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Interaction Designer

Hello
I'm Anica Qian !

My name is Anica Qian (Zixian Qian). I’m from Shenzhen, China, and I’m 21 years old. I’m currently in Term 8 of the Interaction Design program at ArtCenter College of Design, working and developing as an interaction designer.

About Me

Passionate about building thoughtful digital experiences with a balance of visual design, storytelling, and usability.

Focus

UI/UX design, interaction systems, graphic language, and portfolio storytelling across digital products.

Location

Shenzhen / Pasadena / Los Angeles. Open to creative collaboration, internship, and design opportunities.

Project

MOODOG project
UI Design

MOODOG

UI Design

MOODOG

Moodog is a solution platform that records your dog's mood changes and brings it closer to you.

Better for people understand their dogs. A special pattern will be created that represents the daily relationship between dogs and masters. Make the information can be clearly understand and considered.

Friends Battle project
Final UI Design

Friends Battle

Final UI Design

Friends Battle

Chinese hand writing

Oratouch is an interactive Chinese learning app that helps users learn vocabulary and practice handwriting in a fun way. It combines translation, visualized character meanings, and a personalized word bank to support language learning.

Poster design 1

Poster Design

Poster design 2
Poster design 3

Q&A

Why ArtCenter

Why ArtCenter photo

I chose to study Interaction Design at ArtCenter College of Design because I’ve always been interested in how technology shapes the way people experience the world. Compared to traditional design, interaction design feels more alive—it’s not just about how things look, but how people think, feel, and act when they use a product.

What really drew me to ACCD is its strong emphasis on both conceptual thinking and real-world execution. I wanted a program that doesn’t just teach tools, but challenges me to think critically about user behavior, storytelling, and problem-solving. The fast-paced, project-based environment at ACCD pushes me to constantly iterate, test ideas, and refine my work, which fits the way I like to learn.

I’m especially interested in designing products that connect people and solve real-life problems. For example, I’ve been exploring ideas around housing and roommate matching apps, where user experience goes beyond functionality and touches on trust, communication, and emotional needs. ACCD provides the perfect environment to explore these kinds of ideas while building strong design skills.

Experience Sharing

As an Interaction Design student at ACCD, I see my learning plan as a balance between creativity, technical skills, and real-world problem-solving. Interaction design is not just about making interfaces look good. It is about understanding people, identifying problems, and designing experiences that are both meaningful and functional. Because of that, I try to build my skills in three areas: design thinking, visual communication, and prototyping.

In school, I focus on strengthening my foundation through class projects. I pay a lot of attention to user research, storyboarding, wireframing, and building interactive prototypes in tools like Figma. At the same time, I know that being an interaction designer today also means understanding how products actually get built, so I have been learning more about front-end basics like HTML, CSS, and simple JavaScript. My goal is to become a designer who can not only generate ideas, but also communicate clearly with developers and bring concepts closer to reality.

When it comes to internships, I’ve learned that finding opportunities takes more than just submitting applications. A strong portfolio is the most important part, so I try to treat every school project as a chance to build portfolio-quality work. Instead of only showing final screens, I focus on showing my process: the problem, the research, the design decisions, and how the final solution responds to user needs. I’ve also realized that personal projects can be just as valuable, especially when they reflect problems I genuinely care about.

Future Plan

As an ACCD Interaction Design student, my future plan is to continue growing as a designer who can combine creativity, empathy, and practical problem-solving. In the short term, I want to strengthen my skills in user research, interface design, prototyping, and front-end development so that I can create more complete and thoughtful digital experiences.

I also hope to gain more internship experience in UX or product design. Through real-world projects, I want to better understand how design works in professional teams and how designers collaborate with developers, researchers, and stakeholders. I believe these experiences will help me become more confident, adaptable, and clear about the kind of designer I want to be.

In the long term, I want to design products that solve meaningful everyday problems and improve the way people connect with services, spaces, and each other. I am especially interested in creating digital experiences that feel not only functional, but also human-centered and emotionally aware. For me, good design is not just about aesthetics — it is about making people feel understood.