Skip to content
UCSD Ed Ngai salesforce

Where are they now? Ed Ngai

Where are they now? Ed Ngai

Where are they now? Ed Ngai

Ed Ngai ‘17 works to ensure that designers and developers create consistent, beautiful experiences through defining company-wide design guidelines. He is currently a UX Engineer at Salesforce working on the Lightning Design System.

He recently spoke at Dreamforce 2018, Salesforce’s annual tech conference that unites over 170,000 industry pioneers and thought leaders to learn about new products and processes that can elevate their organizations. Ngai shared his work on densification, a feature set to roll out next winter that allows users to control their interface density setting to enhance the Lightning Experience. He has previously spoken at Dreamforce and TrailheaDX, Salesforce’s developer conference.


Ed Ngai ’17, now a UX Engineer at Salesforce

Similar to many other designers, Ngai stumbled upon design coming from an adjacent field. He entered UC San Diego as a freshman majoring in computer science. During his junior year, he enrolled in an introduction to information architecture course where he discovered design.

I learned what UX is and that led me to want to work in design to create experiences rather than be focused on specific engineering details.

He attributes that course to jumpstarting a career that bridges design and development. During the summer going into his senior year, Ed interned with Salesforce on the Prototyping team where he had the opportunity to leverage his coding and design skills.

For aspiring designers, Ngai emphasizes the importance of closing the gap between academia and industry through developing strong interpersonal skills. He believes that classes will equip students with the necessary skills and projects to excel but the differentiating factor is having the ability to network and successfully communicate with others through storytelling. He points to his personal experience when navigating professional relationships.

As a junior UX engineer, I want to present myself in a humbling way when seeking help and driving projects to the finish line.

Ngai also acknowledges the value of adopting a life-long learning mentality that emerges from building connections. At UC San Diego, Ngai served as President for Design at UCSD where he had the opportunity to lead by teaching. He believes the student group allows students to learn how they can deliver value through skill-building opportunities while encouraging them to find autonomy in pursuing their creative interests. As a student leader, he worked closely with The Design Lab to support student learning initiatives within the design community. His involvement with both organizations helped him accelerate his career and establish lasting relationships that he will carry throughout his professional journey.

Ed Ngai ’17 (front and center) leading a discussion with other Design at UCSD students at a IBM Design Training hosted by UCSD Design Lab back in 2017

Ed Ngai ‘17 works to ensure that designers and developers create consistent, beautiful experiences through defining company-wide design guidelines. He is currently a UX Engineer at Salesforce working on the Lightning Design System.

He recently spoke at Dreamforce 2018, Salesforce’s annual tech conference that unites over 170,000 industry pioneers and thought leaders to learn about new products and processes that can elevate their organizations. Ngai shared his work on densification, a feature set to roll out next winter that allows users to control their interface density setting to enhance the Lightning Experience. He has previously spoken at Dreamforce and TrailheaDX, Salesforce’s developer conference.


Ed Ngai ’17, now a UX Engineer at Salesforce

Similar to many other designers, Ngai stumbled upon design coming from an adjacent field. He entered UC San Diego as a freshman majoring in computer science. During his junior year, he enrolled in an introduction to information architecture course where he discovered design.

I learned what UX is and that led me to want to work in design to create experiences rather than be focused on specific engineering details.

He attributes that course to jumpstarting a career that bridges design and development. During the summer going into his senior year, Ed interned with Salesforce on the Prototyping team where he had the opportunity to leverage his coding and design skills.

For aspiring designers, Ngai emphasizes the importance of closing the gap between academia and industry through developing strong interpersonal skills. He believes that classes will equip students with the necessary skills and projects to excel but the differentiating factor is having the ability to network and successfully communicate with others through storytelling. He points to his personal experience when navigating professional relationships.

As a junior UX engineer, I want to present myself in a humbling way when seeking help and driving projects to the finish line.

Ngai also acknowledges the value of adopting a life-long learning mentality that emerges from building connections. At UC San Diego, Ngai served as President for Design at UCSD where he had the opportunity to lead by teaching. He believes the student group allows students to learn how they can deliver value through skill-building opportunities while encouraging them to find autonomy in pursuing their creative interests. As a student leader, he worked closely with The Design Lab to support student learning initiatives within the design community. His involvement with both organizations helped him accelerate his career and establish lasting relationships that he will carry throughout his professional journey.

