2025 Thoughts
✦ February
All Kyoto Theme Features
Latest updates on Feb, 2025
Archive
A complete collection of all articles, organized chronologically for easy browsing and discovery.
2025 Thoughts
✦ January
Proper footnote formatting and usage
Footnotes
Footnotes serve as essential tools in academic and professional writing, providing valuable supplementary information without disrupting the main text.
2024 Thoughts
✦ December
Why your personal website should be minimal
Simple design speaks volumes. A minimal website isn't about less, but about making room for what truly matters—your story and work.
2024 Thoughts
✦ November
Latest updates from a hypothetical multi-talented creator
🎵 Latest Updates from Studio & Beyond - November 2023
New Single: "Digital Sunset"
My latest electronic-folk fusion track
2024 Thoughts
✦ March
Fall in love with the process over outcomes
If you are like me and many other creatives, you have many interests and want to do many things. You’
2024 Thoughts
✦ March
Being a generalist helps you find the right career choice
Being a self-taught designer has been something that made me unconfident.
I hated how I never specialized in anything in
2024 Thoughts
✦ March
STAR Interview Method for Product Designers
STAR interview method is a powerful tool that product designers can use to showcase skills during job interviews.
2024 Thoughts
✦ March
You can improve anything with 30 min a day for 30 days
🌱 The Seinfeld strategy — Don’t break the chain encourages us to use a big calendar that has a whole year
2024 Thoughts
✦ March
iA Presenter is impressive
The execution of iA Presenter is fantastic! I believe they will go much further soon.
2024 Thoughts
✦ March
The Power of Habit
The key to exercising regularly, losing weight, raising exceptional children, becoming more productive.
2024 Thoughts
✦ March
Systems vs Goals
I’m always failed at exercising regularly. It usually starts with passion, the first week is awesome and motivated. But the next week, it becomes less and less.
2024 Thoughts
✦ February
The day I become a better designer
The day I become a better design is the day I start writing.
2024 Thoughts
✦ February
Generalist vs Specialist
When you hire a person to solve a problem. Do you want to hire a person who knows many things or a person who great dept in one thing?
2024 Thoughts
✦ February
I'm beginning to write again
Writing
After finishing a ton of books this month, I'm beginning to write again. That's all
2024 Thoughts
✦ February
Hooked
A four-step process embedded into the products of many successful companies to subtly encourage customer behavior
2024 Thoughts
✦ February
Getting Real
From Basecamp creator, a good book which highlights the traditional rubbish and points out how to overcome them based on their experience when it comes to build a web application.
2024 Thoughts
✦ February
Design Tips, Visually
2024 Thoughts
✦ February
Creative Confidence
Principles and strategies that will allow us to tap into our creative potential in our work lives, and in our personal lives.
2024 Thoughts
✦ February
It's Not How Good You Are, It's How Good You Want To Be
This uplifting and humorous little book provides a unique insight into the world of advertising and is a quirky compilation of quotes, facts, pictures, wit and wisdom
2024 Thoughts
✦ February
Creativity, Inc
From Ed Catmull, co-founder of Pixar, comes an incisive book about creativity in business. He reveals the ideals and techniques that have made Pixar so widely admired—and so profitable.
2024 Thoughts
✦ January
Designing for Emotion
If you are interested why people talk about certain things more than about others this book can explain it perfectly.
2024 Thoughts
✦ January
How to get ideas
A fun, accessible, and practical guide that takes the mystery and confusion out of developing new ideas.
2024 Thoughts
✦ January
Steal like an artist
10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative. You don’t need to be a genius, you just need to be yourself.
2024 Thoughts
✦ January
We've changed names
London flipped from sweltering summer back to drizzling grey yesterday. Autumn was overdue. Summer was a little too manic for
2023 Thoughts
✦ December
Launch Kyoto Theme
Kyoto is a minimal yet over-engineered Ghost theme designed to showcase your portfolio and writings. It is tailor-made for designers,
2023 Thoughts
✦ November
Cool Loaders SwiftUI
Coded all the cool loaders figma design in SwiftUI. Available to download from Github.
