Interviews with Chia-Min Lin

I've working as designer for over 10 years now. I used to work for OEMs, advertising company and done some commercial design. But I also worked in a small studio, handling some independent projects from renown choreographers, theaters, and museums. Before I graduate, I studied graphic and interaction design both back home and in United States.

I used to want to be a Manga artist but I obey to reality. I always has interest in drawing, but I don't want to be an artist so I choose to be a designer. I guess I have lots of small factors that drove me into the life I had now, but never was someone or individual event that makes me immediately to be designer in one day. Life is a continuous journey for me. Everything is intertwingled.

My principles when it comes to design, is to figure out "what's the problem?" I need to define the scope of a project to think about solutions. The scope includes discussion of constrains, resources, possible points of views...etc. Then I start ideating. Once I have the idea, I build multiple versions of mock-ups to iterate and collect feedback. Once I have all the bones of the materials, then I think about how to polish and aesthetics.

I always have lots of ups and downs along the way. Design is an exhausting activities no matter how interesting and exciting it was. The beginning of design is usually chaotic. Lots of thoughts and debates from different perspectives.cBut once it reaches to the execution and development, things will become easier — if you're lucky enough.

I think my background of being a graphic deigns who worked with many editors helps a lots. The learning of information architecture has helped me to observe how people thinking and how that relate to their final decisions. It makes me think deeper of cognition load and bias analysis. So eventually I am able to handle multiple decision making points at the same time, without loosing the context and relations in between. This is crucial to designers especially when you need to work with people come from different background. Observing how they think helps you advocate on your argument from their perspective.

I read lots of Manga when I grow up so it provides a wild world of imagination. But it kinds of limits my way of drawing. Then I studied art in high school, mostly focus on skill training, sharpen your eyes to observation. Then design liberate me into a dazzling world. Sometimes I still get confused of what' the real purpose of design should be. But my overall goal is to push my limitation and never feel regret. So whatever the next the project would be, I will do my best to finish it.

Design is not an easy job. New challenges always waiting for you so you need to prepare yourself. Prepare to proactivly learn new skill and new knowledge along your career. And you'll have to be very resilient and rigorous while not losing your imagination. Work hard on the basic solid and work strategic on the high level stuff.

Don't focus on the surface level and attracted by the fancy appearance. Focus on the design process when you're attracted by some projects. Studying how designers solve problems — why they propose this point of view, what are they trying to achieve, what's the context that drive them propose this — will give you more than mimicking the style.

I have been working over 12 -16hrs for the past year. But that's what you can expect as a designer. I usually wake up at 8am and sleep at 2am. Drink coffee and quietly woking because I don't like discussion in the morning. I like to leave meeting and conversation to the afternoon. Then I slept until 11am over the weekend. Sleep makes me happy if you ask.

I guess I like the motion graphic and that's the only trends I'm following. I like it because it's a results of pursuing illustration and animation at the same time. I like the goal behind the trend. For the rest, I do believe rather develop my conclusion on something, rather it's a form factor or style or way of thingking. But if I need to follow some guidelines, I usually refer to Pinterest.

I tend to look into its goals and context to help me decide if this project is great. A good design need to seamlessly thrive from its background. Then I will judge if this design has made something different? Is this has the capabilities to seduce behavior or awareness change? A good design needs to fit into its social context.

When you feel there's not much you can do. And usually a project comes with a deadlines. You have to consider the resources you could use.

Musiac is my biggest work so far. But I use to spent over a year study how movie lens applied to Manga narratives. I analyzed over 10,000 pages of comic books and map out the hidden camera behind the scene, to testify why comic worth the name of the ninth category of art.

I refer to some Japanese designers like Kenya Hara, his design on 2005 Japan EXPO is nicely connect to local and traditional culture. His opinion on the color white has affect me so much on design philosophy. Also I have my favorite illustrator — Steven Simpson, the very few creative artist who could transform a visual style into an innocent and playful language.

As a foreign worker in America, I definitely feel some culture differences that affect my way of design thinking. Grow up with a high context language, I like to start with high-level conceptual goals and go down. But in english culture, it usually start with single point and then gradually grow up. Both of them have pros and cons and I find this differences somehow complete my design strategy and philosophy.

