- Thesis: “Fire & Ghosts: Substrates of Conviviality from the Hearth to the Digital Product”
- Award of Distinction
Jenny Liu Zhang is an American digital designer :)
Updates
Autumn 2025
Just handed in my Masters thesis for the Narrative Futures program at the University of Edinburgh, which I had been doing part-time since 2022. I wrote about critical theorist Ivan Illich’s 1973 concept of conviviality and how modern computing is deteriorating it. Now recovering lost sleep. :)
I work remotely full-time as a Staff Product Designer at Monarch. Personal financial literacy is a really interesting problem space; the startup is growing rapidly and I’m constantly being challenged.
I’m also developing the “Small Hassles Court,” a playful browser-based game for conflict resolution, supported by Metagov’s Governable Spacemakers fellowship and grant. This is a subproject of Plot Twisters, my game design collective.
Finally, I’m enjoying the seasons in Cleveland, USA between road trips to New York and Cincinnati this fall. I’m organizing my closet, decorating my loft, playing soccer, and hanging out with my dog Lila and cat Cali.
Education
MSc in Narrative Futures
University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh Futures Institute
2022–2025
BSc in Arts, Technology and the Business of Innovation
University of Southern California, Iovine and Young Academy
2015–2019
- One of 22 students selected for the 2nd cohort of the Iovine and Young Academy for integrated studies in art, technology, and entrepreneurship.
- Trustee Scholar (full-tuition merit scholarship)
- Capstone: “Plot Twisters: Personal storytelling interfaces for students in the 21st century”
- Personalized concentrations in Interface Design and Narrative Research Methods
- Minor in Narrative Structure, Department of English
- 3.8 GPA, magna cum laude
Professional Experience
Founder, Managing Director
Plot Twisters
2019–present, grant funded by IDEO and Riot Games as of 2023
- Leading a design organization of 8 artists, researchers, designers, and technologists to create an online game world for nurturing personal narrative building in youth.
- Winner of $50,000 top grant prize for OpenIDEO Designing for Digital Thriving.
- Spearheaded presentations and exhibitions at 4 conferences hosted by the Oxford Internet Institute, Cambridge Digital Humanities, and the Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute at St. Andrews.
- Established 8 multi-year partnerships with educators, civic nonprofits, and psychology labs.
- Facilitating small teams to conduct mixed-methods research and design, based on a literature review of 34 key works across the humanities and developmental sciences.
- Collaboratively designing, illustrating, and engineering all gameplay prototypes and websites.
Staff Designer
Monarch Money
2025–present
- Joined as the 4th product design hire of this financial technology startup.
Founding Designer
Dorsia
2022–2024
- One of 3 cross-functional designers creating and scaling the flagship mobile booking platform (60K+ users), the restaurant and concierge-facing web apps, and the multi-channel editorial and brand presence.
- Designed end-to-end UX/UI and worked with engineers to launch over 36 app features in 2 years, including Dorsia Payments, Split Pay, the Dorsia OS for restaurants, and the Book on Behalf concierge dashboard.
- Managed and operated marketing design strategy for 8 markets, including New York, Miami, London, and the French Riviera.
- Led speculative product and pitch deck design to enable strategic partnerships with Dom Pérignon and TAO Group Hospitality.
- Worked closely with the CEO, leadership, and business development on a variety of presentations, supporting 4 key brand partnerships and a successful fundraising round led by Index Ventures.
Freelance Designer
Self-employed
2020–2022
- Specialized in digital UX/UI design, product strategy, graphic design, and front-end web development for 12+ clients.
- Designed and developed a custom eCommerce storefront for SOSHE Beauty, a sustainable makeup company.
- Designed and developed pitch decks, media assets, and website for Wright Electric, a zero-emissions aviation startup.
- Designed user interfaces, brand strategy, and navigation logic for HAGS, a social app for high school students (acquired by Snap). Licensed bespoke handwritten font.
Creative Strategist
verynice
2019–2020
- Led product strategy, brand audits, organizational ethnography, and design research and design for clients of a design strategy studio serving nonprofits and social enterprises. Published methods as pro bono toolkits.
- Led UX/UI for Keep A Breast Foundation’s breast cancer self-screening mobile app.