2023 Thoughts
✦ November
Having everything thrown out of whack is pretty useful
The last six months have felt like a disorientating blur. While bouncing between overseas trips, writing conference talks, organising events,
2023 Thoughts
✦ November
It's a weird week
It's a weird week. Twitter is (possibly) entering a slow death march and much of my community is
2023 Thoughts
✦ October
1st Youtbe Live
I did first youtube live for discord. I did before directly on discord but this time I tried youtube. It&
2023 Thoughts
✦ October
Imposter syndrome is real
It happens to many people. Many people are facing it too.
2023 Thoughts
✦ October
Build What You Love, Live Your Dream
Wrote an article about two years journey of creative fulfillment after quitting my 9-5 job
2023 Thoughts
✦ September
Announced Coolshapes
Cool abstract shapes for visual design.
2023 Thoughts
✦ September
Grainy Gradients
Working on new Figma plugin to generate cool grainy gradients in Figma using Metavatar logic.
2023 Thoughts
✦ August
10k Twitter Followers 🎉
I'm glad to cross a milestone. Reach 10k followers on Twitter. It has been a wonderful journey to
2023 Thoughts
✦ July
Temperature Slider in SwiftUI
Started learning swiftUI and created first iOS app. Get it from github @realvjy
2023 Thoughts
✦ July
Different High-level Designs
The more senior the designer, the more abstract the problem they should be solving.
Designer Lvl 1: Design a form
2023 Thoughts
✦ June
Released V5 - Framer Template
V5 is a minimal and clean framer template with a cleverly created CMS that gives you complete control over your
2023 Thoughts
✦ March
🌱 Children who are later talkers
🌱 Feynman was an American theoretical physicist born in New York City. He’s a famous physicist, but many people know
2023 Thoughts
✦ March
🌱 Feynman
Richard Feynman was an American theoretical physicist born in 1918 in New York City.
Feynman was a very late talker—
2023 Thoughts
✦ March
Layoff diary
Documenting my process of looking for new jobs after the layoff. Or maybe doing something fun. Good luck to me!
2023 Thoughts
✦ February
🌱 Atomic essays
Have you heard of the term "atomic essay" coined by the Ship-30-by-30 creators? It's a fascinating
2023 Thoughts
✦ February
And I got an offer 🎉
Oh Yeah. I got an offer.
After almost 3 months of unemployment and many rejections, I got an offer. I
2023 Thoughts
✦ February
📗 A company I'm interviewing at has conducted a layoff
Do you believe that?
Yeah, it's the truth. Anything can happen, mah.
I was in the middle of
2023 Thoughts
✦ February
How to prepare for your Facebook product design interview
Highlights from Lily Konings’s sharing on how to land a product design job at Facebook
2023 Thoughts
✦ January
🌱 Ask for quick sharing right after every user interview
Doing this will help you synthesize user research 2x faster.
2023 Thoughts
✦ January
🌱 📗 Whiteboard challenge Step-by-Step & Tips
Some companies will have a whiteboard design challenge. I will have one session next week. It will be a case
2023 Thoughts
✦ January
🌱 Building a product isn't about whether it can be built
But about if people need it.
Learning to code might be wise. I think everyone should learn to code nowadays.
2023 Thoughts
✦ January
🌱 Moving my website to Ghost
I’m building an entirely new website with Ghost. My goal is ambitious — to make it my primary website.
It
2023 Thoughts
✦ January
📗 Interviewing & Rejection
Yesterday I had only one interview with a designer from a big crypto company.
The interviewer is very nice, kind,
2023 Thoughts
✦ January
Powerful life hacks for career, health, and relationship
Sahil Bloom is my greatest resource for learning. His newsletter and Twitter content always give me new and powerful lessons.
2022 Thoughts
✦ December
Write first, present later
Writing first and presenting later is one of the best pieces of advice I get in my career.
2022 Thoughts
✦ December
📗 Two more chats with HR, and it was good
But today, I got two chats with HR from two new companies.
