Interviews with Yueyue (Zoey) Zhang

The first time I access industrial design was my undergraduate in 2010. Then my ranked no.1 academic performance promoted my smooth admission into my graduate school in China. Now, I have been still worked on my MFA program of industrial design at the Rochester Institute of technology.

While in China, I worked as a freelance designer for 2 years, and I collaborate on a wide variety of projects such as appliances, toys, furniture, automotive, drone, etc. During my RIT career, I have been working for AccessAbility@RIT, which is the partnership for effective access technology R&D at RIT for more than one year. All the projects I participated in were about discovering innovative solutions for people with varying abilities. After the second year at RIT, I worked at FirstBuild for a four-month design internship. I participated in the food cart design project for Churchill downs.

I have been fond of innovative activities since childhood. I think that my decision on the undergraduate major direction in industrial design is made more rationally and independently than most of the students even this professional major was just an emerging and rising major field in the nation at that time. Traditional subjects are always the last choices for me. I prefer to challenge myself to take my undergraduate study in a fresh-new field even it means that I need to face more difficulties. I have been keeping close attention to major fields in industrial design since I first got to know this fascinating area through regular widespread readings during my first year in high school. The more I know, the deeper I am attracted. I am convinced that the major study in industrial design is what I strongly would like to get involved in and I also believe such specialized undergraduate study could enable me to get more work opportunities in the future. As I learned more, I felt more interested and motivated to explore more in this professional field. I could forget time to repeatedly modify and adjust my design works and I also could stay up in order to perfectly complete design works for competitions. Gradually, I found that I am not just interested in this professional field, moreover, I actually love this field. I am more than willing to contribute to this field.

In the design process, the three aspects that I value most are the effectiveness, useability, and user-friendliness of a design. The effectiveness here refers to whether this design addresses the needs of the target user, and whether these problems are solved without adding new problems.

The usability lies in whether the design is easy to use and clever; whether it allows users to learn how to use it easily. Usually, in my design process, I’d like to make a lot of physical models through 3d-printing, pink foam, foam cord, etc. I like to invite different people to interact with these mock-ups and obtain user feedback through observation and interviews, which will serve as a basis for design improvement.

When a new design project appears, it will give me a sense of excitement to meet new challenges. This excitement is not only a curiosity about an unknown field but also an expectation of life. In my opinion, the various field of design is riching my life and cognition, meeting different people and learning different cultures. Sometimes, I will have a sudden and cheerful feeling. Sometimes, I will have a sense of satisfaction. Because when I do design, I will hope that my ideas and design solutions can really help people in need to a certain extent and bring them happiness.

When I was very young, I found that I was curious about multiple things at the same time, and sometimes there were some contradictory rules between these things. For example, I like to play basketball, which is an activity that can easily hurt my fingers. But I also love playing the electronic keyboard. When I was in high school, I chose science as a subject, but I was a very emotional person. I like to observe people and figure out their thoughts and purpose from their words and behaviors. I often think that all these seemingly mismatching things are life itself. I like to observe life and grasp every detail. I think these are the factors that make me a designer. Design gives me the opportunity to access different fields and experience various life.

The problem that this design addressed is how to make people involved in the mealtime more. Letting them slow down and be more focused, so as to improve their dining experience. In my design process, I don't want the final direction to be a restaurant-style experience that allows people to lose interest after the first experience. Therefore, in the process of creative development, I attach great importance to the feasibility of the concept and whether it can really inviting people more.

Does the product help users to eat slowly through more interactions is the main question that I considered during my design process. I hope my design can help people create a sweet mealtime scenario that people take their time, sharing conversation and food, interact with each other intuitively.

It should continue to improve this design. For now, this design is not enough for the home environment. Such as finding a better way to store them. Similarly, whether the final material used in this design is suitable for mass production, processing methods and costs are all I will continue to improve.

This is my thesis project, except the previous literature review. The whole design process took me 4 months.

This project addresses the recent changes in family eating behaviors. Positive dining experiences affect people’s physical and psychological health. However, based on the research, it shows that families shared less time and ate together less. Also, during family mealtime, almost half of people get distracted by technology and they eat mindlessly, which could cause health issues. So I started to take into consideration the essential reasons behind the behavior that happens during negative family mealtime by conducting field research with some families.

This is a design project from my graduate phase. I would love to sell or lease the production rights if any company is interested.

My Prof. Alex Lobos has given me a lot of help in my design process. In the creative stage, he gave me a lot of suggestions and tried a variety of brainstorming methods with me to get the inspiration. He has always encouraged me and supported my design.

Families who want to improve the dining experience; people who want to eat slowly and interact with others better.

