Conversations with Yeo Ker Siang
By Chantelle Chan and Caleb Thien
Yeo Ker Siang is the Creative Director of Studio Design Design and a Lecturer at Nanyang Technological University’s School of Art, Design and Media. In this article, he shares about his multidisciplinary journey in the design practice, and how he hopes design may influence society.
As founder of Studio Design Design and lecturer at Nanyang Technological University’s School of Art, Design and Media, how would you describe a typical work day?
On days that I lecture at NTU, I would begin by addressing outstanding administrative items, such as emails with clients and sync ups with interns and working partners. I would then get into the mood to teach.
On days that I do not teach, I would work on the open projects at Studio Design Design. This usually entails making things with my hands, including programming, 3D drawings, prints and user experience (UX) designs. I would also make it a point to study trends in the design world, such as new tools and technology, as well as news beyond the design world. Being a designer entails not only making pretty products, but also creating experiences that are relevant to society.
What projects are you currently working on?
I am currently working to preserve cultural and heritage values through digital means so that the intangible aspects of culture may be communicated to future generations. This currently entails gamifying the experience of culture through a proof of concept. Another project that I am working on requires me to use a predetermined word to trigger an automation.
Contrary to popular belief, interior and product design is only a small part of the work that I do - these are the aspects of design that all designers are expected to be proficient in. As such, the projects that Studio Design Design focuses on tend to be more bespoke and experimental.
It seems that design is a very multidisciplinary practice, could you elaborate more on that?
At the Royal College of Art, I studied critical and speculative design, which opened my eyes to the potential impacts that design can have on the human experience.
Traditionally, design has always been a capitalistic endeavour to encourage sales by creating products that are more attractive to consumers. However, in the 1990s, designers in the United Kingdom began exploring the possibilities of design’s function beyond creating sleek and attractive products. Much of these research arrived at the conclusion that design could elicit complex feelings beyond pleasure and satisfaction. As such, since the 1990s, the design practice has developed to incorporate ergonomic considerations for more uses, including designing for patients with dementia, neurodivergence and other forms of disability. Design thinking may also aid in the Futures Thinking methodology by anticipating and creating infrastructure for future social needs.
What attracted you to join the design practice?
After graduating from secondary school with a decent grade, I studied aeronautical engineering in polytechnic. At that time, it appeared a relevant course of study by complementing Singapore's established aviation industry. However, I felt the desire to be involved in work that allowed experimentation. This was not possible in aeronautical engineering as the work involved maintaining critical systems that people were reliant on. The hunch that aeronautical engineering was not a suitable career path was thus confirmed during National Service whilst I was in the Air Force.
Around the same time, I was attracted to the Industrial Design course at NUS, which was couched as a course of study at the intersection of artistic sensibility, business and engineering. Knowing my love for taking things apart and creating things with my hands, I decided to apply for the course despite my parents’ reticence. There, I was allowed to be irrational while knowing when to maintain rationality. This balance is important because design solutions tend to be inherently irrational by breaking the conventions of how things are traditionally done. For example, while Apple users were against the idea of a phone without a keyboard, Apple created their first smartphone without one, much to the delight of consumers.
Additionally, my lecturers gave us the space and permission to explore design from multiple perspectives. For example, beyond the product-oriented, we were also encouraged to investigate the less tangible aspects of design, such as heritage preservation. We were pushed to ask questions beyond creating ergonomic considerations, such as whether a design could communicate and preserve heritage values.
Thus, the spaces and permission to explore creative ideas was what eventually attracted me to continue in the design practice.
Do you have a thought process or framework that helps you to arrive at a novel solution?
Not really; the design thinking framework was created for businesses and laymen to incorporate design thinking into their lives. However, as with most frameworks, the simplification of the knowledge area turned design thinking formulaic, making it unlikely for novel solutions to arise from its use. Rather, novel solutions tend to incorporate serendipity, authenticity, and the designer’s five senses and instincts for seizing opportunities. Therefore, the ‘design thinking process’ is a misnomer; there is no design thinking process per se.
Creating serendipity and seizing opportunities require one to look beyond the immediate scope of your routine. What are your sources of inspiration?
On sources of inspiration, I live by two principles:
Firstly, I take inspiration from a Ted Talk by Paul Rulkens that the majority is always wrong. He also elaborates that creating new design requires expanding the box, rather than thinking outside of it.
Secondly, the audience comes last. Movie sequels tend to fare worse than their original because directors often pander to the preferences of consumers who enjoyed the original movie.
Additionally, I try to use my senses to perceive textures and design on everyday products. My inspiration can come from places as diverse as cutlery and advertisement.
Ultimately, in whatever I create, I try to balance divergent thinking, relevance to industry, and suitability to client needs.
Is design only about creating aesthetic experiences? What other ways do design influence one’s relationship with society and the environment?
The root of the word ‘aesthetic’ relates to stimulating feeling in people and influencing the way one feels about the world. Apart from engaging the visual sense, aesthetics encompasses all other senses too. Therefore, if a design is not aesthetic, it is ‘an-aesthetic’; it maintains numbness. As such, all of design must be about aesthetics.
How might the advent of AI affect the design practice?
To me, AI is just another tool for creative work. If we are at risk of being replaced by our tools, then we should find ways to remain relevant by regaining the agency to seize new opportunities and generate new ideas. Generative AI (GenAI) is only able to aggregate data points that already exist. What sets designers apart is their ability to incorporate ‘noise’ into their work - the outliers that inspire new ideas. Hence, designers will remain relevant as long as they are able to create novel ideas, challenge conventions, and look beyond patterns of the past.
