About Me

I'm a Product Designer who diagnoses before I design and builds systems before I ship.

Available for work
About Image

I'm a product designer trained at CMU's Human-Computer Interaction Institute, currently designing AI workflows at Perflection AI and leading the web redesign for the National Institute for Play.

I work best where the problem isn't fully defined. I start by diagnosing — talking to users, mapping the logic, understanding what's actually breaking — before anything goes into Figma.

My work spans AI interaction design, design systems (WCAG 2.1 AA), and 0→1 product ownership. I care about building things that hold up when real users encounter them under real conditions.

My Approach

01

Frame the Problem

Talk to users. Talk to stakeholders. Read the research. I don't guess at the problem — I find it.

02

Design the System

Start with structure: user flows, IA, component logic. Then move to high-fidelity. Never the other way around. The system is the design.

03

Validate & Ship

Test with real users. Fix what breaks. Hand off with documentation. Stay close until it's live.

Experience

Perflection.AI

Product Designer

2026

National Institute for Play

Director of Web & Product Design

2026

Mrs. Wordsmith

Product Design Lead

2025

Open Learning Initiative, CMU

Product Designer

2025

SAT. Knowledge

Founding PM & UX Lead

2022 – 2023

SAT. Knowledge

Learning & UX Designer

2020 – 2022

Experience

Perflection.AI

Product Designer

2026

National Institute for Play

Director of Web & Product Design

2026

Mrs. Wordsmith

Product Design Lead

2025

Open Learning Initiative, CMU

Product Designer

2025

SAT. Knowledge

Founding PM & UX Lead

2022 – 2023

SAT. Knowledge

Learning & UX Designer

2020 – 2022

Experience

Perflection.AI

Product Designer

2026

National Institute for Play

Director of Web & Product Design

2026

Mrs. Wordsmith

Product Design Lead

2025

Open Learning Initiative, CMU

Product Designer

2025

SAT. Knowledge

Founding PM & UX Lead

2022 – 2023

SAT. Knowledge

Learning & UX Designer

2020 – 2022

Education

Carnegie Mellon University

M.S. Educational Technology & Applied Learning Sciences

2025

National Taiwan University

B.A. Library and Information Science

2020

Are you interested in working with me?

Let's build something that works —
and works well.

Open to Relocate

Pittsburgh, PA

Copyright © 2026 Vanessa Chang. All Rights Reserved.

Are you interested in working with me?

Let's build something that works —
and works well.

Open to Relocate

Pittsburgh, PA

Copyright © 2026 Vanessa Chang. All Rights Reserved.

Are you interested in working with me?

Let's build something that works —
and works well.

Open to Relocate

Pittsburgh, PA

Copyright © 2026 Vanessa Chang. All Rights Reserved.