It began with film and photography. As I became more invested and drawn into the medium, entering work into film festivals and even winning a few, I began to see a parallel between design and film.

Both are all about understanding your audience.

How a scene breathes and feels, how it transitions from one to another, how the flow makes sense to the viewer. This evolved my philosophy on design to view design as not just creating something usable, but rather an experience like a movie. It should present information at the right time in the right way and draw the user into the story and flows it's developing while evoking delight.

Transitioning into product design, I was able to take that into places I've worked through designing fluid flows, intuitive motions, and emotive interfaces.

I aim to make the journey as delightful as the destination.

My name is Joshua Yao, and I'm a product designer who's excited about creating designs and user experiences that are memorable and immersive, while tinkering with everything to see how it can be better (like this portfolio).

I studied Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) at the University of Washington for my Bachelors of Science and also at the Georgia Institute of Technology for my Masters of Science in HCI.

I currently am located on the coast in a small little town called Seattle.