How might design influence the experience of AI?
The deployment of AI in a ’Zero UI’ environment is currently being explored. This means that users may interact with AI without requiring an interface such as a chat box. Instead, AI is incorporated into the built environment, allowing it to sense the mood of humans most physically proximate to it. Currently, Alexa is considered almost Zero UI.
If you could imagine a future society designed for human flourishing, what would it look like?
I imagine a city where citizens are open to new patterns of experiences while maintaining the option to experience the typical. This allows citizens to shuttle between experiencing designs that work and designs that are experimental, creating a balance between the status quo and the novel. I liken this to being afforded the option of experiencing new dining concepts while maintaining the ability to have McDonald’s.
As a discipline with fluid boundaries, what does a career path in design look like - where do people begin, and where do they typically progress toward?
Designers are trained to avoid competing with each other. Rather, they are encouraged to focus on an area of impact they hope to make in society, and then to specialise in that specific area by taking on university modules and attending industry talks related to it. As such, designers are equipped to enter diverse industries and functions from app design, material exploration to healthcare service design. Therefore, the fields that designers enter are as diverse as business, tech, government and healthcare. Nevertheless, I would recommend that designers specialise early, as it is harder to pivot industry later on in their careers.
What are some soft skills you would deem necessary for your line of profession?
Empathy in design is one of the crucial soft skills. It involves understanding both the environment and the people you are designing for, a quality that designers will continually develop throughout their career. Good design should be made accessible — ideas and solutions need to be understood by everyone, not just designers. This means communicating in the language that resonates with a broad audience.
Flexibility is another important soft skill. The world is constantly evolving, new tools and approaches are always emerging. Designers should not be overly attached to a single tool, only then will you be able to adapt with the technologies that are being developed.
Thirdly, reading widely and being immersed in culture is pertinent. Design extends beyond aesthetics; it is anchored in society and the narratives that shape it. Reading, watching films and staying engaged with real-world issues allow you to create designs with depth and impact, rather than just decorative pieces.
Soft skills aside, what pre-requisites or technical skills would you deem necessary or important to take on a design role?
As surprising as it sounds, Microsoft Excel is actually a very powerful tool. In Singapore where quantitative measures are highly valued, Excel can serve as a bridge between designers and non-designers, lending credibility to your ideas. Having some degree of familiarity with design thinking frameworks can also be helpful as it allows you to engage non-designers in your process.
However ultimately, there is no one technical skill or tool. What matters more is being open to learning and the ability to adapt. Tools evolve constantly, and you should approach them the same way you would with a new video game — learn the controls and spaces as you go. Designers should then see themselves as instruments for creating relevant, impactful ideas.
If you could speak to your younger self before entering your current job role, what advice would you give?
Just do it. Make things with your hands, and learn from failure. Do not give up making. When I was younger, I held back a lot more and overthought instead of just doing it. The truth is, design is best learned when you talk less and do more. Be willing to make, fail and try again.
If there is one piece of advice that you can offer to current youths thinking of working in the capacity of a designer, what would it be?
Enter design because you are genuinely interested in creating new patterns of experience, because that is where the value of the design industry lies. If you approach the design industry with the intention to reaffirm the status quo, it is likely that your work will lack meaning. The excitement comes when you can create new patterns of experience, and reshape how people think, feel and interact with the world around them.
How does design contribute to the field of Futures Thinking?
Although it may sound slightly cliché, design and Futures Thinking are actually interconnected because the very moment you create a new idea, you shape the future. Futures Thinking is not just about distant scenarios, but rather creating new patterns of experience in the present that can influence what happens next. The heritage project I am currently working on, is also part of the Futures Thinking practice because it conceptualises novel ideas of public engagement, combining traditional heritage with digital means.
Where do you see the industry of design going in the next five to ten years? What kind of projects and capacity will people be working in?
The design industry is likely to become more concept-driven, especially with the growth of GenAI. Routine tasks like illustrations or presentation slides can be managed by machines, which allows designers to focus on policies and the possibilities it entails. This elevates design to a more ideological and impactful space.
Already, Chief Design and Experience Officers are emerging in industries like banking and this will become more prominent and relevant in the future. While some are concerned that GenAI may take over the roles of designers, these technologies ultimately rely on Large Language Models and pre-existing data. They replicate current trends but cannot create new patterns of experience. Designers thus remain relevant as they bring taste, sensibility and originality to their work, which makes me hopeful of how designers will continue to grow in significance when curating future experiences.
To the general reader who is curious about design and how it relates to other fields, what books or movies would you recommend?
The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin would be a good read. Rubin raises great points like how the audience comes last and explores the notion of whether GenAI can fully replace humans in creating new designs. He argues that GenAI cannot do so, given that it is built on patterns of the past whereas people seek and thrive on new and fresh content.
If you are looking for a fictional alternative, I would recommend The Pig That Wants to Be Eaten by Julian Baggini. It is a piece of philosophical fiction that will definitely pick your brains!
For the movie lovers, you should definitely catch The Best of Youths. A slightly longer movie than the traditional ones (spanning over 6 hours), the show speaks of the human experience through the story of how two brothers grew up in Italy. A show, I contend, worthy of your time!
