Nice to meet you! my name is...
Philana Hin
[fih • lah • nuh]
Founding product designer at an AI health tech startup.
Neuroscience student. Notion campus leader. Marketing director at UMD's top startup accelerator.
Making tech feel more human in the everyday.
Where health meets design.
I'm a Maryland-based undergraduate who loves all things design, from cognitive processing to visual appeal.As a neuroscience student balancing the bioscience world with an avid niche for entrepreneurship, I always look forward to learning more about how visual processing and strategy can positively influence today's consumerism.
— Selected Work
Projects & case studies.
Works, commissions, case studies, and everything in between.
Kato | UMD Apartment Finder
Notion
SoftSpot® & SpotLight™
Let's work together.
Open to internships, collaborations, & coffee chats.
Simplifying the off-campus housing search for college students.
Kato Housing
End-to-end UX research and UI design for a student-built off-campus housing platform serving the UMD community. Reimagines student housing to become more personalized, transparent, and built for how students actually live.
Project Purpose
Startup derived from BMGT461M (Entrepreneurship) at UMD. Continued beyond the course.
Role
Co-founder
Chief Experience Officer (CXO)
Initial team of 4 students
Timeline
October 2025 - Present
Responsibilities
UX Research
Design Thinking
Prototyping
Tools
Figma
Lovable
PostHog
Claude
The Problem
Fragmented platforms create friction in the student housing search.At the University of Maryland, College Park, 61% of the university's 31,000+ undergrads live off campus, yet the tools available to help them search haven't kept up with how students realistically look for housing. Subleasing is one of the most common options students pursue, but it hardly becomes featured on major platforms. Commute times to campus buildings and roommate searchability are nowhere to be found without opening a third party app.Kato set out to change this, providing one seamless, student-first platform for apartments, sublets, and roommates.
Understanding the Landscape
To understand the opportunity, I mapped what already existed by evaluating competitors within the current college housing market. The landscape wasn't competitive; it was incomplete.
A feature-by-feature breakdown of the student housing landscape.While competitors each solve one piece of the puzzle...• Apartments.com for listings
• Ohana for sublets
• Off-Campus Housing (OCH) for UMD-specific options...no single platform addressed the full scope of what students actually need.Kato was designed to close that gap.
Qualitative Research
To ground Kato in user needs, our team initially conducted customer discovery interviews across nine distinct segments: freshmen, transfers, commuters, student athletes, Greek life members alumni, and parents.The goal wasn't to confirm what we already thought; it was to find out where our assumptions broke down.
From our nine candidates, I led and co-led interviews for three personas: Sydney (INT-04), Sylvia (INT-06), and Jenny (INT-07). Each interview followed an open-ended script designed to uncover motivations beyond pain points alone.
Personas and scripts were developed by the team. Interview responses were AI-generated using Claude and ChatGPT, with collective responses synthesized across all nine candidates.
Sydney
Junior • Greek Life • INT-04
• A socially embedded junior leaving the sorority house for senior year.
• Not price-sensitive; wants autonomy and lifestyle fit.
• Her network shapes her decisions more than any search tool, creating groupthink bias that limits independent choice."I feel like I'm 21 but still living in a boarding school."Core need: A way to evaluate apartments by environment and independence, not just price.
Sylvia
Parent • Out-of-State • INT-06
• A cost-conscious, safety-first mom from New York navigating the UMD housing search for her child's first time.
• Ends up with the greatest responsibility of researching herself because her child freezes under decision-making pressure.
• She is willing to pay for verified, trustworthy data."I feel like I have to be a detective just to know if my child will be safe walking home at night."Core need: Cost transparency, security info, and honest reviews.
Jenny
Alum • Pre-Med • INT-07
• A biology alum who lived at The Varsity from sophomore through senior year.
• Without a car, every internship opportunity felt out of reach.
• Safety around the building at night was a persistent concern that no recent listing addressed."I always felt uneasy walking back from McKeldin late at night. The street by Varsity never felt well-lit."Core need: Verified safety data, commute and transit access info, and honest student reviews.
A few patterns were quickly noted. Stress differed sharply by segment: transfers and commuters struggled with affordability and isolation, while Greek life and athletes prioritized lifestyle fit. Parents, an audience we hadn't originally centered, were often doing the bulk of the research themselves.The bottom line was students and parents alike described the landscape as fragmented, unverified, and built for leasing offices; not for them. Kato's second priority was to design a faster search. The first was to design trust.
Customer Discovery
After collecting a preliminary baseline of persona data, the next step was to map the existing housing ecosystem for UMD students through surveys. Instagram had just recently released its "Schools" feature on August 26, 2025, and I used the market opportunity as leverage to select Instagram as our main channel of data collection.
Participation
I spearheaded the creation of a Google Survey, collecting 38 responses over 24 hours. I asked about housing preferences and factors influencing apartment decisions to surface patterns in real student priorities.
Results
Priority 1
Price
56%
Priority 2
Proximity to Campus
44%
Priority 3
Reviews & Reputation
27%
• 3 in 4 said finding accurate online information was "frustrating or unreliable"
• 90%+ expressed they would use a designated platform to compare prices, amenities, and student opinions
• Top requested features: Price tracking, comparison charts, review transparency.These findings directly informed Kato's core features: transparent pricing, commute data, and verified listings.
The Screens
MVP & Early Stage
With just a starter pack of a few Figma drafts and a team Lovable subscription, I meshed together a website that combined qualitative and quantitative suggestions from survey takers and beta testers.Kato has changed drastically over the past few months. The most notable transformation is the ultimate attention-grabber: the landing page.Below are two versions of Kato's landing page—the first from the MVP launch and the second from December 2025.