- Strategized and designed a culturally-sensitive health education website for Lebanese and Iraqi women with UNICEF and Women’s Refugee Commission.
- Other notable clients: Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, American Heart Association, Celebration Theatre, and Children’s Hospital.
- Led website redesigns for verynice and its publishing arm, Reginald.
- Facilitated design strategy workshops in the U.S., Mexico, and Colombia.
Co-founder, Partner
Gridflower
2018–2019
- Led a creative partnership focused on UX/UI design, branding, and presentation design for 11 clients, including entrepreneurs and corporations.
- Created pitch decks used to close $1M+ funding for 3 early-stage startups.
- Strategized and designed the mobile and web app for Viasat’s first international expansion into Brazilian and Mexican markets.
Product Management Intern
Adobe
2018
- Collaborated with a new team to conceive Creative Cloud Education, a platform for potentially 45M U.S. students to explore creative tools in math, english, and science.
- Conducted and analyzed 17 in-depth research interviews with stakeholders.
- Led market landscape analysis of EdTech competitors.
User Experience Design Intern
Adobe
2018
- Strategized user navigation logic and page design for consumer and business users of the Adobe.com website.
- Designed interface variants and conducted A/B usability tests to validate layouts.
Immersive Media Design Assistant
Al Jazeera
2018
- Created website design and media assets for immersive 360° videos reporting news stories from the Global South.
- Designed graphics for “Yemen’s Skies of Terror,” winner of the 2018 Online Journalism Awards.
Market Research Consultant
Adobe
2017–2018
- Conducted and analyzed 40+ surveys and qualitative interviews with young digital creators to inform the design of student-facing portals on Adobe’s Behance.
Product Innovation Intern
Viasat
2017
- Conducted user research, UX strategy, and UI design for a mobile app used by North Americans age 65+ to purchase and manage their residential internet services.
Design Contractor
Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence
2017
- Created the data visualizations, brand identity, cover illustration, and print layout for the inaugural AI Index Report.
Awarded Grants
$24,000 Governable Spacemaker Fellowship
Funded by Metagov
2025
- Divided into 3 grants of $8,000 for myself and two teammates from Plot Twisters, Amanda Curtis and Jo Carlisle.
$50,000 Grand Prize Winner
Funded by IDEO, Riot Games, Hopelab, and Susan Crown Exchange
2023
- Plot Twisters was the Top Proposal Winner out of nearly 200 applicants for the Designing for Digital Thriving challenge.
Awarded Residencies & Fellowships
Artist Fellow
Governable Spacemakers
2025
- Plot Twisters was the winner of the $24,000 fellowship to create an art project focused on reimagining digital governance in online spaces. Building our first minigame, Small Hassles Court, for Twisterland.
- Funded by Metagov.
Storytelling Fellow
Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute
2022
- Participated in a 3-week transdisciplinary intensive consisting of lectures and salons about the origins, nature, and future of intelligences with 60 other artists, scientists, and academics.
- Delivered Plot Twisters workshops and presentations for other attendees.
- Funded by the Templeton World Charity Foundation.
Governance Archaeology Resident
Media Economies Design Lab, University of Colorado Boulder
2021
- Created a framework for consensual online community governance in Plot Twisters through a co-creative media archaeology excavation and research-action model.
- Collaborated with a cohort of 17 artists, researchers, and technologists producing creative artifacts to advance digital democracy.
- Exhibited at the 2021 United Nations Internet Governance Forum.
- Funded by the Eutopia Foundation.
Research Resident
Centre for Enabling Effective Altruism Learning and Research (CEEALAR)*
2021
- Granted a 6-month funded residency at the co-living research center in Blackpool, UK with 25 other research residents.
- Studied how homeostasis and allostasis enable wellbeing through lenses of social emotions and embodied cognition.
- Supported community building through group dinners, game events, and writing inclusion-promoting policy.
Fellow
Interact Fellowship
2020
- Selected for the 2020 cohort of the community of mission-driven technologists.
