Interview with Qian Wan of AWDesign from United States

I have always enjoyed observing the world and drawing objects since I was a kid which is when I decided to learn industrial design through my undergrad. Then, I observed the digital transformation happening in the world: the evolution of the internet, the IoT, etc. I realized that there was great potential in the digital world. That uncharted area made me excited and encourage me to make the career transition to become a digital product designer.

I play an important role as a product designer in VMware, a leading provider of multi-cloud services for all apps. Apart from that, I take charge of many critical projects that made a great contribution to the company strategy such as VMware Aria Insights.

I appreciate the design that can enable people and improve their life quality.

A good design should care about accessibility and make the effort to bring an equally good experience to all the demographic groups.

That’s a great question. I would say that I am quite flexible and I try my best to not be limited to a certain type of visual style but when it comes to the principle of experience design, making it friendly and understandable are the golden rules.

I started with research to understand the target users first and I won’t start designing without learning enough about the subject. After that, I would quickly create a low-fi mock-up to test out the concept and narrow it down to 1 direction. Once it’s confirmed, I pursue the design with a higher fidelity prototype and shared it with users to get usability testing.

I like connecting with local design communities such as IXDA. I had a few chances of being invited to the panel discussion. Meeting with other amazing designers never failed to inspire me.

I’m excited to see that many design opportunity has shown up when much new business and technology have been discovered or put into implementation, such as AI, VR, etc.

I’m super excited to receive the award. The recognition shows my impact as an independent designer and it’s also a good platform to know other design experts from different industries.

Ling is a mobile-based educational purposed chatbot that provides real-time inquiry functionality and learning resources about equity, diversity, and inclusion to help Chinese international student to identify and prevent discrimination and harassment that happened to them.

The reason I chose this topic is that COVID-19 has driven racism and violence against Asians. Chinese international students who are coming from a very distinct culture would go study abroad and they are very new to said country’s culture. They are also less sensitive to racial discrimination when it is happening to them. Although those aggressions are often subtle, they can be just as harmful to health and well-being.

It is a great platform to increase design visibility and the designer’s impact.

User-focused, inclusive and connected.

I strongly believe that AI would bring a great opportunity to the creative industry. It increases efficiency and works as a new tool for the design community. It also shapes the role of UX.

Always put your users in your mind.

Hands-on experience is always the best practice.

Sometimes jumping out of your focused area could freshen your mind and inspire you!

Quantify your success and learnings but also think about the impact you can make at the societal level.

Embrace your personality and the characteristics that make you a great designer.