Balancing Career and Passion
“I chose Bachelor of Arts (Industrial Design) because I hope that my design could solve problems of everyday life. Over the course of my study, I was able to learn product design, experience design and spatial design.”
Lin Qiuxia
UIUX Trainee, DBS Bank
BA (Industrial Design) (2019), NUS
Getting a career headstart
Bachelor of Arts (Industrial Design) [BA (ID)] graduate Lin Qiuxia found work in the banking sector, thanks to a project related to banking experience that she did during her coursework. It landed her a job as a UIUX Trainee with DBS Bank on a nine-month traineeship. She works on projects to improve existing products and create new solutions to enhance user experience. She also collaborates with colleagues across different departments. Qiuxia finds the bank’s project-based-and-collaborative style of working not dissimilar to the learning she had gone through in her BA (ID) programme.
Grateful for the similarity, Qiuxia affirmed that the BA (ID) programme has helped her adapt well to work. She explained: “I am happy to be able to apply to my current job a lot of the design software skills I had picked up from my studies. These include illustration, video editing, graphic design, and design framework. I am also able to quickly fit in to the real workplace, having learnt how to communicate and teamwork with peers.”
On her design journey so far, Qiuxia who finds she is in a good place, recounts thus: “I chose BA (ID) because I hope that my design could solve problems of everyday life. Over the course of my study, I had enjoyed diversity and was able to learn product design, experience design and spatial design. I am glad I am now able to explore UIUX design as my career starting point.”
Turning passion into reality
Prior to her work at the bank, Qiuxia took time out to turn the concept of her BA (ID) final-year project into reality, and to explore retail. As part of her project, she had conceptualised a set of fengshui-inspired collectibles. She decided upon graduation to realise her concept and so had applied for the Design Incubation Centre (DIC) year-long programme. Why the decision? She explained: “I did not want to waste a good concept as I had received favourable feedback about my final-year project. My passion was also stoked, and I wanted to make something of my design and product. I submitted my application and succeeded in getting into DIC after an interview.”
The DIC provided resources, including a workshop and hardware tools for her to make her handcrafted fengshui-inspired collectibles. With its guidance, Qiuxia built from porcelain a set of keepsakes named “Ji Jian Wu” <吉简物>, translated to mean “auspicious and simplified objects”. Besides material and financial support, the DIC also helped connect her with manufacturers, one of whom was from Taiwan, to produce her product, as well as to retail and promote it. Through it all, she saw her product undergo user testing, experimentation, prototyping and photography before the collection came to fruition, by the end of the one-year programme. She was able to experience the manufacturing process within a real-work setting.