Design Legends ("DL") had the distinct honour to interview legendary designer Willy Lai ("WL") for their original perspective and innovative approach to design as well as their creative lifestyle, we are very pleased to share our interview with our distinguished readers.
WL : I loved art and cars as a child, and I used to draw cars incessantly. My notebooks were filled with sketches of cars, mostly concept cars, throughout all my years of schooling. Without knowing it, I was already designing at an early age. Not surprisingly, I had often dreamt of becoming a car designer. When I was in elementary school, my classmates would often ask me to create drawings for them, not always of cars. I quickly became known as the class artist at 6 or 7 years old. I think that positive affirmation early in life encouraged me to keep drawing, to stick with art, and I became quite the prolific class artist. The demand for my drawings even got to the point where my Mom would regularly make photocopies of my artwork to distribute to my classmates. My Mom also signed me up for art classes outside of school, which helped to further nurture and develop my interest and skills in art. When I was voted most artistic in my middle school yearbook, that's the first time I seriously thought about pursuing a career in art and design. In high school, my Dad gifted me a "What Color is Your Parachute?" career book to help me decide on a career path. After completing the career quiz portion, the book pointed me to a career in Architecture because of my aptitude in art and math/science. From there, I pursued a degree in Architecture at U.C. Berkeley. It's there in college, studying architecture, where I formally delved deep into design, truly understanding the relationship between form and function, and the difference and relationship between art and design. As an Architect major in college, I thought I was going to eventually design physical spaces (e.g. buildings) in the physical world. However, after graduating in 1995, I ended up staying in Silicon Valley and instead became a "digital architect", designing digital spaces (e.g. websites) in the digital world, during the early days of the internet.
WL : I love creating. When I create "something" from "nothing", or make something better, it's a wonderful feeling of accomplishment and fulfillment. I want to make the world a better place, and design is an area where I can be most impactful.
WL : I definitely chose to become a designer. Growing up, my family and friends were all from STEM backgrounds. As a creative, I was definitely the oddball, and if anything, I was often urged to pursue a more STEM-oriented career path as well.
WL : To me, what distinguishes a good designer and a great designer is their craft and how they go about achieving that craft. A great designer actively develops and elevates their craft, constantly seeking to raise the bar, developing innovative and creative solutions that result in tangible improvements for users and businesses. They not only seek to improve the design skills, but their soft skills, collaboration, and process as well. This is important because these things impact how well they'll ultimately be able to ship the designs they create. A good designer, on the other hand effectively solves problems with good solutions, but just doesn't go that extra mile to continuously improve their craft, collaboration, and process.
WL : A successful UX or product design is a design that is user desirable, business viable, and technology feasible. Within each of these categories may be specific KPI's and metrics by which you determine desirability or viability, but at a high-level they ultimately roll up to these success determinants. The better the design, the better the design achieves that sweet spot of desirability, viability, and feasibility. Meaning, better designs are feasible designs that have greater positive impact on users and business.
WL : It's often said that good design is good business. That's especially true in the digital age, where the user is always only a click away from leaving your app or website for your competitor's. Investing in good design isn't just a nice-to-have, it's a necessity.
WL : Stay humble and hungry throughout your career - that will be key to growth and elevating your craft. Be user-centric and know why it's important - this seems obvious, but I still come across so many designers in the field who aren't. Know how to conduct user research. Learn the art and science of design - as a UX / product designer, it's not enough to be a strong interaction designer, you must be a strong visual designer as well. Learn how to collaborate with stakeholders. Learn how your designs impact users AND business. Learn how to code. Learn the art of storytelling and how to present and "sell" your designs.
WL : If I hadn't become a digital designer, I would have either designed the built environment as an architect or designed cars.
WL : I'm glad you asked, as design can mean many different things to many different people and it’s worth clarifying what design means. There's design as a verb, and design as a noun. As a verb, design is about "designing", the act of creative problem solving. The Merriam Webster dictionary defines the verb form of design as, "to devise for a specific function or end." Designing is the creative synthesis of the best "form" for any given "function", and this applies to just about any design industry and medium. Then there's design as a noun, which is the artifact or "form" that's created through the act of designing. Going back to what I had mentioned earlier, if design as a verb is creative problem solving, then design as a noun is the creative solution. Sadly, oftentimes design artifacts or "forms" aren't evaluated against their intended purposes or "functions", but rather subject to personal tastes or preferences that often have nothing to do with the problem the designs were meant to solve.
