Jiyu Kim

Head of UX/UI, PM/PO and Design

Screens and policy, held to the same source of truth.

brainchild.jiyu@gmail.com
Portfolio https://portfolio.brainchild.kr
GitHub https://github.com/watiya

Summary

14 years in UI/UX (full time since 2012), preceded by UI design work from 2003 to 2011
A consecutive run of blockchain and gaming product screens: BORA, Play2bit, NAODA, OVERTAKE, Starzip
I design the system and the information architecture, and I decide the policy those screens follow. Today I own design and product management from one seat
The work does not stop at design: I build the screens and the source of truth myself. React, Next.js, with Claude Code in the daily loop
The failure I guard against hardest is having two sources of truth. The standard lives in one place, and drift is caught by machine

Capabilities

Design systems (primitive and semantic token layers, theme checks, promotion criteria), information architecture and screen design, product policy (wording systems for regulated screens, confirmed state, verifiable acceptance criteria), and delivery operations (role boundaries, release gates, self-aggregating progress), held from one seat.

Tools Figma, Framer, Webflow / HTML, CSS, React, Next.js / Cursor, Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini / After Effects, Spline

Experience

Starzip · 2026.02 - Present

Head of UX/UI, PM/PO and Design

An opBNB-based DEX and token launchpad for local merchants. Working alongside a three-person engineering team, I own design and product management end to end, as the only person in that role. Four products are under management: the design system, screen-spec operations, product policy calls, and the release gate. Most of the product screens, backend aside, I built myself.

What distinguishes this role is that the role boundary itself is written down. Product policy (users, classification, priority, confirmed state, acceptance criteria) is decided by product; servers, APIs and storage are chosen by engineering. Checks hold that boundary, so implementation choices stop returning as open product questions and screen decisions stop landing on engineering.

Repository record for the product codebases, 2026-04-15 to 2026-08-10 (3.8 months):

Areas of work	11
Active days	97
Commits	2,621
Product routes	444
Shared components	889
Token definitions	544
Canonical documents	45 decisions, 17 policies, 62 features, 11 conventions, 124 delivery, 50 design, 60 meeting notes

Selected work (the rest is in the portfolio, https://portfolio.brainchild.kr):

Entry without a wallet. Most buyers of an on-chain asset sale had no wallet, and asking for one first lost them before they saw the product. I split login from wallet: an account browses, and a wallet is required only at purchase.
Moved the design system onto code as the source of truth. The standard was split across the design file and the shipped screens, kept in sync by human comparison. I unified it onto running code in primitive and semantic token layers, and turned silent failures such as a missing dark-theme token into checks.
Built only what ships, separately. A request came to use an internal-only screen from outside. Rather than open the access boundary, I built a separate artifact through a reduced router carrying only the screens meant to leave, taking the bundle from 136MB to 1.8MB.
Collapsed the release gate to one. Several product areas shipped together through several gates, which made each one negotiable. I reduced it to one gate and fixed three axes on every ticket (feature, product area, layer) so progress aggregates itself.

Figures are extracted by script from repository history. The first two months after joining ran in design tools only, and that work is not machine-countable, so it is not included here.

OVERTAKE Labs · 2024.01 - 2026.01

UI/UX Designer

Design system and brand rules, the marketplace (game item trading moved on-chain; the 2026 revision made verified account trades visually distinguishable), the quest platform and its marketplace, the landing site, Stakehouse, tiktem.gg.

Flask · 2022.08 - 2023.12

UI/UX Designer

NAODA Beta, design system and marketplace prototype (a gaming platform where participation becomes eligibility), MOIDA UI.

Friends Games / METABORA · 2021.07 - 2022.08

UI/UX Designer

BORA 2.0 and its guide screens, BORA Scope (a chain explorer), Todayis, METAPICK design system, Friends Games website.

Way2bit · 2018.10 - 2021.06

UI/UX Designer

Play2bit app, market and membership (playtime selection), Spera-LuckyDayBet (a stablecoin gaming platform), the Astellia Royal website redesign, the BORA 1.0 family (Island, Atoll, Lagoon, Explorer, Wallet, Membership, Ecosystem).

Earlier · 2003.08 - 2018.10

TLX PASS · 2018.04 - 2018.10 · UI/UX Designer
Syworks · 2017.09 - 2018.02 · Designer
Mog Communications · 2017.04 - 2017.06 · Designer / Freelancer
Freelance · 2015.01 - 2017.03 · UI/UX Designer
SocialApps · 2012.11 - 2016.02 · UI/UX Designer
PNP Soft, NSoft · 2003.08 - 2011.10 · UI Designer / Full-time, Freelancer
SK T Academy · from 2010.06 · UX/UI lecturer

Education

Kaywon University of Art and Design, Multimedia · 1998.03 - 2000.02