Tina Kao
Lead Product Designer
I believe exceptional design transcends mere aesthetics; it delivers tangible results. My user-centered designs empower individuals to achieve their objectives, creating positive impacts and driving success for my clients.
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Operto Guest Technologies Product team Permanent full-time February 2023 - current Hybrid Vancouver, BC, Canada
Lead Product Designer
At Operto, I played a pivotal role in driving innovation within a SaaS hospitality property management platform, focusing on enhancing guest experiences and streamlining operations for hosts and property managers worldwide. I contributed to the development of various applications covering experiences for hotel and short-term rental guests, operators, and staff.
UX/UI responsibilities
- Provide senior-level thought leadership in all areas of app design at Operto.
- Collaborate closely with the VP of Product, Product Managers, Developers, Product Analysts, and key stakeholders.
- Design through all phases of the product, delivering design systems, setting up user research methods, information architecture and navigation, structured content, wireframes, and high-fidelity prototypes.
- Advocate for user-centered design principles, ensuring seamless alignment with user needs and expectations throughout the development process.
- Lead user research initiatives, conducting customer interviews and usability testing to identify pain points and uncover valuable opportunities for improvement.
- Define product design direction in the roadmap and ensure user experience and accessibility is prioritized.
Products
I worked on main applications:
- Guest app for Guests: Elevated guest experiences with seamless registration, access to extensive property information, invaluable guides, personalized upselling opportunities, and a hassle-free check-in and check-out process.
- Connect app for Operators: Empowered operators with efficient communication tools, automated workflow creation capabilities, and revenue-boosting upsell features, ultimately enhancing guest interactions and operational efficiency.
- Teams app for Admins: Simplified property management tasks by providing a centralized Master Calendar for managing staff schedules and tasks, granting admins visibility into booking and property management processes for seamless oversight and control.
- Teams app for Staff: Optimized workflow efficiency for staff members by introducing intuitive task forms tailored to each property, simplified clock-in and clock-out procedures, convenient access to schedules, workload estimates, and streamlined access to pay statements, fostering heightened productivity and satisfaction.
SPUD E-commerce team Permanent full-time July 2022 - September 2022 Remote Canada
Lead UX Designer
UX/UI responsibilities
- Design customer experience to meet the demand for online grocery orders.
- Partner with product management, inform design decisions, and improve customer retention.
- Develop the creation of design concepts, including marketing, promotional campaigns, and other customer-facing messaging.
- Pioneering a new design system, providing mentorship to team members, and upholding design consistency in alignment with web accessibility standards.
- Managing, executing, and delivering projects under stringent deadlines.
Product
I worked to SPUD, an online grocery delivery service that empowers customers to order fresh, organic groceries, household essentials, and personal care products for convenient home delivery via their e-commerce platform.
SPUD FoodX team 1 year 2 months Permanent full-time June 2021 - July 2022 Remote Canada
Senior UX/UI Designer
FoodX (subsidiary of SPUD) is a B2B SaaS-based eGrocery management software platform. It operates grocery fulfillment and covers inbound, inventory, outbound, and reverse logistics used by retailers. Our clients include Carrefour Europe and Walmart Canada.
UX/UI responsibilities
- Design products for our expanding end-to-end platform on desktop and mobile counterparts.
- Facilitating collaborative workshops, user workflows, and developing wireframes and high-fidelity interactive prototypes.
- Producing top-tier UX design artifacts to communicate concepts and solutions effectively.
- Creating meticulous UI artifacts in adherence to established design systems.
- Maintaining active communication with cross-functional teams, including Product Managers, Business Analysts, Software Engineers, QA Testers, Technical Writers, Designers, and key stakeholders.
- Providing crucial support to inbound and outbound teams in the development of digital products.
- Serving as a mentor to team members and driving the implementation of effective UX design and user research processes.
- Multi-tasking, time-management, and prioritize tasks in an agile environment.
- Actively seeking opportunities to enhance and standardize the user experience across our product portfolio.
Products
I worked on five out of the ten FoodX applications:
- Fresh app: focused on maintaining inventory freshness and accuracy.
- Replenishment app: streamlined inventory replenishment from bulk to fixed locations.
- Streamline app: optimized inbound purchase order receiving.
- Delivery app: managing territory assignments for warehouse deliveries.
- Solve app: managing fulfillment issues, ensuring orders were completed on time before shipping.
Microsoft Xbox Game Studios The Coalition team Contract full-time March 2018 - December 2020 2 years 10 months Onsite Vancouver, BC, Canada
Product Designer IC2
First and sole Product Designer/Individual Contributor (IC) in The Coalition web team to launch five Gears of War franchise and product websites. I partner with the Web Product Owner, Web Producer, Lead Developer and contribute to the scoping and planning of each milestone.
UX responsibilities
- Lead the development and evaluation of personas, conduct usability testing, and analyze the competitive gaming landscape.
- Generate and iterate on design concepts, utilizing process flows, prototypes, wireframes, and high-fidelity designs to effectively communicate design strategies and detailed interaction behaviors.
- Produce comprehensive deliverables, including sitemaps, wireframes, information architecture, and intuitive user flows across various screen sizes.
- Foster excitement, loyalty, connections, and long-term relationships with gamers.
- Ensure product responsiveness and adaptability, with a focus on enhancing the brand and consumer experience.
- Prioritize and enhance call-to-action elements to improve content discoverability.
- Drive the design vision for five new websites and actively contribute to the discovery and planning of new products and features.
- Identify and present minimum viable product web features.
