I’m Carol Chu

A designer who enjoys diving into complex spaces, building shared understanding, and crafting experiences that feel good. At the moment, I’m designing test-security features for the Duolingo English Test.

Duolingo 2023-Present

Designed subscription upsells across the app, so that we can continue making quality education (mostly) free for all.

Three Duolingo screens offering a Super family plan, an energy recharge, and a shareable upgrade link.

Incorporated memory into Roleplay, our first AI-powered feature, so every conversation picks up where the last one left off.

Two Duolingo MAX screens summarising takeaways from a French Roleplay conversation.

Built a simple but useful Figma plugin for generating lesson tap tokens.

Four rounded word tokens reading hey, how's, it, going? with a cursor about to select one.

Helped host Duologues; conversations around craft, leadership, and resilience.

A panel of designers on stage at a Design Duologues talk.

Messenger Summer 2022

Improved the AR-filtering experience on Messenger Desktop.

A Messenger Desktop video call with AR filters applied to three participants.

Shopify Fall 2021

Helped merchants bookmark important(*) orders for later.

A phone showing a Shopify order with a context menu open on it, offering Bookmark, Edit note and Archive.

Hack the North 2020-2021

Made it fun(!) and easy to apply to Canada’s biggest hackathon.

The Hack the North 2020++ application site, with a Build my application button over an illustrated cityscape.

Before that 2018-2023

I studied Systems Design Engineering at the University of Waterloo. I was (and still am) really fascinated by complex systems, human psychology, and the design of everyday things. I also helped run our local UX club, to support budding designers find the resources and support they need.

Thanks for making it all the way (down) here. Chat soon