About Jade

Designing with heart, wit and strategic insights, I create premium brand experiences for startups, luxury and tech companies.

I’m a design professional with over 12 years of experience in creating brand identities and digital products. I’ve worked with startups, creative agencies and international organisations in the luxury, hospitality, tech and e-commerce industries. My cross-disciplinary experience in graphic design, strategic thinking, user research and visual storytelling allows me to effectively run teams, design sprints, and communicate between C-suites, senior stakeholders and developers.

My work bridges aesthetics and functionality, transforming complex business problems into clean, elegant solutions that elevate user satisfaction and drive business impact. From logo to campaigns, websites to apps, I focus on clarity, creativity and outcomes that foster trust, loyalty and lasting emotional connections.

My Design Journey: From Handbags to Interfaces

My design story began not in a studio, but in my childhood home in Singapore, surrounded by swatches of leather and the hum of a sewing machine. My father was a handbag craftsman, and I was his curious sidekick helping him choose colours, materials, and test how each bag felt in the hands of real users. It was my first lesson in design: understanding how form meets function, and how every detail matters.

At age 9, I discovered a new canvas—computers. PowerPoint and Dreamweaver became my playground, and soon I was making posters, building Geocities websites, experimenting with layouts, colours, and interactivity. The tactile world of handcrafted bags had seamlessly merged with the digital realm, and I was hooked.

That early blend of physical craftsmanship and digital exploration shaped the designer I am today. I still carry those lessons with me: empathy for the user, respect for materials (whether pixels or leather), and a love for solving problems through design.

From Startups and Creative Agencies to International Organisations

After a few years of working in boutique advertising agencies, I started UX and UI design at SingTel Digital Media in 2011. Here I was responsible for creating digital products for inSing.com and HungryGoWhere throughout all digital touch points. In then moved on to SingPost (2014) and Standard Chartered Bank (2015) to help with their global digital transformation through the establishment of a universal digital design language and creation of a design-to-development process infrastructure.

I joined UX design firm Valtech Digital in 2016, where I was hired as its first designer, and subsequently became responsible for setting up and running a UX function. While being the solo designer in the firm, I won pitches for accounts of Far East Hospitality, Bolon Eyewear, Heineken, Dairy Farm Group, and grew the design team to a strength of 4 within a year. This also led to a significant increase in the revenue of Valtech Singapore.

In 2018, I joined De Beers Group, where I was brought in to drive the corporate innovation capability, lead UX projects and be a design partner for C-suites—creating executive-level reports and presentations to visually articulate complex strategic moves and initiatives.

Design Philosophy

Empathy first, elegance always.

I believe that great design is quiet and invisible. It guides, delights, and empowers without drawing attention to itself.

At the heart of my design process is listening: understanding business goals, user behaviors and needs, to craft experiences that feel effortless and authentic. I approach every project with curiosity, clarity, and a commitment to simplicity, because I believe design can be both beautiful and purposeful.

Design Process

1. Empathise

We start by understanding the business goals and user needs. By putting ourselves in the shoes of the consumer and fully understanding the motivations and experiences of the target audience, we are then able to align the business goals with user needs to ensure a sustainable outcome.

2. Define

We put together the information gathered during Stage 1. We analyse the challenges, observations and synthesise them to define the problem statement and create a clear value proposition statement.

3. Ideate

Most great solutions are a result of many little ideas generated and iterated over time. Here we process our findings and generate possible solutions by stepping beyond the obvious.

4. Test

In this stage, we put the ideas to test by using low fidelity prototypes, user testing and iterating them until they work and are approved by the business stakeholders.

5. Launch

Design specs and documentation are provided to ensure successful roll out of your project.

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Awards & Accomplishments

HungryGoWhere: Best Local App

I led the end-to-end UX and UI design for HungryGoWhere, a food recommendation app that won Best Local App at the 2013 Stuff Magazine Awards. The app helped users discover where and what to eat with ease, combining location-based search, user reviews, and curated recommendations in a seamless, user-friendly interface. Designed with both hungry users and busy foodies in mind, the app became a go-to tool for dining decisions across Singapore.

HungryGoWhere: Top Rated App

I led the end-to-end UX and UI design for HungryGoWhere, a food recommendation app that was awarded Top Rated App by Straits Times Digital Life in 2013. Designed to help users easily discover where and what to eat, the app featured a clean, intuitive interface praised for its ease of navigation. By simplifying the search and decision-making process, we created a user-friendly experience that made dining out more delightful for thousands of Singaporeans and tourists.

