Principal product designer and design-technology leader with 15+ years of experience shaping platform-level interaction systems, developer ecosystems, and design languages across Meta Quest, Horizon OS, HoloLens, Microsoft Mesh, and MRTK. Currently leading spatial input and interaction design at Meta Reality Labs, with scope across the general-purpose computing input stack and the OS, SDK, UI framework, and guidance layers that bring those inputs together.
Known for turning emerging technology into coherent, shippable systems by aligning design, research, engineering, product, and partner teams. Combines strategic platform thinking with hands-on prototyping, visual craft, and direct product development, including the award-winning Typography Insight and Cosmic XR.
Core Strengths
Design-Technology Integration
Bridges design and engineering through technical fluency, visual craft, rapid prototyping, and hands-on implementation. Turns complex interaction concepts into tangible systems that can be tested, refined, and shipped.
Interaction Systems & Frameworks
Defines scalable input systems, multimodal interaction models, UI frameworks, and design principles across OS experiences, first-party products, third-party SDKs, and emerging devices.
Platform & Ecosystem Strategy
Connects long-term platform direction with developer needs, partner constraints, and product execution. Creates coherent systems that can scale across teams, products, and an external ecosystem.
Productization & Prototyping
Transforms early research and experimental input concepts into durable product capabilities by prototyping quickly, resolving technical constraints, and carrying interaction quality through launch.
Organizational Influence & Ecosystem Enablement
Builds alignment across design, engineering, research, product, documentation, and partner teams. Establishes shared quality bars and creates reusable systems, specifications, guidance, examples, and tools that help internal teams and third-party developers deliver consistent, high-quality experiences.
Experience
Meta
Driving consistent input and interaction quality across the Meta Quest platform and third-party SDKs. Leading the exploration, definition, and productization of spatial input systems, including hands, eyes, voice, controllers, stylus, gamepad, mouse, virtual and physical keyboards, and microgestures, to enable coherent and extensible interaction experiences at platform scale.
• Spatial input & interactions for Meta Horizon OS / Quest products
• Interaction SDK / Presence Platform
• Meta Horizon UI Set
• Mixed Reality Design Guidelines
• Peripheral / 3rd party input modalities
Microsoft
Led the design team responsible for defining the Design Language for Microsoft Mesh. Our work established the visual foundation and design system for the platform, including core UI controls, interaction patterns, audio design, and cross-surface design integration.
Set design direction, aligned multidisciplinary partners around shared quality standards, and ensured that the design language scaled consistently across experiences while supporting extensibility and future growth.
Microsoft
Led the design effort for the developer and creator ecosystem, with a focus on MRTK’s UX Building Blocks. I drove the definition of common spatial interaction patterns and UI controls for HoloLens, working closely with engineering and research partners to align design intent with platform capabilities.
With a background spanning graphic design and engineering, I helped translate the design vision into a cohesive, production-ready system by setting quality bars, refining visual and interaction details, and guiding the creation of example scenes that demonstrated best practices. I also shaped the supporting design and development guidelines and contributed to the open-source workflow through design reviews and collaboration on GitHub.
• Open source project Mixed Reality Toolkit (MRTK)‘s UX building blocks
• Mixed Reality design guidelines on Microsoft Docs
• Mixed Reality tutorial
• Developer community engagement & design evangelism
• Partner company design consultations
• Internal & external tools design for designers and creators
• Cross-group collaborations for integrating Microsoft technologies with Mixed Reality
Mixed Reality Documentation – http://aka.ms/MRDocs
Mixed Reality Toolkit (MRTK2) – http://aka.ms/MRTKDocs
Mixed Reality Toolkit (MRTK3) – http://aka.ms/mrtk3
Mixed Reality Design Labs – http://aka.ms/MRDL
Microsoft
Led the UX design effort for Windows Bridge for iOS (Project Islandwood), focusing on translating iOS interaction models and design patterns into the Windows ecosystem. I worked closely with engineering and program management to prioritize and validate UI controls, application models, and interaction behaviors, informed by my hands-on experience as an iOS app developer.
Presented personal projects at Microsoft Build 2016 to demonstrate real-world applications built using Windows Bridge for iOS, helping developers understand best practices and adoption strategies.
Microsoft
Led the design of a common UX framework across Bing and MSN applications, including News, Sports, Money, Weather, Travel, Health & Fitness, and Food & Drink. I oversaw visual design, information architecture, and interaction patterns to establish a cohesive, scalable design system that aligned user experience across a diverse portfolio of consumer apps.
