About – Selena Jiang

Hello, I'm Selena

Who I Am

ᚼ Who are you?

My name is Selena (inspired by Selena Quintanilla, not Selena Gomez) and I live in Irvine, CA. I've been in Southern California most of my life ever since I came here from China when I was 7. I attended UC Irvine where I studied Business Economics and Accounting, and initially worked as an accountant before transitioning to a career in Product Design.

Pro tip: Don't pursue accountancy unless you love to stare at abstract numbers all day and identify super elusive discrepancies.

ᚼ Why did you become a designer?

In college, I aimed to be an accountant for financial security but I've never enjoyed it. I didn't know I wanted to become a Product Designer until I was chatting with my developer colleague one night and he told me about a UX/UI boot camp he took and how much he enjoyed it. I had never heard of this role before but was immediately drawn to his experience and what he was able to accomplish. Within a week, I stopped studying for my CPA exams and signed up for a boot camp while working full-time. And to this day, this is still one of the best decisions I've made.

ᚼ What do you like about design?

I'm passionate about various design fields like product, interior, graphic, fashion, and architectural design, not just product design. Design resonates a lot with me because it's aesthetically pleasing but most importantly, it's functional. It elicits emotions, creates values, and inspires others.

And being able to create something by hand that positively impacts someone's life, even for a short time, gives me great fulfillment.

ᚼ What is your favorite product?

It's tough to choose just one favorite but one of my recent favorite find is Creme. It's an app that teaches you quality chef's recipes. I love cooking, but I've found that most recipes are difficult to follow. What Creme excels at is how clear they convey each step in the recipe. They highlight measurements, incorporate timers for relevant steps, and have videos segmented for specific instructions. Creme recognizes the distractions and chaos in cooking and make their recipes easy to follow. While it's great, I find it lacking in features like voice-activated controls, options to substitute ingredients and cooking knowledge.