WL : As a digital designer with formal training in environmental design (e.g. architecture), I believe environmental sustainability and social good are the primary responsibility of a designer for society and environment. Going back to my point about the overlap of user desirability, business viability, and technical feasibility, if a design is not environmentally sustainable nor promotes social good, then that design is not user desirable and potentially not business viable in the long term, and therefore should not be considered successful.
WL : I'm currently working with AI startups, designing next generation AI products and services. One thing that keeps me excited about designing in tech is the intersection of business, design, and technology and the opportunity to continuously shape the future.
WL : Naming a favorite design is tough because I believe each design is a unique outcome due to its own set of circumstances, constraints, and context, and should be judged accordingly. It can therefore be difficult, maybe even unfair to judge a design when you're not privy to all of that. That said, if I were asked which of the designs I've worked on is my favorite, I would probably say it's either the "clock UI" dial design I came up with while I was at Samsung or the "customize clothing" design I came up with while at Macy's. Both of those designs were simple, fun, and innovative. They solved their respective design "functions" through novel design "forms" that were highly engaging for users.
WL : AI is rapidly changing the design field, and will continue to do so going forward. AI is reshaping design, both how design is practiced (e.g. design as verb) and the artifacts that are created (e.g. design as noun). The rise of AI is quickly evolving the design field, and will continue to do so going forward. However, at least with my experience and understanding of AI thus far, I believe that there will still be a place for human creativity in the design field, even as AI becomes more and more commonplace. The more tactical and production-like aspects of design will be easiest for AI to replace and automate, while the more strategic and creative aspects of design will be more difficult. As with any maturing field, the bar for good design will continue to be raised and AI will be powering a lot of that bar raising.
WL : As mentioned before, I generally subscribe to the 5 "D" process (discovery, define, design, develop, deploy). You can overlap this with the double-diamond process where the first diamond is about discovering and defining a problem, and the second diamond is about designing and developing, or solutioning for a problem. Put another way and echoing what I had mentioned before about "form" and "function", the first diamond is about figuring out the intending purpose or "function", and the second diamond is coming up with the best "form" (e.g. artifact) for that "function". The end result should be the delivery and deployment of the design artifact. Deployment (e.g. shipping and measuring design through analytics) then overlaps with and becomes discovery for the next design cycle. The goal for design in all of these phases is to devise the best design that's user desirable, business viable, and technology feasible.
WL : I loved art and cars as a child, and I used to draw cars incessantly. My notebooks were filled with sketches of cars, mostly concept cars, throughout all my years of schooling. Without knowing it, I was already designing at an early age. Not surprisingly, I had often dreamt of becoming a car designer. When I was in elementary school, my classmates would often ask me to create drawings for them, not always of cars. I quickly became known as the class artist at 6 or 7 years old. I think that positive affirmation early in life encouraged me to keep drawing, to stick with art, and I became quite the prolific class artist. The demand for my drawings even got to the point where my Mom would regularly make photocopies of my artwork to distribute to my classmates. My Mom also signed me up for art classes outside of school, which helped to further nurture and develop my interest and skills in art. When I was voted most artistic in my middle school yearbook, that's the first time I seriously thought about pursuing a career in art and design. In high school, my Dad gifted me a "What Color is Your Parachute?" career book to help me decide on a career path. After completing the career quiz portion, the book pointed me to a career in Architecture because of my aptitude in art and math/science. From there, I pursued a degree in Architecture at U.C. Berkeley. It's there in college, studying architecture, where I formally delved deep into design, truly understanding the relationship between form and function, and the difference and relationship between art and design. As an Architect major in college, I thought I was going to eventually design physical spaces (e.g. buildings) in the physical world. However, after graduating in 1995, I ended up staying in Silicon Valley and instead became a "digital architect", designing digital spaces (e.g. websites) in the digital world, during the early days of the internet.
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