KendallNakai
design so others can blossom 🌸
Portfolio
Experience
@Microsoft, Software Engineer
Designed and developed a front-end insights dossier and full-stack permissions audit tool for 20,000+
@Design Lab, Design Research Assistant
Scaled up the "Hidden Currciulum" of design to undergraduates / Advised by Professor Philip Guo / ICER paper 2023, L@S paper 2022
and researched design process decomposition, adaptive scaffolding, and community design through digital whiteboards / Advised by Professor Stephen MacNeil and Professor Steven Dow / C&C paper 2023
@ACM UCSD, Co-Founder, Vice-President Experiences, Product Designer
Founded UCSD's largest computing community, designed an an in-house membership portal for 1000+
@Boeing, Created payload subsystem designs for a theoretical satellite mission to Europa as an engineering intern
@MathWorks Was a MATLAB ambassador and taught several workshops
@iD Tech Camps Taught 20 students how to code through in Java through GUI game development and design graphics for videos in Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and Premiere
@UC San Diego Mentored 50 student designers through the UX/UI app design process as a TA for a design class
@Warren College Was an orientation leader for 40 new students at UC San Diego's Warren College
@Chick-Fil-A Served 500+ guests per day, delivering infinite smiles through frosted lemonade Reflection
@Tennis Anyone Coached recreation tennis classes of all levels and ages, Varsity captain 3 years
@Girl Scouts Earned my Girl Scout Gold (highest honors), Silver, and Bronze awards, 12 year scout
Publications
Kendall Nakai and Philip J. Guo. Uncovering the Hidden Curriculum of University Computing Majors via Undergraduate-Written Mentoring Guides: A Learner-Centered Design Workflow. ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research (ICER), 2023.
Kendall Nakai and Philip J. Guo. Uncovering the Hidden Curriculum of University Computing Majors via Undergraduate-Written Mentoring Guides: A Learner-Centered Design Workflow. ACM Conference on Learning at Scale (work-in-progress), 2022.
Stephen MacNeil, Ziheng Huan, Kenneth Chen, Zijian Ding, Alexander Yu, Kendall Nakai, Steven Dow. Freeform Templates: Combining Freeform Curation with Structured Templates ACM Conference on Creativity and Cognition (C&C), 2023.
About
Hi there, I'm Kendall 🌸
I'm interested in Design and Human-Computer Interaction research, I watch the sunset everyday, and am always searching for the perfect cup of boba milk tea.
❄️ In Winter 2023, I explored some cool sights on the East Coast visiting New York City, Washington DC, and Raleigh.
👟 In Spring 2023, I ran 500 miles to train for the Vancouver marathon and completed my first marathon!
☀️ In Summer 2023, I presented a paper at a conference in Chicago and hiked around British Columbia.
🎾 In Winter 2022, I tried out new sports including archery, aerial silks, boxing, karate, tennis, swimming, and surfing.
🎒 In Spring 2022, I graduated early and solo-backpacked Europe through 18 countries. I learned to let go of any expectations I had of people and to meet them where they are.
🌆 In Summer 2022, I presented a short paper at my first conference in New York City then moved from San Diego to Seattle to start work as a Software Engineer.
🍂 In Fall 2022, I witnessed Fall for the first time and went on some great hikes in the Pacific Northwest.
🌎 Improving everyday life through design
❤️ Fostering welcomeness through inclusivity
⭐ Being there for people's special moments
🏔️ Enjoying the outdoors through hiking
🔎 Looking around for cool examples of civic design in cities
📷 Making a 1 second a day video recap each year (I'm on year 7 😸)
Contact
Let's chat over virtual bubble milk tea!
kendallnakai[at]gmail[dot]com
/kendallnakai
medium blog
/kendallnakai