#RememberingLKY

 
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Last Sunday evening (Monday morning Singapore time), the founding Prime Minister of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew, passed away at the age of 91.

Never thought I'd be so affected by the passing of a man whom I've never met. Maybe it's because after all, almost everything in Singapore, from public transport, to the education system (and on a macro scale, peace, security and economic success) is really owed to this one man's vision and foresight. He made Singapore what it is today. Without him, Singapore would have still been a third world country being pushed around by western nations. To that, I'm eternally grateful. 

Last week was a dark period for Singaporeans both home and abroad, ending with a state funeral where we all stood in a minute of silence. This week, we move forward with a renewed strength, knowing that the future is ours to make. Thank you Mr. Lee.

 

 

Thoughts on the MagicBand and Air Travel

“In fact, it’s called the paradox of choice: You make people happier not by giving them more options but by stripping away as many as you can.”
— Cliff Kuang, Wire

Original Article: Disney's $1 Billion Bet on a Magical Wristband | WIRED

Was reading the article on WIRED.com about Disney's MagicBand and how it created seamless transitions before, during and after your experience at Disneyland that greatly enhanced your experience, allowing you to focus on enjoying and eliminating as many barriers to it as possible. As I was reading it, I also kept drawing a parallel to the airline industry and what airlines could do to provide this seamless, almost magical experience.

From my research into airline brands in a project I was working on last term, I realized that airlines have so much potential to expand their service offering beyond the flight experience. There are many airlines with an already good brand reputation and each has its own loyal following, and they could leverage on that, providing services that transcend beyond the cockpit of the plane. This could also open up new revenue streams that help ease the pressure placed on them with fuel costs etc.

Perhaps airport security organizations like the TSA could take a cue from Disney's MagicBand, to provide a seamless service and experience that we are so sorely missing, especially the mess that is the airports today.

 

Soul Searching Pt. 3 – My Superhero Alter Ego

Continuing along the thread of graduation, we were asked a few weeks back in our Design Professional class to sketch out our designer alter ego, someone with superhero powers that represented our strengths as a designer.

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I saw my alter ego as this character called "The Strategist" (got feedback in class that I should call him "Dr. Strategist"), who has telekinetic powers and superhuman analytical abilities. He has levitational abilities too. 

He uses those abilities to establish order and structure in a world filled with broken, chaotic, and disorganized systems and services. 

While this was done as a fun class exercise, it also helped to put together my personal statement. Here's the final draft of my personal statement that would go up to Art Center's Product Design Grads website.

Hi I'm Kenneth, and I make the complex simple.
Coming from Singapore, I grew up in an environment that was very structured and organized, which at times felt really constricting.
Things changed when I was first introduced to the design process in high school. It empowered me to work within constraints, challenging it, but at the same time respecting it.
I probably didn’t realize it back then, but that also contributed to my moderate (some say borderline severe) obsession with neatness and organization.
This bleeds through to who I am as a designer today, living in a world that is becoming more integrated and seamless, yet also more complex and convoluted to navigate.
I seek to bring organization and clarity back to the user, transforming complicated and frustrating transactions into enjoyable and engaging interactions, making the complex, simple.
 

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Click here to view the complete series of posts on my graduation.

Soul Searching Pt.2 – The Thrills (and Chills) of Graduating

The second week, we had to do a mind map exploring who we are as a designer. 

Going through the motions of doing the mind map though, I felt I was just using buzz words that sound good, and not something that came from the core of who I am and what I believe in.

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I decided do some generative research with myself, to really find out who I was – a process that is really not as easy as it sounds. Wendee (instructor for the graduating class) was mentioning how when people interview students from Art Center, they already know that everyone works way harder than anyone else, and that everyone has an obsession with perfection. It is a given and is not your unique selling point as a designer. I needed to find my unique voice.


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I started with a napkin sketch, while alone in a cafe at K-Town, mapping out who I was as a person, unique to others. It started out with exploring my personality and then relating it to my professional side.

Some of my other graduating classmates have unique traits like bringing energy into a room, or the ability to question and provoke thought. For me, I learnt that I have an obsession in seeking order and structure with chaos and complexity, to create meaning within ambiguity. Maybe this is it – structure within ambiguity.

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Read Part 1 of this series here.