• MSN apps for iOS & Android
• MSN apps for Windows 10
• MSN Web
Microsoft
Led the design of a common UX framework across Bing and MSN apps, including News, Sports, Money, Weather, Travel, Health & Fitness, and Food & Drink. Defined the visual design, information architecture, and interaction patterns to establish a cohesive and scalable user experience across a diverse portfolio of consumer applications.
• Bing/MSN Sports app for Windows 8
• Bing/MSN Finance app for Windows 8
• Bing/MSN Health&Fitness app for Windows 8.1
• Bing/MSN Sports app for Windows Phone 8
• Bing/MSN Health&Fitness app for Windows Phone 8
Samsung Electronics
삼성전자 통신연구소 차세대 단말팀 선행단말 Lab.
• Developed software for GSM / UMTS / WCDMA 3G Mobile UI / MMI
• Integrated design for the Phone Shell / Idle / Settings / Main menu
• Researched next-generation GUI solutions for SHP / Mocha platform
Republic of Korea Army
Education
Parsons School of Design
Teaching Fellow
• Taught Creativity & Computation Lab class
• Designed and developed a full curriculum and course materials
• Taught programming basics for the first-year graduate students – Processing, Arduino, openFrameworks, and Flash AS3
Samsung Art & Design Institute
Korea University
Books
Awards
Microsoft Achievement Award (Sabbatical)
MSAA is a sabbatical program that allows the company to retain and revitalize eligible employees (L66+, 10yrs at Microsoft) who, by virtue of their high-level positions, experience, and proven performance, would be difficult to replace.
Microsoft Innovation Awards
Microsoft India Development Center Innovation Awards 2013 Winner
Sports App for Windows 8 – ‘World-class Consumer Experience’
Departmental Honors
Graduation with Departmental Honors
Testimonials
“Yoon is a shining example of a person who reaches across organizational and group boundaries to make things better. Yoon has always been a key figure in the success of MRTK.”
Will Wei – Principal Dev Lead, MRTK, Mixed Reality Engineering, Microsoft
“You are very good at organizing what work needs to be done between design and dev UX. Aside from organizing all the work needed to hit shell parity early on, you demonstrated this again very recently by organizing a group to complete improvements to the hand menu. In my mind, you are one of the powerhouses of the HoloLens 2 program, one of the people really making a big impact on our team from the UX and MRTK sides.”
Julia Schwarz – Principal Engineer, MRTK, Mixed Reality Engineering, Microsoft
“Yoon is a great spokesperson for our efforts with Designers and Developers. As we have learned from early engagements, I see a lot of those learnings appear in his work and output to the community.”
Eric Havir – Principal Program Manager, Mixed Reality Commercialization, Microsoft
“I really feel like we have a body of work that far exceeds what you’d typically expect from a single dev and prototype designer (especially when your and his time are also split between multiple projects). We couldn’t have gotten this far without you and your kind, collaborative, thoughtful, and skillful approach to the work.”
Matt Zeller – Senior Program Manager, Mixed Reality, Microsoft
“You are super insightful and proactive. You are a great customer advocate and truly bring huge value to our developer community with the work you do for the developer platform.. This extends beyond just typical design – you share great perspectives from a developer viewpoint too. Seeing you work with the ISVs was admirable.”
Graham Bury – Principal Program Manager, Mixed Reality, Microsoft
“You have an amazing combination of bias for action paired with balanced design and development skills. It’s been a pleasure to work with you because you evangelize the MRTK globally, and advocate for great documentation to serve both designers and developers.”
Sean Kerawala – Program Manager, Mixed Reality, Microsoft
“You have a keen ability to clearly/concisely amplify your work and I think this is thanks, in part, to your ability to listen to feedback and iterate your message. Whether it’s short videos/GIFs, short emails… you sum up what’s been done and the impact that the work has had extremely well.”
Mark Vitazko – Senior Designer, Mixed Reality Design, Microsoft
“You have been an amazing partner when it comes to aiding our partner companies. You are an invaluable resource when links and design choices need to be made between our different technology stacks.”
Cameron Micka – Principal Software Engineer, Mixed Reality Design, Microsoft
“Yoon maintains a strong social network presence and is a key figure in writing tutorials, producing videos, and generally creating excitement in the community for MRTK and Microsoft MR. I have folks on the team who knew of Yoon by name when they joined and were extremely excited to get to meet him.”
Will Wei – Principal Dev Lead, MRTK, Mixed Reality Engineering, Microsoft
“You generate incredible energy for the MRTK team and our customers with alluring demo videos and articles that show the potential of the platform. I am excited every time I see a new mail from you to learn what awesomeness you are about to unleash. From shell parity which you drove to documentation and getting started which you wrote. You find something that could be better and drive it to completion.”
