# Anna Zhang ## Posts - [My POTS Diagnosis: The Thin Line Between Healthy and Sick](https://az-creates.com/my-pots-diagnosis-the-thin-line-between-healthy-and-sick/): Language often falls short when trying to describe discomfort. When people ask me how it feels, I hesitate. Tired? Fatigued? In pain? Every part of my body feels burdensome, and even the simplest movements demand immense effort. My head grows so heavy it feels like it might drop to the ground, my neck too weak to support it. A throbbing pain pulses between my eyebrows and sinuses, forcing my eyes shut. Sometimes, a sharp, stabbing pain shoots from the left side of my neck to the back of my head. I close my eyes, waiting for it to pass. My […] - [Navigating the Complexities of Egg Freezing](https://az-creates.com/navigating-the-complexities-of-egg-freezing/): This blog post has been edited and published at: https://www.hannamfertility.com/hfc-blog/anna? In 2023, I decided to move to Toronto from New York City by myself. As I am approaching my mid-thirties and navigating life without a stable partner, the resulting anxiety and uncertainty about the future have prompted me to consider egg-freezing. Many people assume that the motivation to freeze eggs comes from the wish to have kids. For me, however, the question of having biological children is complex. Concerns about overpopulation and my own chronic illnesses make me think that adoption or childfree may be a better choice for me. […] - [Navigating the Dating Dharma: A Single Woman's Journey in Her 30s](https://az-creates.com/datingdharma/): This blog post has been edited and published at: https://kadampa.org/blog/dating-with-the-help-of-wisdom In June 2023, I relocated to Toronto, Canada, making it the fourth country I have lived in. The transition to another foreign country as a single person alone in my 30s is not an easy task: I have to rebuild my life again from scratch without a partner, friends, families, and communities. In the past, I often attributed my singleness to my “nomadic lifestyle” and that I “moved too much”. After eight months in Toronto, many positive changes are happening in my life: starting to make friends, developing new hobbies, […] ## Pages - [How can we create a set of easy-to-use a11y guidelines for designers' daily design practice?](https://az-creates.com/how-can-we-create-a-set-of-easy-to-use-a11y-guidelines-for-designers-daily-design-practice/): Accessibility Design Guidelines Overview Currently, a lot of our a11y effort on the digital design team is retrofitting, it is inefficient and is not the best inclusive design practice. We need to shift to an a11y first mindset. The purpose of this project is to create comprehensive accessibility design guidelines using WCAG 2.1 so it can be used by all the product design teams and all UX/UI designers in their daily design practices. There are four major product design teams at CA: iReady Math, iReady ELA, Assessment, Platform and there are a total of 26 UX/UI designers and 4 design directors. Existing a11y Design Guidelines Google Material […] - [HMH Web Redesign](https://az-creates.com/hmh-web-redesign/): Visual/Web Design, Branding, CMS Design Introduction Starting in August 2017, under the new leadership of the CEO, Jack Lynch, HMH is progressively transforming from a traditional book publishing company, to a innovative education company “The Learning Company”. But HMH old website was outdated, and fell flat in articulating a clear brand mission and visual expression to the user. The design agency at HMH started radically transforming HMH’s website and delivers compelling and flawless experiences to HMH clients. My Role HMH design agency has 1 creative director, 2 design managers, 15 designers. I was the lead designer of this project starting in October, 2017. In […] - [Fraction Gadget System](https://az-creates.com/fraction-gadget-system/): Technical Specs, Interaction Design Project Overview For many students, fraction is very hard to learn. It is a very abstract concept, and the numerator/denominator system is sometimes counter-intuitive. Many research has shown that a clear visual model represented by a numerical fraction is powerful in conveying the meaning (as opposed to only numerical fractions). Especially if there are tools that allow students to create visual representations of fractions step by step. Therefore, the goal of this project is to build a series of interactive tools (gadgets) that can be used inside different lessons to help users develop the meaning of fractions. My Role I was […] - [Math World Problem](https://az-creates.com/math-world-problem/): Interaction Design, Research Project Overview In math education, a word problem is a mathematical exercise where significant background information on the problem is presented as text rather than in mathematical notation. It is a math question written as one sentence or more that requires students to apply their maths knowledge to a ‘real-life’ scenario. This means that students must be familiar with the vocabulary associated with the mathematical symbols they are used to, in order to make sense of the word problem. Some word problem examples: “Rachel has 12 apples. She gives 3 to Sarah. How many apples does Rachel have now?” “Jack has […] - [ELA Screen Reader Accessibility](https://az-creates.com/ela-screen-reader-accessibility/): Keywords: Accessibility, Product Design, Screen Reader Project Overview Among children younger than 18 years in the US, 6.8% of of them are diagnosed eye and vision condition; nearly 3% of them are blind or visually impaired. Because of the technology limitation, they don’t have equal access to digital educational product. All of our digital product do not support the use of screen readers for users who are blind and low vision. This initiative is focusing on screen reader implementation and design for our most widely used ELA (English Language Arts) products for grade 3-8 students: Building Reading Comprehension (BRC) and Building Sentence Comprehension (BSC), so we can provide equivalent […] - [Blogs](https://az-creates.com/blogs/): I write about health, meditation, and womanhood. - [About](https://az-creates.com/about/): How can I help? I work as a designer and design consultant for various orgnizations and clients. Major services I provide: Some of my recent clients: Speaking & Events: Upcoming: Past: My Design Philosophy: Universal Principles of Design Universal principles of design guide me in making products that are in line with human nature and intuition. Human motivation is tied to subconscious instincts, perceptions, and influences. It is also important to consider the deeper underlying symbols and meanings in psychology and anthropology. Humane Technology Design Guide We need to shift the focus of technology and business models from exploiting human vulnerability […] [comment]: # (Generated by Hostinger Tools Plugin)