By: Vivian Wood, Xinyue Guo
San Francisco Bay, June 21, 2024 – Yang Cheng, a distinguished product designer with extensive experience in EdTech, FinTech, and Generative AI, continues to make a significant impact in the educational technology landscape as the founding product designer at CharacterStrong. Her innovative design solutions and commitment to enhancing user experience have been instrumental in transforming educational environments worldwide.
CharacterStrong is an EdTech company dedicated to nurturing the holistic development of students and educators through character development and social-emotional learning (SEL). The company’s mission is to empower individuals to lead with empathy, resilience, and integrity, fostering both academic success and personal well-being. CharacterStrong’s robust array of curricula and professional development programs have reached over 6.7 million students and trained 240,000 educators across 47 countries, creating compassionate communities and inspiring positive change that resonates far beyond the classroom.
As the founding product designer, Yang Cheng has played a pivotal role in shaping CharacterStrong’s innovative products and services, ensuring they meet the diverse needs of educators and students worldwide. One of her major contributions was solely designing a comprehensive Professional Development System catering to four different user groups. This system enables trainers to access their schedules, view and edit availability, and receive notifications from the Professional Development Team. The sales team benefits from improved efficiency in viewing the availability of professional development for any given date and filtering results. Additionally, the system helps the CharacterStrong Professional Development Team accurately and efficiently book professional developments for customers and aids customers in managing their training and relevant documents.
Cheng also developed a cohesive and scalable design system to streamline design and development processes within CharacterStrong, enhancing efficiency and consistency across all platforms and products. Furthermore, she collaborated with researchers, product managers, and developers to guide the Tier 3 solution from initial concept to design handoff. She independently designed the Explore Experience, a crucial feature that assists users in onboarding and setting up everything they need for future steps. Additionally, she revamped the Content Management System (CMS) design to provide users with a more intuitive and efficient way to upload and manage content, streamlining their workflow and improving the overall user experience.
Cheng’s innovative approach and dedication to leveraging technology for social good have been recognized through numerous awards, including the European Product Design Award for Interface Design/UX Product Design, the Red Dot Design Award for the XYG Studio Window in 2023, and the International Design Awards for the XYG Studio Window in 2023.
Her journey as a product designer began at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), where she collaborated with Amazon Web Services to deliver design solutions for AIDA, a powerful AI tool. Her work increased user engagement and supported AIDA’s supervised machine-learning capabilities, leading to its successful launch in February 2022. She also redesigned the UNDP Independent Evaluation Office’s website, creating a comprehensive design system that improved usability and accessibility.
In 2024, Cheng rejoined the UNDP Digital Studio as a UI/UX Designer, contributing to various projects, including designing a tool for the UNDP Water & Ocean Team utilizing generative AI to automate the categorization of water projects, enhancing scalability and analytical capabilities. She also developed the Digital Development Compass Platform, offering a comprehensive analysis of national digital development using publicly available datasets, aiding policymakers and stakeholders. Additionally, Cheng created the Thailand Policy Lab’s Virtual Policy Platform (VPP), fostering public participation in the policy-making process and bridging the gap between policymakers and citizens. Furthermore, she crafted an interactive web page for the Spectrum of Harm and Good Guide, helping UNDP country office staff and government partners evaluate the impacts of new technologies, ensuring informed decision-making and risk management.
Cheng holds a Master’s degree in User Experience Design from Pratt Institute and a Master’s degree in Adult Learning and Education from the University of British Columbia. Her commitment to excellence has been recognized through several prestigious awards, including the European Product Design Award, the Red Dot Design Award, and the International Design Awards.
Yang Cheng’s journey as a product designer has been marked by her ability to simplify complex concepts and create user-friendly experiences through exceptional storytelling skills. Her extensive experience in EdTech, FinTech, and Generative AI demonstrates her adaptability and innovation across various domains. As Cheng continues to push the boundaries of design innovation, her commitment to creating meaningful, impactful user experiences remains unwavering. Her work at CharacterStrong and beyond is sure to inspire future generations to strive for excellence and reimagine the possibilities of technology.
Published by: Nelly Chavez
