IDEA
An evolving archive by Kelly PengDesign × Engineering × Culture
A place for ideas still becoming—notes, prototypes, essays, and interface studies.
I use this space to make thinking visible. Some pieces are finished; others are snapshots from the middle of the process.
Build in public · 01
kollab — learning design engineering, together.
A shared learning space I'm building in public, so the invisible knowledge new grads need stops being invisible.
In the wild · 02
Shipped work, live on the internet.
Freelance sites and open-source builds—live previews, click through to the real thing.
Articles & field notes · 03
Writing to find the shape of a problem.
Product thinking, interface research, thesis experiments, and reading notes collected from the original Ideas library.
01The Feedback Is There. The Insight Isn’t.Turning scattered customer signals into product intelligence.↗
02Designing ConfidenceA visual language for openpilot’s trust states.↗
03Cultural ProbeUX research as a soft system of asking.↗
04Interview QuestionsHow to write prompts that let people stay human.↗
05Kelly Thesis EverythingThe whole thesis—statement, presentation, and development process.↗
06Instruction for UseProject One: Time—the index of reading notes, research, and experiments.↗
07Reading NotesJane Fitz-Randolph and James Jespersen—notes from the thesis shelf.↗
08Touching TimeClock studies sketched in p5.js, where time loops instead of running out.↗
09Interactive Game—Showing the RulesProcess 102—Figma iterations that teach dinner-table rules through play.↗
10Chopstick RulesHold them the wrong way and the camera feed pixelates—a p5.js etiquette machine.↗
11Rules & Physical Space CollagesEtiquette mapped onto hands, lazy Susans, and dining rooms.↗
12Gallery NotesJudy Chicago’s Herstory and what the gallery taught the thesis.↗
13The Second SexReading notes on philosophy, identity, and the self in relation.↗
More thoughts,
in progress.