Meet Jihye Kim of New York

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jihye Kim.

Hi Jihye, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
My story started with a deep curiosity about how things work and how people experience them. Growing up, I was always drawn to visuals. I loved capturing a fleeting moment or a friend’s face in my drawings, obsessing over the details, building with Legos, and trying to make sense of the complex world around me in my own way. That early fascination led me to study Visual Communication Design in South Korea, where I focused on how to deliver information effectively and bridge the gap between visual aesthetics and functional clarity. After graduating, I began my career in Japan at the super app LINE, working on large-scale consumer products used by millions of people. That experience shaped how I think about design. It taught me that it’s not just about how things look, but how they function at scale and influence real user behavior. I worked across a range of services, from content platforms to food and commerce, and learned how even the smallest design decisions can drive meaningful outcomes. Over time, I became fascinated by how humans interact with digital devices and how we can craft truly meaningful experiences within more complex systems. That curiosity pushed me to take a leap and move to the U.S. to study Interaction Design at the School of Visual Arts (SVA). There, I deepened my understanding of designing dynamic, layered experiences, which naturally guided me into enterprise and analytics platforms. Today, I work on AI-driven products in the energy and maritime industries at Synmax, designing systems that allow users to interact with massive, complex datasets through natural language using AI agent. Looking back, my work today is still rooted in the same idea I started with as a kid: taking something complex and making it feel simple, intuitive, and visually engaging, while giving people a richer experience.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It definitely hasn’t been a perfectly smooth road. While working on products used by millions of users, not every design would be a home run. I’ve had moments where key metrics completely missed expectations like an experience I worked on where the bounce rate shot past 60% and retention dropped. As a designer who pours a lot into every project, seeing the work fall short is tough. But those moments were crucial. They forced me to step back, check my assumptions, and dig deeper into actual user behavior. I learned how to iterate without ego to find solutions that balance user needs with business goals. On a personal level, leaving a stable role at the company to move to the U.S. for my studies was a massive challenge. Adapting to a new culture, a different way of working, and essentially starting over from scratch was not easy. Looking back, though, these struggles helped me get comfortable with uncertainty. Instead of waiting for someone to hand me a clear roadmap, I learned how to create my own clarity—by asking the right questions, exploring different angles, and using design as a tool to bring structure to ambiguity.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I specialize in designing digital products and improving end-to-end user experiences. My main focus is taking complex, heavy systems and making them feel intuitive and usable. A lot of my work sits right at the intersection of UX, data visualization, and emerging technologies like AI.
If I had to pinpoint what I’m known for, it’s designing experiences that not only feel intuitive but also drive meaningful business impact. During my time at LINE, I redesigned the content discovery experience for LINE Manga, which contributed to significant subscription growth and helped scale the platform to over 23 million downloads. More recently, I’ve been working on AI-powered platforms that allow users to generate insights through natural language, turning conversations into structured, actionable data. Having worked across both consumer and enterprise products, I’ve learned how to translate complex user needs into seamless, scalable experiences. What sets me apart is my ability to think both visually and systemically. I’m not just focused on individual screens, but on how the entire experience works end-to-end.

We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up?
One of my favorite childhood memories is spending time drawing and creating things on my own. I especially loved capturing quiet moments with my family—those small, everyday scenes that felt meaningful to me. It might sound simple, but those moments are still very vivid in my memory and always make me smile. I really enjoyed being fully present and translating what I saw and felt into something visual. Looking back, I think that’s where my interest in design began. That habit of observing closely, breaking things down, and reimagining them has stayed with me, and it continues to shape how I approach my work today.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.jihyek.xyz/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jihye-works/
• Other: https://dribbble.com/jihyeda

Image Credits
Jihye Kim
Jane