Because the final products have the potential for movement, I thought about the word "gravitate". I capitalize the last three words "ate" to "ATE" became of the past tense of "eat".

3D-Printing and Fusion360 were the main tools that support my design process. Once I had an idea, I made a quick mock-up through clay, foam or foam cord etc. Then, I used fusion360 to model my idea and sent to 3d-printing. After the user testing of the 3d-printed model, I developed my ideas based on the feedback. My design process kind like a circle design process.

The most unique aspect of my design is the form of each tableware. They all have the potential for movement and interpersonal interaction. it invites and encourages users to share these interactions intuitively and ensure the usability as a tableware.

literature view, field research, observation and interview of my target user groups.

The biggest challenge was to find the final design direction. At the beginning of my design, I explored a lot of ideations related to the entire environment of the dining room, and I tried to keep my mind open to explore different ideas based on the directions which are "sharing interactions", "new experiences", "food culture" and "back to nature" etc. Also, I made mock-ups to test the relationship between the dining space layout and user behaviors, how different table shapes and tableware forms can affect users’ behaviors. Through my testing, I concluded that people were attracted by the mock-ups which have the potential to move because it led them to interact with each other more.

So I made some mock-ups based on very basic movements such as "seesaw", "swinging", "spinning", "sliding", and "rolling" and I invited people to try them. And then, I compared the five movements using feasibility and safety as my two key criteria. Also, I thought about ways to combine the different movements into the products. Finally, I decided to design tableware, because, compared to dining tables. Tableware is cheaper, easier, and it has more potential to encourage customers to purchase over time. Meanwhile, it is a very important bridge between people and food, people interact with it the most during mealtime.

International design competitions are a good way to verify designs. Because you can get recommendations from a professional jury. Similarly, international competitions are also a platform for designers to showcase themselves. In this way, you can find like-minded friends, inspire each other, and get connections and job opportunities.

The first time I access industrial design was my undergraduate in 2010. Then my ranked no.1 academic performance promoted my smooth admission into my graduate school in China. Now, I have been still worked on my MFA program of industrial design at the Rochester Institute of technology.

I have been fond of innovative activities since childhood. From the beginning, I just hoped that this world could change a little better because of my design. However, with deeper professional learning, I found that design is different from invention. Design is more like summary and improvement, which is a process to find solutions by observation, communication, and tries. It is also the process to propose hypotheses and concepts. Now I hope my design can really address the needs of the target users and really help those in need.

Traditional subjects are always the last choices for me. I prefer to challenge myself to take my undergraduate study in a fresh-new field. In 2010, industrial design was just an emerging and rising major in china at that time. I have been keeping close attention to major fields in industrial design since I first got to know this fascinating area through regular widespread readings during my first year in high school. The more I know, the deeper I am attracted. I am convinced that the major study in industrial design is what I strongly would like to get involved in and I also believe such specialized undergraduate study could enable me to get more work opportunities in the future.

I collaborate on a wide variety of projects such as appliances, furniture, toy, medical device, kitchenware, etc. I really enjoy the projects related to children and education, because they always inspired me a lot and attracted me to get involved in. I hope the next generation could get some benefits from my design.

Keep talking, thinking, and involving in life.

In my opinion, the good design addresses the needs of target users, and greater design is that on this basis, it not only meet the needs of users but also can bring users a positive psychological impact, even a positive impact on the whole society.

First of all, a good design should be accepted by its target users. In my opinion, a good design does not have to be liked by the general public, but this design can directly target its clients, capture the most real needs of its target group. Through design can be clever, simple, and effectively meet its user's needs. Second, a good design needs to solve its core problems without creating other serious problems.

Design is the designer's attitude towards life. For me, design is an indispensable part of my life. Design is my curiosity about life, design is my yearning for future life, and design is my motivation to integrate into life.

My parents are my biggest support, just like many Chinese families of my generation, I am the only child in my family. When I was very young, my parents kept trying to give me more opportunities to contact the world. When I chose to enter the design filed, they never interfered with my decision but were happy that I could find my favorite career. I like to talk to them about my recent projects. Sometimes, they will share their experiences and opinions with me. Sometimes, they will listen to me very carefully in areas they are not familiar with.

I hope there is at least one piece of design that people like to use and pass around.

One of my projects is an interactive toy for children with autism.This project came from AccessAbility@RIT. The problem being addressed is the lack of toys that are focused on creating cause-effect connections for children in need of special care. I am now regularly working with children at Rochester Hearing and Speech Center, a member of the Al Sigl Community of Agencies, to refine the design.

Life is made up of small challenges one after another

I think this is complementary. When the design accidentally reaches a certain amount in a certain aspect, a trend is formed. These trends then guide other designers to design. However, why the design will form a trend depends on other factors. Therefore, in fact, they complement each other in terms of design and trend itself, and the formation of the trend depends on the needs of users, society, and the environment.

