Designer Journeys

Living, thinking and breathing design as a mindset and lifestyle. Sharing my personal journey of inspiration, exploration and experiences.

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Getting ready for Uni submission tomorrow! Thanks to those who have helped me along the way with feedback, ideas, filling out questionnaires. I wouldn't have been able to develop this concept without your help! #feelinggrateful #feelingrelieved #unideadlines #design #socialinnovation #culturefriends

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A great read for those who feels an upward struggle in their lives right now. I resonate with this story a lot over the last year where I underestimated the struggle I had to go through coming back to UK after living and travelling in Asia. It's been a year of reverse culture shock but I'm grateful how things have fallen into place through iterations and failures. This is living life!

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"As the product of many different cultures and countries, my identity is not rooted to any one of them, but the sum of all" - great quote to remind us that it's OK when being asked the question of where you are from and not sure how to answer it!

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My first day as a design student

Today was my first class at Kingston University as a design student and I absolutely loved it - the passion, enthusiasm, inspiration and thrill I had was unbelievable.

I remember when I graduated in 2008, I said to myself I NEVER want to study again because I hated it in so many ways - I found lectures uninspiring, I was struggling to keep up, I didn’t enjoy it, I didn’t like the format of lectures.

Now, fast-forward 8 years, I’ve decided to be a part-time student at Kingston Uni studying Design for Social Innovation. Why?

Well, over the last couple of years I’ve become addicted to learning including: 200 hours yoga training, learning Mandarin and Korean, food innovation, design, research, cooking Asian cuisines, photography, the list is endless…What I realised is Bachelors degree wasn’t right for me - I just didn’t find the right learning environment, style and method of learning where I can be inspired and absorb knowledge like a sponge without too much effort.

I realised that my style of learning is much more learn-by-doing and learning with others, it’s much more collaborative and coursework-based as assessment. Today has demonstrated this, we had workshop-led discussions where we get to brainstorm individually about our design processes. Through our experiences, we had stories to share and learning from each other with empathy.

Here’s a summary of things I loved from today:

The inspiration learning from others with different design backgrounds and experiences to share

The topic areas of social innovation that makes you curious and opens new ways of thinking.

The multidisciplinary backgrounds and cultures of the other students where we can learn from each other with stories and experiences to share

The introduction to Social Innovation where the lecturer, Paul related to real-world problems, makes you curious and open new ways of thinking.

The brainstorming and having open discussions where it’s not about competing ideas but collaborating ideas to find new connections together.  

The buzz and eagerness to learn more after class and proud of a wannabe book geek 

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My personal website is live!

My personal website is officially live! Check it out and would love to hear your thoughts on it

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Great summary of what I do everyday to keep on learning and growing. It's the best way to change, adapt and be a better self

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Innovate with design thinking

Introduction to design-thinking and how to design new services

Delivered a workshop on “How to Innovate with Design-thinking” for MoneyFarm, a fintech startup as Brown Bag lunch session. 

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1 month later I’ve finally compiled the photos of our weekend roadtrip in Scotland. I didn’t have a proper camera with me but the sights were pretty breathtaking!  See my album in Flickr: https://flic.kr/s/aHskGibRuL

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How to be a better designer

Design is a mindset, attitude, a way of live. 

It is powerful because it can empower people - to think creativity, to work collaboratively and embrace experimental learning just like what we did when we were kids. 

This is why I love being a designer because it allows me to be a big kid! I feel that part of my struggle coming back to UK since my Asia travels is that I don’t want to ‘settle’ and accept the way of life like everyone else. We follow the social norms without questioning it because there’s no possibility to step away from it so we all end up being in our own little bubbles. My bubble bursted a long time ago when I was experiencing the culture shock in Shanghai. However, it made me a better designer - it made me curious, challenge the norm and my values and finding out who I really am and the sort of designer I want to be. As a result, I want to use my skills to facilitate change, to make the world a better place with design by contributing to the Global Goals for sustainability development. 

