Janice M. Cho is an award-winning Design & Innovation specialist.
Human Centered Design methodologies are at the core of her practice.

The last 15 years has been a journey to understand the best way to approach a problem and to inspire the human spirit to care about the work it produces.

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

 

Independent

Design & Product Expert/Consultant

2019 – Current

Every problem is unique because every human and micro culture has a slightly different formula. The consistencies among them however, are astounding.

Check out the services I provide to clients.

Currently partnered with: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art across multiple projects; Schmidt Futures; Amos Kennedy

 

California College of the Arts

Adjunct Professor

2021 - Current

Master of Design Interaction Design

Collaborating with other faculty while instructing 55+ students.

Classes taught:
Design by Communication

 

Mise App

Founder & Co-Creator

2020 - Current

Mise App is a minimalist recipe box designed for the everyday home chef. It is designed for quicker reading and easy editing as recipes change based on personal palate.

The app’s concept is researched and inspired by the ritual of writing and re-writing recipe cards.

Available now on the App Store!

 

Local Projects, UL, Tandem, & Side Gigs

2010 - 2019

 

Head of Design & Innovation

2017 - 2019

Design Director

2016 - 2017

Senior Experience Designer

2014 - 2016

Think Tank + Innovation Member // User Experience Designer

2012 - 2014

User Experience & Service Designer

2011-2012

Experience Design & Engineering Apprentice

2011

10 years ago, I was thinking about pursuing a Ph.D. After endlessly discussing the pros and cons of higher education, and learning that there weren’t any Ph.D. programs to even support our industry, I ultimately decided that “on the ground work” had a higher potential to create impact.

The following is a long description of things that I’ve done. If you don’t want to read this and would rather chat, contact me.

Details: strategized and designed for Gene Siskel Film Center’s online film culture; led arts related advocacy; worked with the beautiful minds that created the 9/11 memorial museum’s experience; incubated in an innovation group; redesigned the way children with food insecurities eat at school while considering every inner child’s anxiety to please others; created products for engineers and supply chains around the world; introduced “design” to a set space that didn’t understand the discipline nor the language; helped smaller organizations start their business (non-profit, for-profit, & hybrid); made a few logos; took on a role to create a design department in an engineer-centered boutique agency; explored various ways to customize engagement with clients; refined my technique in research, ux, service, and product along the way; explored my understanding of ethics; held my ground and calibrated my moral compass; integrated and taught service design to designers, clients, and customers; started a product team when our largest client landed on our laps; won some awards while innovating on problems; developed a critique method for teams; spoke at an international conference.

Throughout this journey, I have met amazing and terrible people—stories for days—but I’m proud to say that I have cultivated and sustained a love and fascination with our industry.

Humans are much too complex to be boxed into a URL— especially as the years go on and projects and problems become larger in scale.

In an effort to give you an alternate dimension to what you see on this website, I will leave you with this:
I see the world in color and typefaces; I visualize speech in waves; lately, I’ve been thinking about dashi and cumin; rearranging furniture has meant more to me than braiding hair since I was 9; lastly, I love children’s books because they synthesize big ideas into simple sentences.