I work in an international agency so I meet diversified colleagues on daily basis. It's not an easy job to work with people with different background. Confrontation happens every day since we're so enthusiastic about the work. But we've learned how to cope with our differences and cooperate. I am more like systemic designer and experience architects in our studio. My job mostly focus on the interaction system but from time to time I do illustration and animation to help depict ideas.

I used to train some young designers in my previous work. I listen to their concerns and provides suggestions in terms of professional and person life. But I haven't had any chance to do a pro bono project. If I had the opportunity I am happy to try.

Won the A Design awards gave me some power to keep moving so I'm really excited about it. Hoping this is a good sign that more positive things will come in 2020. I gain some software skills because of this competition so I think young designer should try to attend as much as possible. It helps not only in PR but also to sharpen your skills.

The main idea is to map out all genres on the 2 dimension graphic and visualize user's taste in the shape of a bubble. User could drag the outline of the bubble to generate different recommendations. I referred to the philosophical definitions of a map and how it help us to find directions.

I've always been interested in how our brain process information. Human's cognition is a result of both internal and external. If interface represents a tangent point of our mind the real world, it shouldn't be considered as merely astheatic issue. So the goal behind this project aims to exploring what roles interface could play in the decision making process.

I am looking for opportunities to present this project. I've shown this project to data analysist and they've shown high interest. So maybe I will write a paper to describe the goal and intentions behind.

I spent probably 6 months to define what's the problem of searching and recommendation system before I landed on this mapping idea.

I've always struggled to tell Youtube or Google that "this is not what I'm looking for" because current systems don't provide feedback mechanism to their audiences. It's a really common frustration among its users, so, as an interaction designer, I tried to propose a different perspective of how to solve this.

I haven't think about it because this project is just a beginning. But I am happy to work with anyone who is interested in Musiac to make it into reality.

Lots of times when I'm listening to music, I feel I'm in a loop and couldn't find the way to expand my recommendations. I don't know how to break the loop for a long time until I started to see interface & experience design differently, then I see possibilities to propose the unconventional solutions.

Yes, I consulted this project with many people, my professor, my colleagues, the founder of EveryNoise, sociologist, and programmers. Lots of people have helped me along the design process.

Any person who struggled to expand their musical taste on current platforms. People who are tech-savvy, willing to spend time to do research to make sure they're not trapped in the comfort zone.

Musica has a very unusual interface, its UX was actually build on its UI. Musiac's interface determined how people see options. It's usually the opposite in current industry — build the framework of UX then UI polish the work. Musiac gives a further goal of data visualization to inspire users to proactively do something.

Musiac means " the maniac in music". Also has a slightly implication of the art of mosaic.

Paper/pencil. Adobe. Imaginations.

It nothing like current musical interface because it has a higher level goal of helping people process information better to fight against algorithm autocracy.

I consulted with many people along the way, but I build this project by myself so it really takes me a long time to finish it.

Algorithm is the key to map out all genres. There are over 40 millions songs exist on a single platforms, without the help of programing, it's impossible to visualize the fuzzy relations between each songs.

I did multiple contextualized research, such as interviews, remote user testing and behavior observation. The analytical research includes study reports on consumer behavior change, do questionnaire to seek people's feeling about songs, etc.

The business and advertising dominates the final results of recommendation. So the end users needs are actually contradicting with the need of industry. It might not have an immediate impact on my project since it's not on the market, but it hard to seek the right solution when there're other intention behind the algorithm.

My colleague told me I should try to publish my project so I start to see what are the competitions I could join.

I learned lots of history about algorithms and how it evolved to this complex level. The different goals of rating system and how it gradually become recommendation index. Also I learned lots of After Effects skills.

I have a master degree on graphic design and interaction design. Been working in the field for over 10 years now. I've worked as illustrator, teacher, designer. Handle projects from OEMs, museums, publishers, artists, theaters... etc.

My biggest motivation is usually when I see the work I done went public, the achievement. See my efforts have become something really makes me happy. That's probably why I choose to be a designer.

I guess both. I choose to be a designer because I thought that looks like a cool job. But the reality is not that cool. Most of the time you have probably 40 percent time to design, then the rest 60 percents is dealing with all kinds of nonsense. So I kind of force myself to keep running on this road.

I design interaction between machine and human. I hope one day I could show people why interface is way more important than they think. Experience and interface are really two sides in one. It's way more powerful then we think. Too bad it was considered only as aesthetic issues.