Somewhere along the way, we’ve lost that ability to be curious and learn everyday because things reality and routine kicks in and gets in the way where everyone is ‘busy’. I remember in Shanghai however, we were learning everyday - observing how locals live their lives, why they behave the way they do and using those insights as input for design. We’ve lost the ability to really connect with others, to truly pause and listen and see things in a different perspective with an open-mind. The modern way of working is about productivity of getting things done rather than discovery and exploration. Yet most of the time, the a-ha moments and spark of ideas come when I had a conversation to someone other than my colleague, when I’ve experienced something completely unrelated to the work I’m doing outside of work. 

Most people think designers are the ones who can draw, or can make something look attractive - that’s a very shallow definition of a designer. 

“A better designer is one who acts like a kid - they observe, listen and receptive to the environment. They are curious so they question and explores without judgement, they play Lego and start constructing things with their hands. They are fearless in many ways - not afraid to take the Lego apart and start again, talk to others and question them or get people involved in the process”. - Rachel Liu

This concludes why I like being a designer and an excuse to not fully grow-up! 

[designerjourneys]

A new way to think about designing for new food experiences with food hacking. Not too sure if I want to wear BBQ perfume though! However, perhaps it can change people’s behaviour and perception of food in a positive way e.g. getting kids to eat their 5 a day!

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Great case study to show how design-thinking can be used to approach life problems. I’ve been applying the same mindset in my life project on 'How might I create a sustainable sense of wellbeing?’

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Quitting my job for the unknown again

It’s really hard to quit especially when you have put all your energy and passion to do your best. It’s the limitation and strength of my personality trait. I’ve already left my job once where I choose my health over career in Shanghai. This time after two months in…I had to make a difficult decision to resign again…

It’s hard to pull the plug and say enough is enough. This week, I left a tech startup that is growing fast with lots of investment - there’s a lot of opportunities as you can define your own career (or that’s what people tell you). I was in the role for two months and as an outsider it might seem crazy to leave - like I haven’t given it long enough to settle etc.

Lesson 1

‘Sometimes the best opportunities isn’t right for you' 

I found myself experiencing conflict between choosing what I value and what others expect of me. I didn’t want to change myself to become an unhealthy, money-driven workaholic.

I might have been naive but what happened to the startup culture where it’s about the making rather than demanding, the creativity and experimentation, bringing it to life in a collaborative manner?

We pretended that we focused on user needs but it was driven by assumptions and antidotes. Some said that the user don’t know what they want until we show it to them because they wanted to achieve radical innovation. However, most innovation are incremental and it’s about connecting the dots to improve someone’s life and removing their painpoints. I felt like I’ve gone back in time to a workplace that is old school where it’s about features rather than users goals in context.

Lesson 2

‘The communication internally reflects the product itself’

I’m a believer that the best user experience can only be achieved if we worked collaboratively and problem solving together with a strong vision as a team. Communication remained in silos. As a result, there’s been a broken user experience in the product. We are not being proactive with innovation but reactive to the problems instead whilst not getting to the core of the problem. We weren’t listening to our users.

Now I could have been influenced to stay, to hope things would change for better in next 6 months - on the other hand, it’s an opportunity cost where I could use that 6 months finding alternative ways to learn and grow the way I want. It’s a risky move as it means a lot of uncertainty and after a long haul search since coming back to UK since October and been freelancing whilst trying to thing a permanent role that caters for my passion and work environment. But if I don’t do it now and make the change, I will never get the opportunity to do so later when I might have other priorities in life.

Lesson 3

Everything happens for a reason…

…it’s just hard when you are experiencing it but once you go through it, it’s a life lesson and experience that no one can take from you.

In Shanghai, I had setbacks of culture shock, communication barrier and being unwell - I have changed my lifestyle since where I have learnt to enjoy experimenting with food, can communicate in Mandarin, having a toolkit to look after myself from yoga to mindfulness.

In UK, it’s a different challenge where transitioning back after seeing the world in a new perspective where my career is undefined and it’s hard to let go because I’m very career-driven and it’s always been a big part of my self-identity. Additionally, it’s been hard coming back and getting your friends and family to understand. They might think your actions odd and illogical and quick to judge. That’s the beauty having friends who are expats because they get it - they are in the same journeys. Sometimes it makes us question our own identity of where we belong. I know that I don’t feel very British or Chinese.

