Independent design and development
As co-founder of Watermelon Design Co., envisioned and led multiple independent efforts in design, web, mobile, and flash dev from Taoyuan, Taiwan to San Francisco, CA
COMPANY
Watermelon Design Co.
Location
Taouyan, Taiwan • Ann Arbor, MI • San Francisco, CA
Year
2008-2015
ROLE & TEAM
Design, marketing, content (everything guy) + multiple developers
Over my 15-year career in UX, my UX philosophy has been rooted in a deep-seated curiosity and a commitment to life-long learning. The entrepreneurial projects below represent my earliest explorations into product strategy, design, and front-end development. Building these ventures from the ground up taught me how to wear every hat—from researcher to coder to marketer—and how to navigate the messy, end-to-end realities of launching a product.
Over my 15-year career in UX, my UX philosophy has been rooted in a deep-seated curiosity and a commitment to life-long learning. The entrepreneurial projects below represent my earliest explorations into product strategy, design, and front-end development. Building these ventures from the ground up taught me how to wear every hat—from researcher to coder to marketer—and how to navigate the messy, end-to-end realities of launching a product.
The Puppy Snap: Designing for a Cause
2020 • San Francisco, CA
The challenge: Dog owners and animal shelters often struggle to capture engaging photos of dogs to share online or promote for adoption.
My role: Design an iOS application that plays engaging sounds to capture a dog's attention for a photo, while simultaneously raising shelter awareness.
Work and skills gained: I spearheaded the visual identity, UI/UX, and interaction flows, modeling them after successful social photo apps. I created all App Store marketing assets and designed/developed a responsive HTML5 landing page.
Impact: Launched the app on the iOS store, establishing early shelter partnerships and a built-in donation model linked to app purchases to support animal rescue efforts.
Partybot9000: Crowdfunding Real-World Events
2015–2016 • Ann Arbor, MI
The challenge: Hosting events can be expensive, and it is often difficult to gauge real financial or social commitment from invitees.
My role: Create a crowdfunding and social reputation platform to share party costs and increase attendee engagement.
Work and skills gained: I developed wireframes and conceptualized social pressure mechanisms—such as public donation visibility, gamified badges, and VIP backer status—to encourage user investment and interaction.
Impact: Built actionable interactive prototypes that explored behavioral economics, unpacking how transparent funding goals and social reputation can drive group coordination and real-world participation.
The Puppy Snap: Designing for a Cause
2020 • San Francisco, CA
The challenge: Dog owners and animal shelters often struggle to capture engaging photos of dogs to share online or promote for adoption.
My role: Design an iOS application that plays engaging sounds to capture a dog's attention for a photo, while simultaneously raising shelter awareness.
Work and skills gained: I spearheaded the visual identity, UI/UX, and interaction flows, modeling them after successful social photo apps. I created all App Store marketing assets and designed/developed a responsive HTML5 landing page.
Impact: Launched the app on the iOS store, establishing early shelter partnerships and a built-in donation model linked to app purchases to support animal rescue efforts.
Partybot9000: Crowdfunding Real-World Events
2015–2016 • Ann Arbor, MI
The challenge: Hosting events can be expensive, and it is often difficult to gauge real financial or social commitment from invitees.
My role: Create a crowdfunding and social reputation platform to share party costs and increase attendee engagement.
Work and skills gained: I developed wireframes and conceptualized social pressure mechanisms—such as public donation visibility, gamified badges, and VIP backer status—to encourage user investment and interaction.
Impact: Built actionable interactive prototypes that explored behavioral economics, unpacking how transparent funding goals and social reputation can drive group coordination and real-world participation.
Teacher Lara: Updating the Classroom for the 21st Century
2011 • Ann Arbor, MI
The challenge: A colleague, Teacher Lara Hulbert, needed a modern digital hub to manage her classroom, as traditional methods lacked interactivity and collaboration.
My role: Design and develop a customized, interactive classroom website for her students to communicate, collaborate, and practice coursework.
Work and skills gained: I built a custom platform using the WordPress CMS, heavily modifying the framework with custom PHP. I also designed and developed custom Flash mathematics tools and interactive message boards.
Impact: Provided students with a reliable, centralized portal to check schedules, submit homework assignments, and play educational math games, vastly improving day-to-day classroom collaboration.
Moodtivities: Tracking Behavior & Emotion
2011 • Ann Arbor, MI
The challenge: People lack intuitive digital tools to connect their daily activities to their emotional well-being over time.
My role: Design a mobile tracking application to help users log behavior and discover actionable lifestyle correlations.
Work and skills gained: I conducted user research via paper prototypes, discovering a strong preference for predefined activities over custom entry. I designed the iOS interface and explored complex data visualizations to display emotional trends alongside smart, algorithmic lifestyle suggestions.
