Alex Kibeom HongAlex Kibeom HongDesign Engineering Lead

Design Engineering Lead

Product design · Front-end architecture · Design systems

I make complexproducts feelclear.

Illustration of Alex sketching in a notebook beside a laptop, with a coffee mug and his cat on the desk
  1. Sketch the problem first
  2. Ship it as real, accessible code
  3. Final review by the cat

I’m Alex Kibeom Hong. For 9+ years I’ve designed product experiences and built the components and design systems that let teams ship them consistently—today, leading the front-end architecture behind 18 U.S. Census Bureau applications.

Explore selected work Email me LinkedIn
9+
Years building U.S. Census Bureau products
18
Production applications on the design system I lead
13,000+
Federal employees using those applications

Selected work

Three case studies—an enterprise design system at scale, a marketplace I built end to end, and an experiment in design-system tooling.

Case study 01Flagship

In production

U.S. Census Bureau

The design system behind 18 Census enterprise applications

For nine years I’ve designed and built enterprise applications for U.S. Census Bureau operations. I now lead front-end architecture and the shared design system behind 18 production applications, working with product owners, analysts, QA, and engineers to turn complex requirements into accessible, consistent experiences.

Role
Product Design, Design Engineering, Front-End Lead, Design Systems
Tools
Nuxt, Vue, Vuetify, Angular, TypeScript, JavaScript, Cypress, Jest, SASS, PowerPoint Wireframing, MSW, Jenkins, Nexus IQ

Fig. 1 How the shared system scales

Conceptual diagram

  1. L1 Foundations

    • 12-column grid
    • Theme & banner
    • Section 508 · WCAG

  2. L2 Components

    • Navigation
    • Page title
    • Buttons
    • Cards
    • Inputs
    • Tables
    • Dialogs

  3. L3 Templates

    • Parent page
    • Child page

  4. ×18 Production applications

    18 applications, one page anatomy. Names and interfaces withheld.

Delivered to teams through

  • Documentation site
  • Paradyme UI builder
  • Baseline app + MSW
  • Test automation

Fig. 2Process

From requirement to production, on one shared system

Step 01 of 05

Untangle requirements into decisions

Requirements are worked through with product owners and analysts, prototyped—often in PowerPoint, given government software limits—and checked against Section 508 before approval.

Front-end process overview: requirements move through prototyping and client approval into Paradyme UI, mock services, test automation, and deployment.

  • Accessible before it’s approved

    Section 508 and WCAG are checked at the prototype stage, before client sign-off—so accessibility is designed in rather than retrofitted.

  • Built once, reused everywhere

    Shared templates, named atomic components, and a baseline app mean every application starts from the same foundation and stays consistent.

  • Led across disciplines

    I set front-end architecture and standards, partner with product owners, analysts, and QA, and mentor engineers through design and development challenges.

Production applications aren’t shown because of the sensitive nature of this work. What you see here are the supporting tools I built—the design system and application builder—with only non-sensitive functionality. I’m happy to walk through the rest in conversation.

Case study 02Home services marketplace

Live in DC · MD · VA

Hands2Hands

A home-services marketplace, from concept to production

I founded, designed, and built a two-sided marketplace that connects homeowners with local contractors. It’s live across Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia.

I built it solo, using AI-assisted development for implementation, debugging, and code review.

Homeowners
Contractors

JourneysTwo-sided product

One product, two experiences—each designed for the person using it

Post a project through a guided flow, then compare quotes, message a pro, and track the job.

  1. New request · Choose a service category

  2. New request · Address, project type, and details

  3. New request · Guided questions and photo uploads

  4. New request · Timing and budget

  5. Pre-submission acknowledgment of homeowner responsibilities

  6. Homeowner dashboard · A request awaiting quotes

  7. Homeowner dashboard · Quotes ready to review

  8. Request detail · Reviewing a contractor’s quote

  9. Quote detail with homeowner–contractor messaging

  10. Homeowner dashboard · An active, scheduled job

What I did

  1. End-to-end UX for homeowners and contractors
  2. Guided project posting, quotes, bids, and scheduling
  3. Role-based onboarding, messaging, and notifications
  4. Payments, email, data model, and deployment
Role
Founder, Product Design, Full-Stack Development
Tools
Nuxt, Vue, Supabase, PostgreSQL, Stripe, Resend, TypeScript, Tailwind, Netlify, AI-Assisted Development

Case study 03Design-system analytics · experimental

Experimental · Beta

UiPool

See how your design system is actually used

An experimental developer tool exploring design-system analytics. Teams define patterns, map them to components, and measure adoption and drift across a codebase.

I designed and built the product, plus the npm package and CLI that scan repositories and report on usage, coverage, health, and deprecations. It’s an ongoing exploration, currently in beta.

  1. 01 Patterns

    Define the UX patterns your system supports.

  2. 02 Components

    Map each pattern to the components that build it.

  3. 03 Code

    The CLI scans the repository for real usage.

