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Ngawang Chojey Rai

Product and design at Xceed Studio, Thimphu, Bhutan.

It doesn’t matter how good a product is if nobody can use it.

Working and usable are not the same thing. If the experience is bad, whatever the product does counts for nothing, because the person in front of it gives up before they find out.

Ngawang Chojey Rai, shoulder to the camera with his head turned back to the lens, in a white shirt against a plain ground.

Introduction

Working and usable are different things. Most of the gap between them doesn’t show up in a screenshot, and that gap is where I spend my time.

I assume whoever is using it is busy and distracted and has no interest in learning how I’ve arranged things. Designing for the version of them who pays attention means designing for nobody.

Given the choice, I take the option that costs me more and them less. When I get it wrong it’s because I took the easier one and decided they wouldn’t mind.

I don’t start from the tool. The problem has to be there first.

What I do

  • Product and project management

    Deciding what doesn't get built, and making sure the rest actually ships.

  • User experience

    The part nobody photographs.

  • Design

    Interfaces, brand, and the mark at the top of this page.

  • Engineering

    Full-stack and AI. A degree for the foundation, client projects for the rest.

Writing

Nothing published yet. The first posts are being written.

Work

Xceed Studio (opens in a new tab)

I started it in July 2023, at 20, in my second year of college. Brand and product work, incorporated in Bhutan and Singapore.

It’s where all of this gets built, with a team I no longer try to do the work for.

Thimphu valley under snow and low cloud, Tashichho Dzong in the foreground.