AM Digital Designs
A cross-cultural testing platform designed for global audiences and local businesses.
Role & Scope
Founder & Lead UX Product Designer
Wearing multiple hats across the product lifecycle:
UX Research • Graphic Design • Marketing Lead • Web Development • Full-Stack Systems Engineering
Built solo with:
PHP • MySQL • Custom PHP i18n system (6 languages) • JavaScript • HTML/CSS • PHPMailer • Hostinger
The Framework
I built AM Digital Designs to prove that cultural research drives conversion across three pillars:
- Local Impact: Redesigning digital frontends for community businesses.
- Global Testing: Building an international participant recruitment pipeline.
- Data Synthesis: Linking research insights via an evolving AI agent.
Under The Hood
Every layer of amdigitaldesigns.com was designed and coded by me. The frontend is hand-written PHP, HTML, and CSS. No CMS, no page builder. The multilingual system is a custom t() translation function reading from six PHP language files (English, Spanish, Hindi, Korean, French, Mandarin). Contact and intake forms are wired to a MySQL database with server-side validation and email delivery via PHPMailer. Hosting and DNS are managed on Hostinger.
Building it myself meant every design decision—from typography to form microcopy to error states—was one I could ship the same day, in every language.
0.2 Brand Logo & Identity
0.1 Agency E-Book Resource
0.0 AM Digital Designs: Marketing frontend, hand-coded in PHP with a MySQL-backed intake form. Designed and engineered solo.
Global Accessibility: Custom Multiple Language Switcher
To truly serve a cross-cultural audience, the platform's architecture had to be borderless.
0.3 Dynamic Localization: A custom PHP i18n system I built from scratch: six language files, one t() helper, applied across the entire marketing frontend without a plugin or framework.
Security: Multi-layer Defense Built from the Database Up
Handling cross-cultural research data means handling trust. I engineered the account and platform security system from scratch: six MySQL tables (password resets, email verifications, TOTP 2FA with backup codes, session tracking, audit log, login throttling), a PHP security library with AES-256-GCM encrypted TOTP secrets, and a pure-PHP RFC 6238 implementation for two-factor auth. No third-party auth service, no shortcuts.
0.4 Account Verification: Email verification layer before dashboard access, backed by a dedicated email_verifications MySQL table with expiring tokens.
0.5 Platform Vault: TOTP 2FA setup with QR code, backup codes, and AES-256-GCM encrypted secrets. Pure PHP, RFC 6238 compliant.
Showcasing the Digital Experience.
Before diving into the research methodology, here is a visual walkthrough of the live AM Digital Designs platform. This showcase highlights the final UI components, bilingual architecture, and responsive layouts engineered for our cross-cultural user base.
Strategic Market Research.
Before building, I sized the opportunity. I researched who the multicultural audience actually is, who pays to reach them, and why so much of that spend still misses. The slides below are the market analysis that shaped AM Digital Designs and the case for a consented, cross-cultural research network built for agencies.
0.1 The Gap: Diverse communities make up 40% of the U.S., yet receive a fraction of targeted attention.
0.2 The Audience: Multicultural populations are already the majority in nine states and rising.
0.3 The Buyers: A $45.8B multicultural ad category and 15,000+ U.S. agencies needing authentic insights.
0.4 The Opportunity: $7T in annual buying power—the fastest-growing consumer segment.
0.5 The Sizing: From total addressable market to a realistic, bottom-up revenue path.
0.6 The White Space: The authentic, agency-facing corner of the research market is wide open.
0.8 How It Works: Agency, AMD, and client unified in one workflow.
0.9 The Model: Real, named participant voices and network monetization structure.
Local Impact: Optimizing Community Frontends.
I partner directly with local businesses to audit and upgrade their digital presence. By engineering a dedicated client subdomain, I intentionally separate local, on-site studio operations in Lawrence from the global research platform.
0.9 Service Packages: Modular web and UX offerings tailored for local community businesses.
1.1 Client Testimonial
1.2 Client Portal
Fully Integrated Career Portal
To support local business owners, this subdomain's primary purpose is simplicity. By establishing a dedicated career portal, our growing team ensures a seamless experience for managing deliverables and communicating with local talent.
1.3 Career Portal: Applicant Dashboard
1.4 Studio Manager application directly linked and routed to the Career Portal.
1.5 Studio Marketing: AMD Branded Lanyards & Hats
Global Reach: Recruiting Targeted Cross-Cultural Panels.
I built a scalable recruitment pipeline to validate designs globally. The goal is to measure how cultural expectations impact software interaction, turning human behavior into structured data.
The System Behind the Panel
Recruiting globally is only half the work. I engineered the backend to run it, including a participant database, an admin matching dashboard, and a custom PHPMailer invitation system. The system emails users individually to maintain strict privacy. Testers are compensated for their time, and the entire pipeline runs securely without relying on third-party platforms.
Marketing the Pipeline
To recruit diverse participants, I launched the Represent Your Roots Instagram campaign. I designed the visual identity, custom apparel, and physical onboarding kits tied to each participant's native country. Cultural pride drove the signups.
2.1 Physical Onboarding Kits
Instagram Story Campaign
A Story series turning cultural heritage into a call to participate.
2.3 Live Store: Participant apparel available through our Printful integration.
On the Ground
The panel extends beyond the digital space. I traveled to meet participants in person to recruit, listen, and build trust. Every pin on the lanyard below represents a country where I have personally met testers. The platform scales digitally, but the relationships are built by hand.
2.4 Local Participant: Kit unboxing after in-person onboarding.
2.5 Founder's Lanyard: One pin per country visited to meet participants.
The Result
A cross-cultural UX panel spanning multiple continents. Social followers converted into an active participant pool, and eager testers evolved into a global research community.
2.6 Panel Reach: Alaska
2.7 Panel Reach: India
2.8 Panel Reach: Mexico
2.9 Panel Reach: Dominican Republic
2.10 Panel Reach: Indonesia
2.11 Panel Reach: South Korea
2.12 Panel Reach: Puerto Rico
Platform: Driven by a Growing AI Agent Aries
3.1 Client Frontend: Ask Aries Version 1 Testing
To connect local frontends with global test panels, I engineered a platform driven by an evolving AI agent. This engine automates research coordination, indexes participant metrics, and maps user data to accelerate product iteration.
Where it stands, and where it's going.
AM Digital Designs is an active, evolving build. It began as proof of one idea—that cultural research drives better products—and it's growing into the infrastructure that lets agencies deliver on it. Here's the impact so far:
- Community impact: Rebuilt digital frontends for local, multicultural businesses, improving how they present, engage, and convert online.
- Global research reach: Recruited and onboarded a cross-cultural participant panel spanning multiple continents through the "Represent Your Roots" campaign.
- Unified platform: Connected both sides into a single testing platform driven by Aries, an evolving AI research agent.
What's next
I'm building AMD Global Insights. The platform, the panel, and the case for it all keep growing, and this case study grows with them.
Research & Engineering Strategy Applied