Building a diasporic youth media platform

RADII is a media and community platform focused on the people, culture, and ideas shaping Asia and its global diaspora. I worked across user research, product development, editorial strategy, and digital experience design as RADII developed a new media app and redesigned its website.

The work began during a period of rising anti-Asian hate crimes and heightened tensions between the United States and China. We were building more than a publication. The goal was to create an active reading experience that could inform people, connect communities, and inspire action.

Designing for community during political turbulence

Ambition

The new app was intended to help readers move beyond passive consumption. It combined journalism with social justice features and community-oriented experiences, creating space for people to understand one another across cultural and political divides.

Research

I conducted 300+ hours of one-to-one and focus group interviews with people from different cultural backgrounds, then coded and analyzed the material for patterns in motivations, concerns, and information needs. Those findings became recommendations for editorial, product, and business development.

A diasporic youth audience wanted stories about identity, culture, politics, and belonging that did not flatten their communities the way mainstream media often did.

Research methods

I used a mixed-methods approach combining ethnographic research with behavioral and product analysis.

• Focus group interviews
• In-depth interviews
• Usability testing
• User and persona development
• Journey mapping
• Wireframing
• Competitor reviews
• Comparative feature analysis
• Social listening
• Qualitative data coding
• Behavioral and cognitive analysis
• Website and product analytics

I used tools including Hotjar, Similarweb, Whimsical, and other research and analytics platforms to organize findings, identify behavioral patterns, and communicate opportunities to the wider team.

From research to product development

Translation

The research informed multiple rounds of product development. I worked with editorial and business teams to connect audience needs with product decisions, including:

• How readers discovered and navigated stories
• How the platform could encourage a more active reading journey
• How social justice content could lead to reflection and action
• How editorial content could build trust across cultural differences
• How the product could make complex stories more accessible
• How content, community, and product features could work together

The platform aimed to bridge misunderstandings between China and the West by telling stories that humanized people rather than reducing them to geopolitical narratives.

Redesigning the website

Approach

I later contributed to the redesign and development of RADII’s website, using user research and behavioral data to evaluate the experience and prioritize improvements.

Outcome

The redesigned platform contributed to approximately 10× growth in readership, from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands.

I also helped RADII fundraise around a new product vision. The wider community reached a quarter million followers on Instagram, creating an important distribution network for its journalism, cultural work, and community-building efforts.

What I learned

The strongest digital experiences do not begin with features. They begin with a serious attempt to understand people: what they are trying to do, what they are afraid of, what they trust, and what kind of participation feels meaningful to them.

At RADII, research helped us build a product for a community navigating identity, migration, cultural misunderstanding, and political change. The work showed me how qualitative insight and behavioral data can come together to shape products that are not only easier to use, but more socially meaningful.

My role

• Led qualitative user research across multiple cultural communities
• Conducted 300+ hours of interviews and focus groups
• Coded and synthesized research findings
• Shared insights with editorial, product, and business development teams
• Supported the development of a new media app
• Contributed to the redesign and launch of a new website
• Used Hotjar, Similarweb, and other tools to evaluate user behavior
• Supported content development across articles, images, video, and podcasts
• Helped RADII fundraise around a new product vision
• Contributed to a redesign associated with approximately 10× readership growth

Selected outputs

• User research synthesis
• Interview frameworks and discussion guides
• Personas and audience segments
• User journeys
• Wireframes
• Usability testing plans and findings
• Comparative feature analysis
• Website redesign
• Product development recommendations
• Editorial and content strategy insights