Both are crypto companies, one is a startup,
2022 Thoughts
✦ December
📗 Chat with Viki Recruiter
I had a Chat with a recruiter from Rakuten this morning. He's very nice and warm. Talking with
2022 Thoughts
✦ December
📨 Letter from Audience #01
💌Hi Trong,
I am Yurong, a product designer based in Singapore. I chanced upon your article on LinkedIn and when
2022 Thoughts
✦ December
Harmonize the Web Experience
The story of how I improved the buying experience on the web for vertical categories.
2022 Thoughts
✦ December
📗 Chat with a crypto company and ex-colleagues
I’ve had a chat with HR from a crypto company. He set up a 1-hour interview, but it only
2022 Thoughts
✦ December
Perfecting Browse Experience for Buyers
Rethinking the browsing experience for the classified marketplace in Southeast Asia.
2022 Thoughts
✦ December
Premium eCommerce Website
How do I improve a beauty & fashion commercial retailer website?
2022 Thoughts
✦ December
📗 Chat with a recruiter from a 3D AI Startup
Today I will have two chats with HR. I did one this morning with E. Their product is innovative. Building
2022 Thoughts
✦ December
The best ideas haven’t been created yet.
There are always better ideas.
Many people think all the ideas were already created. But here are some examples that
2022 Thoughts
✦ December
📗 An ex-colleague asked to refer me to a company
Today is Sunday. There’s no more reply from companies. But I have some chat next week. Around 4 chats
2022 Thoughts
✦ December
📗 One chat with HR and one more invite to chatting
Today is Friday, and there is no job that is in the interview yet. Most of the meetings are with
2022 Thoughts
✦ December
📗 Getting some replies from companies that I applied
Today I got some replies from some places that I applied: Viki Rakuten, and Coinhako.
I also applied to some
2022 Thoughts
✦ December
📗 The first official day to look for a job
Today is Wednesday. The first official day for me to look for a job.
Seems like not many companies are
2022 Thoughts
✦ December
🌱 Folders kill creativity
The folder structure defines specific content belonging to one category.
The content is stored in the same place, but they
2022 Thoughts
✦ December
🌱 Morning page
Morning pages was mentioned on Julia’s book The Artist’s way.
Every morning, you write three pages in a
2022 Thoughts
✦ December
📗 Much support from friends and LinkedIn people
Keith, my ex-head of design, sent me a message yesterday. He sent me a Job description from Google and a
2022 Thoughts
✦ December
🌱 Post Layoff Diary
Sharing my process of looking for new jobs after the layoff.
2022 Thoughts
✦ December
Internal Time Tracking
Internal time tracker for team.
2022 Thoughts
✦ December
Leave the todo list to us
How we help homeowner have a better time on moving and relocation?
2022 Thoughts
✦ December
🌱 Showing random quotes in Obsidian notes with Dice Roller
In 🌱 Obsidian, we can show random quotes in daily notes (or in any note) from your quote collections with the
2022 Thoughts
✦ December
📗 A long one-hour call with a recruiter
This morning, I had a call with a recruiter from Neuron Mobility, it’s a company I didn’t know
2022 Thoughts
✦ December
🌱 Goodbye letter to Carousell Product Designers
A note to send to my designer folks. We had too many good things together.
2022 Thoughts
✦ December
I was laid off, here are some thoughts
On this page
Well, I got laid off.
This is the first time I have left a company without intention,
2022 Thoughts
✦ December
📗 Affected (by layoff) colleagues are starting to look for a job
Today is the last day we stay in Singapore this year. We will come back after the holiday and with
2022 Thoughts
✦ December
🌱 From Collector to Creator
We often hoard information because it gives us an illusion of knowledge. We consume too much, but we don’t
2022 Thoughts
✦ December
📗 Digest the bad news of layoff and meeting Felipe
Many things happened to me. The worse thing is I got laid off from Carousell. I have no more work
2022 Thoughts
✦ November
🍓 4 User Research Lessons for Beginner Product Designers
Personal reflection after doing the first usability testing abroad.
