Hi there, I'm Zoe Mercado
Product Designer & Storyteller

As a New Yorker of Afro-Caribbean heritage, I'm passionate about data-informed design that amplifies underrepresented voices, especially in media, entertainment, and social impact.

Zoe presenting designs at the XHacks competition

Currently designing @
 

Bumble thumbnail image of watch and mobile mockups
Designing Privacy-First Geolocation Services for Dating Apps
Case Study | Product Design

A hypothetical approach for Bumble to bring online matches together in real life while ensuring ethical location sharing and user safety - not affiliated with Bumble Inc.

Mockup of title with city cards on a red background
Building Social-Emotional Skills Through Collaborative Play
Client Project | Game Design

LEGO® Brick Clubs Finalist: A transformational game using collaborative building challenges to develop middle schoolers' social-emotional skills.

The second floor of the museum with a rendering of our design on the kiosk screen.
Hidden in Plain Sight: Revealing 21c's Museum Experience to Hotel Guests
Case Study | UX Design

Transforming guest exploration patterns at 21c Museum Hotel through strategic touch points that draw visitors from the lobby into the museum's upper floors.

cover slide for presentation
Mind Maps for Product Innovation
Product Research

My research deliverables at Figma (FigJam) uncover how design and engineering teams leverage mind mapping to supercharge ideation, problem-solving, and knowledge sharing across the product development lifecycle.

✍🏾 Published Explorations

Story preview of "WanderWorld: Restoring Attention Through Mindful Digital Games" with lo-fi mockup
A reflection of my project for the User-Centered Research & Evaluation course @ CMU using facial recognition to detect and rectify user dissatisfaction with AI-generated content.
Story preview of "Emotion Detection and Facial Recognition to Mitigate AI Bias" with lo-fi mockup
A gamified approach using psychological principles to help Millennial and Gen Z professionals reclaim their attention spans in their daily workflows, developed during my Persuasive Design course at CMU.