Working in UX Design

Episode 16: From Code to Canvas with Ajmal Afif Jamal, Lead Product Designer, Grab, Singapore

Ajmal Afif Jamal is a Malaysian design executive living in Singapore. He is currently working as a Lead Product Designer at Grab.He shares a vast work experience of more than 8 years in the digital design industry as a Product Designer. Previously started his career as a Digital Marketer and Frontend Developer in different startups in Kuala Lumpur.Ajmal is always in search of opportunities to put his knowledge into practice, and he believes the best way to learn is by doing – and also by sharing with others.Come down to hear us cover:-Switching from frontend development to product design-Working in Singapore Tech Scene as a Malaysian expatriate-Gaining experience and levelling up as a UX designer in Aviva and Grab-Learning and practising Behavioural Design in UX

Episode 15: Service Design & Research Ops for Public Design with Cheryl Wong , UX/Service Designer & ResearchOps at GovTech Singapore

Cheryl Wong is currently a UX/Service Designer & ResearchOps at GovTech, Government Digital Services (GDS) Singapore. She has over 11 years of diverse design experiences working as a Team Lead at a veteran design studio that made it to Singapore’s design history books, startup, consultancy and digital experience agency spanning various sectors: Fintech, Banking, Hospitality, Social Impact etc. She is passionate about shaping organisational culture, using design to improve the lives of users & teams while meeting business goals. Based in Singapore, she has worked on projects around the world: Australia, Bangladesh, East Africa (Serengeti), Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Maldives, Principality of Liechtenstein, Seychelles, South Africa (Johannesburg), Timor-Leste and UK. She has organised, facilitated, presented at several tech public events such as Elephants in the room: Shitstorms in UX, CuriousCore’s Leaning Into Change - Experience and Service Design; STACK2020 Conference. She has supported the global UX community as Design Mentor at GDS & ADPList and served as Industry Guest Reviewer at Singapore Polytechnic Grad Show and General Assembly. She is a contributor for a Gluework article and was featured in TEDx’s Storytime revamping reading environments in India and will be organising an upcoming Learning Circles: Operationalising ResearchOps at Scale. In recognition for her design & impact on society, she has been featured on Google’s Women TechMakers’ International Women’s Day, alongside numerous accolades. Here us talk about: - Service design at GovTech - Scaling user research for GoBusiness - Generic Stakeholder Management tips - Applying to be a UX Designer at GovTech - Bootcamp portfolios vs professional portfolios

Episode 14: UX Research Craft & Methodologies with Naroth Murali, UX Researcher at DBS

Naroth Murali is a mixed-method UX researcher with over 6 years of experience in the design research domain.Having majored in industrial design, he is presently a part of the UX Research Team in DBS Bank where he collects, analyses and interprets customer data for consumer banking business and UX teams.An avid golfer, food/wine enthusiast and science-fiction lover, curiosity is at the core of what he does. He is adept at creating delightful user experiences that challenge the status quo, backed by uncompromising research.We spoke about:- Choosing the right research method- Research fieldwork- Applying for a User Researcher job- Research Ops- Qual and Quant research at DBS Bank

Episode 13: Mindfulness, Agile and Design with Thye Chuan Tan, Lead UX Designer at additiv

Thye Chuan embraces and shares an ardent curiosity in infusing the concepts of Self-Awareness and Agility. As a UX designer, he has worked with digital teams of all sizes ranging from Fintech startups to large organisations such as SP Group. As a Scrum Master practitioner, he has also facilitated various Agile Transformation initiatives in organisations.He enjoys sharing knowledge and concepts related to Self-Awareness and believes in creating unison among team members for better intercommunication. To him, understanding problems clearly before diving into solutions and creating a non-toxic learning culture are also key. Having met people with a passion for learning and growing as UX designers have propelled him to set up 'UX Guide SG', a resource hub for people to discover, learn and nurture their UX practices in Singapore.We spoke about:- The self-aware designer- Your journey in Agile- Freelance vs in-house designer- Building uxguide.sg

Episode 12: Design for Inclusivity with Kitt Santos, Senior Product Designer at Xero

Senior Product Designer at Xero, Kitt Santos, shares vast experience as an experience designer, freelance illustrator and design mentor.He is currently based in Canberra, Australia, has more than 12 years of experience in the industry, working along with agencies, getting involved in different design aspects, working with teams and collaborating with clients to articulate their philosophy and business requirements into unique design languages in the digital space.An avid visual artist in his free time, he takes a keen interest in the convergence of design and technology and how it creates meaningful digital experiences.

