Jen Ng

Jen is a multi-disciplinary designer based in NYC. She’s spearheaded digital experiences for audio AR, eCommerce, mHealth, fashion and education for agencies and freelance clients — synthesizing research insights and identifying key business opportunities for startups and non-profits.

Born and raised in rural (and-very-white) Wisconsin, Jen was often the only BIPOC around — bullied, teased, fetishized and excluded from social circles. A lifetime of not-fitting-in has led her to continuous work on social justice causes rooted in LGBTQIA+ issues, race relations, youth empowerment and women’s advocacy for Willie Mae Rock Camp; and previously, for media outlets including The Heart, (the late) Venus Zine, and BUST. She currently organizes the event series Design x Activism, a creative think tank working together to address social justice topics through conversations and real-time workshopping in an interactive, virtual magazine format covering themes of Empathy, Language, Access, Invisibility and more. Her work explores ways that story and identity work together to strengthen communities.

After entering the field of product design where Asian-American designers skew towards the norm, she continues owning the status — and is empowered by — being Odd-One-Out when it comes to integrating equity-centered design solutions into her process; along with fresh takes on problem-solving with design. (Spoiler alert: We can design anything.) Jen’s lifelong status as a Misfit fuels her to create ways to relate to one another by bringing out our shared qualities, while also embracing our differences — so that we are all seen, heard and invited.

Previously (3):

User Experience Design

Gain indispensable user experience design skills in this 10-week evening or 1-week accelerated course, on campus or online.

2 Times

Pride Summit: Designing for Advocacy

Hear from professionals on how they have leveraged design to effectively advocate for social issues.