Roots

Design Cruiser

Tari Rosario

Tari Rosario is the Lead UX Product Designer for Sprout Solutions, where she designs for HR and Payroll software systems. Previously, she held UX Designer positions in various startups before finding her love for research upon entering On-Off Group, where she worked as a Lead Experience Strategist. She graduated with a degree of BFA Information Design from the Ateneo de Manila University and spent her Junior Term Abroad in the National University of Singapore. 

In this episode, we talk about going on exchange at NUS, learning culture through her Information Design thesis, the differences between agency and product UX, and so much more.

Tari’s Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/lostrosario/
Tari’s Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/katrosario
Sprout Solutions - https://sprout.ph/
On-Off Group - https://www.onoffgroup.com/
National University of Singapore - http://nus.edu.sg/

Branding Sorcerer

Jiggy Villanueva

Jiggy Villanueva is a fresh Management Information Systems graduate from Ateneo de Manila University. For the past year, he served as the Executive Vice President of User Experience Society, the first student-led UX organization in the Philippines. He also led the branding team of JFFC, the biggest student web design conference in Asia. He interned as a UX Designer for companies like Make Technology and Kalibrr. In a few months, he will return to Kalibrr, as an Associate Product Designer.

In this episode, we talk about designing a brand for a conference, dealing with impostor syndrome as a designer, connecting Management Information Systems and UX Design, and so much more.

UX Society - https://www.uxsociety.org
Twitter - https://twitter.com/@jiggyvillanueva
Instagram - https://instagram.com/jiggyvillanueva
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jiggy-villanueva-2784a513a/
JFFC 2017 (Wayback Machine) - https://web.archive.org/web/20180416141058/http://jffc.asia/

Legal Design Whiz

Aris Acoba

Aris Acoba is a product designer and developer. He is currently the Head of Design at LawAdvisor, a legal technology company founded in Australia. He has been tumbling around Manila, Melbourne, and London, designing legal tech enterprise solutions. He has worked with companies like Mashup Garage, IdeasXMachina, Toyota Philippines, PAREF Southridge School, Lorenzana Food Corporation, and Eastwest Banking Corporation. He held positions in various industries such as banking, advertising, and currently startups.

In this episode, we talk about moving forward from doing advertising, working on your first product as a designer, flying to a different country and immersing in a different culture, and so much more.

Aris’s Website - http://arisacoba.com
Twitter - https://twitter.com/aris_acoba
CodePen - https://codepen.io/aris_acoba/
Dribbble - https://dribbble.com/aris_acoba
Mashup Garage - https://www.mashupgarage.com/
LawAdvisor - https://www.lawadvisor.com/

Design Cook

Paul Sabandal

Paul Sabandal is the Head of Product Development at Qwikwire, a multi-awarded startup that provides cross-border payment solutions for real-estate — they handle international online payments for clients AyalaLand, Century Properties, Double Dragon and other top real-estate companies in the Philippines. He leads the end-to-end processes related to product discovery.

He also co-founded Figma Philippines, helping teach the collaborative design tool Figma through meet-ups for the community.   

In this episode, we talked about working while finishing school, raising funds for an ICO, starting a community group for a design tool, and a lot more.

Paul’s Website - https://www.paulsabandal.com/
AQWIRE - https://beta.aqwire.io/
Bonus from Paul: Value Proposition Canvas (Figma File) - https://www.figma.com/resources/assets/value-proposition-canvas/
Figma Philippines - https://www.facebook.com/groups/FigmaPhilippines/

The Front-end Designer

Chi Señires

Chi Señires is a UI/UX Designer at TrueMoney Philippines, where she designs products to help the underbanked and underserved in our country. When not doing design work, she does front-end web development. 

Before graduating with a degree in Computer Science in 2016, she co-founded User Experience Society, the first student-led UX organization in the Philippines. She also served as the Associate Vice President for Publication at the Computer Society of the Ateneo, the home organization for Computer Science majors.

In this episode, we chatted about being the first and sole designer in a team, documenting your processes, aligning teams around outcomes, and so much more.

