they consist of, and how they can be built on Figma. This was supplemented by examples, real-time demonstrations, and check-ins for students inserted throughout the talk.
At the end, I prepared a group activity where the students had to create a design system based on a prompt, and apply this in designing a mobile screen. Initially, this was supposed to have facilitators; however, I requested for this too late, so I had to add more guides for the students (e.g. pegs, instructions, example design system pages).
Unfortunately, during this part of the workshop, Figma went down. So I had to improvise by demonstrating on the spot: doing the activity on my own, taking on suggestions from the students.
Things students liked about the workshop were:
However, points for improvement were:
Turnout varied wildly; some workshops would have around 20 people attend, while others reached as high as 100+. What surprised me too was how most respondents ended up not being affiliated with User Experience Society or Ateneo; it showed me just how much people wanted to learn design. Based on feedback, the workshops were consistently rated high across different aspects (i.e. lecture, activity, speaker, logistics, overall experience).
When it comes to an online setting, I've learned that a simplified bite-sized approach is best for workshops with big audiences. This is because many attendees struggled to match the pace of the workshops due to complicated content, flow, and time constraints. To handle this for future workshops, here are some recommendations:
Another downside of the workshop format is that it's one-time only. I want to ensure that students can continue learning even after the workshop. Aside from providing take-home modules, this can be tackled by uploading recordings as soon as possible. This way, not only workshop attendees can review; those who weren't able to attend also get a chance to learn. I'm also planning to make an internal guide on online workshop design and facilitation so that future User Experience Society core can replicate this.
Spearheading design workshops for User Experience Society made me realize how much I love teaching. I can't wait to work more on the future of education.
My project manager Lance, who handled the logistics side of the workshops, from setting timelines to communicating with other departments. Without him, I wouldn't have been able to keep myself together.
My fellow User Experience Society core members, who often supported my workshops as attendees or facilitators.
All of the workshop attendees! I learned as much from them as they did from me; I'm honored to have been part of their design journeys.
An all-in-one tracker & community for learning, a.k.a. the Strava for personal growth. First Place Runner-up of the Interhackt designathon. Co-designed with Nikki Datlangin.
When Interhackt announced that its theme was "Making and understanding together", education was what first came to mind; exhausting Zoom classes, tedious learning modules, and unfinished online courses show that it's in dire need of an overhaul. As students and autodidacts, Nikki and I were motivated to work on this problem.
We were struck by inspiration when we came across these two blog posts:
Reading through these made us wonder: what would a Strava for learning look like?
Scenius is an all-in-one tracker and community for learning. Users can design their own learning plans, work towards them in public, and connect with fellow learners.
"Scenius stands for the intelligence and the intuition of a whole cultural scene. It is the communal form of the concept of the genius." — Brian Eno
In our first meeting, we delved into market research, analyzing features from social networking sites and educational tech platforms.
Then, we conducted user research our networks, targeting those who consider themselves self-learners. Our research objectives were learning:
Once we were done with surveys and interviews, we did affinity mapping, discovering common motivations and factors surrounding learning.
Making use of our third insight, we developed personas to empathize with our target audiences better. We assumed that solitary learners would seek guidance and self-awareness, while those who need a community would seek connection and accountability.
"I'm so used to learning on my own. College just feels like homeschooling again because everything's online."
"Even if discussion platforms exist on MOOCs, they’re not utilized enough. There’s barely any social factor to them, no kwentuhan (chit-chat)."
Thus, our goal for this project was to provide these self-learners a space for mindful learning.
While conducting research, we came across Anne-Laure Le Cunff's mindframing: a neuroscience-backed framework for personal growth. We liked this because it was structured yet flexible enough for self-learners; she describes in a literature review: "Individuals can assess their own progress through the reflective practice of creating and publishing content throughout their self-growth process." Thus, mindframing became the foundation of our entire app.
Nikki came up with the user flows, which I then fleshed out into screens. Here's the thought process behind designing the app:
When a user first opens the app, they are given a rundown of what the app offers. Then, they are directed to create their first pact. This was inspired by the creation process of popular habit tracking apps.