Awarded Honors
Top Proposal Winner
OpenIDEO Designing for Digital Thriving Challenge
2023
Webby Award in Advertising, Media, & PR (Student)
The Webby Awards
2019
Renaissance Scholar
University of Southern California
2019
Award of Excellence (Short Form)
World Journalism Education
2019
Student Print/Digital Journalism Winner
National Association of Hispanic Journalists
2019
Minority/Immigration Reporting Winner
Los Angeles Press Club
2019
Mars City Design Challenge Winner
Mars City Design
2018
Trustee Scholar (full-tuition merit scholarship)
University of Southern California
2015–2019
Dean’s List
University of Southern California
2015–2019
Published Writing
Cranmer, R. & The Seeds of Futures Engagement: Oslo’s Future Library and Mortality Awareness on TikTok.
Upcoming article in the Journal of Future Studies.
2025
Presentations & Exhibitions
, Kim, YK., Parent, J., Chang, C., & Bogatean, H. Twisterland by Plot Twisters: Interactive online game world for fostering diverse personal narrative building.
Presentation at Inclusive Gaming Conference hosted by University of Oxford in Oxford, United Kingdom
2024, May 1
, Kim, YK., & Parent, J. Plot Twisters: Designing Twisterland: An online game nurturing agency through self-reflection.
Presentation at Hyperdigital Designs Workshop hosted by University of Cambridge in Cambridge, United Kingdom
2023, June 14
, Bogatean, H., Chang, C., Lim, A., & Parent, J. Plot Twisters: Creating an online game world for practicing self-regulation.
Exhibition at Connected Life Conference hosted by University of Oxford in Oxford, United Kingdom
2022, June 17
& Chang, C. Excavations: Designing for Dialogue
Online Exibition at United Nations Internet Governance Forum hosted by the International Congress Center in Katowice, Poland
2021, December 6–10
Parent, J., Lim, A., & Allostatic Types: Towards a Taxonomy of Relational Qualia
Flash Talk at Neuromatch Conference 4.0 hosted by Neuromatch (online)
2021, December 1–2
Teaching Experience
Teaching Assistant
University of Southern California
2018
- Supported 31 students in a course for the fundamentals of web, scripting, and interactivity (HTML, CSS, and JavaScript). Assisted lectures, led office hours, and facilitated exam reviews.
- Mentored students to achieve the highest final exam average in two years (88%).
Teaching Assistant
University of Southern California
2017
- Supported 31 students in a course for server-side scripting (PHP), relational database design (MySQL), and data visualization. Assisted lectures, led office hours, and facilitated exam reviews.
Other Projects & Service Work
Board Member
Open Threads
2025–present
- Supporting this sewing education nonprofit in Cleveland, Ohio to empower local residents in creative and economic upskilling.
Founding Member
How to Play With Fire
2022–present
- Co-organized and selected presenters for the in-person 2023 Hyperdigital Designs Workshop, hosted at the University of Cambridge’s Cambridge Digital Humanities.
Founding Member
boom saloon
2022–present
- Supporting this global media movement based in Scotland to democratize creativity through publications, digital features, and community salons online and offline.
Design Technologist
Georgia State University
2022–present
- Collaborating with The EMPOWER Lab, a clinical doctoral lab led by Dr. Isha Metzger, to design and validate digital trauma-informed cognitive behavioral therapy (TF-CBT) interfaces for African-American youth.
Policy Writer
Centre for Enabling Effective Altruism Learning and Research (CEEALAR)*
2021
- Developed and successfully sought approval for a 20-page policy document reforming the center’s granting process for applicant equity and process transparency.
Farmhand
Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF)
2020
- During COVID, I lived on a bamboo farm in coastal California for a summer and helped with farming and farm upkeep, including setting up drip irrigation for the property of 200+ bamboo trees.
Team Lead
Changeist
2019–20
- Facilitated discussions with middle and high school students about identity and social issues. Supported their relationships with social justice organizations in the Los Angeles area.
Virtual Reality Journalist
JOVRNALISM
2018–19
- Produced “The Deported: Life Beyond the Border,” a four-episode VR series about deportees in Tijuana, Mexico with a team of 12. Led interviews in Spanish, filmed with 360° cameras, developed scripts and storyboards, and conducted user testing.
- 2019 Webby Award winner in Advertising, Media, & PR (Student).
* I'm aware of the controversy with Effective Altruism (EA) and I learned a lot from this experience—feel free to ask me about it!