Hi, I'm Thy Dao.
My first name is pronounced like “tea,” which just so happens to be my favorite drink and is my inspiration for my personal logo!
I graduated cum laude from James Madison University in May 2021 with a BS in Media Arts and Design, a concentration in Interaction Design, and a minor in Educational Media. Ask me about my major capstone project! It was a semester-long project, completed during my last semester (Spring 2021). I am currently working on adding it to my portfolio, but I would love to tell you about it before it's up.
My love for stories has always been a part of my life, from reading way past my bedtime to writing fictional pieces to give my emotions a name and narrative. I am enthusiastic about using technology to illustrate stories, as well as to connect people and unravel their needs. I have channeled my passions into UX, UI, web, and visual design, and I am constantly looking to learn more. Find out what books I'm reading!
I am a problem-solver who never shrinks from a challenge, and I aim to create elegant, yet meaningful, human-centered solutions for a diverse audience while utilizing my experience and passion for visual design. Please feel free to contact me with any questions, whether it's about me or my work!
Like most, my journey as a designer has (and will continue to be) a learning experience, and while my best work is presented on this portfolio, I also have some miscellaneous work that may have lacked direction and structure in my earlier years. Ask me about them! I would be happy to discuss how I've grown and what I've learned since working on these pieces.
About my process,
Design thinking is a tool I've learned about in my major courses (User Interaction Design and Foundations of User Experience Design) during university that I will continue to use throughout my career as a designer. It is essentially made up of the steps in the provided graphic, which is from the Nielson Norman Group.
Design thinking is a non-linear process that is user focused and aims to generate creative solutions to social or design problems. It's a great tool to use to address issues at a strategic level, and by incorporating this process into my work, it has helped me process and visualize the complex variables that arise within my projects and give me the appropriate framework to help explain my ideas and decisions to others.
Learn more about this method here:
