Haley Kyong A Oh: Shaping Human-Centered AI Through UX Design

Haley Kyong A Oh’s professional journey to becoming a UX designer is a path marked by an interesting number of switchbacks. Her unique perspective as a human-centered designer was shaped by a childhood of self-reliance and globetrotting across four different countries, as well as the influence of emerging technology.

Her deep-seated ability to understand new situations and respond appropriately, a skill she honed through years of navigating diverse cultures, has become part of her core philosophy. For Haley Kyong A Oh, also known as Haley Oh, design is a universal language that connects people of different cultures and exists beyond the limitations of words.

Oh’s work began in fashion design at the Blanche Macdonald Centre, and the period instilled in her a strong sense of precision, discipline, and craftsmanship, which she applied while working with luxury brands. But as technology evolved around her and artificial intelligence took hold worldwide, her focus shifted from physical materials to digital frameworks, leading her into graphic design roles in Korea. There, she built powerful brand systems used across multiple consumer-facing touchpoints, including identity, packaging, and digital platforms.

Wanting to deepen her expertise, Oh moved to the US to earn an MFA in Graphic Design at ArtCenter College of Design. Here, she developed a system-oriented style rooted in powerful new concepts. She began building a bridge between graphic and industrial design through a series of collaborative studio projects for major global brands, including sponsored projects with companies such as Samsung and Cesar. Here, she explored future product ecosystems for Gen Z and Gen X audiences. This interdisciplinary approach pushed her fully into UX and interaction design, leading to her current position in Seattle, where she designs user experiences for hardware and emerging technologies within cross-functional teams that mirror industry product-development workflows.

Today, Oh is working to keep design centered on people, even as the world becomes increasingly enmeshed in complex AI systems. Her work tackles a growing industry challenge: translating technically complex, AI-driven systems into intuitive, user-friendly experiences people can trust and understand. She specializes in designing systems that make advanced tools feel more natural to everyday users, integrating visual systems, UX, and technology to create better user experiences that balance technical complexity with accessibility and clarity.

Oh’s master’s thesis, Venus Issue, encapsulates her personal approach to human-centered AI and speculative design. The project uses generative AI to bring historical typography to life, creating a sophisticated, fully interactive web experience that lets users create type by touching the screen and producing physical outputs. By combining new technology with typographic history, Venus Issue shows how AI can serve as a creative partner rather than replace human authors. The project has been mentioned as an example of how speculative design can thoughtfully explore the future of AI while staying rooted in usability, craft, and cultural context.

Oh views speculative design as an essential practice for responsibly guiding technology into the future and ensuring advanced systems remain accessible and easy for everyone to use; a philosophy that aligns closely with current industry conversations around ethical and human-centered AI design.

Over the years, Oh’s work has earned her numerous impressive accolades from highly competitive, international design award programs evaluated by expert juries. In 2025, she received multiple DNA Paris Design Awards, an international competition that attracts thousands of professional submissions annually from designers and studios across Europe, Asia, and North America. These awards acknowledged her work on the Chinati Foundation project, recognized for its refined typographic system and cultural sensitivity, and Extinction Songs, a project that translates environmental data into visual and auditory storytelling, highlighting design’s role in environmental awareness and interdisciplinary communication.

These awards are judged each year by experienced industry leaders, including internationally acclaimed graphic designer David Carson and Aaron Poe, Design Director of Global Brand Creative at Square (USA), who recognize work that shows outstanding concepts, execution, and cultural relevance.

Oh was awarded a Bronze Award at the WBDS Creative Design Awards 2025/26, an internationally recognized competition run by the World Brand Design Society, which celebrates excellence in brand-led visual communication and digital design. The competition receives thousands of submissions each year from designers all around the world, with only a small percentage becoming winners. Entries are judged on strict criteria, including creativity, originality, execution, relevance to the audience, and overall impact. A panel of experienced design professionals, creative directors, and educators evaluates the submissions.

In addition to her Bronze Award, Oh received the Creative Communication Award (C2A) 2024 Student Best of Best in Brand Identity/Branding, an honor reserved for top-ranked projects selected from an international pool of entries and representing the highest level of achievement within the student category.

Oh’s nonlinear journey from fashion to system-level UX design and AI-driven experiences has given her a resilient, highly adaptive perspective. Her work contributes to current industry discussions on ethical AI, interdisciplinary collaboration, and the designer’s role in influencing how people engage with new technologies.

Ultimately, her ambition is to guide the responsible design of future technologies in every new endeavor. For Haley Kyong A Oh, the goal is to put the human back into human-centered AI.