Once a pact is created, a user can log related tasks with descriptions and statuses (e.g. "In Progress). These tasks are also posted in public, where they can be replied to (perfect for feedback and discussion). I took inspiration from social media platforms centered around short posts like Twitter and Makerlog.
Aside from public posts, users can also connect with others through the Explore tab. They can search up other pacts, join clubs centered around similar interests and locations, and engage in challenges: time-bound pacts hosted by clubs. This tab was modelled after Strava's interface.
Finally, the user's profile gives an overall picture of how they are as a learner. You can see their activity, pacts, club, and statistics: data on what they've been learning and how long they've been working on it. This last part was a tricky design challenge: how can we visualize learning?
Most products we looked at (i.e. Headspace, Duolingo) utilized streaks to track continuous usage. Nikki took inspiration from Github to create an activity heatmap, which represented how many tasks a user posted each day in Scenius.
However, we knew this wasn't sufficient for communicating depth/breadth across different skills, so we started exploring other visualizations like skill trees and roadmaps.
I eventually settled on bubble graphs; these were inspired by the skill maps of interactive CVs. Compared to the complex graphs were looking at, this was the most flexible option; it could accommodate a diverse set of skills instead of being limited to just one This visualization is based on the days; the more you commit to a certain skill, the darker and bigger the bubble will get. A table below this graph gets more into the details.
While Nikki came up with the app's brand identity, I built an atomic design system so that we could prototype everything on time.
Interhackt was all about exploring the future of interface design. Working on this project made me realize that innovative ideas don't come from scratch; they can come from remixing what's existing. This perspective has exposed me to a new range of possibilities; thinking about how the proof-of-work model (e.g. Strava) can be applied to so many fields excites me.
Nikki, my partner, who co-designed this project with me. The stress of the designathon wouldn't have been enjoyable without our all-nighters together. I also had fun teaching her research and design practices on the fly!
The entire Interhackt community! The entire designathon experience was amazing thanks to them (e.g. interesting talks, support during demo day).
A research report for guiding a student-led tech non-profit in providing community-centered experiences.
Developh is a student-led nonprofit accelerating technology & experiences for social good. One of our initiatives is running an online community for budding technologists & creatives in Southeast Asia. Our members mainly reside in our Facebook group, where we share events & programming (e.g. internships, talks, hangouts, mentorship).
At the time of this research, the group had tons of untapped potential. Most of our projects were sparked from our intuitive urges, but we weren't sure if these catered to the needs of our target audience. Because of this, we wanted to conduct foundational research that would empower us to make data-driven decisions in the future.
How can we make being part of Developh Community a more meaningful experience?
First, we created a survey. Questions were centered around themes of identity, experience, and structure, taken from the Community Canvas framework. This was then disseminated in the Facebook group. We then contacted respondents who opted in for a 1-hour interview. Finally, the Developh team worked together to analyze and cluster the data we gathered through affinity mapping.
Once clustering was done, I created diagrams, personas, and journey maps to consolidate our insights. Everything was collated in a comprehensive Notion document for the members' reference.
Based on our insights, I recommended that Developh...
Since we our first round of interviews, the Developh community has grown enormously (from around 400 to 1000+ members!). Thus, we'll be conducting another round of interviews next year in order to get a better picture of our community. Stay tuned!
InsurePlus is a special membership program where people can get life insurance from top providers in the Philippines.
Despite insurance being a giant industry in the Philippines, life insurance penetration remains low. This is because of how much this sector is technologically underdeveloped. As a result, people delay getting insurance because they find the whole process difficult and frustrating.
How might we make the process easier for Filipinos? Enter InsurePlus: a special membership program where people can get life insurance from all the top providers in the country.
As the design lead (while just being an intern!), I:
I constantly iterated designs as pivots were made in our product and marketing strategy, helping the venture find product-market fit.
Due to my NDA, I cannot disclose much about my work. For more details on this project, please contact me through my e-mail.
Pieces I contributed to "365 Wonders 2019", a creative planner that aimed to spark feminist consciousness through Filipino art.
