about

I taught English for eight years.
Now I design services.

Portrait of Nico Jan
1.0 · biography ↘ through-line

I taught English for eight years, in classrooms across Vancouver and online to learners in three time zones. The work was watching someone try to make sense of something complicated, then restructuring the material at whatever point their attention broke down, until they got unstuck.

Useful Words came out of that, built under Human, the education practice I founded. So did the WatchMeType app, the Pocket Dystopia generator, and the MCP guide I wrote for other designers working with Claude.

I'm applying to service design and UX/UI roles where I'd sit with the people who use a service and fix what trips them up, from the model down to the screen. Education is the obvious fit; it's where I've done this work so far. Public-sector and health are where I want to take it next. I'm finishing the Emily Carr UX certificate this year.

2.0 · what I'm looking for ↘ fit

Service design and UX/UI roles inside a small consultancy or in-house team. I'm in Vancouver and prefer projects that let me embed with the client team rather than ship a deck and leave. I work from the service model down to the screens people touch; the blueprint and the interface are the same problem at different zoom. I'm especially interested in projects that touch reconciliation, accessibility, education, or public-sector services.

3.0 · how I work ↘ practice
4.0 · education
  1. 2026 Emily Carr University of Art + Design

    UX Design Certificate

    interaction design, user research, design thinking, service design

  2. 2025 Google / Coursera

    Google UX Design Professional Certificate

    user research, wireframing, prototyping, usability testing, design systems

  3. 2024 University of British Columbia

    Bachelor of Education (BEd)

    instructional design, assessment design, learner observation, educational psychology

  4. 2018 University of British Columbia

    Bachelor of Arts, English Literature

    critical analysis, rhetoric, research methods, technical writing

  5. 2017 Cambridge University (CELTA)

    Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults

    needs analysis, materials design, learner-centred instruction, language assessment