Emma Yang, Senior Designer, Philips Design
Marloes de Wit, Research and Strategic Design Consultant, Philips Design
The typical Singaporean home is filled with home appliances – air conditioners, washers, ovens, high-definition TVs and maybe even a waffle iron or two if we’re lucky.
However, we don’t always stop to appreciate the little details and nuances that make each appliance uniquely designed and manufactured for its exact purpose – from every deliberate curve or angle down to the mix of materials hand-picked by the designer.
Product researchers and designers like Emma Yang and Marloes de Wit live and breathe these nuances, figuring out new ways to bring out the functionality and soul of every day products and appliances.
To do so requires extremely tight collaboration – Marloes spearheads in-depth studies on people, their behaviour and context, and Emma acts on the insights to further improve her design work on next-generation products.
The dynamic duo relies heavily on modern technology to get work done, and Surface Pro 4 is one of the latest gadget to land on their desks. Keen to see how they integrate the device into their creative workflow, we stop by Club Meatballs – a creative concept restaurant where they often muse – with Emma and Marloes to find out more.
Help us understand a little more about what you do.
Emma Yang: I’m a product designer, and I work on the design of furniture and home appliances such as steamers and irons.
As a creative professional, most of my designs start as sketches on paper, which we then digitise and retouch in Photoshop or Illustrator. I also use 3D modelling software to build mock-ups of my designs.
On the side, I’m very passionate about photography and oil painting, which keeps my creative juices active even outside of work!
Marloes de Wit: I work as a research consultant, mainly conducting ethnographic research to understand people’s cultural values, beliefs, habits and routines in their environment. With these research insights, I help set the strategic direction for future solutions and guide the design team in improving current solutions to deliver the best end-user experiences.
I am involved in multiple projects that spreads across an array of products. Often, I’m the only researcher on our design team, hence my schedule can be quite hectic when I have to conduct field work which includes observation in hospitals or interviews and focus groups.
Currently, I am deeply involved in projects concerning kitchen appliances. This is pretty fun, as I get to go into people’s kitchens and find out how they use appliances, and how we can adjust our product design to better help them enjoy their favourite dishes even more.
What’s a typical work day like for both of you?
Marloes: There’s no such thing as a typical day at work as my work is very diverse! For example, if it’s a day after my field research, I’ll spend most of my time synthesizing all data into insights and creating an experience flow framework to guide the discussion in a follow-up workshop with my team.
During such a workshop, we analyse the key insights, frame areas for improvement and brainstorm for solutions. These iterations cycles take place over and over during the product development process. Once the new product is launched, my research cycle begins anew.
Emma: Every product design starts with ideas. The research data that Marloes gathers is very useful as a starting point to better understand and envision a direction we want to take. Once we’re settle on a rough sketch of an idea we like, technology will come in. We will use software to create 3D models, render several prototypes, and use Photoshop to touch things up. At this point, the engineering team will step in and start working on actual physical prototypes.
One good example of how our collaboration takes shape is the creation of user personas. Marloes’ field work gains us the perspective of people’s behaviour, values and lifestyles, which supplements my product and design perspectives. This combined insight feeds into the entire product development process and contributes to other technical aspects such as R&D and engineering, resulting in the final product.
How has technology like Surface Pro 4 changed the way you work, and the way you collaborate?
Marloes: Technology has advanced so much in the past few years and really changed the way I do field research.
For instance, a lot of things are happening at the same time when I conduct field research. I could be talking to my subjects while taking notes and making sure I record the conversation with a voice recorder. Quite frequently, I may also have to take some pictures and videos, and then transfer them from multiple devices into my PC.
Surface Pro 4 makes gathering all of these data much simpler. It does everything I need it to do — I can take photos and videos, scribble down notes with the Pen, all while the voice recorder is running in the background. So instead of carrying around five or six different devices and notebooks, one thin-and-light Surface Pro 4 handles them all with effortlessly. It’s easier on my back, too!
Emma: I think the best part about Surface Pro 4 is how it offers full PC performance despite being so thin and light. I haven’t had an issue at all running the resource-intensive apps that I need for my design work, such as Photoshop or Rhino 3D modeller. This is not something you can do on most other tablets.
The Pen is a great way to quickly sketch out quick ideas or jot down thoughts. Unlike traditional pen and paper, I don’t have to worry about making mistakes – just undo or erase and keep drawing. The pressure sensitivity and texture of the Pen feels pretty much like real pen and paper, and it feels really nice.
I particularly like the app Fresh Paint. It’s really addictive to see realistic-looking oil paint magically appear under the pen tip as a slide it across the screen!
With such hectic schedules, what are some activities you take part in to “power up” for the challenges ahead?
Emma: I love to cook! Over the weekends, I’ll cook something nice, think of a creative way to plate the food, then take photos of the food. It indulges many of my creative passions and hobbies at the same time!
Typically, I follow instructions on recipe books, but I’ve also begun looking more at digital sources for recipes, as it’s more flexible. For example, some apps let me input what I have in my fridge and then tells me what sort of dishes I can cook immediately without having to go to the supermarket. Apps that show videos are also really helpful.
Marloes: I started doing Yoga recently, and I’ve been trying all sorts of different styles. Doing yoga at least 2 or 3 times a week gives me a lot of energy and makes it easier for me to get into a state of flow during intense periods of work. Technology plays a part here too – I use an activity tracker to keep track of my workouts.
What do you find most meaningful about your job?
Marloes: For me, it’s delivering a meaningful end-product to people, a product which improves their daily lives. It’s very satisfying to get closer to your end customers and better understand them, so that you can enable designs that help them overcome their challenges.
Emma: I especially like how I’m given the freedom to create things that impact people’s lives. I’ve worked in China and Singapore, and the atmosphere and culture that designers approach their work is really different. The company I’m currently working at gives me a lot of space to be creative and try their best to help bring my ideas to market.
Do you have any advice for young people who want to enter your field on how they can “Power Up” their abilities?
Emma: It’s important to have a combination of passion and talent. Product design takes a lot of experience and you need to persevere through the early parts off your career until you internalize what it means for design to be “good”.
Only then will you be able to reach the stage where you can easily identify and capture the “wow” factor in your sketches and ideas. If you can’t reach that stage, you’ll very likely just be rehashing old ideas or copying other designs with a few tweaks here and there.
Today, a device like Surface Pro 4 already makes the lives of designers so much easier, so there’s really no excuses not to practice and keep improving yourself! Always remember that passion and practice goes hand in hand, and you need to be able to find that spark.
Marloes: To do what I do, you need to have the passion for people and the eagerness to better understand their culture, how they behave, and why they do certain things in a certain way. You will genuinely want to understand what people think and dream of.
You need to be a deep listener and a keen observer of other people’s habits and values, putting yourself in their shoes. When people talk to you, for instance, you don’t just take it at face value. Instead, you should dig deeper – what makes them do certain things in a certain way? How does it make them feel?
