About
My name is Shane Kuo. I graduated from Skidmore college as a Mathematics major and Studio Art minor with concentration in Communication Design in 2017. I grew up in NYC with two fine artist parents, and as an only child, creating art was a given every day of my childhood since paper and a pencil were always available at a moments notice. But at school, I had fallen in love with mathematics, and since then, I have found that Mathematics and fine art are two sides of the same coin. At both their cores, mathematics was problem solving and logic, while fine art was innovation and creativity, and those skills always paired together for me whether I was solving quadratic equations or portraying my thoughts onto a piece of paper.
When I found out about DesignLab’s UX Academy and what UX Design was, I saw it as the combination of mathematics and art; where problem solving and logic meets innovation and creativity, becoming more than the sum of their parts. All I could think is if only I found this field earlier, because it seemed like the perfect fit. And throughout the first half of the program, I was feeling fully fulfilled. When I interned in finance, it lacked creative substance. When I focused on fine art, it didn’t satisfy my problem solving urges. But through the design thinking process, I had plenty of chances to be satisfied on both sides.
After the first half of my UX Design program, I can officially say that I have fallen for UX Design. And surprisingly, it wasn’t the problem solving or creative aspects that caught my heart. At the end of the day, one of my greatest hobbies since birth has been people. I love analyzing people; understanding the what, why, and how of every person’s lives is what makes life constantly interesting to me. I may have entered UX thinking it was this perfect middle ground between mathematics and art, and it definitely is, but what I’ve learned is that it is fundamentally about empathy and people. And with that, I have satisfied all three of my obsessions in life in one career path. And also, ultimately, there is no greater satisfaction than satisfying your own needs while improving the lives of others.
In a year, I hope to find myself giving it my all with a company in-house as part of the design team, whether as UX designer or a Product Manager. I am very much a people person and love strengthening connections between teammates so we can build a level of trust that strongly benefits the products we will be making. I want to be gaining loads of work experience through projects so I can learn from it all to better my skills as a designer in this constantly changing field. I want to have the space to tackle new innovative ideas as they come along, whether from me or from fellow co-workers. And of course, I want to be solving problems and creating innovative solutions.