Swaggle
Mobile App
UX/UI . WEB . APP . SOCIAL MEDIA
AVAILABLE FOR FREELANCE
UI / UX + WEB MOK-YI CHOW
FEATURED WORK
I enjoy creating designs that delight and contents that engage.
Having collaborated with startups, small / big businesses, and federal government agencies, I am comfortable working on a team or solo the entire project from Ideation through it's entire development cycle.
MORE ABOUT MOK-YI
I'M A WEB DESIGNER WITH UX/UI EXPERTIES.
I ENJOY PRODUCT DESIGN FROM THE USER'S PERSPECTIVE.
I MOONLIGHT AS A CONTENT CREATOR.
It feels pretty odd writing about myself.
MY EXPERTISE
UI/UX
Understand the users by employing the Human-centered design methodology. Through observation and interviews, build wireframes and low- or high-fidelity mockups based on assumptions, and then test, test, test!
WEB DESIGN
Design and build modern websites suitable for small businesses or larger establishments. Ready to work as part of a larger team or tackle smaller jobs solo. Code from scratch or using an existing CMS like WordPress.
MOBILE APP DESIGN
Mostly worked in iOS but has working knowledge of Android. Designs and helps visualize the user flow by creating interactive mockups, followed by impactful final app design that makes sense.
PRODUCT DESIGN
Product Design is what I am most excited about at the moment and foresee becoming my next career venture. I find myself loving to problem-solve issues by creating and refining digital products. Developing a solution that solves a real-world problem is the crossroads of all my expertise and interests.
CONTENT CREATION
I have been creating communicative content for years (e.g., YouTube vlogs, Instagram posts, blogs, etc.), covering anything from how-tos and product reviews to opinions. I have also created multiple successful online forums with frequent large in-person meet-ups.
AI DESIGN
Having dabbled in AI design via Midjourney and DALL·E 3, I am really excited to begin incorporating them into my design toolkit as part of my workflow. Hello Skynet!
MOTIVATION
I love problem-solving, whether it is for a new, "revolutionary" product that addresses a pain point or coming up with a dashboard design prioritizing the most relevant data for the target audience groups. I absolutely love the design challenge of them all.
As a career-long Web Designer, things have evolved, and so have we. I now also identify as a UI/UX Designer, with the ability for pixel-perfect Visual Design (this was a thing). I echo what most experienced Developers would say: the programming language (tool) no longer matters to us as much. I have a solid understanding of which design works, how it works, and, perhaps more importantly, the ability to communicate why it works.
EXPERIENCE
U.S. Office of Personnel Management
SENIOR WEB DESIGNER 2006 - PRESENT
OPM.gov is the first stop for federal government employees' healthcare and insurance information, as well as the operating status (bad weather closing? that's us). As such, a major focus is on the website's accessibility to the general public. I am familiar with the best accessibility practices as well as section 508 compliance for website & PDF. We also started leaning more on the United States Web Design System (USWDS) in order to bring more conformation across all of the .Gov sites.
ZYi Studio
OWNER 2010 - Present
My freelance company produces high quality websites and mobile applications with quick turn-around time. I have created websites ranging from simple WordPress site to large custom ecommerce site.
SWAGGLE
CHIEF DESIGN OFFICER, CO-FOUNDER 2019 - 2022
Launched a male consignment shopping mobile app with three co-founders through the ETC (Baltimore, MD) and 1776 (Washington, DC) accelerator programs; handled most of the design tasks related to the app, websites, digital & print materials.
TRENDPO
UI/UX DESIGNER 2013 - 2014
Designed data visualization and marketing materials for a service that tracked politicians' social media engagement trend on Twitter and Facebook.
FOOD TRUCK MONKEY
DESIGNER, CO-FOUNDER 2011 - 2016
When food truck "2.0" first came onto the scene in D.C., my Menu Ninja team decided to build an online service that tracks food truck locations every day as well as provide online ordering feature due to the long lines we observed. As a design co-founder, I created the interface and marketing materials for this startup.
MENU NINJA
DESIGNER, CO-FOUNDER 2009 - 2018
While there was online ordering for restaurants back in the 2010s, we saw a need for a more robust online platform for smaller restaurants that could not afford to develop their own. We targeted the Chinese restaurant niche that does a lot of carry-outs and developed a platform that allows the restaurants to receive online orders through fax, email, text. As a design co-founder, I led the design of the interface and marketing materials.
THE MAP NETWORK
ONLINE PRODUCER 2004 - 2006
We created interactive Flash map, as well as customized print-map for different cities and events using GIS data, with personalized POIs. I worked with Flash, MS Access, and SQL helping with new online map creation.
WONDERCLICK.COM
WEB DESIGNER 2001 - 2002
WonderClick.com was a legit sweepstake site that offered free products from vendors after a certain number of "click" entries. As a web designer, I created engaging product pages, banner ads, and marketing material that inspired trust.
CONCEPT DEVELOPERS
ART DIRECTOR 1998 - 2004
A fun side hustle with an entrepreneurial childhood friend, developing and designing websites for small businesses. I miss those days!
FAVORITE
STACK
FIGMA
DESIGN
I work in Figma extensively these days for wireframe, prototype, mockup, and deliverable. I find it comparable to Adobe xD & Sketch (I have worked with all of them extensively before) with some nice built-in features that make life easier for designers and collaborating with developers.
PHOTOSHOP
RASTER IMAGE EDITING
Having used Photoshop since version 5.0, head-swapping my friends in photos (Photoshop is on version 25.6 as of Feb 2024!), it has been amazing seeing how Photoshop has progressed not just as a photo-editing tool, but the de-factor raster editor of choice.
ILLUSTRATOR
VECTOR IMAGE EDITING
While not as much of a wizard in Illustrator as I am in Photoshop (I live in there!), I am still dangerous with my Bezier Curves. As I find myself preferring vector-based images for the best quality output (eg: SVG), versus having to export @1x, @2x, @3x.. etc for raster, I find myself opening AI more compared to PS these days.
DREAMWEAVER
FRONT END DEVELOPMENT
Dreamweaver is usually my go-to for writing HTML & CSS; while I have worked in anything from Notepad to Visual Studio, Dreamweaver is just what I have been using most of the time.
PREMIERE PRO
VIDEO EDITING
Premiere Pro is my video editor of choice at the moment, although I have also worked in Final Cut Pro and tried DaVinci Resolve. I have also dabbled in After Effects but don't feel that I have enough expertise to include AE in the list.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
These days I mainly work in web design and content creation; while I have done designs for mobile app, logo, as well as print. I know the basic criteria of most media and the best practices for effective design for each (or know how to Google). I can also run user experience testing like focus groups, user interviews, etc.
I find myself gravitating to products or services that would make an impact in everyday life, something that matters.
I hate to do this to you, but yes, it does depend. =) Send me an email and we will chat.
LET'S WORK TOGETHER
CONTACT NOW
I'M A WEB DESIGNER WITH UX/UI EXPERTIES.
I ENJOY PRODUCT DESIGN FROM THE USER'S PERSPECTIVE.
I MOONLIGHT AS A CONTENT CREATOR.
Yep, it still feels pretty odd writing about myself.
