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For Andi Zhou, great design doesn’t shout. It listens.
When Zhou joined the Y Manifesto’s jury panel for Art Shopping 2025 at the Carrousel du Louvre this spring, she wasn’t searching for spectacle but intention. “I wanted to see work that paid attention,” she says. “Not just to aesthetics, but to people.”
It’s a fitting perspective from someone whose career revolves around human behavior. As a Senior UX Design Researcher at Amazon, Zhou studies and designs tools and systems for warehouse workers around the world, balancing complex logistics with empathy and usability. While her UX, visual, and product design work has garnered international recognition, it’s her unwavering commitment to underserved communities that truly distinguishes her approach.
This same commitment guided her through the jury process with the Y Manifesto team at Art Shopping, where interactive and tech-driven submissions saw a notable uptick. Zhou brought a unique perspective — one informed by her dual background in Human-Computer Interaction and Art History, and grounded in research, reflection, and cultural sensitivity.
Design is not just communication—it’s responsibility
Zhou understands the pressures today’s designers face: standing out, moving fast, staying trendy. Yet she advocates for a different path.
“Being seen is not the same as being understood,” she explains. “Designers should spend less time polishing the message and more time understanding the people they’re designing for. Who are they? What are their constraints? What do they care about?”
For Zhou, empathy isn’t merely a buzzword—it’s methodology. Whether designing onboarding flows for logistics workers or evaluating gallery installations, her process begins with listening.
You can’t fake rigor
A common weakness Zhou identifies among emerging designers: strong concepts that lack thorough execution. “People are often great at the conceptual pitch, but light on the evidence,” she notes. “If you want your work to be taken seriously — by funders, curators, employers — you have to show how it holds up.”
Zhou encourages young creatives to invest in research as part of their practice, regardless of job title. This doesn’t necessarily mean formal studies—sometimes it means demonstrating consideration for cultural context, user needs, or real-world impact.
“It’s not about academic language,” she emphasizes. “It’s about care. If you’re designing for someone else, walk in their shoes and prove that you took the time to understand them.”
Don’t confuse polish with purpose
With social media favoring visuals that are glossy, fast, and viral, Zhou sees risk in prioritizing surface over substance. “The most compelling work at Art Shopping wasn’t always the most visually striking,” she reflects. “It was the work that lingered, because it had something to say.”
This isn’t a rejection of aesthetics— Zhou’s own projects like Grain&Gather and Luminara are both visually striking and deeply intentional. Rather, she cautions against what she sees as a polarizing trend in contemporary design.
“Ask yourself: If no one ‘likes’ this today, would it still matter in a year? In five? Good design doesn’t chase applause. It earns trust,” Zhou says. “I fear that current design trends are too polarized. It’s not about choosing between aesthetics or functionality. Why not both? Why not focus on purpose and bring them together?”
Start with questions, not answers
For Zhou, design’s most undervalued skill is asking better questions: What problem are we solving? Who gets left out? What assumptions are we making?
“Designers are often taught to deliver solutions,” she says. “But the strongest work begins with uncertainty. With doubt. That’s not a weakness, it’s where innovation begins.”
In a field constantly redefined by technology, rapid changes, and global challenges, this mindset may be a creative’s most enduring asset.
“This parallels today’s fine arts,” Zhou observes. “Designers often try to distinguish themselves from the art world — I was one of them — but now I realize not every design is about delivering ‘solutions.’ If you want a lasting impact, always start with questions: define the problem, then bring a point of view.”
Final thought: listen longer
Asked what advice she’d give her younger self, Zhou answered without hesitation: “Be slower to speak. Stay in the research phase longer than feels comfortable. There’s always something you missed.”
It’s the same philosophy she brought to the curation team, and the same one she applies daily: design not as decoration, but as dialogue. And at its best, a quiet kind of care.
