We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Meng Lan. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Meng below.
Hi Meng, thanks for joining us today. One of the most important things small businesses can do, in our view, is to serve underserved communities that are ignored by giant corporations who often are just creating mass-market, one-size-fits-all solutions. Talk to us about how you serve an underserved community.
As a UIUX designer, I focus on creating meaningful and unique design experiences for products that solve users’ life problems. The Way to Drive app that I designed won the VEGA Digital Awards in 2023, its purpose is to help tourists solve their doubts about local traffic rules when driving in a strange country. The inspiration for me to design this app comes from my personal hobbies. I like traveling and driving. During my journey, I am always uneasy about local rules, even though I have ten years of driving experience. When I lived in China, traffic regulations were very strict, so I‘m used to being concerned about whether I violated the rules. And I often find that a lot of news about international travelers having traffic accidents abroad often mentions that one of the reasons for traffic accidents is that they are always confused about the local traffic rules. Sometimes visitors experience confusion regarding local traffic rules in foreign or unfamiliar countries and cities due to language barriers, cultural differences, and a lack of time to learn the local rules during short-term trips, and they will easily cause a car accident or receive a ticket. I currently live in Los Angeles, and the traffic situation in Los Angeles is not very good. There are also many Chinese tourists visiting Los Angeles. So I made this app to help Chinese tourists understand local traffic rules to avoid encountering tickets and potential dangers when driving in Los Angeles. “Way to Drive” features a route planner, road sign image recognition, community traffic rule alerts, and language translation options for non-native English speakers. Users can access a dynamic route planner, allowing them to preview traffic rules before or during their journey. The app utilizes advanced image recognition capabilities to provide clear explanations of complex road signs. Users can set alerts for nearby traffic rules, reducing the risk of getting a ticket. Additionally, the app offers language translation options to make sure that users who are not as familiar with English can still use it. I have introduced this project to many friends, not just Chinese-speaking friends. Friends and colleagues from Southeast Asia and South America expressed a need for this app to address the challenges of driving in Los Angeles. Their feedback reinforced my belief that, as a designer, I can use my skills to positively influence and inspire people and help them live better lives. I am delighted that my achievements in digital interface design highlight my commitment to creating meaningful and unique design experiences.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I’m now working as a UIUX designer based in Los Angeles, making an app and web design for my company. I also work remotely as a freelance graphic designer on Fiverr and Upworks, producing ad posters and logo designs. I’m also a photographer, taking portraits and landscapes. I like coming up with ideas, thinking creatively, and planning. I also have an MBA background. Using my background in both business and design, I can easily connect project requirements with business goals. My special skills help me bring together design and business needs, creating solutions that are both appealing and smart.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
I started working as an art designer in a small design studio after college, where I met many different clients and cases. From my experience communicating with clients, I realized that I should learn how to think about clients’ needs from a “customer-centric” perspective, because it makes it easier for me to help them create designs that solve their problems. So I took interaction and user experience design as my master’s course. When I was studying UX design, I found that the application of digital media was becoming more and more widespread, so I began to gradually change my design ideas from traditional paper media design to digital screen design. What makes it more difficult is that, due to my previous experience in graphic design, I often find myself conflating approaches to graphic design and UI/UX design—not only having trouble transitioning from paper to digital but also adapting to the concerns surrounding Difficulties were also encountered with the unique way of thinking about user needs. So one of the most difficult challenges was to change the project’s solutions and research methods in the first place. I had to put in a lot of effort to absorb information, read, and investigate. Additionally, I had to teach myself some digital design tools. At the same time, feedback and questioning are also two of the difficulties in the creative process. Digital design requires continuous data collection for updating and iteration. Creating and effectively solving user problems within a limited time period puts a lot of pressure on me. Also, I’m generally not good at communicating through words, so I generally use visuals to get my point across. Learning User experience design requires me to use language or text to communicate as much as possible, which often increases my difficulties in learning or working. There was a time when I had self-doubt in the design of a project, which made me very depressed.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
I enjoy observing people and understanding their thinking, especially when they face challenges, and I naturally tend to ask questions and offer help to solve problems. Working as a uiux designer is also affected by this. What I particularly like about this field is the combination of creativity and practicality. When I design a project, I can not only design the interface of the project to be beautiful, but I can also make the project help people solve problems encountered in the real world. Being able to take an idea and build it into a functional, user-friendly product that makes people’s lives easier gives me great satisfaction.
At the same time, as a UIUX Designer, I not only design visually, but I also need to think about and understand the needs of users. I need to constantly analyze and test to obtain strong data support for my visual design, so as to further improve our design. Products can make our products successful. This balance of rationality and sensibility can keep my work exciting and energetic, allowing me to gain greater passion to continue working.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://lanmengdesign.com/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mlan14/
- Other: Dribbble:https://dribbble.com/mlan14