- Communicate design concepts and thought processes to the web team and key stakeholders, iterating based on valuable feedback.
UI responsibilities
- Establish a reusable, scalable, and shareable design system for cross-functional teams and partners.
- Ensure compliance with Microsoft's web accessibility standards to make products inclusive and accessible to all users.
- Develop a starter kit comprising essential components and style guidelines to expedite design and development workflows.
- Create high-quality graphics and iconography to support development efforts.
Products
I worked on five websites and a design system for the Gears of War franchise:
- Gears 5 website: for the AAA-title third-person shooter game
- Gears of War website: for the AAA-title franchise
- Gears Esports website: for the Gears 5 Esports tournament
- Gears Tactics website: for the turn-based strategy game
- Gears POP! website: for the iOS and Android mobile game
- Design system for The Coalition web team, ensuring consistency and efficiency across all Gears websites
Secure Enterprises Permanent full-time December 2014 - October 2016 1 year 11 months Remote Canada
Creative Director
Secure Enterprises is a software research and development company.
UX/UI Responsibilities
- Responsible for user experience and user interface design for a messenger application and branding.
- Proactively identify issues, establish benchmarks, and iteratively design, test, and refine solutions.
- Provide leadership in user experience design across the planning and development life cycle for iOS and Android platforms.
- Deliver comprehensive design assets, including logo identities, layouts, typography, icons, wireframes, user flows, information architecture, mockups, and design guidelines."
Products
- Subscription-based end-to-end encrypted messaging app on iOS and Android.
- Device management system for businesses to secure and protect customer data on employee devices.
Fortinet Research and Development team Permanent full-time September 2012 - November 2015 3 years 3 months Onsite Burnaby, BC, Canada
User Interface/Graphic Designer 3
Fortinet is the fourth-largest network security company by revenue worldwide. It develops cybersecurity solutions, including hardware devices such as firewalls, software and anti-virus service protection, intrusion prevention systems, and endpoint security components.
The company has 330,000+ enterprise users and 3.4 million+ security appliances shipped. Customers include Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services, Dell SecureWorks, Intel and Oracle.
Responsibilities
- Design graphical user interfaces for software applications on iOS and Android, as well as consoles on macOS and Windows.
- Deliver high-quality mockups and graphical assets to facilitate user interface implementation for our Software Engineers in an agile work environment.
- Create websites, web portals, marketing collateral, presentations, and hardware packaging and handbook prints.
- Communicate graphic standards and specifications to team members, provide documentation of design guidelines, and print quality control.
- Deliver visual data, user flow, wire-framing, icons, illustrations, type, and layout.
Products
I worked on a range of web and native applications:
- FortiAP: a wireless access points solution
- FortiAnalyzer: a network security analytics solution and centralized network logging and reporting
- FortiClient: a SECaaS Endpoint protection of software and hardware inventory
- FortiCloud: a SaaS offering range of management and services
- FortiExplorer: a network management and config tool
- FortiManager: a centralized management solution
- FortiToken: a 2FA/IDaaS and one-time password software token app
- FortiOS: a SaaS network security OS providing protection for networks, data centers, cloud environments, and endpoints
- ForitGuard Center: a security intelligence and threat response service on vulnerabilities
- Fortinet Beta Program: an enrollment for future software and feature release
- Fortinet Video Library: a web-based resource video tutorials of Fortinet products
- Fortinet Document Library: a web-based resource technical documentations of Fortinet products
- Fortinet PMDB: a product management database that supports internal operations and ensures product up-to-date information accuracy and consistency
The Coca-Cola Company Far Coast collaboration September 2009 - December 2009 Onsite Vancouver, BC, Canada
Industrial Designer
The Coca-Cola Company is a multinational beverage corporation, manufacturer, retailer, and marketer. Far Coast is The Coca-Cola Company's entry into the specialty coffee and tea category.
Responsibilities
- Designed a furniture collection manufactured and deployed in prominent Far Coast Venues, including installations in the Whistler Athlete's Villages and the Lower Mainland during the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.
- Articulated the brand essence of Far Coast through color and style.
- Enhanced the Far Coast and 2010 Winter Olympic brands while cultivating the ambiance and atmosphere of the Far Coast 'warming zone.'
- Employed rapid prototyping, AutoCAD drafts, ergonomic considerations, user research, case scenarios, and usability testing.
- Engineered furniture for flat-pack assembly, streamlining production and transportation processes.
Products
Education
Emily Carr University of Art and Design
Bachelor of Design Major in Industrial Design September 2006 - May 2010 Vancouver, BC, Canada
British Columbia Institute of Technology
Applied Web Development Associates Certificate February 2011 - April 2012 Vancouver, BC, Canada
Skills
UX design
- Native apps on iOS, macOS, Android and Windows
- User research, usability testing and analysis
- Wireframe and information architecture
- Responsive and adaptive web design
- User scenarios and task flows
- Sitemap and user journey
- High-fidelity prototypes
- UX value proposition
- Presentations
- Accessibility
UI design
- Design system; visual and interaction specifications
- Style guide; typography, color usage and iconography
- Layout and uniform elements
- Human-computer interaction
- Graphic and illustration
- Brand identity
Front-end development
- JavaScript
- HTML5
- CSS3
Design tools
- Adobe Creative Suite
- Figma and Figjam
- Zeroheight
- Principle
- Zeplin
- Miro
Data insights
- Microsoft Power BI
- Optimal Workshop
- Google Analytics
- Microsoft Azure
- Salesforce
- FullStory
Research tools
- Opimal Workshop
- Hotjar
- Maze