Vava.com
Sunvalleytek International Inc. 2022
My Role
UXUI Designer
Team
Cody Yeung, Design Manager
Jack Leong, Graphic Designer
Titus Pahn, Software Engineer
Overview
Established in 2015, VAVA quickly became an unwavering pioneer in the smart living sector. Our commitment to intuitive, innovative design led to our first Red Dot award in 2016.
I contributed to maintaining the website and introducing new layout structures, aiming to increase exposure for new products while ensuring all product pages followed a consistent, unified design system.
Highlight
Hilda is a wonderful and talented UI/UX designer with a unique creative perspective. Open-minded to new ideas and critiques. She is dedicated and focused on the design process with her well-prepared study on other competitors and research on the industry trend. It was a pleasure having her in my team.
Cody Yeung
Design Manager
I am a visual designer who’ve been working with Hilda about a year. She is an UI/UX designer and having her on the team makes a huge difference. It’s really admirable how she always see projects through from conception to completion. Even when the going gets tough sometimes, she is always willing to take her responsibility to get the job finish and continue to have the best attitude. She is a very talented UI/UX designer and a reliable teammate. One of the best teammates I’ve ever had during my 20 years of career.
Jack Leong
Visual Designer
Research
Inspiration Research: Enhancing User Engagement
Following the existing brand style, I conducted research on relevant designs for inspiration and insights. My first task was to create a popup box featuring an email sign-up and discount offer. To approach this, I explored different layout styles and interaction methods to find the most effective and engaging solutions.
Besides addressing the popup box, I wanted to uncover other pain points users might face on our website. I ran a small open task, asking teammates from different departments to share honest feedback.
Those closest to the product often catch things others miss, and the insights were super helpful. Here are a few key issues that surfaced 📱💻:
🔄 A confusing, overly complex user flow
❌ No clear contact option for users
🎨 Layout and contrast issues affecting readability
Planning
Sitemap Refinement for Better User Support
As shown below, the previous sitemap was organized but lacked key information users might look for — which could also increase pressure on the customer service team. To improve this, we added more support-related pages in the header and redesigned the footer layout and flow, giving users quick, accessible shortcuts to essential pages.
Design System
Building Consistency & Efficiency
To improve workflow efficiency and maintain a cohesive brand experience, I built a comprehensive design system covering typography, color, icons, components, and responsive grids. This system streamlined our design process while ensuring visual consistency across all product touchpoints. From homepage layouts to navigation, footer, and imagery ratios, every element was thoughtfully structured to support a seamless, scalable user experience.
Final Design
Takeaways
Ideas Are Better Together
One of my favorite takeaways from working at VAVA was our team’s creative sessions on Miro. It wasn’t just a tool — it became our shared space to drop ideas, sketch out rough concepts, and build on each other’s thoughts in real time. I loved how open and collaborative those moments were. It taught me how valuable different perspectives are, and how the best ideas often come from unexpected places. Those sessions made the design process feel less like work and more like problem-solving with friends — and it’s a mindset I’ll carry with me moving forward.