7 minute read
CDM Professor Bokyung Lee's Path to Designing User-Centered Innovation for Tomorrow
Can you please introduce yourself?
Hello, my name is Bokyung Lee, and I've recently become a part of UIC under the Culture and Design Management division. I received a Ph.D in the Industrial Design department at the Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). KAIST is known for its focus on engineering and science, so during my time there, I was primarily trained on designing technology in a user-friendly manner. I gained expertise in prototyping and developing new products or services, employing a user-centered design methodology. After completing my Ph.D, I went to Canada to work as an interdisciplinary researcher for a company called Autodesk. This marked the first step in my career journey.
What is your background and what led you into your work with user design interfaces?
I was born in Seoul, and during my teenage years, I had a wide range of interests. Typically, in Korea, students tend to focus on a few certain subjects, but I had more general interests. This made it challenging for me to decide on a specific major, which is why I applied to KAIST, because I didn't have to choose a major right away. What really sparked my passion was a project I discovered at the MIT Media Lab. This was project combining psychology with technology to connect couples living in different countries. Using a specially designed cup, couples could feel like they were drinking together even when apart. That project inspired me greatly, and I felt that this was what I want to do for the rest of my career and life. That's why I chose design as my major—to create something meaningful based on my own desires.
After you decided to major in design at KAIST, how did you develop your career?
Initially, it was quite challenging because there were no textbooks to guide me on navigating this multidisciplinary direction. My only option was to learn all the necessary techniques, which took a significant amount of time. To broaden my knowledge, I participated in an exchange program at Delft University in the Netherlands to delve into the social science aspect of design. In the following year, I went to Aalto University in Finland to explore the management aspect of design. Having already covered the technology aspect of design at KAIST, I moved around to different countries to gain diverse perspectives, but essentially, I learned through trial and error. I would attempt something, and if it got rejected, I learned from my mistakes and failures. This process drove me to take the next steps in building my career. It's one of the reasons I’ve aspired to become a professor—to develop a new curriculum that imparts the lessons I've learned in a more structured and organized way to future students.
After graduating from KAIST, why did you decide to work in Canada for Autodesk?
During my PhD program, I was fortunate enough to meet a researcher at a conference who shared the same vision as me and taught me a great deal. As he was the director of Autodesk Research, I decided to join his team where we embarked on an entirely new project that combined psychology, design, technology, and IT. We dedicated three years to this project. Initially, I joined as a postdoc, at what was essentially a contractor position. After two years, my role transitioned into a permanent employee position, which extended my time with the company.
When I first went to Canada in 2018, everything was going well. However, in 2020, the pandemic hit. I ended up staying alone in a small room with my cat, as the office was closed. I couldn't even go for walks, and the situation became quite challenging. Due to such limitations, I decided to return to Korea to be with my family. Despite enjoying my work in Canada, the main reason for my move was to be with my family in my home country. Thankfully, in 2022 I started work at Samsung Electronics and was able to move back to Korea and be closer to home.
How was your experience of working at Samsung Electronics?
When I joined the research division of Samsung Electronics in 2022, their main goal was 'Atom Meets Bits,' which aligned well with the project I had been working on at Autodesk in Canada. That's why I decided to move to Samsung and work on robotic systems. I enjoyed working at Samsung, but I found that the culture in a manufacturing company like Samsung Electronics was quite different from an IT company like Autodesk. Manufacturing companies tend to make more conservative decisions because any decision we make can impact the entire factory line and incur additional costs. However, the positive side was that there were many designers at Samsung. At Autodesk, I was the only designer on my team, but at Samsung, I could collaborate with numerous designers. This brought a different dynamic to meetings, organization, workflow, and overall structure. It was a fun experience.
Why did you decide to move to UIC and step into academia?
When I was at Autodesk, I enjoyed giving lectures, but I wasn't allowed to give lectures without getting permission from the company. This limitation made me reconsider my long-term plans because, as I mentioned earlier, I wanted to eventually build a new curriculum and inspire students with an interdisciplinary approach.
Now that you are at UIC, what are your current and future research projects?
I'm currently running three different projects personally, and I have two graduate courses helping two projects respectively. One project is about creating a new virtual museum and virtual exhibitions from the visitors' perspective and creating a new virtual museum from the curators' perspective. The latter focuses more on designing interactions for design and artwork education, exploring how to deliver important knowledge in a more situated and interactive way. Another project aims to provide a more engaging experience in virtual tours, embedding physical information in the digital world for increased engagement.
For both projects, we're following user-centered design thinking procedures, starting with interviews to gain knowledge, and we're currently in that phase. But from next year, I'm planning to build a real working prototype in VR. This will allow us to demonstrate and create a video showcasing how my ideas might look in the future.
As one of the two core faculty members for the CDM major, what is your vision for building the program? How would you entice freshmen to come to CDM?
Culture and Design Management is an amazing program. Through multiple consultation sessions with students, I found that they love the major because it offers a diverse perspective not only from design but also from management and cultural viewpoints. However, some students have said they are not sure if CDM poses a clear core expertise. This triggered me to think about some core skill sets we should teach students. For example, 3D modeling or designing digital spaces for digital artwork can be a good start. I'm still in the process of considering this, and I plan to discuss it further with [CDM Chair] Professor Hyun-Kyung Lee to determine a few core technical skills we can impart to our students. Nevertheless, CDM is a great major that helps students gain a holistic perspective on how marketing, technology, and new industries come together to build new services. For all students who wish to propose their own creative vision to any industry, this is the perfect major for you to consider.
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Interview Conducted by: Professor Howard KahmEdited by: Natasha Elyssa Gadjali (PSIR '22) & Pho Vu (IID '20.5)Spread Design by: Saehyun Lee (AS & CLC '17)
