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Principal Designer for 0 → 1 product design work

I’m available for snappy or long-term collaborations with product founders to take ideas from zero to one.

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Drop me a note

[email protected] / **LinkedIn**

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About

Hello, I am Lennon 👋

I’m a multidisciplinary designer driven by curiosity, which is another way of saying I’ve worked on a wildly mixed bag of things: from digital products and web apps to brand, exhibitions, photography, events, interior and more.

I’m a queer immigrant from Shanghai, now living in Melbourne with my two rescued cats, Chipper and Sesame.

You can find me mumbling my thoughts on Substack and posting edited snaps on Instagram.

My corner when working from home

ex-Canva

I wrapped up an (almost) 4-year journey at Canva at the end of 2025.

In 2022, I started in the Search Experience team, where I helped establish the product-wide search and filtering patterns with Easel, the design system team at Canva.

Throughout the years, I collaborated directly with the founder and senior leaders across a dozen teams to:

• Embrace the wave of AI and rethink the role of search and filtering
• Establish Canva’s AI discovery pattern across the homepage and Editor — combining search and generative AI (patented) to help users find the right creative starting point
• Refresh Canva’s global IA to support a more intuitive and scalable product surface
• Simplify mobile experiences for clarity, speed, and everyday ease of use
• Explore how documentation and prototyping could supercharge how we work

I departed the company as a Principal Product Designer in search for my next adventure.

Canva Create 2025 in LA

Cats

Of course, you are here for Chipper and Sesame, my two rescued cats. I do not blame you :)

Chipper and Sesame are friends usually for a good chunk of the day. The rest of the time though, they are archnemesis.

Chipper is a classic ginger. He knows he’s adorable so he demands your pats but with a lot of affection and warmth. He looks slightly chunky because he doesn’t really have a neck, but he’s in fact a small and light cat.

Sesame is a swift and nimble cow cat. She’s curious but slightly timid. She wouldn’t show up until you have spent a decent amount of hours in the house. She likes to ask for pats and jump onto your lap before you go to bed.

Experience

The 9 to 5

• 2022-25 Led AI discovery, search, and product architecture at Canva
• 2020-22 Tinkered on Design System at Xero
• 2018-20 Shaped web apps, brand, and interaction design at Today
• 2015-18 Designed web apps and digital experiences at NetEngine

A very mixed bag of things

🛠 Side Projects & Experiments

• Co-hosted a queer podcast for 3.5 years
• Created a photo exhibition from the ground up in 2024
• Ran a UX meetup in Brisbane, co-hosted Notion’s online meetup in Australia, and organised a queer panel to open Canva’s Melbourne campus

🧠 Teaching & Speaking

• Gave talks at DesignOps.lol and Melbourne International Student Conference
• Taught an 8-week UI/UX course to international students

🎨 Creative Practice

• Been taking photos and grading colours for over a decade
• Commissioned for illustrations for a tech company’s blog

🛝 Projects from work and play

Interaction

Understanding blood test.mp4

Brand & UI

Concept

Jun 2025

Exploring an AI-native mobile pattern via Bloom, a mobile app concept empowering users to unpack and track their blood test results

🔗 Read more

Canva AI

Canva-AI_hero.mp4

I collaborated directly with the founder on establishing the new AI discovery entry point for Canva by combining Search and GenAI together (patented)

Canva Code

hero_ai-code-generator.mp4

Impact

Wonder Box is the internal codename for the enhanced Search and AI bar and the new entry point for Canva AI, Canva Code and more AI features

Launch