Lan-Lan Ma
Taiwan
CAREER Enrolled in September 2009; Completed master’s degree in September 2011
I had always wanted to be involved with people from different cultural and professional backgrounds in Tokyo. I enrolled in KMD because I wanted to improve my skills in marketing and project management as well as my social skills.
At KMD, my studies focused on project management and human-computer interaction (HCI). I participated in the “CUTE Center” that examined the relationships between toys and digital life. In our project, we used an SNS platform to design the “Pettymo” interactive toy. Our goal was to improve safety for children online as well as in the real world.
I now work at HTC, a smartphone manufacturer, as a producer in the design studio. My job is to oversee the entire lifecycle beginning with concept development, and to provide simple, clear explanations of product concepts and requirements to the design, development, and quality assurance units. I look forward to increasing my depth of understanding in areas such as user experience design, mobile interfaces, and communications design. I also want to study how mobile technology can be used in human resources development and childhood education.
(This article was written in March 2012.)