YKM

Product Designer

YK Miyake

I design, build and ship websites.

About

I spent fourteen years as a lead designer in brand-side ecommerce, leading platform migrations, designing checkout flows, and shipping the frontend code myself. I've also built and run my own store to profitability, giving me hands-on experience across operations, inventory, and marketing. These days I take on client projects and ship my own web apps.

Based in Taipei and available for work.

Select Projects

URBAN RESEARCH / Mobile-First Ecommerce Redesign

  • URBAN RESEARCH is a Japanese apparel brand that expanded to Taiwan in 2014. Despite strong ecommerce growth, there was a quiet structural problem: around 80% of users were browsing on mobile but switching to desktop to check out. The site had been built desktop-first, the checkout flow had too many steps, and the visual identity was falling behind where Japanese apparel brands were heading.
  • I led the redesign and platform migration, starting with stakeholder interviews to align on priorities. I audited the checkout flow, benchmarked the visual direction against comparable Japanese brands, and ran user testing on proposed changes. One counterintuitive finding: removing guest checkout - in favor of a single registration flow — actually simplified the user journey and reduced drop-off. New features including product rankings, a lookbook section, favorites, and back-in-stock notifications rounded out the scope based on customer and sales-team input.
  • Post-launch, mobile usage climbed to over 85% and the business has seen consistent year-on-year sales growth since.

Tsuchiya Kaban / Brand Refresh & Replatform

  • Tsuchiya Kaban has been making leather goods in Tokyo since 1965, building a reputation on craft and longevity. By 2017, the brand's ecommerce site had been updated four times since its 2012 launch — the fifth update was the most significant: a full platform migration and brand refresh.
  • I started by working with the customer service team to run interviews with longtime customers. Their feedback was consistent: they valued the brand's content more than browsing convenience. That shaped the design direction toward rich content presentation over minimalist ecommerce patterns. A second constraint came from the sales team: at Tsuchiya Kaban's price point, customers typically want to experience the product in person before buying. The redesign needed to make showroom visits and pop-up events an integrated purchase pathway, not an afterthought.
  • I wireframed, prototyped, and designed the full site UI, then wrote the HTML and CSS for nearly all front-facing components.

Folklore / Founder & Operator

  • I founded and operate an ecommerce business selling vintage goods, handling all daily operations. I customized the Shopify theme, managed integrations, and implemented a convenience store pickup feature for Taiwan customers. An SEO strategy built around diverse brand and product type coverage expanded keyword reach organically. With full P&L responsibility over inventory and marketing, I ran Facebook ad campaigns that increased sales by 179% and web sessions by 61% over two quarters.

Solo Products / Designed, Built & Shipped

  • ProteinLedger — An AI tool that reads nutrition labels and ranks food by protein per dollar.
  • Typecasted — A daily movie trivia game inspired by NYT Games, built end-to-end in a month.

What I Do

I design and build websites, with a specialty in ecommerce. I'll take a project from concept to deployment, weighing design decisions by what they do for the business versus pure aesthetics.

  • Shopify store design & build
  • Replatforming & redesigns
  • UI/UX auditing
  • Frontend implementation
  • Brand & identity

Get In Touch

If you want to talk about a project, send me an email at ykm@ykmiyake.com. I'm available for freelance and contract projects.