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INTERVIEWKorean designs way into Photoshop

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Byun Hyung-hwan
Byun Hyung-hwan

By Jane Han

SAN JOSE ― If you use Photoshop, you are right at the user-end of experiencing the output of Byun Hyung-hwan's hard work at the Adobe world headquarters in Silicon Valley.

He is one of six user experience (UX) designers in the creative software giant's Photoshop team.

"I was first introduced to Photoshop when I was 10, playing around with basic photo editing and making animated graphics," Byun, 31, said. "And now, 20 years later, I'm making the program itself. It still feels surreal."

Photoshop is regarded as the most popular photo editing program and is among Adobe's best known design software.

As a UX designer, Byun is responsible for anything and everything the user experiences.

UX design is a relatively new, yet increasingly important, field in the digital industry.

To ensure everything makes sense for an ordinary user, Byun puts himself in the user's shoes day in and day out.

"The job of UX designer is close to an architect," Byun said. "If there is a new button to be added, I'm the one to think through where would be the most logical and functional place it should go."

Most recently, Byun took part in introducing the curvature pen tool, which makes drawing paths, shapes and curves easier.

"It's very rewarding to be able to make a direct impact on the product," said Byun, who is glad to have made a career switch into the design industry.

The Sillim-dong native graduated from Yonsei University with a bachelor's degree in metallurgical engineering.

"It wasn't fun," he said. "I wanted to do something fun, something I could have fun with while doing and something that could make others have fun with. And then I sort of had an epiphany."

Byun remembered one particular game design class he took before graduation.

"The main objective of the class was to think how we can change the world with, yes, you guessed it, video games," he said.

With the newfound passion, Byun looked for ways to seek a career as a video game designer. That ambitious search landed him in Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania a few months later.

"I didn't come to the U.S. because studying here or pursuing a career here was my goal in any way," he said. "But it was more like, I had to come here in order to do what I wanted to do."

Byun pursued his master's in entertainment technology for two years, during which his original career goal of video game designer was slowly and mindfully refined to UX designer.

Upon graduation, he landed his first job as an interaction designer at a startup in Seattle.

"I may have been able to find a job at one of the larger corporations, but I didn't want to," Byun said. "I wanted to be in a startup atmosphere for the adventure and bigger potential."

But after a year, the startup ran out of funds and Byun had to look for another job.

"I experienced the limitations of a startup and began applying to bigger companies that can offer visa sponsorship," he said.

Then opportunity called from Silicon Valley. Doors opened at Adobe and Byun officially kicked off his career.

Recollecting the first day of work, Byun says he was the ultimate deer in the headlights.

"But to this day, there is no ounce of discrimination," he said. "My team is extremely diverse and being a minority isn't a disadvantage. But this doesn't mean English skill isn't important."

In fact, Byun says the single-biggest advice he wants to give aspiring UX designers who hope to pursue a career in the U.S. is to learn English.

"Some people don't think designers need to know much English," he said. "The job of designer requires a lot of convincing and persuasion. Being able to design is doing half the job, the second, equally important, part is to verbally present it."




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