2022 Thoughts
✦ November
🍓 Keep track of any habit inside your Obsidian
Do you know that you can create your own 🌱 The Seinfeld strategy — Don’t break the chain inside Obsidian to
2022 Thoughts
✦ November
🌱 A system should follow you, not the other way around
We try to learn a new system, so we ask others what their best practice are and how to do
2022 Thoughts
✦ November
🌱 The point of taking notes is to think better
We have a habit of taking notes and saving valuable things.
But in the end, those ideas get forgotten and
2022 Thoughts
✦ November
🌱 Why do we need a second brain?
We often hoard (or save it for later) content because it gives us an illusion of knowledge. But in the
2022 Thoughts
✦ November
🌱 Don’t break the chain
The Seinfeld strategy
2022 Thoughts
✦ November
🌱 Obsidian
Obsidian is the new note-taking app that I fall in love with.
It’s not about how cool or how
2022 Thoughts
✦ November
Learning a new tool brings me to new things
I’m often obsessed with learning new tools I love, and 🌱 Obsidian is the newest favourite.
But at the same
2022 Thoughts
✦ November
🌱 Build your own Wikipedia
We all heavily use Wikipedia to learn.
Imagine you could have your own Wikipedia with all the things you learn,
2022 Thoughts
✦ November
🌱 A second brain
A second brain is the trustiest place where you keep all information that matters to you.
In the digital age,
2022 Thoughts
✦ November
🌱 Offering multiple prices for your product to increase revenue
When we put only one price for your product, it seems that we leave a lot of money on the
2022 Thoughts
✦ November
🌱 Price Anchoring with Elon Musk
Twitter Blue and Elon Musk gave us a masterclass on how to use anchoring to drive sales.
2022 Thoughts
✦ November
🌱 The first 100 are the most difficult
Getting the first 100 subscribers or customers is the most challenging part if you are a creator.
It takes a
2022 Thoughts
✦ November
🌱 The new success metric for a knowledge worker is the number of evergreen notes written per day
While reading more notes from Andy Matuschak, I went from hope to disappointment to enlightening.
The light today is I
2022 Thoughts
✦ November
Learn in public
The fear of being judged leads us to learn and think privately. But teaching people is the best way to
2022 Thoughts
✦ November
🌱 Fleeting notes
Fleeting notes are your loose thoughts, ideas, and anything in mind. They are unorganized and unstructured.
They are to capture
2022 Thoughts
✦ November
🌱 Literature notes
Literature notes are one type of note of [[The Zettelkasten note-taking method]]. They are highlights from the source you’re
2022 Thoughts
✦ November
🌱 Evergreen notes
Evergreen notes are similar to permanent notes or Zettels from The Zettelkasten note-taking method. I prefer the name evergreen notes because it’s human and inspiring.
2022 Thoughts
✦ November
🌱 A digital garden
A digital garden is a place to plant the seeds for future ambitious works. It was seeded with many [[🌱 Evergreen notes]] and linked to each other.
2022 Thoughts
✦ November
Find a way to raise your voice
Today I have a tough conversation with my head of product design. Yes, it’s about the performance review.
2022 Thoughts
✦ July
Sapiens, A Brief History of Humankind
Bold, wide-ranging and provocative, Sapiens challenges everything we thought we knew about being human, such as our thoughts, our actions, our power ... and our future.
2022 Thoughts
✦ May
A post for archive tag
To create the tag page
2021 Thoughts
✦ November
A complete guide for Lottie animation with GatsbyJS
Lottie animation is easier than you think. In this post, we will create a Lottie animation, from After Effect to prototype to export handover files for developers.
2021 Thoughts
✦ November
Essential skills for product designers
For designers, only good design skill doesn’t guarantee success. We need more skills to be better and succeed in your career.
2021 Thoughts
✦ November
Every skill you acquire doubles your odds of success
I’m reading ‘How to fail at almost everything and still win big’ by Scott Adam. There's one idea that enlightens me and I think everyone should know about it.
2021 Thoughts
✦ July
You’re saying sorry too much
Saying sorry is a good habit, but saying it too much is the contrast. Sometimes, we apologize too much and it affects your presence. Replace sorry with a better phrase will make your ideas more compelling and show up stronger.
