We, as the Designer Interviews ("DI") had the distinct pleasure and opportunity to interview award-winning, most creative and innovative Chiwon Lee ("CL").
Chiwon Lee is a Product Designer that specializes in user research, user experience design, user interface design for emerging technology with a focus on Artificial Intelligence (AI) user experience interaction design. Chiwon's design and research work has been awarded the Red Dot Design Award and her research work has been published at CHI, the most prestigious academic conference for Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). Chiwon graduated early from MIT with a full scholarship based on merit. During her time at MIT, she served as the Research Assistant for the MIT Media Lab's Futures Committee and was the recipient of the MIT Sandbox Innovation Fund for her design practice.
Chiwon Lee Designs
We are pleased to share with you original and innovative design work by Chiwon Lee.
Chiwon Lee Design - BLTN AI Collaboration Platform
Designer Interview of Chiwon Lee:
DI: Could you please tell us more about your art and design background? What made you become an artist/designer? Have you always wanted to be a designer?
CL : I graduated from MIT in Cambridge, MA with a Master of Science degree in Engineering and Management as an Integrated Design and Management Fellow. During my time at MIT, I also worked at the MIT Media Lab on full scholarship to work on initiatives related to AI and more. Before entering MIT, I graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Information and Interaction Design from Yonsei University. I used to study Computer Science at Columbia University, but I realized that I wanted to become a designer when I learned that there would be opportunities to be closer to the users after learning about UX design and Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). Ever since, I have been a UX Designer and couldn’t have been happier about my choice.
DI: What is "design" for you?
CL : Design is about creating features that would improve or enhance the experience for the end user. I believe good design is the perfect marriage between logic and empathy as you need logic to make the design functional, and empathy to ensure that the functional specifications of the design are addressing an issue that could be solved.
DI: What kinds of works do you like designing most?
CL : I particularly enjoy designing software, with an emphasis on emerging technology such as AI. Because I used to study Computer Science before pursuing design full time, I believe that I can contribute the most to providing design for complex and technical designs in the field of emerging technology.
DI: What is your favorite material / platform / technology?
CL : My favorite technology is AI at the moment. AI is a tool and there are numerous ways as to how it could revolutionize the lives of people for the better. It’s my passion to ensure that AI is used in a way that has a positive social impact for the end users.
DI: Which aspects of a design do you focus more during designing?
CL : I try to ensure a design solves a problem, and I strive to make a design structured. I fell in love with design as I learned how design could solve the problems of many and the scalable impact it can have. I also try to make my designs structured as the problem of today’s society with the sea of data that we swim in is that much of the data out there is unstructured and difficult to navigate. I try to make sure meaningful data is structured well in the software design I contribute to.
DI: What kind of emotions do you feel when you design?
CL : I feel content when I design. I feel content as I believe that I am doing my best to contribute to this society through a medium that I am in love with. I believe the feeling of contributing to society while doing something you love is difficult to achieve, and I feel blessed to be able to do this.
DI: What kind of emotions do you feel when your designs are realized?
CL : Curiosity is the biggest emotion I have when a design is realized. I try to create designs based on data, research, and logic; however, the design at the end of the day will be evaluated as the end user, and it is difficult to gauge all scenarios of how the user would use the product you create. Therefore, curiosity of how the users will interact with my design is the biggest emotion I have whenever my design is published.
DI: What makes a design successful?
CL : If a design is useful to the user, and if the design even provides the user pleasure through the aesthetics of the design, I believe the design is successful. I believe usefulness is the default requirement for a design to be successful, and I also believe that providing pleasure to the user by creating an aesthetic and minimalist design is also important to contributing to the success of a design.
DI: From your point of view, what are the responsibilities of a designer for society and environment?
CL : I believe it is the responsibility of the designer to be mindful of what social impact and environmental impact a design can have while designing, and actively communicate this with team members and stakeholders to make the best decision in the given situation. Even software products can have environmental impact given the amount of electricity software products consume; therefore, keeping up to date on such factors are an ethical responsibility of designers in my perspective.
DI: How do you think the "design field" is evolving? What is the future of design?
CL : AI companionship is emerging in the field of design in a way that designers are utilizing AI to brainstorm ideas and generate images for the features that they create. There are concerns related to copyright, and there are issues related to AI hallucination; however, I believe that AI has proven to be an interesting tool to utilize for designers when designing, and I believe the future of design will lie in how designers use AI to their benefit.
DI: Can you talk a little about your design process?
CL : I try to define the problem first with stakeholders, and then I create a research plan that would contain a mixture of methodologies relevant to the project whether that be competitive analysis or user research. Then, I create an Information Architecture (IA) and user journey to communicate with stakeholders to align on the product direction before going into designing wireframes. After alignment on the IA and user journey or scenario, I try to obtain focus time to be heads down on iterating and communicating design decisions with stakeholders to ensure the fast and efficient delivery of the end product to be tested with the users.
DI: Could you please share some pearls of wisdom for young designers? What are your suggestions to young, up and coming designers?
CL : Designing full time means that you will be spending a significant part of your life designing. Before committing to a lifelong career in design, I would recommend working at a startup, a school club, or friends, or by yourself on a design project end-to-end, and see if you enjoy it. If you do, I would then recommend experiencing a variety of industries to find the industry of your liking as various industries approach design in a different manner.
DI: What is your "golden rule" in design?
CL : I believe the golden rule in design is communication. The evaluation of design lies in the hands of the user and the stakeholders. Does it solve the stakeholders’ and users’ needs and wishes? In order to achieve this, you have to communicate with stakeholders, and communicate with users. Communication is key.
DI: Which tools do you use during design? What is inside your toolbox? Such as software, application, hardware, books, sources of inspiration etc.?
CL : My go to tool right now is Figma. It’s a great tool to use to design efficiently and collaborate with fellow designers, product managers, and engineers. I also enjoy the regular updates that improve the experience as well as the variety of plug-ins available to facilitate the design process.
DI: Do you work as a team, or do you develop your designs yourself?
CL : I work as a team and lead the team when it comes to most of my designs that are passion projects. I closely work with Lauren, Minjung, Seongbin, Seowon, and James when it comes to the passion projects that I do. I find the collaboration key in accomplishing good design.