Episode 11: Leading Design from New York to Singapore with Randy Hunt, Head of Design at Grab

Head of Design at Grab, Randy Hunt, is an American design-centred executive living in Singapore where he spearheads a team of more than 130 product designers, researchers, writers, illustrators in creating the experience of Southeast Asia's leading family of superapps.He has over 15 years of experience in the design industry, having previously worked as the Head of Design at Artsy and VP of Design at Etsy. He also authored the “Product Design for the Web” which explores the evolving discipline of product design for today’s connected world.

Episode 10: Designing for SAAS vs Consumer Products with Mike Chen, Head of Product Design at ShopBack

From the co-founder of an interaction design company to product design leader, Mike is an individual highly experienced in product and experience design, with over 10 years in the field. He was previously at Zendesk as a product designer working with product managers and engineers to create beautiful and simple business software that scales. He is currently the head of product design at ShopBack.Mike’s philosophy is to make software simple with a data-driven design process and he is heavily influenced by works such as Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and Rework by 37 Signals. He also enjoys conversations about building company culture, lean/agile UX and design processes.Tune in to hear his thoughts on:- Designing for Zendesk vs Shopback- Transitioning from agency side to client-side and entrepreneur to employee- Grooming design talent

Episode 9: Becoming a UX Designer in South-East Asia with Atiqah Khalim, Senior UX Designer at Shopee

Starting from being a visual designer to eventually transitioning to full-fledged UX design roles in Razer and Shopee, Atiqah is an individual well-versed in the discipline of design. She is currently working at one of Asia’s largest e-commerce platforms, Shopee, as a senior UX designer in charge of crafting key payment pages and flows to support transactions across the Shopee app, ShopeePay, and other digital products. As a designer, Atiqah is also involved in design across the brand’s different platforms, consisting of the Shopee App, PC web, and mobile web designs. She also plays an active role in the Muslim community. She is one of the co-founders for Malay Designers in SG, a group for current and aspiring Malay/Muslim designers. She also used to volunteer with The Codette Project, a non-profit ground-up initiative that aims to get more minority/Muslim women into technology. Tune in to this episode and hear Atiqah’s thoughts on:- Career transition from Graphic Design to UX Designer- Working in Shopee and other tech companies like Razer and Popsical- Designing for Muslim countriesWorking In UX Design is an online Webinar Series graced with a Guest Interviewee of a current experienced UX practitioner, hosted by Daylon Soh, Founder & Design Educator at CuriousCore (ex-eCommerce Architect at Razer)

Episode 8: Effective Design Ops & Management with Sunit Sharma, Senior Manager Product Design at SPH

Sunit is a local product designer with an academic background in Design, Business, and Innovation. He specialises in visual, interaction, design strategy and leading teams. Sunit has been in a leadership role for the last five years and has been helping other designers to grow as better individuals and designers.At SPH, he works with senior leadership across the origination to drive digital transformation, advocates for a user-centred design culture in various teams and delivers UX Strategy for various publication products and experiments. He also facilitates UX Practice through workshops, manages project timelines and mentors his talented team.Hear his thoughts on:- As a designer, how much do I need to know the business so I can design better?- What is the value of Business Strategy and Corporate Strategy in the product design, and how can designers help to achieve the strategic goals of a company?- How do I give, receive and apply feedback?- What is Design Operations and how do we know when it is done well?- The 3 things to consider to be effective at Design Ops

Episode 7: Rise of Content Design with Liva Paudere, VP Content Design at DBS

From taking on Producer roles in the Film and TV Production industry, Liva has jumped to Marketing, Content Creating and is now the VP of Content Design at DBS. As part of DBS’ UX Design Team of 60 people with 15 nationalities and counting, she designs necessary designs for millions. She is also a UX Writer there and writes articles which are featured on uxplanet.orgAs someone obsessed with structure, Liva’s inspiration is the iconic Sherlock Holmes, whom she sometimes relates to on her good days, where she is able to see how things connect — how the building blocks fit together and how if one block moves, everything else does too.Come down to hear us cover:- What is content design? What common attributes do good content designers share?- How do content designers work with UX designers? How do you work with your marketing teams then?- How do you justify the value of hiring content designers to management? Is this related to inbound marketing?