2021 Thoughts
✦ January
2020 year in review
2020 is the year none would forget. It was supposed to be a good year with a beautiful number. But what happened was terrible. Today is the time to reflect on the past year.
2020 Thoughts
✦ September
To be a good designer
One of the biggest lessons I learned this year is the power of confidence, for a designer.
2020 Thoughts
✦ July
Learn to code
The greatest lesson from the book The Icarus Deception by Seth Godin
2020 Thoughts
✦ June
Things I wish I knew when I started designing
5 years in the design field is not too long. But it gives me many lessons that if I knew about it before, it will be a better designer than I am today.
2020 Thoughts
✦ June
Get a job as a product designer whithout going to design school
I got my job as a designer without going to design school. This is a guide to teach yourself design.
2020 Thoughts
✦ May
V for Vulnerable
It’s ok to be vulnerable
2020 Thoughts
✦ March
Designer’s guide for designing for performance
Performance is a shared responsibility and everyone on your team impacts it. Considering performance when making design decisions will have an enormous impact on your users.
2020 Thoughts
✦ March
The function of beauty
We got so carried away with the idea of functionality, we lost sight of who we were designing for in the first place, humans
2020 Thoughts
✦ February
Keep a hero file and steal like an artist
How to find your own design style at the early stage of your design career.
2020 Thoughts
✦ February
People I love at Carousell
Things come very differently when switching from a one-designer-team to a multi-designer-team. We have to work with many people who are better than you. So it’s a chance for you to learn from the others.
2020 Thoughts
✦ January
Lessons from the movie “Schindler’s List” by Steven Spielberg
Everything I learned I learned from the movies.
2020 Thoughts
✦ January
In a digital world, don’t forget to use your digits
Don’t let cool digital tools and the noisy world bury your creativity.
2020 Thoughts
✦ January
The secret of writing
What’s the primary purpose of your headline, your graphic, your font, and any other part of the writing?
2019 Thoughts
✦ December
2019 Year in review
End of a decade, the 2010s, the new one is coming, 2020s. What had passed last year?
2019 Thoughts
✦ December
Why I live so far from the office
or many people who work abroad, they tend to rent a house close to the office so they can come to work easier. But the price isn’t cheap. If it’s cheap, it isn't a good room. Let’s see what I do with my daily commute when staying far from the office.
2019 Thoughts
✦ December
How I built a new website in 2 weeks with GatsbyJS
We always want to make something better. And that’s why I built this new website.
2019 Thoughts
✦ December
Is Figma really good? Thoughts from a Sketch designer who tries Figma
There is a trend now on design, switching from Sketch to Figma. But is Figma that good?
2019 Thoughts
✦ December
Jakob’s law
One of the most basic and common principles of UX
2019 Thoughts
✦ November
Our Europe Trip 2019 — Whole journey review
The review for our whole journey, where is our favorite, where has the best food, where we will come back?
2019 Thoughts
✦ November
Our Europe trip 2019 — Back home
We’re playing back to Singapore, it’s a long flight, 12 hours. Long long long flight.
2019 Thoughts
✦ November
Our Europe trip 2019 — Paris
There are so many things to see and do there.
2019 Thoughts
✦ November
Can’t get good ideas? Come up with some bad ones
It’s your brain trying to protect you from harm, from coming up with ideas that is embarrassing and stupid and could cause you to suffer pain. The way you shut off is by forcing the brain to come up with bad ideas.
2019 Thoughts
✦ November
Our Europe trip 2019 — Bye Belgium
The second country of the journey, we are coming to Paris, France.
2019 Thoughts
✦ November
Our Europe trip 2019 — Germany
German people are awesome
2019 Thoughts
✦ November
The designer’s job is both doing and thinking
What if one day you don’t have anything to deliver? It happens very often on a product team, what would you feel?
2019 Thoughts
✦ September
Ugly truths about design systems
Design system (DS) is not a temporary trend, it has many benefits to the organization and the product. But what else?