Keep walking and don't limited in one field. Be versatile and a cross-field designer.

Good designers have good ideas. Great designer bring ideas to life.

When it fits its project scope. The great work usually fits its context seamlessly and has the ability to guide people to gradully change their behaviors. When a user couldn't remember how was his/her life looks like before that specific product showed up, I think then the work could be called as good design.

Good design reflect & provoke people's life. It tells people how they think about themselves. Good design invites introspective thinking and improvisations.

I usually design fictional stories when I have some free time. I wrote and draw my stories. It's the pleasure only for myself.

My next project.

My tips is good ideas usually showed up when you're doing something unconcious, such as taking showers, felling into asleep, or walking. If you derive enough observation from daily life and learned enough, good ideas will jump out. Let your brain do the job. It connects thoughts without us knowing it.

Kenya Hara. Steven Simpson. Paul Pangaro. Vannevar Bush.

2005 Japan Expo. So nicely blend into local culture with a respectful attitude.

My favorite project is the Chinese Kan Opera Calendar I designed in 2015 when I was a graphic designer. I designed the calendar from scratch all by myself and it only went through one iteration with the client. It's such a delicate gift and has so many different layers to indicate the subtle transition with the Opera story. The reason I like it the most is not just because of the visual, but for its surprising experiences the calendar provides when an audience first open it. These tangible serendipities is hard to find within digital era. Interaction design has overemphasized the smoothness of functionalities and neglected the importance of creating possibilities. And this has become my ultimate goal as an IxD designer now.

Don't let yourself go easy. Design is a continuous, life-long process. Keep learning and keep working.

A historian

A profound language, inviting relationship & conversation between the object and the person.

I have met lots of good people along the way. They are my teachers, friends, family. They all kindly provide support in different forms of my career.

A small theater in my head that always wondering. And I do self-teaching from time to time.

Social skills. I am not an extroverted person but that's important in this industry to have connections with others.

Participate design competitions and forums. Write books or blogs.

Maybe I will come up with something to help us to deal with this pandemic. Especially something with highest level goal of a social economic system

When I look back to my career, I won't feel regret.

Problem solved.

Make complicated things easier to understand.

A motion graphic that I worked from scratch.

Musiac. Because I put lots of efforts in it.

I really hope how people see interface could change in the next couple of years. Look beyond the aesthetic and typography. It's a really powerful touch point between our conscious and reality. It decide what we see and how we see things. Shouldn't be judge by how it looks. It represents a point of view, an attitude.

I hope design could focus more on real-life experiences, instead of everything goes digital. I hope designers could focus more on the meaning of an object. Bring back the old notion of take objects seriously.

From weeks to months. Sometimes years. Really not my call.

Figure out what's the problem. How should I define it. I usually ask myself: What's the frame of this project?

Keep walking.

Both. most designers let trends set themselves, some designers sets the trends.

A catalyst to seduce more playful interaction. A boost to bring concept to reality.

Macbook pro, Adobe, wacom, iPad and some music.

Inspirations.

What makes you come up with an idea like this?

I need to do research about its story and context. Or sometimes just let the "wow" feeling runs for a while.

Someone who knows me. The ideal co-designer have to be compatible to each other, in terms of skills, way of thinking, open minded, and most importantly, there need to be some mutual trust.

My previous boss. He taught me so much about typography and information architecture. He is the founder of my design career. Then my professor at CCS. He changed my way of thinking the moment he walk into the classroom. He showed me how to be logical and conceptual and specific during the chaotic design process.

Designing design by Kenya Hara. As we think by Vannevar Bush

Self-learning. Be proactive finding solutions when you have a problem.

Aubrey Vincent Beardsley in 19th century. Really want to see how he came up with the unconventional illustrations against the trends.

It takes lots of time and effort to join these awards. Not an easy tasks.

I like all real colors in nature. Favorite place depends on who I am with. I like sushi and seafood. Favorite thing is dreaming when I slept. Favorite brand: 22 studio.

Once a client told me they have their logo in file and when I opened it, I realize it's a word documents.

When I see my efforts become something real and useful. Achievement drives me the most.

I draw on my father's white wall. And I read a bunch of Manga.

Everything finally goes into quiet.

