Inside DigitasLBi XD: Akemi Leung, Senior Experience Designer
Inside DigitasLBi XD is an interview series of the Boston XD team’s “Unicorn of the Month.”
Where are you from?
Pasadena, California. Flip flops and avocados play a big role in my life.
Did you always want to be a designer? If not, how did you choose design for your career?
I was always interested in visual arts, but I didn’t pursue them because I was training to become a violinist. I went as far as getting a performance degree from the New England Conservatory. I was going to Tufts at the same time and found the Human Factors/Engineering Psychology major. Our curriculum was focused on user research and user-centered design, and I loved that it combined technical skills with artistic creativity, much like violin. Coming out of college, I felt that UX was a better career path for me than music, so here I am!
What led you to Digitas?
I found Digitas through my school’s career center and applied for a summer internship. My internship here was a great experience, and I was excited to return after graduation.
What do you like about working at an agency?
One of my favorite parts of this job is learning about a new industry every time I start working on a new client account. It’s like getting a behind-the-scenes tour of these major companies that I’ve seen my entire life.
What types of projects do you find inspiring?
I think a project is inspiring when a user comes away thinking, “What did I do before I had this?” Those projects tend to be so exceptionally designed that the user has no idea how much work went into creating them.
What are your career goals? What are you hoping for?
One of my goals is to always have time for learning. New tools and technologies seem to appear every other day, and I want to be able to take advantage of them.
What are some of your favorite tools?
I use Sketch all day, every day. Our Sketch files can get really heavy, so Slack has been fantastic for passing them between team members. Slack is also great for sending gifs to the aforementioned team members. We have a myriad of prototyping tools that have their own strengths and weaknesses, but a surprise benefit to Axure has been creating shareable directories of pages and components.
Favorite sites for inspiration?
What do you like to do outside of work?
My main activities growing up were violin and sailing, so I try to keep those up. Since college, I’ve been working on pointed pen calligraphy. My mom and I have done fun traveling as well. We loved hiking the Italian Lakes and taking a cooking class in Thailand.
Anything else you’d like to share?
I really enjoy working with the XD team because we all have different areas of expertise, and I learn new things from them every day. They’re also tons of fun after hours — I still like them even after sweating through spin class and yelling during rounds of Settlers of Catan and 7 Wonders.
The views expressed in this post are that of the author and may not reflect the views of the agency or company.
