Melody Quack transforms music creation from intimidating to playful, offering a cozy, collaborative experience for music lovers who don't typically make music.

Melody Quack: Making Music Together Cozy and Easy

Hello! I'm Ky. Originally from London with Korean heritage, I have spent time living in both Seoul and London, the experience of growing up in both East and West enabled me to become a holistic thinker and a cosmopolitan person. 

After facing adversities as a second generation immigrant in my childhood, I learned about art, design, technology, psychology, science, education, and
cultural histories from East and West. 

Currently I am based in Hamburg, Germany.

Developing the skills of a product designer, learned how to leverage AI and work with expert mentors to prepare for a lasting career in tech. 

Researched & collaborated on UI tasks on VR Gaming

& blockchain with artists, designers and developers.

Tools: HTML5, CSS3, Figma, Figjam & Adobe CC

Outcome: redesigned onboarding screens UI, improving user comprehension in usability tests from 60% to 85%.

Applied design thinking principles to human-centred AI projects and designed user interactions around AI features.

Tools: Scikit Learn, PyTorch, TensorFlow, Colab & Keras

Outcome: Entered Kaggle competition & came in Top 100.

, the Stage 2 Leader of BA Graphic Communication Design and MA Graphic Communication Design. 

Explored the topic "Activism of Design" together with Stage 1 students, My duty involved:

Designed icons, came up with concepts and illustrative ideas for denkwerk’s new partnership.

- Support in design work and visual brainstorming for various projects and pitches

- Independent design supervision of projects and clients

- Maintaining, performing website updates

- Facilitating co-operation between the design and technology teams

- Project work focused on profitability and compliance with objectives

In this role, the following clients were served:

Telekom, True Fruits, Lorenz(NicNacs, ErdnussLocken, Crunchips and Saltletts), OBI, NetCologne, MotelOne

I was given tasks to design both creative, conceptual illustrations and animations for several denkwerk internal projects as well as occasionally leading visual concepts and identities for some projects, which are as follows:

- Taking full responsibility and leading the creative aspects of Cologne Service Jam; a non-profit event, sponsored by denkwerk, the event involved 48 hours to develop new services from idea to prototype, under one global theme, offering the opportunity to get hands-on experience on service design methods, gathering creative thinkers and having fun.

- Featured Illustration for The t3n - digital pioneers magazine, denkwerk #ReLab pitch article on the topic “self-disruption for the agency of the future”.

A glowing blob roams a pixel forest to the beat of a DJ mix. Collect crystals, dodge snakes and the boss demon, then stay for Cheongak Radio and look up at the tipped stars.

Isolation

Support without friction

Calm Interaction

Apple of Eden (calor solis): Online Radio Station for Emerging DJs

Designing a lightweight gamified AI Banking App for young people struggling with money management.

PlutoPay: Modelling Financial Behaviour as a Cognitive-Emotional System

For many young adults in the UK, interacting with personal finance tools has become emotionally aversive rather than empowering.

43% of 18–27-year-olds avoid checking their bank balance due to money anxiety

, creating a negative feedback loop: anxiety drives avoidance, while avoidance worsens financial and mental wellbeing.

PlutoPay treats money management as both a 

Instead of framing anxiety as a behavioural flaw, the design acknowledges it as a 

state that can be buffered and reshaped through interaction

UX flow design, gamification system design, prototyping, usability testing facilitation

Financial behaviour cannot be meaningfully changed without addressing its 

Making behavioural structures visible supports meta-cognitive engagement, enabling users to interact with finances more intentionally.

Exploring adaptive systems that respond to emotional state shifts over time.

PlutoPay: AI Money Managing Banking App

Designed for therapy waitlists: a private, calm AI for emotional reflection and therapeutic skills, prioritising trust and user autonomy.

Pastel: An Interface for Emotional Reflection

Access to mental health support is increasingly limited, with long therapy waitlists leaving many individuals without timely emotional support.

During this gap, people often struggle to articulate emotions, fear being judged, and lack psychologically safe spaces for reflection. While AI-based companions are emerging, many prioritise response generation over reflective support, risking emotional dependency or superficial reassurance.

How might we design an AI-mediated interface that supports emotional reflection while preserving user autonomy, ethical boundaries, and psychological safety?

Pastel was designed not as a digital therapist, but as an 

interface for externalising and navigating internal emotional states

 rather than an authority—supporting users in organising thoughts without directing conclusions.

Ideation explored how subjective emotional experiences could be 

represented without being quantified or judged

UX flow, interaction design, ethical AI framing, high-fidelity prototyping, usability testing

Emotional support systems are less effective when they attempt to simulate empathy, and more effective when they support 

Designing for wellbeing requires treating emotions not as data points to resolve, but as 

experiential structures users need help navigating at their own pace

Pastel: Your Ethical AI Emotional Companion

Ky’s design decisions are insightful, intuitive and well-reasoned.

Noah Hassan

Ky’s attention to detail and ability to balance aesthetics with usability stood out in projects we collaborated on.

Melody Quack: Making Music Together Cozy and Easy

Kyuri (Ky) Shin