Zhuo (Prince) Niu
Designer-Builder + Human Factors, AI Products, Prototyping, UX Research, and Design Engineering
TrekAssist
A team UX/HFE case study for a solar-powered outdoor e-ink device, tested with 9 participants across 6 tasks covering navigation, emergency support, and low-power interaction.
- Role
- UX / Human Factors Designer (team)
- Methods
- UI design, usability testing (n=9), task scenarios, flow mapping
- Tools
- Figma, e-ink prototyping
- Outcome
- Validated safety flows; identified Low Power discoverability issue
KnowledgeOS
A personal knowledge system built with Markdown, Obsidian, Hermes Agent, cron workflows, and Git backup. It keeps useful project context from disappearing inside chat threads.
- Role
- Designer-Builder / System Architect
- Methods
- Information architecture, agent workflow design, automation, audit loops
- Stack
- Markdown, Obsidian, Hermes Agent, Python, Cron, Git
- Outcome
- Live system with automated capture, review, audit, and backup
Porsche Digital Interface
Automotive HMI work for Porsche Communication Management. I worked on navigation and voice interaction flows, then translated design decisions into prototypes and specs the team could use.
- Role
- UX / UI Designer (Porsche Asia Pacific internship)
- Methods
- UX research, multimodal flow design, prototyping
- Tools
- Figma
- Outcome
- 30% reduction in interface load time after iterative UI optimization
SayIt
A shipped macOS voice-to-text utility I designed, built, signed, and released. It pairs a global hotkey with local Whisper support and a small HUD that stays out of the way.
- Role
- Designer-Builder (solo product + engineering)
- Methods
- Product design, native development, on-device AI
- Tools
- SwiftUI, Whisper, Xcode
- Outcome
- Shipped macOS app with downloadable releases
E-Tongue Sensory Platform
A Human Factor Product Design case study on turning machine taste data and human sensory feedback into clearer early product decisions.
- Role
- UX Researcher + UI Designer
- Course
- Human Factor Product Design
- Methods
- Stakeholder research, task analysis, prototyping, usability testing
- Outcome
- Early prototype for hybrid sensory evaluation and Go / Tweak / Stop decision support
Designing the seam between people and complex systems.
I’m Zhuo (Prince) Niu, a designer-builder working across UI/UX, AI products, and human factors. I’m currently studying Human Factors Engineering at Tufts, after finishing my Computer Engineering degree at Purdue. I like the part of product work where an idea stops being abstract. That usually means deciding which problem is worth solving, shaping the first usable flow, testing a rough version, and building enough of it for someone to actually use. My work sits between human factors, product design, and engineering. I care about the details that decide whether a product feels clear or confusing: the prompt, the feedback, the recovery path, the first click that makes sense. I shipped UI work for Porsche Communication Management at Porsche Asia Pacific, built a BLE-paired posture-tracking app, and released SayIt, a macOS voice-to-text utility. I also designed and usability-tested TrekAssist, an outdoor e-ink safety device, and built KnowledgeOS, a personal AI system where agents maintain durable project context. I’m currently looking for product design, UX, and human factors roles around thoughtful products, refined UI/UX, and complex multimodal experiences.
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