Katherine Liu is a product designer and illustrator at Stanford. We requested her a couple of questions on her work for our design/shine interview collection, a brand new collection from Beautifulwp highlighting proficient ladies within the industries of design and know-how. The title of the collection is a nod to shine theory, a idea that’s been used throughout many industries and fields, and even not too long ago by feminine staffers within the White House.
What do you do, and why do you do it?
Katherine: I’m a digital product designer learning Symbolic Methods—mainly, cognitive science with a heavy technical bent. My background as a product designer comes from my time at Fb and Salesforce, serving to design workflows and interactions for various interfaces and techniques, however I additionally do a whole lot of illustration and graphic design work on the aspect for enjoyable. I like design as a result of it’s a sort of downside fixing that locations enormous worth on folks. It’s a problem each when it comes to determining methods and when it comes to empathizing with different folks and making an attempt to construct one thing that may assist them.
How did you find yourself learning the sector of design?
Ok: As a child, I had all the time beloved artwork, and in highschool my pals and I used to fiddle on Photoshop and Illustrator on the college computer systems. I began doing a little bit of graphic design (though I didn’t know that’s what it was), and I spent a whole lot of my free time making posters and digital collages. By whole probability, I met somebody who launched me to the corporate the place I acquired my first UI design internship, which was a tremendous, chaotic expertise—I had no thought what I used to be doing since I had solely been making posters earlier than, however in some way they trusted me sufficient to revamp their total web site and consumer system! That was actually my first style of how design might lengthen past the printed web page, into one thing residing that folks can work together with. I keep in mind being actually, actually excited the primary day our new web site launched with all my designs! However I feel that the problem-solving in design, listening to customers and making an attempt to work towards a aim—all of that has all the time appealed to me.
What are a few of your favourite tendencies in design currently?
Ok: I’m undecided if this counts as a “pattern,” however I like that there was increasingly more consciousness surrounding accessibility in design not too long ago. There’s been an article going round currently about how the web is becoming unreadable, and firms like Khan Academy are constructing accessibility visualization toolkits that assist designers and builders perceive what it means to create for a wider viewers.
Inform me a little bit about some current tasks you’ve been engaged on.
Ok: I’m most likely probably the most happy with the work I’ve achieved at Fb and Salesforce, however I can’t discuss them intimately since a few of these options are nonetheless being constructed (so thrilling)! Though most of my work is digital, I additionally love working with paper—I’ve been doing a whole lot of risograph printing currently. One thing that I actually loved making not too long ago was my set of “Good Vibes” scratch playing cards. Life all the time will get fairly disturbing across the center of the college yr, and I wished to provide folks one thing stunning and cheering—every scratch card is strictly like a lottery card, however the “prizes” are encouraging messages. I’m additionally engaged on a set of mini journey guides from my current backpacking journey in Japan, a zine assortment about happiness and reflection, and a collection of illustrations supporting feminism!
For those who needed to give an aspiring designer one e book to learn, what would it not be?
Ok: There are such a lot of nice books, it’s arduous to decide on! However one in all my favorites additionally occurs to be the primary e book I had ever examine design, Don’t Make Me Assume by Steve Krug—I keep in mind studying a little bit little bit of it on a regular basis throughout my first internship, and it actually formed the best way I take into consideration usability. This e book helped me notice that design is far more than visuals, and simply how a lot energy and accountability we have now as designers.
As a pupil, what path do you see the sector of design going sooner or later?
Ok: I feel that design goes to be increasingly more about setting the imaginative and prescient—that is closely impressed by Julie Zhuo’s article on the future state of design. Persons are beginning to notice the worth of design on the very early phases of any product or group, so we’re already heading within the path of designers being main voices in figuring out the imaginative and prescient for what’s being constructed. I feel craft and execution are nonetheless important expertise to have—that’s a part of how designers talk their imaginative and prescient—however the job of design is unquestionably now not going to be one thing like “simply make this look good.”
What blogs/websites are your must-reads for inventive inspiration? Design apart, what else conjures up/influences your work?
Ok: My favourite locations to go for inventive inspiration: It’s Nice That, Typewolf, outdated signage once I’m touring, my Instagram feed. I additionally love studying—the books I learn are an enormous supply of inspiration. My aim for 2016 was to learn thirty books this yr, and I’m on e book quantity twenty 5 proper now! I do learn a bit about design, however I additionally learn numerous fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Presently, I’m working my approach by Tolstoy’s Struggle and Peace and studying a couple of poetry collections by Jane Hirshfield and Billy Collins. Studying a narrative is like being carried into another person’s world for a couple of hours—it builds empathy, and it’s a pleasant change of perspective from my very own day-to-day routines.
All images and design by Katherine Liu.
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