© Copyright 2026 | by david nguyen
button-scroll-down
July 1998 – April 2012

I began my career at Blizzard Entertainment in a Customer Experience role and was promoted to Software Engineer, one of the first non-game engineers at the company. In that role, I designed, developed, and launched enterprise tools as well as consumer-facing web applications. Several years later, I moved into one of Blizzard’s earliest dedicated User Experience Designer positions. There I helped lay the foundation for modern UX practices, including user research, design systems, and usability testing, while working closely with engineering and cross-functional teams.

By blending my technical engineering background with strategic design thinking, I took on increasing responsibility. I partnered with executives and senior stakeholders to turn complex enterprise systems (CMS, LMS, CRM) and web platforms into simple, intuitive experiences that served the entire company.

Outlined below are the significant contributions and achievements I made during my tenure at Blizzard Entertainment:

Company Brief

  • Blizzard fosters creativity and encourages innovation from its 5,000+ employees
  • Premier developer and publisher of entertainment software
  • Iconic game franchises played and enjoyed by millions of players around the world
  • Players gather on Battle.net to connect, purchase games, and engage in multiplayer experience

highlights

1998
Map Design
Map Design

The Next 70 Levels is an add-on pack to the highly popular game Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness. I designed several published maps and a few were featured on the back of the box art!

1999
Starcraft Ladder
Starcraft Ladder

The phenomenal game StarCraft launched in the summer of 1998. Its success led to thousands of players challenging each other online through our Battle.net service. The game featured a ladder system, and we planned to invite the top players each season to an official Blizzard tournament with cash prizes. Unfortunately,…Read More

2002
Support Website
Support Website

The previous static support website was functional but maintaining it became burdensome. Along with the opportunity to improve our support content publishing workflow, I developed a dynamic website where it supported our localization needs of customers from around the world. A unique feature for its time was sharing the same…Read More

2002
Phone Client
Phone Client

This phone client (Inquest) is one of the many other suites of n-tier applications I solely developed for Blizzard Entertainment’s Customer Service Department. This application was used by the Phone Group within the Customer Service department to log phone calls. It allowed the representative to look up customer information and…Read More

2003
Email Client
Email Client

Sonda is an internal email application primarily used by Blizzard Entertainment’s customer service department. After reviewing similar applications with customer support management, we concluded it was best to develop our own solution for handling customer emails. The email client was database driven, enabling us to compile various statistical information on…Read More

2004
Knowledgebase Macros
Knowledgebase Macros

As our video games gained global popularity, we began establishing regional headquarters in various countries. To enhance our customer service, I started localizing the applications used by our support representatives. Clipper, an application I developed several years earlier, was an ideal candidate for rearchitecting and localization. This tool enabled support…Read More

2004
World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft

I was fortunate to have been invited to augment the World of Warcraft (WoW) development team who were working on the server code area of the video game. There were a few projects I had a hand in but one that I’m super proud of was contributing to WoW’s in-game…Read More

2006
Typing Proficiency
Typing Proficiency

Staffing our Customer Service department to support World of Warcraft and other games was a significant challenge. Hiring managers noticed that recent hires weren’t meeting expectations in chat or email responses, mainly due to typos and time spent typing. To address this, I took on a side project to develop…Read More

2008
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

I initiated the development of a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform named Atlas by conducting technology research and creating proof of concepts. As a key software engineer on the Atlas team, I contributed to the project’s growth to support a large feature set and meet the launch date. This application…Read More

2009
Employee Search
Employee Search

There wasn’t a convenient way to access a directory with employee information such as full name, title, department, and organizational charts.  I developed a website called PeopleFinder, providing a centralized and convenient platform for viewing and locating fellow employees. Administrative features were also launched, enabling Human Resources to update employee…Read More

2011
Library Management Platform
Library Management Platform

A physical library of books, magazines, games, movies and other media was built at the office. It provided a central location for employees to access various resources and information for research and leisure. I developed a web-based platform accessible from desktops and the library kiosk, enabling users to search for…Read More

2012
Learning Management System (LMS)
Learning Management System (LMS)

As the company has grown, so has its employees’ thirst for knowledge. A Learning Management System (LMS) provides a great service to employees, allowing them to strengthen their skill sets and acquire new ones. I was the Product Owner and UX Designer for the project and it launched successfully, providing…Read More


View more Work