We sat down over a light-hearted chat with Ms Vivien Chan, Lecturer & Consultant, Digital Innovation and Design Practice who brings more than 12 years of industry experience across the digital space and shares the way she spends her ‘me-time’ recharging over artistic activities beyond her passion for teaching.
1. Please tell us about your professional background
What I like to call ‘my early days’ brings back fond memories of the first 10 years when I first began my career in designing website and digital products for brands across various industries. I had the pleasure to work with brands that spanned across Air New Zealand, BMW, Dell, Hewlett Packard and SONY.
I then dabbled in experience design and innovation projects while working in Omnicom Media Group. As a designer in the technology and analytic arms team, I got to design tools that many media and marketing professionals would use for large global accounts. My tenure with the group led me to work on exciting and engaging projects with McDonald's, Estee Lauder, HSBC, Tourism Australia, Google, Nissan, Intel and more. Interestingly, while designing experience, I had the opportunity to work closely with experts on the topic of business intelligence whom designed tools on data analytics and data visualisations, which continues to stretch my skills and mindset.
Prior to Joining NUS-ISS, I was the Senior User Experience Designer for AdNovum, a Swiss based engineering company specialised in end to end product development and security with a focus on government and financial services industry related projects. One of the challenges as a UX Lead at AdNovum is trying to balance the security aspect of things with user experience while designing solutions, as most systems that are secured are not as user friendly.
2. Could you share more about the modules/courses which you teach at NUS-ISS?
I teach Executive Education Programmes in Service Design where participants will get a practical, hands on exploration of the principles, tools, and frameworks of Design Thinking, which include identification of design challenge, user research and the development of innovative ideas for any organisation. Another course that I will be teaching is the Innovation Bootcamp, which takes one through the innovation process in order to stay competitive in today’s fast moving world. I also manage the Strategic Design & Innovation course, which caters to the management aspect of innovation.
3. Why did you choose to teach at NUS-ISS?
To teach design to professionals is not an opportunity you get every day. Through small steps, I am grateful for the prospect of helping to shape the industry by sharing the impact of service design to organisations. Furthermore, NUS-ISS is backed by a heritage of more than 30 years and continues to be the leading institute in developing leaders, driving business and organisation innovation which is aligned to what I am zealous about.
4. What do you enjoy most about your work?
I enjoy helping individuals understand innovation and design thinking, to think of fresh new ways to engage and delight their users and solve real business problems that makes a difference.
5. How do you keep up with the industry?
It is important to be continuously curious about the design, innovation and technologies sphere as things are changing robustly every day. Networking and keeping in touch with peers in the industry keeps me on my toes. I also stay inspired by reading up on related books, articles, and online courses.
6. What are your favorite activities when you are not working?
During my ‘me-time’, I revel in different forms of art expressions – sketching, cooking, pottery-making and even having a good music jamming session with my sons. I play duets on the piano with one of them and the other would join in with his drumming skills. Talk about spontaneity running in the family!
For sketching, I have put pencil to paper while walking down a street that I wish to capture; while for pottery I hand craft them from scratch, glaze and fire them at an artist’s studio and also practice these skills at home.
7. Tell us something about yourself that very few people know.
The Master Chef in me owns a kitchen that is filled with an ever-growing number of kitchen appliances from a Bread Maker, Kitchen Aid, Miele Steamer to a Sous-vide Stick. I plate my meals onto the ceramic bowls that I have made during pottery class which makes it even more satisfying to see family and friends coming together to savor the food that I have prepared, especially during festive occasions.
Some of my specialty dishes include Japanese Soba, Italian Risotto, Chinese steamed radish cake and Sous-vide Steak. I also always make it a point to make meal time fun for my children by making bread from scratch, waffles and being creative with the fillings we put into Taiyaki (Japanese fish-shaped cake). Occasionally I would also bake birthday cakes!