  4. 04 Health

    Reports track adoption, coverage, and deprecations.

  • Pattern detail · Components, guidelines, anatomy, states, and usage.
  • Component detail · Pattern usage and code locations.
  • Reports · Project health over time, release by release.

What I did

  1. Product model: patterns → components → code
  2. npm package and CLI that scan a codebase
  3. Health reports on adoption, coverage, and deprecations
  4. Interactive graph of pattern–component relationships
Role
Product Design, Full-Stack Development
Tools
Nuxt, Vue, TypeScript, npm, Tailwind, Supabase, Netlify, AI-Assisted Development

More work

Mobile UX for the Department of Justice, a patented consumer product, and research visualization.

AI-powered enterprise application

C3 AI — Department of Justice

Designed the mobile UX, functional prototypes, and production-ready interfaces for a C3 AI-powered Department of Justice iOS app supporting investigative workflows. I validated interactions through prototyping and testing, and implemented navigation, interaction patterns, and touch-optimized interfaces in React Native.

Role
UX/UI Design, Design Engineering, Functional Prototyping
Tools
React Native, TypeScript, JavaScript, CSS/SCSS, PowerPoint Wireframing

Patented consumer product — spill-proof hot lid

Slid

Created SLID, a patented sliding coffee lid designed to reduce spills, and took it from concept to commercial production—user and patent research, prototyping with vacuum forming and 3D printing, fundraising, team building, and overseas manufacturing.

It secured a U.S. utility patent and drew interest from national coffee brands and regional chains.

Role
Founder, Inventor, Product Design, Hardware Prototyping
Tools
3D Printing, Vacuum Forming, Product Prototyping, User Research, Patent Research, Manufacturing

Social media visualization for research

OSoMe

Designed and developed an interactive map for Indiana University’s Observatory on Social Media, letting researchers search billions of geotagged tweets by hashtag and time period and see geographic patterns as dynamic heatmaps.

It became part of OSoMe’s public research platform and contributed to a peer-reviewed publication in PeerJ Computer Science.

Role
Research Assistant, Data Visualization Engineer
Tools
Python, D3.js, JavaScript, Google Maps API, User Research, Data Analysis

Where design meets code

I work in the space between design and code, and can lead from either side.

  • Design Systems & Component Architecture

    Atomic foundations, reusable components with clear APIs, and documentation with copyable code—plus tooling that shows where the system is actually used.

    Seen inU.S. Census BureauUiPool

    Component architecture · Vue · Vuetify · Nuxt · Storybook · Figma · HTML / CSS / SCSS

  • Product Design & Interaction Engineering

    From framing the problem to polished, shippable UI—including turning PowerPoint into a prototyping tool when government restrictions ruled out modern design software.

    Seen inHands2HandsC3 AI — Department of Justice

    Design thinking · Prototyping · Wireframing · Visual design · Illustration · Figma · PowerPoint · Procreate

  • Front-End & Full-Stack Development

    Vue and Nuxt in production for years, comfortable in React and Angular, and able to take a product end to end—APIs, auth, data, and payments.

    Seen inHands2HandsUiPool

    TypeScript · JavaScript · React · React Native · Angular · Tailwind · Python · Supabase · PostgreSQL · Stripe · Resend · RBAC · AI-assisted development

  • Technical Leadership & Accessibility

    Setting front-end architecture and standards across teams and mentoring engineers—with Section 508 and WCAG built in from the first wireframe, backed by automated testing and governed delivery pipelines.

    Seen inU.S. Census Bureau

    Team leadership · Project planning · Mentoring · Design critique · Stakeholder demos · Section 508 / WCAG · Cypress · Playwright · Selenium · Jest · MSW · Jenkins · Sonatype / Nexus IQ · CI/CD · GitHub · Netlify

Live demoBuilt for this site

Anatomy of an accessible button

How I spec a system component: token-driven variants and states, with accessibility checked against the real color values. Use the controls with a mouse or keyboard (Tab, then arrow keys).

Variant
Size
State

Accessibility

  • PassText contrast 7.25:1Passes AAA (≥ 7:1)
  • PassTarget size 40px tallMeets 24px minimum (2.5.8)

Native <button type="button"> — keyboard and screen-reader support come for free.

Usage

<Button variant="primary" size="md">
  Save changes
</Button>

Designer by instinct. Engineer by practice.

At the Census Bureau, my work has grown from hands-on interface development into leading front-end architecture, building shared component libraries and design systems, and helping teams turn complex requirements into accessible, scalable experiences.

I shape implementation approaches, establish reusable patterns, and mentor engineers through design and development challenges. I also build products and developer tools of my own—including a spill-proof coffee lid that became a patented invention.

Let’s make something clear.

Whether it’s product design, design engineering, design systems, or a potential opportunity, I’d be glad to hear from you.

LinkedIn

© 2026 Alex Kibeom Hong

Designed and built by Alex with Nuxt.

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