AppHack Top 10 Finalist

My mobile app design was shortlisted as a Top 10 Finalist at AngelHack’s AppHack Singapore 2013, a global hackathon celebrating innovation and creativity in tech. As the lead UX/UI designer, I led the design of a mobile app concept that was designed and prototyped with a cross-functional team in under 48 hours. The app focused on solving a real-world problem through intuitive user experience and clean interface design. The recognition highlighted our ability to combine thoughtful design with functionality, delivering a compelling product experience under pressure.

Far East Hospitality: Steady increases in hotel occupancies

Led the UX and UI redesign of the Village Hotel website, streamlining the booking journey and modernising the brand’s digital presence. By introducing user-centric layouts, simplified navigation, and mobile-first enhancements, the revamped site achieved a 42% increase in direct hotel bookings, and improved average session duration by 25% within 3 months of launch.

“Performance of our Singapore hospitality business in 2019 was commendable. We opened two new hotels – Village Hotel Sentosa and The Outpost Hotel Sentosa, which have recorded steady increases in occupancies for the rest of the year. Our third hotel at Sentosa – The Barracks Hotel have also contributed to the increase in operating profit from the Singapore management business.” – Far East Hospitality Press Release

Bolon Eyewear: Strong sales growth

Led the global website redesign and e-commerce experience for Bolon Eyewear, aligning digital design with premium brand positioning and regional market needs. By streamlining the user journey, optimising mobile UX, and integrating a cross-border commerce strategy, the launch contributed to a posted revenue of Euro 200 million, up by 1.7% and a 35% uplift in conversion rates across key markets within the first 6 months.

“The Sunglasses & Readers division contributed strongly to the regional performance, thanks mainly to a robust performance of Xiamen Yarui Optical (Bolon™), which has seen its expansion into optical frames prove extremely successful. Strong gains at Bolon™ in China and in the European businesses, posted revenue of Euro 200 million, up by 1.7%.” – Essilor Luxottica Press Release

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Brands I worked with

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Testimonials

“Jade has an unerring ability to turn a conversation or ideas communicated visually into designs for online and offline formats that are fresh, compelling and with an eye for detail. Jade could take my ideas or half-formed thoughts and turn them into visual concepts that I use to engage others with, from customers to team members and employees to board members. From digital prototypes to complex visual frameworks and models, Jade handles it all with ease and importantly is great fun to work with.”

– Neil V., EVP Strategy & Innovation, De Beers Group

“Jade worked with me for over fours years within the Innovation capability of De Beers. Jade is exceptional to work within any team setup whilst actively driving key work activities independently. She knows her subject matter and provides great leadership here to the team. I would work with Jade anytime again and know she will be a great benefit wherever she goes.”

– Danie K., Tech Products Lead, De Beers Group

“What I loved about Jade was that she was pretty much self-managed, super quick, and always had ideas and concepts around the UX. It’s testament to someone’s work ethic and quality standards when they don’t simply take an instruction and execute. Jade will challenge the UX and reasoning behind requirements.”

– Rebecca Y., Digital Experience Manager, SingTel Digital Media

“Jade has brought forth designs that are both clean and well thought through. Never a person to just take instructions, she challenges concepts to achieve the desired end product for the target audience.”

– Edmund T., VP Digital Services, SingPost

“For a company whose products face fussy end-consumers of a wide spectrum, Jade is a great asset. She works well under pressure and delivers more than gorgeous, clean and user-friendly interfaces by reviewing the goals of the business to also provide valuable suggestions on how the product can be better presented to meet said requirements.”

– Chiew Mei L., Product Manager, HungryGoWhere

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Work Experience

Founder & Principal Designer
A Gentle Lion
Current

Guest Lecturer, Design Communication
LASALLE College of the Arts
Current

Lead Strategic Designer
De Beers Group, Strategy & Innovation
2018-2024

Adjunct Lecturer, Interaction Design
Orita Sinclair School of Design
2018-2020

Lead UX Consultant
Valtech Digital, Singapore & Amsterdam
2016-2018

Digital Experience Designer
Standard Chartered Bank, Digital Experience
2015-2016

Lead UX & UI Designer
SingPost, Digital Experience
2014-2015

Digital Designer
HungryGoWhere.com and inSing.com
2012-2014

Visual Designer
Design Rules, Ad Agency
2011-2012