Han Xiaoxue Applicant for Interaction design,Fall 2013 School of Arts and Communication Malmo Hogskola
A LETTER OF MOTIVATION
Youth enlightenment Showing good paper-cuts in primary school, painting on the sketch drawing board with various colors, focusing on singing in chorus, attentively playing the saxophone, all these pictures are the marks for my different period on the path of growing.Whatever the differences are among music,design,drama or decorative art, all forms of these reflect human being's innovation and faith towards nature,life and creature.I feel so excited about human being's pursuit to create new things to make a living and express themselves with design and art. Those, I believe, are a kind of enlightenment of mine. Falling in love with design Upon entering the university, I chose the major of Industrial Design. In my opinion, this major perfectly combines both the sense and sensibility with the consideration of nature and life. More importantly, it satisfies my pursuit for creativity. With the deeper study in my major, I place my interest in the interaction field,because it is more likely with my experiences and personalities. Thinking from angle of human beings, I can make useful design of the product that determines or influences responses, the needs and abilities of the user, or the environment in which it is used and its social context.With these thoughts ahead, I sincerely hope I could continue my study in this field. I believe that we should put the people and products interact in the first place in design field. And this "interaction" sometimes represents the feelings and using experiences of human beings or objects. To be frank, in China the present situation of design education and interaction design are quite limited. The interaction design mainly concentrates on design of website and cell phone terminals. However, the broader design concerning product usage, user investigation and market strategy has not been formed yet. In the contrast, some famous foreign excellent design
Han Xiaoxue Applicant for Interaction design,Fall 2013 School of Arts and Communication Malmo Hogskola
programs and curriculum have focused on interaction design in a broad perspective and deep consideration in ergonomics, aesthetics, interaction design ,psychology and sociology,which are indispensable and crucial for a growing -up designer. To set a good basis for my future study, I not only make good academic records in my bachelor’s study, but also take an active role in participating in various contests and activities. I felt very grateful that I could have these opportunities to show my research competence in many perspective and areas,also largely improve my communication skills and understanding users. In 2007-2008 Design Competition held in Beijing University of Technology, I won the Excellence Award. I also won the Model Student with Outstanding Capacity Award in both 2007-2008 and 2009-2010 academic years. Furthermore, I must mention that in the university I have published two papers in 2012 National Symposium on Industrial Design Education & International Academic Forum; one is about “Research of Psychological Factors in Product Design”, the other one is “Rattan Product Design Research”. Both of them are the research on interaction factors and human experience in product design. What’s more, outside my class, by participating in kinds of voluntary practices and campus activities, I enhanced my understanding on design and psychology,as well as improving the leadership and communication skills. When acting as the leader of psychology association, in which I learned to solve problems in other people's perspective and care for their needs.I invited a famous psychology professor to give a speech in a large-scale activity cooperating with China Ministry of Healthy. The number of present students in the hall revealed that my efforts finally paid: the meeting hall with a full capacity of 400 students exceeded 20% of its maximum accommodating volume with many filling in the lanes. The experience greatly improved my leadership ability and understanding the needs of audience(users). Besides, I took part in China Interaction Design Experience Day 2012 as a volunteer, which was held by Interaction Design Committee in China. This experience made me know about the situation and trends of interaction design both in China and the global. Under the influence of these activities,I had more confidence on my interest and future area and determined to continue interaction design study abroad . Exploring interaction design In my studies I have got much interested in interaction design, which mainly stemmed from my understanding of design, personalities and education I received. In my opinion, the interaction design is the topic which needs attention from all other design subjects because design is the one which mainly concentrates on solving problems. Only the echo between users and designers can reach the goal for solving practical problems.
Han Xiaoxue Applicant for Interaction design,Fall 2013 School of Arts and Communication Malmo Hogskola
In the university, we had the course of interaction design, mainly concentrated in the research of entity products’ interactivity. We had the design topic—“Research on Short Distance Serviceable Automobile”. At that time we defined design with several key words: short distance, interaction characteristic, small-scale. We further investigated the using situation of many different serviceable automobiles, making the survey on people’s psychology. Under such circumstances, we fully considered the users’ method, ergonomic aspect, and then tried to create more suitable and comfortable using pattern and experience. Through that research, I got to know the main target of design, that is, design is the “source of water” and the “water” refers to human being’s requirements. Upon my graduation, I firstly finished a practical real design project together with my teacher in university. The project was about interaction design on BJUT physical education curriculum website and APP for cellphone. And the interaction design here was mainly applied into virtual devices, focusing on studying human being’s psychology and users’ operation procedures. I not only took part in interaction design, but also made arrangements in visual perspective. Those helped me to know that interaction design was beneficial for optimizing workflow, enhancing using efficiency and experience feelings. Besides some research and project, I served as an intern designer in Intercom International Communication Group during March 2011 to April 2011 to get known the application of design both in visualisation and conceptualisation.Facing the graphic design task of some ads and web page for some companies such as Agricultural Bank of China,I took advantage of my imagination and design skills in group discussion and developed my ability in software and sketch.The experience greatly enhanced my computer skills and sharpened my design thinking through discussing customers' needs and design ideas. Later I worked as a market specialist in Beijing New Oriental School for almost one year to learn to combine design with market and customers' demand. I was in charge of not only graphic design of website and brochure but also strategic analysis. To make better, I try to analyze the needs and attitudes of customers and users to improve the quality and efficiency of design.
Advanced exploration in inspired program In my master’s study, to be more specifically in the interaction design aspect, I hope I can make research in the following three topics. The first one would be the “Comparison between the European lifestyle and Asian one”. It is quite an interesting topic, which focuses on customers’ investigations, contextual analysis and cultural research. According to the research analysis on geographical traits and psychological needs, I will take advantage of my several years’ life experience in Asia, as well as the feeling and observation when studying in Europe, in order to put forward the representative interaction design schemes from clothing, eating, living and traveling perspectives. The main aim is to get the comparison on design of lifestyle in Europe and Asia by practice, also to gain further understanding about
Han Xiaoxue Applicant for Interaction design,Fall 2013 School of Arts and Communication Malmo Hogskola
analysis and research methods in interaction design. Concerning the other two topics, one is “How to realize the maximization of design value in business environment”, and the other one is “Interactive Barrier Free Design”. In the former topic, I think the design schemes are always related to practical business values. By learning design management, we can take project practice and analytical design strategies. Then we can combine the design orientation, cost control and business channel analysis with design schemes, in order to design the products which are more suitable for market promotion. For the latter topic, my design concept is that the disabled are often more sensitive in other body parts instead of the one they lack. Therefore, it turns to be more meaningful for the interaction design focusing on those people. Such as traffic lights, passing roads, traffic tools for disabled, etc, they all can realize the design principle "Design for People" by using interaction technologies, customer researches and product design. Having learned some basic skills and theory on design and taken some practice in Interaction design,I am now applying for acceptance into your graduate program in Interaction Design in Malmo Hogskola. Your research group is energetic and playing leading roles in my proposed area . And your department offers a great number of multi-disciplinary courses to understand the design for interaction between people and product and give opportunities to communicate with and work together with the most active researchers from all over the world. Moreover, Malmo Hogskola is famous for its innovation spirit, which is indispensable and crucial for a best design atmosphere. I hope through the further study in your esteemed university, I could learn more systematic method in users’ research, grasp more realizable measures for interaction design, know more advanced technologies and theories and finally integrate design workflow into design practices.Considering it helps me most to achieve my goal, I regard Malmo Hogskola as my best choice. So I sincerely ask for your favorable consideration.