Product & UX Designer — London

Yidan Xu

Currently designing healthcare innovation

I design human-centred innovations that turn complex challenges into real-world solutions. Recognised by the James Dyson Award, covered by Reuters and Dezeen.

About

Research first. Then design.

London-based product designer and innovation researcher, with a double master's in Innovation Design Engineering from Imperial College London and the Royal College of Art. My work sits at the intersection of people, science and design. I'm currently building Urify, a healthcare innovation incubated at Imperial College London.

A running thread across my work

How I think about AI & HMI.

Two projects, one question underneath both: how much should the system decide, and how do you make that boundary legible enough to trust? My thinking on it, from 1Soul to the Xiaomi Auto cockpit.

Read my thinking
Vibe coding

I build things too.

Outside client work I use AI-assisted coding to make small pieces of real software for myself. Not case studies, just things I actually use. I'll add more here as I make them.

mood_guard.py

MoodGuard

macOS desktop widget · Python + AppKit · built with Claude Code

When I'm carrying an urgent, high-pressure task solo, I get fully absorbed and lose track of everything else: food, sleep, people. So I built MoodGuard, a widget that sits on the desktop alongside the stock ones and tracks the things that actually recharge me. Pick your own list, one glassy pill per activity, tap to fill it in, a big number counting days since the last one. Go 14 days without a real, positive recharge and it warns me to watch for a low mood and step in before it lands. Free to download and fully customisable. Try it.

What it looks like
MoodGuard on the macOS desktop beside the stock Weather, Calendar and battery widgets, showing a 0-day counter and seven activity pills with three checked off in mint
Built to sit at desktop level in the same visual language as the stock widgets. Tap a pill to check it off for today.
MoodGuard's customise sheet, a plain text box with one activity per line, being edited to add 'Walk my dog'
The list is yours: one activity per line, up to 12. Removing a line keeps its history.
Selected work

Pick a star, open a project.

Tap or hover a star to open a project
1Soul homepage — 'Be seriously matched, not just casually seen'
2026 · AI · Product · Website

1Soul

I was the sole designer on an AI matchmaking product: research-led repositioning, a full before/after redesign, and an AI-accelerated workflow grounded in real user interviews.

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The Urify product, photographed for its James Dyson Award 2025 entry
2026 · Health Care · 0–1 · Startup

Urify

A 0–1 health-innovation product I founded solo, recognised as a UK James Dyson Award finalist and covered by Reuters.

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Xiaomi SU7 digital cockpit interior
2025 · HMI · Digital Cockpit

Xiaomi Auto

Contributed to the design and optimisation of in-vehicle interfaces, including central and rear displays, ensuring compliance with European standards and regulations.

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A minted NFT collectible shown on a phone mockup
2023 · Web3 · Startup

NFT

A Chinese NFT platform where users can autonomously craft personalised NFT profile pictures and both buy and sell NFTs.

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2025 · AI · Product · UI/UX

Innovate ADHD

Designed and built a remote ADHD assessment platform from 0–1, shaped around the cognitive and behavioural characteristics of ADHD users.

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Presenting research findings to the Huawei product team
2024 · UI/UX · Data-Driven

Huawei

Design improvements grounded in real user behaviour across three projects covering user identity, structural optimisation and cross-app consistency.

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A hand holding a phone showing the RES app's Breathe Easy welcome screen, with the RES sensor standing behind it
2025 · Health · Product · UI/UX System

RES

Precise pollen detection turned into actionable insight, helping people breathe easier and live better. DIA Award, and second prize at the Analytics for Society Award 2025.

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PulpaTronics website hero — hanging paper NFC tags
2024 · UI/UX · Branding · Startup

Pulpatronics

Brand building for a sustainable-tech startup during a London internship: colour system, promotional materials and workshop visual support.

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A playtester wearing a VR headset, controllers raised, in front of the flooded Westminster game world
2023 · VR · Unity · Gaming

Entropy

A VR game set fifty years from now in a flooded, waste-choked West Westminster, teaching recycling through play.

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The gesture-controlled lock device
2023 · AI · Machine Learning · Hardware

Gesture

A gesture-controlled lock I trained with machine learning. It opens only once every finger reaches its correct angle.

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Fantasy-style illustration of a character holding a small glowing white rabbit
2024 · Design · Illustration

Illustrator

Freelance illustration work from 2019–2025, adapting drawing method and style to each client's needs.

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Now

Mostly heads-down on weaving AI into everyday life: not chatbots bolted onto things, but small, specific tools that remove real friction. Some ship as client work, some are just for me, like the MoodGuard widget above. Also building Urify and designing at 1Soul.

Updated July 2026 · London
Contact

Let's work together.

Open to product design roles and collaborations in London and remotely.