Please continue to be the best of yourself.

I have a background in graphic design and interaction design. The over 10 years of graphic design experiences have made me more aware of and interested in information architecture and cognition/behavior. So I gradually developed my own way to observe people's decision making process and turned me into an experience designer.

LinStudio was founded in 2009, specializing in graphic design and integration design from systemic social perspectives. We take design as a profound language to communicate and solve problems for better relationships. We ask questions such: how could we inspire new dialog between human and technology? What kind of society do you want to live? What's the societal potential being neglected? LinStudio seek the harmonious interaction between machine and people.

Design should be a profound language to communicate future possibilities. It shouldn't be considered only as a mean to achieve some style or form factors. People should pay more attention to the design process, instead of outcome.

Anything that include challenges or learning opportunities makes me excited.

I like things that couldn't easily identified they have been designed, but yet still have a trace of elegance and elaboration. In other words, I like the invisible design — guiding people/users/audiences when they don't even know they've been introduce to something new.

The monthly letter for my university

Material: paper / Platform:Google map & Adobe / technology: tourbox

When I almost fell into asleep.

I focus more on defining what's the problem, what's the scope and what's the prerequisite of possible solutions. This helps me to find the edges of a system and when you laid everything on the table properly, usually means the right answer is somewhere there.

Depend on what stage you are in right now. The first ideation process is usually about panicking and screaming. But once you found the answer, the emotion will become focused and energetic.

Super excited. Someone resonate with my work is the power to keep me running.

When it is actually being used. Wears and tears makes a design project fulfilled.

Depends on the scope & conditions. Some design are horrible in terms of production and execution, but yet very inspiring to others.

Just thinking of responsibilities to other is an amazing achievements. Bring the concept of "from cradle to grave" to the design process is extra difficult, not to mention thinking systemically. But I do think knowing your work and its influences from holistic perspective is crucial to modern designers.

I personally believe there will be no lines between different design field in the future. Modern design requires multi-functioning skills applied across the industry. But experience will continued to be highlighted, both digital and real-life expreiences. How we see technology today might shift to focus more on emotion and companionship.

Let exhibition was 2018 CCS student show. Haven't think about the next one yet.

Inspiration usually come from living experiences, especially when I notice something I am not happy about it. I feed my creativity from observing other people's behaviors. Are they consistent to what they're saying? if not, there must be something wrong. What's the reason causing this discontinuous? How to make it better?

Logical, Future-focused, and diversified. I approach design by figuring out what's the problem.

America. Pros: I have plenty of time to think because this is a really isolated place. Cons: There is nothing in between. It's either too much or too little, in terms of everything.

Define what's the scope of the problem. Discuss the prerequisites with clients and colleagues. Ideate. Execution. Collecting feedback and reflect on your solutions.

Observe how they work and think, instead of focus on the works.

Define what's the scope of the problem. Discuss the prerequisites with clients and colleagues. Ideate. Execution. Collecting feedback and reflect on your solutions.

Floor lamp. Laptop. Tea pot. Book I am reading and my bed.

Wake up at 8 am and took my allergy pills. Work for another 8 hrs then go home cooking. Take my dog for a night walk.

Don't let yourself go easy. Designers need to be able to handle stress on daily basis. So be harsh on yourself.

Positive: be able to work on fun and challenge projects. Negative: Have to keep learning. It's really exhausting.

Be honest to yourself. You have to believe in your work in any condition.

Be able to learn from anyone, anything.

Most important tools: Pen, pencil and good eyes. Also, walking helps.

Keep working all the time and sleep as much as you can when you can. Think stretegically before work. Make plans but don't stick to it. Be flexible.

could be hours, or days, or months. Sometimes it runs for years. It really not your choices.

What do you do? How do you do it? what's your inspiration come from? What kind of book you're reading now?

Working with renowned artists & editors in a small studio. I've learned lots of valuable working attitude about how they treat their works. They treat everyone/everything with rigorous and resilient approaches is really a million dollar lesson to me.

Universities, libraries, artists, small business... etc.

Projects that required with a little constraints but not too much. Limitations makes people be more creative.

Depends on when the pandemic will ends. Really not sure right now but I will keep running.

By myself. But I learn from others.

Hoping I can design something useful in the post pandemic era.

Email: keanu9502@gmail.com