Hi, I'm Lawrence (Zehui Li) — a passionate and creative interaction designer. I studied interaction design for a Bachelor's and Master's degree at the University of Sydney, Australia.
Hobby
I enjoy painting, writing poems & novels, photography, editing, and music…
Expectations when joining the Master：
When I was studying for my bachelor's degree, I was like a kid who didn't know anything about the field of interaction design. This is a process of exploring this field, and I have been exposed to many, many skills involved in this field.
When I began to enter the Master's degree, I understood the direction suitable for me, and I want more in-depth professional cognition and skills in this field. As a more professional person, I can improve my design logic and my way of looking at problems.
Key learning experiences:
For a successful project, just relying on our cognition and professional skills is still not enough to solve, because the problem is comprehensive and diversified. It is very important to learn how to apply knowledge and skills to a real case, to work directly with others, and to broaden our understanding of the problem. The ability that different types of team members can provide in a team, and the teamwork through communication and negotiation are valuable experiences that I expect to gain during the Master's period.
Last but not least, I need critical thinking as a designer, which is the ability I need to be a better designer and also the ability I need to solve social problems and enhance the value of the industry.
Three practical skills acquired:
1. User research and demand analysis: This is what needs to be done at the beginning of all projects, through more literature, user interviews and questionnaires. Explore the core nature of user needs from the surface of the problem, and transform the problem into a way that can rely on the design to solve the opportunity. From the user's pain points, design a solution that fits the user's needs.
2. Prototyping and iteration: This is an important process to gradually transform concepts into effective solutions. After we understand the user needs, we make relatively simple prototypes according to the design for user testing. Help us to get more suggestions so that our products can be more targeted to the real needs of users. Through continuous testing and iteration, the low-fidelity prototype is gradually transformed into a more realistic high-fidelity prototype, which becomes a real and feasible solution.
3. Teamwork and project management: In the process of working with different team members, this is an important skill to ensure the progress and completion of our project. Effective communication with team members with different thinking skills and backgrounds can avoid ideological clashes, and a clear division of labour can enable each team member to give full play to their strengths and make more efficient contributions to the project. At the same time, I also learned to manage the project process and division of labour, and quality control is also an indispensable part of a project.
Key learning experiences:
1. User-Centered Design: This is a kind of design thinking that emphasizes that the design process is centred around users. The stages of empathy, definition, ideation, prototyping, and testing revolve around the user's behaviours, goals, and pain points. I learned to investigate the needs of users in depth at the beginning of development and to translate the results of these survey analyses into visual and practical design solutions to humanize them.
2. Contextual Design: The Contextual Design method is the observation and analysis that the user uses in a real environment. By observing the potential behaviours, emotions and expressions of users in the process of use, and capturing these details to reflect their pain points and needs from the side and deep level, the direction of prototype product iteration can be obtained. According to this theory, I have learned that it is not limited to interviews and questionnaires to dig out more pain points, which is a more objective and real method.
3. Usability and Accessibility: In interaction design, Usability and Accessibility are the criteria that determine whether a product is easy to use and user-friendly. I have learned that in the design process, we should have an inclusive heart to look at design, taking into account the needs of more comprehensive groups, products can help different groups of people to use and access, to make products more extensive.