Impact: Delivered a mobile-optimized prototype featuring behavioral change mechanics, gamified leaderboards, and a clear color-coded mood scale to drive positive, data-backed lifestyle adjustments.
Teacher Lara: Updating the Classroom for the 21st Century
2011 • Ann Arbor, MI
The challenge: A colleague, Teacher Lara Hulbert, needed a modern digital hub to manage her classroom, as traditional methods lacked interactivity and collaboration.
My role: Design and develop a customized, interactive classroom website for her students to communicate, collaborate, and practice coursework.
Work and skills gained: I built a custom platform using the WordPress CMS, heavily modifying the framework with custom PHP. I also designed and developed custom Flash mathematics tools and interactive message boards.
Impact: Provided students with a reliable, centralized portal to check schedules, submit homework assignments, and play educational math games, vastly improving day-to-day classroom collaboration.
Moodtivities: Tracking Behavior & Emotion
2011 • Ann Arbor, MI
The challenge: People lack intuitive digital tools to connect their daily activities to their emotional well-being over time.
My role: Design a mobile tracking application to help users log behavior and discover actionable lifestyle correlations.
Work and skills gained: I conducted user research via paper prototypes, discovering a strong preference for predefined activities over custom entry. I designed the iOS interface and explored complex data visualizations to display emotional trends alongside smart, algorithmic lifestyle suggestions.
Impact: Delivered a mobile-optimized prototype featuring behavioral change mechanics, gamified leaderboards, and a clear color-coded mood scale to drive positive, data-backed lifestyle adjustments.
Taiwan English: Breaking Language Barriers
2009-2011 • Taoyuan, Taiwan
The challenge: During my tenure as an English teacher for Gloria Schools in Taoyuan, Taiwan, I realized there was a constant need for fresh educational games, but no centralized repository existed for ESL teachers to share them.
My role: Design and build an online, community-driven database to help teachers find games and to help newly arrived expats navigate daily life in Taiwan.
Work and skills gained: I co-founded the platform, leading the design and coding the front-end (XHTML, CSS, PHP). To incentivize contributions, I designed a gamified animal-themed ranking system for users who submitted content.
Impact: The platform successfully scaled to include over 150 detailed games, a comprehensive SEO-optimized cultural guide, and an active language-exchange matching system connecting locals and foreigners.
Penpal Roulette: Fostering Global Connections
2009-2011 • Taoyuan, Taiwan
The challenge: The rise of random networking sites like Chatroulette and Omegle highlighted a gap in the market for platforms fostering long-term, thoughtful interactions rather than fleeting, anonymous connections.
My role: Build a desktop web platform to anonymously pair strangers worldwide for sustained email penpalling.
Work and skills gained: I designed and developed the system architecture (XHTML, CSS, PHP, MySQL), implementing frictionless onboarding and an anonymous mail-routing backend that protected user privacy. I also utilized jQuery to style the interface and integrated SEO and AdSense.
Impact: Grew the platform to over 500 registered users, successfully managing an active community while navigating the end-to-end challenges of product marketing and iteration based on user feedback.
Taiwan English: Breaking Language Barriers
2009-2011 • Taoyuan, Taiwan
The challenge: During my tenure as an English teacher for Gloria Schools in Taoyuan, Taiwan, I realized there was a constant need for fresh educational games, but no centralized repository existed for ESL teachers to share them.
My role: Design and build an online, community-driven database to help teachers find games and to help newly arrived expats navigate daily life in Taiwan.
Work and skills gained: I co-founded the platform, leading the design and coding the front-end (XHTML, CSS, PHP). To incentivize contributions, I designed a gamified animal-themed ranking system for users who submitted content.
Impact: The platform successfully scaled to include over 150 detailed games, a comprehensive SEO-optimized cultural guide, and an active language-exchange matching system connecting locals and foreigners.
Penpal Roulette: Fostering Global Connections
2009-2011 • Taoyuan, Taiwan
The challenge: The rise of random networking sites like Chatroulette and Omegle highlighted a gap in the market for platforms fostering long-term, thoughtful interactions rather than fleeting, anonymous connections.
My role: Build a desktop web platform to anonymously pair strangers worldwide for sustained email penpalling.
Work and skills gained: I designed and developed the system architecture (XHTML, CSS, PHP, MySQL), implementing frictionless onboarding and an anonymous mail-routing backend that protected user privacy. I also utilized jQuery to style the interface and integrated SEO and AdSense.
Impact: Grew the platform to over 500 registered users, successfully managing an active community while navigating the end-to-end challenges of product marketing and iteration based on user feedback.