Lesson 4

Self-identity is defined by your personal values not your career or ethnicity

Self-identity should be aligned with your own values. I’ve figured out mine from working at this startup. It has emphasised more how much I enjoy being in company with people with an open-mind. Other things like open learning, collaborative working, helping others through educating and coaching whether that is career change, wellbeing, design and making a social impact are important to me. I know that I want to create a sustainable lifestyle from this insight.

For now, I trust my gut instincts and see where it takes me. Right now I have an opportunity to go to Italy for 3 weeks Summer School to learn about Food Innovation and Design-thinking.

Watch this space to see how I progress in a month’s time!

[designerjourneys]

“Design changes how someone feels” - Shu Hagiwara

On Wednesday night, I attended my first Japan Foundation event and the top was ‘Design for living with kids’. Ever since travelling in Far East Asia, I miss my connection with it and the inspiration it brings to design especially in Japan, Korea and Taiwan.

This talk was a perfect mix of design and culture to fuel my creative energy and ponder on what sort of design do I really care about in the long term. There was something magical the way that Shu Hagiwara presented. He had a live translator but the passion was not lost!

His talk is primarily sharing his inspiration and development of various products which started as projects. His inspiration stems from directly from having kids and bringing them up in the suburbs of Tokyo. One projects including ‘Codo-mono-coto’ that was based project living together with children. He ran workshops to discover how to design for kids by seeing their reactions to colour, form, and what they think. Additionally, it gave children the opportunity to make things themselves rather than the notion of buying. This was an important process for him to ensure that as adults, they design for kids and not other adults.

“See design from the point of a user, a different point of view rather than how society categorise them” - Shu Hagiwara 

He also had a few exhibitions based on products that allows them to enjoy their free-time whether it’s snack time, drawing or equivalent playtime.  Additionally, he wanted to make products that are long-lasting and beyond the childhood years where it can be useful in daily life. For example, the spoon that makes it easier for parents to feed the kid can also be a dessert spoon for adults. I also loved how the names he chosen for his products are made of puns. This was aimed for adults rather than for kids. It was an opportunity for adults to understand design through the eyes of a child, see things as they really are and communicate this idea. He believes how you express things in words as well as the product itself is equality important.

He cares deeply about social and community design and explained how it’s only been in the last 5 years due to the earthquake in Japan that people are thinking about design as part of everyday life more. Historically, Japan and more commonly design is seen as more external due to industrialisation and commerce. Now, there’s an ever-increasing need for community and social design especially as the space between community and physical space is becoming narrower.

The event ended with a discussion between Dr Sarah Teasley and Shu Hagiwara. Both UK and Japan are starting to think about the overall the design curriculum and how it should be taught in education particularly in primary and secondary schools. Shu mentioned there’s not enough teachers who studied design and it’s completely different to teaching art. He believes it should be the job of the community to educate children rather than just parents and teachers. Therefore, the question becomes how do we bring in designers to have a connection with schools and bringing in their expertise?

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How #korean am I?! Attempted to wear a #hanbok #koreanClothing #traditionalKoreanDress #koreanDress before my class begins! #cultureImmersion (at Korean Community Center)

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A simple reminder to enjoy the journey not the destination #lagomeraisland #roadtrip #positivity #staycalm

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I love this #featherprinciple as an approach to #design. Being a #bookgeek whilst being ill in bed #behaviouraldesign #kindlecompanion #learninginbed #readingnight

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Why Design Matters

I got asked recently at an interview how I view design, how I got into it and why it matters so I thought I’ll compile my thoughts here as a reminder.

A lot of us think of design as the glamorous things of making things look good to feel good. This is the maternalistic consumer world of how we view great design but it only scraps the surface.

When you dig a little deeper, you see that design is very holistic in nature just like how you would measure your health (diet, sleep, exercise, mind etc). A little dose of design every day is what makes my life more meaningful...

Travelling in Asia broadened my perspective of how I think about design. Thank you and I miss you Asia! 

Reference: 

https://www.behance.net/gallery/33468621/Why-Design-Matters?