Ever scrolled through an app and felt like the buttons just... knew where your thumb was going to land? That’s not magic. It’s usually the work of someone obsessed with the friction between humans and glass screens.
Icey Qiyun Zhao is one of those people.
If you’ve spent any time in the tech bubbles of San Francisco or Silicon Valley, her name pops up in some pretty high-stakes places. We’re talking about the design guts of companies like Airbnb and Cisco. She isn't just "another designer" in a sea of MacBooks and overpriced lattes. Honestly, she’s become a bit of a benchmark for how to bridge the gap between high-level product strategy and the kind of illustrations that actually make you feel something.
Who is Icey Qiyun Zhao, anyway?
Most people in the industry just know her as Icey. She’s currently a Design Lead at Airbnb, which, if you know anything about design culture, is basically the North Star for user experience.
But she didn't just spawn at a standing desk in a tech unicorn.
Her trajectory is actually kind of wild. She’s got over a decade of experience, which is an eternity in tech years. Most people burn out or move into middle management where they stop touching the actual work. Icey did the opposite. She leaned harder into the craft, specializing in things like C2C (consumer-to-consumer), B2B, and—this is where it gets nerdy—VR interaction design.
Think about that for a second. Designing a website is one thing. Designing an interface for a headset where the user's entire reality is being manipulated? That’s a whole different level of cognitive load.
The Cisco and WebEx Era
Before the Airbnb gig, she was deep in the trenches at Cisco. You probably know WebEx as that thing you use for work meetings that "just needs to work." Icey was part of the team that redesigned the WebEx team app.
The goal was basically to stop people from wanting to throw their laptops out the window during a collaborative session. Efficiency is a boring word, but when you’re talking about millions of users trying to get through a workday, improving that flow is a massive undertaking.
🔗 Read more: iPhone 15 size in inches: What Apple’s Specs Don't Tell You About the Feel
- 12+ Products Launched: She’s been the midwife for over a dozen products.
- 5 from Scratch: This is the hard part. No templates, no "legacy" to fall back on. Just a blank Figma file and a prayer.
- 4 Design Systems: If you aren't a designer, a design system is basically the DNA of an app. It ensures every button, font, and color is consistent across thousands of pages.
The "Human" Side of High-Tech Design
One thing that’s super refreshing about Icey’s approach is that she doesn't treat design like a purely clinical science.
She’s a big believer in the idea that design should reflect a person’s "most natural state." That sounds a bit woo-woo, but in practice, it means making software that doesn't force you to learn a new language just to buy a ticket or send a message.
It’s about simplicity.
Complexity is easy. Anyone can add more buttons. Taking things away until only the essential remains? That’s where the real skill is.
More Than Just Pixels
If you look at her personal portfolio or her "about" pages, you realize she’s not just a corporate drone. She’s an illustrator. She’s an interior designer. She’s an event planner.
Oh, and she snowboards.
This mix matters because it prevents "design tunnel vision." When you understand how physical space works (interior design) or how a person moves down a mountain (snowboarding), you bring a different perspective to digital interfaces.
"I believe the excellent design should reflect a person's most natural state. It is not just one purpose, it also a lifestyle may change the world."
💡 You might also like: Finding Your Way to the Apple Store Freehold Mall Freehold NJ: Tips From a Local
That’s a quote from her personal philosophy, and you can see it in her work for companies like News Break. She led the design for that app, and it ended up being one of the top three Android apps with over five million downloads. You don't get those kinds of numbers by accident. You get them by understanding what people actually want to look at when they wake up and check their phones.
Why Interaction Design Matters for You
You might be thinking, "Cool, she’s a successful designer, but why does this matter to me?"
It matters because the "Icey Qiyun Z" approach to technology is becoming the standard. We are moving away from "clunky software that you have to be trained to use" toward "ambient technology."
When she worked with VeeR VR, she had to create guidelines for a medium that barely had rules yet. VR is the Wild West of design. There are no "Back" buttons in physical space. There’s no right-click. Everything has to be intuitive based on human instinct.
By mastering these frontiers, designers like Icey are literally sketching the blueprint for how we’ll interact with the "metaverse" (if that ever actually becomes a thing) and beyond.
Breaking Down the "Icey" Methodology
So, what makes her work stand out in a portfolio review? It’s basically the "start-up to corporate" bridge.
- The Startup Hustle: Early in her career, she worked on projects like the English version of a news app for ifeng.com. It won "Best New App" and was featured as a "Great App" by Apple. In startups, you do everything. You’re the researcher, the button-pusher, and the person who decides the color of the logo.
- The Corporate Scale: Moving to Airbnb and Cisco requires a different muscle. You have to convince stakeholders. You have to work with hundreds of engineers. You have to make sure your design works for someone in Tokyo just as well as it works for someone in Topeka.
She seems to occupy that weird middle ground where she can still think like a scrappy freelancer but execute like a global executive.
Common Misconceptions About Product Designers
A lot of people think designers just make things "look pretty."
📖 Related: Why the Amazon Kindle HDX Fire Still Has a Cult Following Today
If you look at the work of someone like Qiyun Zhao, you see that's maybe 10% of the job. The rest is:
- Information Architecture: Where does the data go?
- User Psychology: Why did they click that instead of this?
- Accessibility: Can someone with visual impairments use this?
- Logic: If a user does X, does Y happen every single time?
It’s more like being an architect than being a painter. You’re building a house that millions of people are going to live in every day. If the stairs are in the wrong place, someone’s going to get hurt (or at least, they’ll delete your app).
What’s Next for Icey Qiyun Zhao?
Currently based in the San Francisco Bay Area, she’s right in the heartbeat of the industry. As AI starts to take over the "grunt work" of UI design—things like generating basic layouts or picking color palettes—the role of a Design Lead becomes even more critical.
The future isn't about who can draw the best icon. It’s about who can define the experience.
As Airbnb continues to evolve from a "room booking site" into a "global travel platform," the design challenges get weirder and more interesting. How do you design trust? How do you use an interface to make a stranger feel safe sleeping in someone else's house?
These are the problems Icey is paid to solve.
Actionable Takeaways from Icey’s Career
If you’re a designer, or just someone interested in how the digital world is built, there are a few "Icey-isms" you can steal for your own life:
- Obsess over the "Natural State": Don't fight human nature. If a user expects something to be in a certain place, put it there. Don't be "innovative" just for the sake of being different.
- Diversify Your Inputs: Don't just look at other apps for inspiration. Go snowboarding. Draw a picture by hand. Plan a party. The best digital ideas often come from the physical world.
- Master the System, Not Just the Page: If you want to scale, you have to think in systems. Learn how components relate to each other so you aren't reinventing the wheel every time you start a new project.
- Simplify the Complex: The mark of a true senior designer isn't how many features they can add; it's how many they can remove while still making the product feel complete.
Whether she's redesigning the way we collaborate on WebEx or how we find a place to stay on Airbnb, Icey Qiyun Zhao is a name that represents the modern "multi-hyphenate" professional. She’s a mentor, a leader, and still, at her core, someone who just likes to record moments with a sketch.
Keep an eye on the design systems of the apps you use every day. Chances are, her DNA is in there somewhere.