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About me

I keep asking, “Why does it have to work this way?”

The story

How I got here.

Portrait of Shushan Reya
  1. 01

    I started my journey in Fashion Communication, exploring photography, graphic design, and 3D.

  2. 02

    During one of my assignments, I created a social media video that involved decoding how UX works. That small project introduced me to a new way of thinking about design — understanding how people interact with things and why certain experiences work.

  3. 03

    It made me realise that design isn't just about making something look good; it's about solving real problems and making people's lives easier. That realisation led me toward UX and digital products, where I could combine my visual design background with problem-solving and human-centred thinking.

  4. Less friction. More possibility.

Experience

Real product work, before the concepts.

My first year in industry was spent designing inside a live AI-based learning platform, working alongside engineers and product owners on features that shipped to real learners.

UI/UX Designer

AI-based Learning Management System (LMS)

1 year

  1. What I worked on

    Learner and admin-facing screens across the platform — onboarding, course and content flows, dashboards and AI-assisted features.

  2. What I contributed

    End-to-end UX/UI: flows and wireframes through to high-fidelity screens, plus reusable components and patterns so the interface stayed consistent as the product grew.

  3. How I worked

    Close, iterative collaboration with developers — handover, review and refinement — with design decisions argued from user needs rather than preference.

What I keep noticing

Things I keep noticing.

01

People shouldn't have to fight the interface.

If someone has to work out how the screen thinks before they can use it, that's a design problem, not a user problem.

02

Good design can make complicated things feel obvious.

Complexity rarely disappears. It gets absorbed by structure, sequence and hierarchy instead of by the person.

03

Technology is only useful when it actually helps someone.

A feature that impresses but doesn't reduce effort is decoration with a roadmap attached.

Capability

What I work with.

Strategy, craft and systems — used together rather than as separate stages.

01Product & UX

  • 01Research
  • 02UX Strategy
  • 03Information Architecture
  • 04User Flows
  • 05Wireframing
  • 06Interaction Design
  • 07Prototyping
  • 08Design Systems
  • 09Accessibility

02Visual Communication

  • 01UI Design
  • 02Visual Design
  • 03Branding
  • 04Typography
  • 05Art Direction
  • 06Motion
  • 07Presentation Design

03Strategy

  • 01Human-Centered Design
  • 02Behavioral Design
  • 03Systems Thinking
  • 04Problem Solving
  • 05Design Thinking

Tools

What I make it with.

Design

Where the interface and the system get made.

  • Figma
  • Photoshop
  • Illustrator
  • InDesign

AI & Exploration

Where ideas get stress-tested, mapped and expanded quickly.

  • ChatGPT
  • Claude
  • Gemini
  • Stitch
  • Figma AI
  • Figma Make
  • Lovable
  • Eraser.io
  • Whimsical

3D & Creative

Where form, material and motion get explored.

  • Maya
  • CLO 3D
  • Fusion 360
  • Premiere Pro
  • After Effects

Outside design

The things that keep me curious.

Design is one part of my brain. The rest is usually reading, making things with my hands, or writing down the things I notice.

Handmade crochet amigurumi figures on a pink background
01

Crochet

Crochet makes me slow down, concentrate and work patiently through a sequence. One wrong stitch and the row tells you immediately.

Precision can be playful.

Two stacks of novels and manga including Murakami, Kafka and Tolkien
02

Books

Books give me access to worlds, perspectives and arguments I might never arrive at on my own. Reading makes me more imaginative — it pushes me toward things I wouldn't normally think about and gives me new ways of seeing people and ideas.

Curiosity needs context.

Pixel art

Pixel art portrait of a girl with headphones and glasses
Pixel art scene of vending machines outside a Japanese house

Digital art

Digital illustration of a retro television on a kitchen counter
Digital painting of an industrial skyline under an orange sun

Photography

Sunlight through green leaves and bamboo
Deep blue evening sky with clouds over a hillside
Light falling across chairs on a quiet balcony
Misty hills and a lake seen from a wooden railing

“Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even to the dull and ignorant; they too have their story.”

— Max Ehrmann, Desiderata

Next

See how I think in practice.

Resume available for download