14 years designing card-based listing systems and geolocation interfaces that make finding local services feel natural, not overwhelming.
Back in 2010, I landed my first real design job at a property portal in Hong Kong. Sounds straightforward enough — organize apartment listings, right? Except we had thousands of properties across a tiny, densely packed city. That’s when it hit me: good directory design isn’t just about showing information. It’s about helping people navigate chaos.
I spent my first six months watching users struggle. They’d click through 50 listings looking for something that probably existed three clicks away. The filters didn’t work intuitively. The neighborhoods meant nothing to people from other districts. Maps were slow. Everything felt clunky. That’s when I became obsessed with one question: how do you make thousands of options feel manageable?
Over the next decade, I worked on property portals, restaurant guides, beauty salon directories, fitness center finders — any platform where people needed to discover local services. Each project taught me something new about how Hongkongers actually search. It’s not like searching online in other places. Geography matters here in a different way. Neighborhood identity matters. Walking distance matters. That context shapes everything about how we design.
Now at LocalHub Directory Limited, I lead the design strategy for our core listing platform. We serve thousands of daily searches across Hong Kong — people looking for everything from coworking spaces in Central to wellness clinics in Mong Kok. The challenge is the same as it was in 2010, just bigger. How do we help people find what they need without drowning them in options?
Fourteen years of real work on systems that serve millions of searches
Designing scannable card layouts that work at scale. I’ve built systems showing 10,000+ listings without overwhelming users.
Smart filtering for neighborhood, category, amenities, and ratings. Making complex choices feel simple. That’s the real work.
Thumbnail maps on cards. Location-aware sorting. Walking distances. Making geography intuitive for dense urban environments.
Loading patterns that feel natural. Progressive disclosure. Optimizing so thousands of listings don’t tank performance.
Most directory searches happen on phones in Hong Kong. Every design decision I make starts mobile first, then scales up.
I conduct research across Hong Kong districts. Understanding how residents in different areas search shapes better design for everyone.
Users shouldn’t need to think hard about where to click or how to filter. The system should feel obvious. If it takes explaining, it’s not working well enough.
Hong Kong isn’t like other cities. We’re geographically constrained, densely packed, and neighborhood identity is strong. Good directory design reflects this reality, not some generic template.
People don’t read directory listings — they scan them. Every card should communicate the essentials in 2-3 seconds. The right visual hierarchy matters more than showing everything.
A beautiful interface that takes 5 seconds to load is broken. Performance optimization isn’t something that happens after design — it’s part of the design process from day one.
You can’t design for Hong Kong from a template. I conduct user research with actual residents. What works in Tsim Sha Tsui might not work in Sham Shui Po. Context matters.
Simplicity doesn’t happen by accident. It requires saying no to features. It requires making hard choices about what information appears when. That’s where the real design work lives.
LocalHub Directory Limited, Hong Kong
Led design strategy for card-based listing systems. Oversee UX across mobile and desktop platforms. Conducted user research across 8 districts. Designed filter systems handling 50,000+ daily searches.
Urban Discovery Limited, Hong Kong
Designed directory interfaces for restaurant, beauty, and wellness verticals. Optimized infinite scroll loading for 15,000+ listings. A/B tested filter layouts across 200,000 monthly users.
PropertyHub Asia, Hong Kong
Designed property listing portal serving 500,000+ monthly searches. Created neighborhood-based filtering system. Optimized map thumbnail loading on mobile devices.
Property Portal Hong Kong, Hong Kong
First role in directory design. Learned the fundamentals of card layouts, filtering, and geolocation-aware interfaces. Conducted initial user research across Hong Kong neighborhoods.
Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Graduated 2010
Thesis focused on information architecture for local service discovery platforms. Recipient of Design Excellence Award.
Deep dives into solving real problems in Hong Kong’s service discovery landscape
The best restaurants aren’t always the ones with the highest ratings. I break down how to use directory filters and neighborhood knowledge to find places locals actually eat.
Read ArticleWhy generic rating systems fail for fitness centers. I share what we learned from testing with 200+ users across Hong Kong about how people actually choose gyms.
Read ArticleCo-working spaces are harder to compare than restaurants. I detail how we redesigned filters and card layouts to help people make better space decisions.
Read ArticleWellness services need different discovery patterns than restaurants. Here’s what privacy, location sensitivity, and treatment type mean for directory design.
Read ArticleI work with teams building service discovery platforms, local marketplaces, and venue finding apps. Let’s talk about what you’re building.
I’m based in Hong Kong and typically available for consultations, design audits, and design leadership roles. Whether you’re redesigning a directory from scratch or optimizing your filter system, I’d like to hear about it.
