A photo booth business, easier to book
Stella Booth / Brand, booking, operations
A San Jose photo booth business built on a photographer’s eye. Brand positioning, transparent pricing, and a booking workflow for real events.
Hi, I’m Nathan Tran, a designer, AI builder, and photographer based in San Jose.
As AI lowers the barrier to building, products increasingly converge on the same predictable patterns.
Execution is no longer the scarce skill.
Discernment is: judging what deserves to exist, and what only looks finished.
Therefore, I focus on making deliberate, nuanced design decisions and orchestrating AI to carry out complex work to that standard.
This portfolio documents the reasoning behind each project, including where AI accelerated the work and where I overrode it.
- Product designer + AI builder
- San Jose, California
A daily planner that weighs your workload
Stellar / Product design, AI-directed build
A to-do list that weighs your day. I designed the experience and directed AI agents through the build. Live web app, redesigned October 2026.
A shared planner for group trips
Explorite / UX research, product design
A travel-discovery concept evolved from research into a live prototype with bookings, reviews, and crew voting.
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Nathan Tran
The longer story
About Nathan
How a camera in 2020 turned into two businesses and a product design practice.