I have been fond of innovative activities since childhood. The first time I access industrial design was my undergraduate in 2010. I think that my decision on the undergraduate major direction in industrial design is made more rationally and independently than most of the students even this professional major was just an emerging and rising major field in the nation at that time. Traditional subjects are always the last choices for me. I prefer to challenge myself to take my undergraduate study in a fresh-new field even it means that I need to face more difficulties. I have been keeping close attention to major fields in industrial design since I first got to know this fascinating area through regular widespread readings during my first year in high school. The more I know, the deeper I am attracted. I am convinced that the major study in industrial design is what I strongly would like to get involved in and I also believe such specialized undergraduate study could enable me to get more work opportunities in the future.

I actually involved in undergraduate study in industrial design, and then my ranked no.1 academic performance promoted my smooth admission into my graduate school in China. Now, I have been still worked on my MFA program of industrial design at the Rochester Institute of technology.

As I learned more, I felt more interested and motivated to explore more in this professional field. I could forget time to repeatedly modify and adjust my design works and I also could stay up in order to perfectly complete design works for competitions. Gradually, I found that I am not just interested in this professional field, moreover, I actually love this field. I am more than willing to contribute to this field.

From the beginning, I just hoped that this world could change a little better because of my design, however, with deeper professional learning, I found that design is different from invention. Design is more like summary and improvement, which is a process to find solutions by observation, communication, and tries. It is also the process to propose hypotheses and concepts. In my perspective: design is part of life, life is all design.

I collaborate on a wide variety of projects such as appliances, furniture, toy, medical device, kitchenware, etc. I really enjoy the projects related to children and education, because they always inspired me a lot and attracted me to get involved in. I hope the next generation could get some benefits from my design.

My favorite design is the lemon squeezer designed by Philippe Starck. I was deeply attracted by this design at first sight. It is the perfect combination of function and form. It is the aesthetic presentation of deep consideration of the user experience. It is not only the design that attracted me most but also the design inspired me and encouraged me to be a designer since the very beginning.

The design potential behind the user needs is what I considered more during designing. In many cases, the user's demand maybe just a very intuitive reflection, which often cannot fully point out the optimal direction of the design. So I used to spend more time exploring the design potential by user research and analyze user behaviors.

A successful design should be accepted by its target users. In my opinion, a successful design does not have to be liked by the general public, but this design can directly target its clients, capture the most real needs of its target group. Through design can be clever, simple, and effectively meet its user's needs.

In my opinion, to judge the quality of a design, the first thing to consider is whether the design has solved its core problem, and then to analyze whether the design has brought other problems while solving this problem, and how these new problems affect its target group.

With the continuous advancement of technology and technology, many efficient and simple design techniques have emerged, such as generative design. In my opinion, there is no doubt that in the future, design will continue to follow such a trend of efficient ideation. But in terms of exploring user needs and determining the design direction, the wisdom and participation of designers are also essential and very important in the future of design.

Back to life, just like my understanding of design, design is a part of life, and life is all of design. For me, only people who really integrate into life can continue to get inspiration from it. Turn the discomfort in life into the beginning of design, and the happiness in life into a collection of inspiration. Traveling or staying at home, the different environments, and various people provide the unique experiences and continually inspired me.

After the design research, I always like to get inspiration from different fields not only the product design. Similarly, I like to find inspiration from experience by myself. Once I have ideas, what I usually do is quick mock-up and test it immediately. Then I’d like to do developed ideation and test the refined mock-ups by people around me. Sometimes, I can find a good direction quickly, sometimes, I overturn all the ideas and find another direction.

Less is more. Try to solve the problem with as little change as possible.

In my opinion, communication and thinking are very important for a designer. Only good and effective communication can enable designers to more accurately explore user needs and desires, and more effectively cooperate with cross-professionals. In addition, communication is one of the important ways to get inspiration. Similarly, a designer also needs to know how to think effectively. Thinking is not only about analyzing appearances, but more about digging deeper and digging into the root of the problem.

In the future, I hope to have more opportunities to work and live in different countries and regions to rich my life experiences. In terms of design, I also hope to contact some new areas other than product design, such as interactive design, service design, fashion design, and so on.

One of my projects is an interactive toy for children with autism. This project came from AccessAbility@RIT. The problem being addressed is the lack of toys that are focused on creating cause-effect connections for children in need of special care. I am now regularly working with children at Rochester Hearing and Speech Center, a member of the Al Sigl Community of Agencies, to refine the design.

My email address are:

zoeyzhang0323@gmail.com

zozozoey@foxmail.com