A few years ago, I thought good design was mostly about finding the right answer and making it well.
A clearer interaction. A better structure. A detail that felt considered rather than accidental.
Then I started working on products where a single screen could depend on system logic, engineering constraints, real-world behaviour and decisions made across several teams. Very quickly, I realised the screen itself was often the easy part.
The harder part was understanding what sat behind it.
Why does this rule exist? Will this decision still work somewhere else? Are two teams solving the same problem in different ways? Is this really a design issue, or is the product structure itself starting to break down?
Somewhere along the way, my questions changed.
I’m Chen. My background is in UX and HMI design, and over the past few years I’ve worked on complex automotive experiences where design, product and systems are tightly connected.
I started much closer to hands-on UI and interaction work, but my role gradually moved towards product ownership, cross-functional decisions and shaping the direction around the design, not just the design itself.
I still care about craft. I still notice when spacing feels slightly off, when an interaction asks for one step too many, or when a detail could be cleaner. But I now think about those details in a wider context.
Sometimes a small design issue is exactly that: small. Sometimes it reveals a missing rule, a weak system, an unclear ownership boundary, or a decision that needs evidence rather than another round of opinion.
Learning to tell the difference has become a big part of how I work.
I don’t believe good design comes from following one fixed process, and I don’t think every existing rule needs to be challenged. The judgement is in knowing what should stay consistent, what can flex, what needs to change, and when a local solution should become a wider one.
That is the part of design I’m most interested in now.
This site is a collection of the work, decisions and questions that have shaped that way of thinking.
A few years ago, I thought good design was mostly about finding the right answer and making it well.
A clearer interaction. A better structure. A detail that felt considered rather than accidental.
Then I started working on products where a single screen could depend on system logic, engineering constraints, real-world behaviour and decisions made across several teams. Very quickly, I realised the screen itself was often the easy part.
The harder part was understanding what sat behind it.
Why does this rule exist? Will this decision still work somewhere else? Are two teams solving the same problem in different ways? Is this really a design issue, or is the product structure itself starting to break down?
Somewhere along the way, my questions changed.
I’m Chen. My background is in UX and HMI design, and over the past few years I’ve worked on complex automotive experiences where design, product and systems are tightly connected.
I started much closer to hands-on UI and interaction work, but my role gradually moved towards product ownership, cross-functional decisions and shaping the direction around the design, not just the design itself.
I still care about craft. I still notice when spacing feels slightly off, when an interaction asks for one step too many, or when a detail could be cleaner. But I now think about those details in a wider context.
Sometimes a small design issue is exactly that: small. Sometimes it reveals a missing rule, a weak system, an unclear ownership boundary, or a decision that needs evidence rather than another round of opinion.
Learning to tell the difference has become a big part of how I work.
I don’t believe good design comes from following one fixed process, and I don’t think every existing rule needs to be challenged. The judgement is in knowing what should stay consistent, what can flex, what needs to change, and when a local solution should become a wider one.
That is the part of design I’m most interested in now.
This site is a collection of the work, decisions and questions that have shaped that way of thinking.
Selected work and thoughts by Chenbiao Zhang. Some content has been adapted to respect confidentiality.
© 2026 Chenbiao Zhang. All rights reserved.
Thinking through design, product and the systems behind them.