Website - http://chisenires.ph/
Twitter - https://twitter.com/ChiSenires
UX Society - https://www.uxsociety.org/
CompSAt - https://www.compsat.org/

Experience Engineer

Charz Mendoza

Charz Mendoza is the Head of User Experience at Mynt. His main responsibility is to ensure the products and services of GCash deliver good user experience across all its channels. Previously, he was a Co-founder and Chief Experience Officer of B3Solutions. Before that, he was an Experience Design Specialist at Smart. He also held design and copywriting roles at top ad agencies like Publicis Groupe, Mc   cann Worldgroup, and Ogilvy & Mather.

In this episode, we talk about shifting careers from graphic design  to UX design, being a design co-founder for a startup, pursuing your passion, designing for omnichannel experiences, and so much more.

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/charzmendoza/
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/charzmendoza/
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/charzmendoza
Twitter - https://twitter.com/charzmendoza
Charz’s Website - https://www.charzmendoza.com/

The Design Master

Paolo Malabuyo

Paolo Malabuyo is a Director of User Experience for YouTube Advertising at Google, where he leads an international team of designers and researchers responsible for enabling a healthy ecosystem for YouTube and its billions of users worldwide, and an Adjunct Professor at Carnegie Mellon University Silicon Valley, where he teaches a graduate-level course on Human-Computer Interaction & User Experience. He has led Product UX teams at Netflix, Mercedes-Benz, Zynga, Xbox, and more.

In this episode we talk about fighting career inertia, progressing from frontline manager to senior design leader, how design can mature further in the Philippines, and a lot more.

Paolo’s Blog - https://i4design.com
Paolo’s LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/wildchicken/

Inclusive Design Advocate

Job Buenazedacruz

I interviewed Job Buenazedacruz, a graphic designer at Canva. She’s the founder of Inclusive PH, a small online community of professionals who want to share and learn more about inclusive practices in different fields like design, engineering, copywriting, education, and medicine. She’s also a design consultant with two design firms: CIA Bootleg Manila and Godmother PH. She handles design research, design strategy, experience design, branding, and Industrial Design projects.

In this episode, we talked about solving social problems through design, helping clients understand customers and front liners, how to get started with accessibility and so much more.

Job’s Behance - https://www.behance.net/JobBuenazedacruz
LinkedIn (look for Job’s thesis project here!) - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jobbuenazedacruz
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/jobbuenazedacruz
Inclusive PH Page - https://www.facebook.com/inclusiveph/
Inclusive PH - https://www.facebook.com/groups/inclusiveph/

Productivity Architect

Brian Tan

I talked to Brian Tan, a UI/UX designer and merit scholar from the Ateneo De Manila University. He’s about to graduate in June with a degree in IT Entrepreneurship. Brian has done 6 internships already, including being a Product Design Intern at Kalibrr and a UI/UX Apprentice at Stampede, a Malaysian UX agency. He’s also the co-creator of HangTime, a web app built to help students compare class schedules. Brian is currently applying for design roles at tech companies and plans to start working later this year.

In this episode, we talk about how to find internships, how to maximise your college experience as a UX designer, and getting started with effective altruism.

ASES Stanford Summit - https://ases.stanford.edu/summit/

Stampede Design - https://stampede-design.com/

HangTime - https://hangtimeapp.com/

Brian’s LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianctan/

Brian’s Medium Account: https://medium.com/@btantheman

Content Design Wizard

Jasmine Ty

I interviewed Jasmine Ty, a seasoned UX content strategist and marketing copywriter with over a decade of experience working in Silicon Valley. She has worked at small startups like JustAnswer to big brands like Gap and Facebook. Her expertise includes finding brand voice and tone, marketing, e-commerce, UX, and machine learning. Soon, Jasmine will be joining Netflix as a Content Designer.

In this episode, we talk about why Filipinos should stop downplaying their achievements, being ethical and inclusive in design, working on products that billions of people use, and so much more.

Jasmine’s LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasminety/

JustAnswer - https://www.justanswer.com/

Shutterfly - https://www.shutterfly.com/

Mount Holyoke - https://www.mtholyoke.edu/