Chris Becker – Principal Software Engineering Manager, Mixed Reality, Microsoft
“You are a team player and always eager to help others. There are multiple times when I encounter issues with Unity Building or MRTK settings in the Display Calibration Experience app, you always give me detailed suggestions with patience.”
Fei Teng – Senior Software Engineer, Mixed Reality, Microsoft
“Yoon has a good sense of what designers using MRTK need to be productive and painstakingly works to provide documentation and tools to make them successful. I appreciate the care and level of work he provides for MRTK.”
Todd Williams – Senior UX Designer, Mixed Reality Studios, Microsoft
Recommendations (from Linked In)
“Yoon is one of those rare, exceptional leaders who excels and thrives at the intersection of Design and Development. Given that spatial computing is uniquely alive, responsive, and dynamic, design must embrace logic – Yoon’s sweet spot.
Beyond that, he’s passionate about the space, courageously experiments, readily embraces the best ideas no matter where they come from, and is a dedicated, flexible collaborator.
He’s a thought leader who pushes the envelope and breaks new ground before anyone else ever even imagines the direction he took, much less that it should even be considered or pursued.
Every turn I’ve been impressed and wow’d by Yoon. Don’t be fooled by his quiet demeanor! He’s a powerhouse underneath those soft spoken words. I hope we continue to cross paths no matter where our individual journeys lead us.”
Michael Hoffman – Principal Engineering Manager, Mixed Reality Engineering, Microsoft
“Yoon is an incredibly talented designer, a hybrid designer with a rare combination of design/ technical skills, speed, focus, motivation, passion and an incredibly hard work ethic make him a tremendous asset for any team or organization. Yoon was a creative force on my team. It wasn’t just about what he created but how he created – fostering meaningful collaboration, customer/ developer empathy, openness and humility. A can’t think of a better role model for early-in-career designers. I highly recommend.”
Rodney Edwards – VP of Design, Windows Design
“I had the pleasure of working with Yoon at Microsoft for over 5 years. Yoon played a pivotal role in building mixed reality platform tools such as the Mixed Reality Toolkit (MRTK). He was responsible for building out most of the sample scenes and reusable prefabs within the toolkit. He also led much of the documentation and learning efforts. Yoon is a skilled and experienced professional who consistently delivers high-quality work. He has experience not only in design, but also as a software engineer. He has built and maintains influential mobile apps. And, he has used this experience to guide cross-functional teams towards a common goal. Additionally, Yoon excels at communicating and presenting his work, making it easy for others to understand and buy into his ideas. Overall, I highly recommend Yoon for any project in the field of user experience design, mixed reality, and related areas. I can’t wait to work with him again!”
Cameron Micka – Principal Software Engineer, Microsoft
“I worked with Yoon on the Mixed Reality Toolkit (MRTK) at Microsoft and have the highest respect for his work. He did so much for MRTK, from making example apps built with MRTK and making beautiful design prefabs which are used everywhere to writing excellent documentation on Microsoft Docs and also the main github page. I think Yoon is one of the biggest reasons that MRTK received an award as the best developer toolkit for Mixed Reality last year. He is also an excellent communicator and does a fantastic job bridging the gap between engineering and design. He is one of the colleagues at Microsoft that I held in the highest regard for the quality of his work and his dedication. He went above and beyond so many times in his job, it was an inspiration to work with him.”
Julia Schwarz – Principal Engineer, MRTK, Mixed Reality Engineering, Microsoft
“Yoon is one of the most talented designers I have got the pleasure to work with. His creativity and work ethic always amazes everyone who he works with. Yoon is that unique designer who has strong visual design skills yet is very technical and can code/build anything he imagines. He inspires others to do their absolute best.”
Diego Baca – Partner Design Director, Windows Design
“Yoon is one of the most talented, driven and inspiring designers that I have ever had the honor of working with. He not only has an amazing eye for design and attention to detail, he is also able to make his vision a reality no matter what the medium; from designing in graphic creation programs such as Illustrator, to prototyping, to coding an app, and even now to building experiences in 3D, Yoon executes his vision beautifully. His positive attitude, energy, and drive for results are truly inspiring! I highly recommend Yoon, and I really hope that I get the opportunity to work with him again someday.”
Christina Koehn – Principal Creative Director, Windows Design
“Yoon is one of the most talented designers I have ever worked with. He is bold in his design thinking which often leads to new and creative user experience. He is jet fast in producing designs and is one of the few designers who can work on several problems at once. Being well versed in development, he is instrumental in working with the development team to produce the right level of fit and finish for the product. Overall, it is always a pleasure working with him and would love an opportunity to collaborate with him in near future as well. He would be a great asset for any product/design team.”
Saurabh Drolia – Principal Group Program Manager, Microsoft Teams