The 365 Wonders 2019 Creative Planner is a creative planner that aimed to spark feminist consciousness through Filipino art. It is an initiative of Woman, Create: an art studio that focuses on art-making, design, independent publication and events, and advocacy for intersectional feminism (or ‘everyday’ feminism) for Filipinos. Copies of this planner were sold nationwide, and a portion of its proceeds was donated to Young Focus, a non-profit organization that works to bring education to kids and families in Smokey Mountain, Tondo, Manila.
As one of the five Creatives Interns of Woman, Create for the batch of Summer 2018, I contributed to the “Diversity” cover (first cover, bottom-left part) and created two monthly cover artworks based on feminist themes.
Month: January | Theme: “Feminism: Where We Stand”
In a patriarchal narrative, gender roles are strictly defined — with man, being the breadwinners and women, only caretakers. Because we raise girls with this construct, girls struggle with the notions of leadership. This is a reminder that leadership is not gender-based, but an intrinsic, human-based characteristic.
Inspiration is derived from girls who strive to succeed in a world designed to be against them. Pastel colors play an element of feminity for girls who do not need to embody constructs of masculinity in order to exude power. A scout and a soldier was shown in the belief that both can embody girl power. The background illustrates an ideal world: one of solidarity.
Month: October | Theme: “Power”
To this day, women globally continue to live daily in a constant state of fear. Violence and harassment against women knows no logic, shape, or form. Studies by feminist scholars have often examined the effects on women living in fear, which may range from extra protection measures, establishing precautional routines, conformity to standardized rules. Overall, these effects reflect the powerless of women in the face of patriarchal violence.
This piece is an alternative of that powerlessness. Comically drawn that exudes inspiration from superhero graphic novels, this illustrates a girl who is no longer a reflection of these effects. Cornered in an alley, she wants to fight back. Unsheathing her sword, she is ready for the attack.
Contributor artworks were also shown in EDITION: FEMINISM, a month-long contemporary exhibit that idealizes a feminist revolution that considers the Filipino people.
A compilation of design work for dance, mental health, tech, and more over the years.
The Canvas is a showcase at Nude Floor (my favorite dance studio in Metro Manila) starring students + organized by students (or "Nudists", our name for the budding community at the studio). What initially started out as a joke in the group chat ("gawa tayo event" 👀) eventually became an official event organized in 2-3 months, all for the sake of giving back to the community.
I volunteered to oversee the design for the event. Creating every poster in Procreate, I went for a handdrawn feel for the following reasons: 1.) to fit the canvas theme, and 2.) to emulate the love and care all the students put into preparing for this event. Aside from graphic design, I also did social media management and video editing.
Talking Trauma: The Impact of Reporting on Humanitarian Crises is an engaging 9-day SMS-based microlearning course created by The International Red Cross that is designed to allow for critical thinking on the subject of trauma and its impacts on communities made vulnerable by conflict or other disasters. Through this, it aims to empower communicators and humanitarians alike. I assisted in the art direction of the course's visuals.
Likha, Liwanag was a non-profit collective dedicated to mental health literacy and fundraising, aiming to make mental health intersectional, interdisciplinary, and inclusive. I designed the brand identity.
Lucent (previously named Luna) was an annual creativity fair that aims to promote mental health awareness through art, workshops, talks, and performances. It was collectively organized by local mental health organizations (i.e. Youth for Mental Health Coalition, Silakbo, Tayo;Tayo, and Tala).
As the Creatives Head, I was responsible for designing f the event’s identity and collateral + managing a team of ~5 creatives.
Startup Challenge 2018: High School Edition is an annual two-day event with the goal of bringing students into the exciting world of startups and technopreneurship. It is organized by Youthhack Manila, the NCR chapter of Youthhack, a nonprofit organization that helps students learn more about startups, technology and entrepreneurship. They partnered with the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) to execute this event.
As the Marketing Core - Design member assigned to this event, I directed its visual identity and designed most of its collateral.
All-kill: (n.) when a song reaches #1 in all realtime charts.
Allkill Apparel was a mockup clothing brand that created minimalistic clothes inspired by Korean culture and aesthetic. Tired of the typical jersey shirts that defined K-pop fan merchandise, I created this brand as a design experiment. I designed the brand’s identity and collateral, along with its first collection. I also shot and edited the photos released.
