Alex Chen
Featured Projects
Aurora Design System
Redesigned the core component architecture for 10x scalability, unifying 50+ engineers across teams globally.
Velocity Analytics
Built a real-time data processing pipeline handling 5M events/day to visualize engineering bottlenecks.
GreenSpace App
Architected offline-first mobile companion app utilized by over 2M+ sustainable living advocates.
From Engineering to Design—and Back Again
I started my career as a backend engineer, building APIs and data pipelines. But I kept noticing the gap between what we could build and what users actually needed. That curiosity led me to design.
Today, I operate at the intersection of both worlds. I build design systems that engineers love, and I write code that designers can iterate on. My superpower is translating between technical constraints and human needs.
When I'm not building, I'm writing about the craft—sharing what I've learned about building products that matter.
Career Timeline
Senior Product Designer
Stripe
Design Engineer
Vercel
Full-Stack Engineer
Startup (acquired)
From the Blog
Designing for Engineers: A Guide to Developer-First Design Systems
Why design systems fail when they're built by designers alone. Lessons from building Aurora, a system that engineers actually want to use.
The Hidden Cost of Design Debt: A Technical Deep Dive
How inconsistency in UI components affects bundle size, performance, and developer velocity. Real metrics from a 2-year refactor.
Why I Switched from Engineering to Design (and Why I'm Glad I Did)
The non-obvious reasons behind my career pivot, and how having an engineering background became my unfair advantage.
Let's Build Something Together
I'm always interested in hearing about new opportunities, collaborations, or just having a conversation about design and engineering.