Meet Baoqi Ding | Product Designer & Podcaster

We had the good fortune of connecting with Baoqi Ding and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Baoqi, what led you to pursuing a creative path professionally?
I majored in accessory design during my undergraduate studies. I realized I was more interested in the experience part during my studies, so I designed a wearable interactive installation to reflect people’s emotions on fabric as my thesis work. This is the starting point for me to touch on the experience and interaction design. The concept of user-centric design attracted me and inspired me to do a deep dive into this area during my master’s studies. The core of my projects is always tied back to the empowerment of users. My understanding of the UX designer’s role is to listen to users’ pain points and hold their hands in delivering a solution. Along the way, my accessory design background helps me add a unique layer of creativity to the user experience I designed.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I believe that art and design are everywhere, and I love the sentence I saw at the Whitney Museum: there are artists among us. I treat design not only as a tool but also as a thinking mode. As a product and experience designer, I always hold responsibility to my users and create experiences with an explorative mindset. I am a designer in QuillBot, an AI writing assistant platform that helps young professionals and students boost their writing confidence. My job is to work with the App & Extension team and support serving 35 million people worldwide, and our product was selected as Google’s most popular Chrome extension in 2023. Outside of my work, I have a passion for side design projects. I recently won the DNA Paris design prize in the UI and design category for a project. The project is called Coplus, a learning platform that targets women engineers and learners who want to pursue careers in the artificial intelligence industry. Women are underrepresented in STEM careers, which poses new challenges at the dawn of the digital transformation era. The platform provides opportunities and resources for pair programming and self-development and will further support women in this industry.

I am not only a UX designer, but I also co-host a personal podcast with a friend, and we invite special guests to our podcast to provide different perspectives to our listeners. We invited a director to discuss emotion synthesis in performance and art in the recent episode. I hope that what I do will help empower others and support them in finding their way of pursuing their dreams and passions.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
If my best friends were to spend a week in New York, I would want to give them an incredible experience combining the best of the city cuisine, drink, culture, and personal passions in museums and interactive exhibits.

The first day is reserved for the center park. First, stroll across Central Park, then rent a boat from the boathouse. I’ll pack some food and have a bagel picnic in the grass. In the afternoon, I will show my guest the Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation. Excellent space architecture and some interactive installations abound in this recently constructed museum. The nicest thing is that it’s within walking distance from Central Park. At Chelsea Market, we can enjoy the oyster and the fresh taco. Talking about the city, I have to mention the show experience. I will invite my friend to the immersive Sleep No More show.

We can then go on a city cultural and architectural tour for two days afterward. We will visit landmarks, including Little Island, Rockefeller Center, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, the New York Public Library, and the High Line. Pizza is lunch; Joe’s Pizza is a New York must-try. We may also arrange afternoon shopping along Fifth Avenue; I will gift my friend a personalized Lego with some New York motifs. Dinner may be steak. After dinner, visit a rooftop bar to enjoy the vibrant nightlife and the fantastic city skyline views.

Starting in the Dumbo district and then heading towards Williamsburg, we can spend all day in Brooklyn. The Williamsburg in Brooklyn is one of my favorite locations in the city. There are many wall paintings, chic cafés, and flea markets. This area also has one of the greatest outdoor climbing gyms in the city. We can enjoy the city view while climbing. In the evening, we can go to a comedy event hosted by a local theater or a live music concert nearby.

We can walk to the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms State Park after a ferry ride to Roosevelt Island during the last few days. One of my favorite architects, Louis I. Kahn, built it. When I touch the park’s walls, I feel peaceful and calm. Lunch may be a quick meal at Eataly Downtown, an Italian market. We can walk to the 9/11 Memorial and Museum in the afternoon. I will remember to have them see a Broadway performance or Lincoln Center concert in the evening.

New York City offers many possibilities; one trip hardly touches the ground. I am happy to share my unique experiences in this city with my friends.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I want to dedicate my shoutout to the book Speculative Everything by Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby. This book has profoundly influenced my thinking and approach to design, encouraging me to imagine and create alternative futures. It challenges the conventional boundaries of design and inspires me to explore speculative design as a tool for innovation and critical thinking.

This inspiration led me to conduct a social installation called Black Box. I invited strangers to experience the Black Box machine and better understand the value of personal data through a social experiment. This project aimed to provoke thought and discussion around data privacy and the often-overlooked implications of data collection in our digital age.

Special thanks go to my mentors and colleagues from QuillBot. Their guidance and support have been instrumental in shaping my career and honing my UX and experience design skills.

Website: https://www.baoqiding.net/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/designplayground_/?hl=en