The Simplicity Shift
Although both versions successfully accumulated users and signups, reflecting on Kato's current landing page and comparing it to those early iterations made me realize how heavily the rules of UX design truly come into play.Previously, I had only relied on my own intuition and the feedback of students directly around me.I hadn't accounted for the power of simplicity, or what users actually need to see the exact moment they arrive on a page.
June 2026 - Modernizing Kato's Landing Page
As of June 2026, Kato has hit 900+ signups and continues to grow. The platform grew from about 3 new sign-ups a day in the first few months to 5 a day by the following spring, driven largely by my decision to reframe the landing page with a CTA button as the primary point of action for the user.Combined with our broader marketing efforts, this translated to double the sign-ups from our first period to our second, with a 36% faster daily growth rate.
Branding
While the team hopes to expand to other universities in the future, I wanted Kato’s brand to be designed and rooted in UMD.Custom color tints echo the school’s red, yellow, and black, while the primary and secondary fonts (Poppins and Times New Roman Condensed) reflect modern typography trends.Together, these choices communicate a simplified, contemporary approach to student apartment searching.
Recognition Beyond the Screen
"Best in Customer Discovery" - Pitch Dingman Luby Idea Track
Our results earned us recognition from the judges in the annual Pitch Dingman Luby Idea Track competition, hosted by the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland. Our team was selected as one of the top 20 finalists, chosen as one of the top 9 winning teams, and awarded $3,000 for "Best in Customer Discovery".Read more about our participation in the competition here.
MarylandToday
In February 2026, Kato was featured in MarylandToday, UMD's official news publication, following the team's win at Pitch Dingman Joan and Chester Luby Idea Track. The article covers Kato's launch and the platform's early traction: 7,000 users and 300+ registered within the span of just 5 months.My role was highlighted specifically: as the neuroscience major on the team with an interest in UX, design, and AI, I led the platform's look and feel, and built an AI agent to help students navigate its offerings more easily.Read the full article here.
A Curated List of Linkedin Featurettes
Beyond the work itself — a handful of times the community took notice.
Feature: City of College Park's Annual Economic Development Report
Robert H. Smith School of Business
Kato Demo
Explore Kato
Discover more of Kato by visiting the official site, or visiting the company's LinkedIn and Instagram.
Kato
LinkedIn
Instagram
"These people are building something great."
Project description coming soon...
Turning a productivity tool into a campus-wide culture of intentional innovation and organization.
Notion Campus Leader Program
Notion is an all-in-one productivity and knowledge management platform that lets individuals and teams build custom workspaces, from note-taking and project tracking to wikis, databases, and beyond.
Program Purpose
Leading Notion adoption and community engagement at UMD through events, content creation, and direct product feedback to Notion's team.
Role
Campus Leader
1 of 2 at the University of Maryland, College Park
Timeline
September 2025 - Present
Responsibilities
Design Thinking
Community Building
Event Planning
Public Speaking
Tools
Notion
Canva
Claude
Project description coming soon...
Project description coming soon...
ABOUT
Hi there—it's great to have you here! Thanks for taking the time to learn more about me.
Neuroscience versus & Design
I’ve always been fascinated by the brain. After all, it’s where the world of emotions and logic collide.Since early high school, I’ve explored that fascination through scientific research, from studying dissociative identity disorder (DID) in my school’s independent research program to working on in vitro neuro-metastatic drug development during lab rotations.But even in the middle of all the data and discovery, I found myself craving a creative balance—something that let me translate the science into something visual, intuitive, and human.Although many of my studies continue to align with the pre-health pathways, I often find my coursework blending naturally with marketing and neuromarketing.
Design Philosophy
Design is not transactional; it's a shared experience.
The purpose of design is to convey a authenticity and to create a timeless visual connection between an audience and a brand.From a psychological perspective, behind every color choice or animation cue, there’s a decision influenced by how we process visuals, recall memories, or respond emotionally. Therefore, I design with people in mind, hoping the things I create don’t just inform, but inspire.To me, design isn’t simply a promotional output, but the invitation to create connection and community.
Current Projects
As I explore intersections between health and marketing, I prioritize application and hands-on practice whenever possible. Currently, I'm working on:
✦ Content creation, lead generation optimization, and Amazon storefront prototyping for PediaMetrix Inc. SoftSpot® the first and only AI, FDA-cleared, and HIPAA-compliant mobile app for cranial measurements.
✦ Creating organic chemistry animations that simplify complex concepts for students and learners.
✦ Experimenting with fresh animation transitions and developing promotional content for local brands and community programs.
✦ Developing and designing user-focused website interfaces for my personal brand and a local medical clinic.
PLAYGROUND
Take a special look at a selection of designs.
Lettering.
Lettering is where my artistic journey began. Ever since learning cursive in 4th grade, I’ve grown that curiosity into calligraphy and typography—skills that have shaped my creative identity and led me to pursue leadership roles and projects centered around the art.
Graphic designs.
Graphic design provides a flexible space for me to experiment (outside of a lab!). In my spare time, I enjoy entering design competitions, from stickers and T-shirts to murals and more. Working across different media motivates me to stay creative and explore how versatile graphic design can be.
Motion designs.
Animation is a service I genuinely enjoy offering, and one that many of the programs and organizations I’ve worked with value just as much. Although time-intensive, creating thoughtful, custom animations is central to effective marketing and product design, and a skill I’m always eager to grow.
Fun Fact: The GIFs above also exist as short reels with sound! If you're interested in a preview or discussing a potential collaboration, feel free to reach out.
JOURNAL
Coming Soon...
CONTACT
Whether it's a quick hello or a project idea, I'd love to connect!
Have questions? Interested in collaborating? Don't hesitate to reach out to me at any one of the following:
Email: [email protected]
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/philana-hin