Ed Ngai ’17 (front and center) leading a discussion with other Design at UCSD students at a IBM Design Training hosted by UCSD Design Lab back in 2017

Ed Ngai ‘17 works to ensure that designers and developers create consistent, beautiful experiences through defining company-wide design guidelines. He is currently a UX Engineer at Salesforce working on the Lightning Design System.

He recently spoke at Dreamforce 2018, Salesforce’s annual tech conference that unites over 170,000 industry pioneers and thought leaders to learn about new products and processes that can elevate their organizations. Ngai shared his work on densification, a feature set to roll out next winter that allows users to control their interface density setting to enhance the Lightning Experience. He has previously spoken at Dreamforce and TrailheaDX, Salesforce’s developer conference.


Ed Ngai ’17, now a UX Engineer at Salesforce

Similar to many other designers, Ngai stumbled upon design coming from an adjacent field. He entered UC San Diego as a freshman majoring in computer science. During his junior year, he enrolled in an introduction to information architecture course where he discovered design.

I learned what UX is and that led me to want to work in design to create experiences rather than be focused on specific engineering details.

He attributes that course to jumpstarting a career that bridges design and development. During the summer going into his senior year, Ed interned with Salesforce on the Prototyping team where he had the opportunity to leverage his coding and design skills.

For aspiring designers, Ngai emphasizes the importance of closing the gap between academia and industry through developing strong interpersonal skills. He believes that classes will equip students with the necessary skills and projects to excel but the differentiating factor is having the ability to network and successfully communicate with others through storytelling. He points to his personal experience when navigating professional relationships.

As a junior UX engineer, I want to present myself in a humbling way when seeking help and driving projects to the finish line.

Ngai also acknowledges the value of adopting a life-long learning mentality that emerges from building connections. At UC San Diego, Ngai served as President for Design at UCSD where he had the opportunity to lead by teaching. He believes the student group allows students to learn how they can deliver value through skill-building opportunities while encouraging them to find autonomy in pursuing their creative interests. As a student leader, he worked closely with The Design Lab to support student learning initiatives within the design community. His involvement with both organizations helped him accelerate his career and establish lasting relationships that he will carry throughout his professional journey.

Ed Ngai ’17 (front and center) leading a discussion with other Design at UCSD students at a IBM Design Training hosted by UCSD Design Lab back in 2017

Read Next

Uc San Diego Design Lab Viasat

Viasat Invests in UC San Diego’s Design Lab

Viasat gift helps researchers provide guidance to engineering organizations on ways to implement a ‘design…

Ucsd Designathon

Designathon Ideas Imagine New Trolley Stop as a Vibrant Destination

Autonomous scooters, interactive art, food shuttles, and cable cars are just a few of the creative ideas that emerged from a two-day public designathon event that will join the efforts to transform UC San Diego from a closed campus primarily designed for work and school to destination, inviting people to come, stay and explore what the  campus has to offer. “Anybody who comes to San Diego should have this campus as a destination in addition to Balboa Park or the Gaslamp district,” said UCSD Chancellor Pradeep Khosla in a San Diego Union Tribune article.
Design Lab #wearenotwaiting Nightscout Openaps

How DIY Designers are Impacting Healthcare

#WeAreNotWaiting is the social media movement of folks in the diabetes community who have come…

Design Lab Ucsd Elderly

Design for older people sucks. Here are four ways to fix it

Digital Arts editorial with Stefan Sagmeister and Design Lab Director Don Norman on designing for sixty-somethings.

Beginning in May, Alive Ventures launched a series of ongoing panels titled “Old People are Cool, Design for Them Sucks”, aiming to open up a discussion with the design community on how to better design for older adults. John Zapolski, founder of Alive Ventures, and design thought leader Ayse Birsel of Birsel + Seck, hosted the series of discussions, with guests including design luminaries such as Stefan Sagmeister and Don Norman.

“When I would visit him in retirement homes, I would see people who needed walkers and wouldn’t use them because it was a stigma,” said Norman. “They were so ugly and it sort of shouts out to the world, ‘Hey I’m old and crippled and therefore probably feeble minded as well,’ right? Well no, it’s wrong. And so I noticed that, but I didn’t pay much attention until I myself reached my eighties and started looking at my friends and other things and realised that, yes, people shunned a lot of things that are being made to help them because they don’t like to admit publicly they have problems.” - Don Norman

SPUR Team 3

This story showcases our team's research and discoveries, primarily focusing on broadening undergraduate students' research…

Design Lab Stroke-kinect Nadir Weibel

Team behind Stroke Kinect Receives Funding

As part of the Frontier of Innovation Scholars Program (CSE Publication), the Stroke-Kinect proposal led…

Back To Top