ABOUT ME
MY STORY
I love to create beautiful things and I crave to understand human behavior. They’ve served as my compass on my creative and professional journey.
B.S in Early Childhood Education
@ NYU Steinhardt
M.A in Cognitive Science in Education
@ Columbia University, Teachers College
Certificate in UX Design from UX Academy
@ DesignLab
Today, my compass has led me to UX/Product Design, and I’m coming in carrying a toolbox full of experiences and skills I’ve collected from teaching the early childhood years and creating educational online content. Where I was teaching using a student-first approach and observing students’ behavior, I am now using a user first approach to research and determine what type of solution they actually need. Where I had to accommodate a wide variety of learners and differentiate lessons, I am now carefully considering how to ensure a positive and engaging interaction with the product for users of a variety of needs and behaviors. The ability to read between the lines, listen for nuance or what isn’t said, and anticipate issues before they arise was as important in my previous role as it is as a product designer.
As a former teacher in New York, I developed a unique perspective on learning and parenting — to use a child-led holistic approach that prioritizes their thinking and relational skills — so they can be independently successful on their lifelong journey of learning. What I discovered in the initial years in the classroom made me become more curious about the mechanisms behind how we learn best. And so, I pursued a master’s in Cognitive Science to find the answers, with the intention of eventually becoming a UX designer.
I intend to use my background in child development and learning science in design projects related to children’s learning, women’s health and wellness, and the family, to enhance the design process and create products that enrich their lives. This means making detailed observations and actively listening to potential users, leaning into collaboration with teams and various expertise to problem solve, and lastly coming up with creative and engaging solutions that demonstrate I empathize and care for their unique needs. My goal is to work on projects that improve children’s social emotional learning within the digital world…
WHAT I DO
How I can support your project
UX/Product Design
Educational Content
Learning Modules
Newsletters
Social Media Posts
Curriculum Design
UX Strategy
Interaction Design
Prototyping
Design System
Competitive Analysis
User Journey
User Interviews
Personas
Let's create together
Let's create together
She's proactive, a fast learner, and a thoughtful teammate.
Her background in child psychology, development, and education really shines through in the content she creates for our parent audience. She has a knack for translating theoretical knowledge (e.g, family dynamics, communication, and attachment styles) into relevant and effective advice for our parents in our weekly newsletter. Over the past few months, she's tackled topics ranging from modeling gratitude for teens and self-compassion during the holiday season to love languages and easing a teen's anxiety. Since she’s been with Cherish, we have received positive feedback on our newsletters and we've seen our audience grow considerably.
Grace Chiang
Founder of Cherish Parenting
Others Have Said . . .
Alison is a dream teammate and a friendly, inspiring leader.
At ChatClass, she was attentive to client needs, developing content and learning solutions that were innovative, rigorous, and well-planned. She was able to take the lead on a number of projects with flawless execution. She is an exceptionally bright, hard-working, and kind individual who cares deeply about education. Whenever she came into the office, she brought her positive, can-do attitude. I'd be thrilled to work with her again, and any organization would be lucky to have her!
Katie Heil Knight
(Former Director of Instructional Design at EnGen
I appreciated the powerful and unique perspective that Alison brings to her work.
I ask teachers to leverage their full identities in preparation for teaching young children in diverse contexts. Alison responded powerfully to this prompting, engaging both how she was privileged and disprivileged as a citizen of Hong Kong, actively examining the intersections of her post-colonial identity, and the impact her shifting identities will certainly have on her positionalities as a teacher. Alison's abilities, thoughtfulness, and drive in examining all of this point to her capacity to see the brilliance of all children while also possessing the social-emotional intelligence needed to work with families and children in her care as individuals as well.
Dr. Gail Russell Buffalo
Instructor of Education in ECE Program of
Teachers College, Columbia University