Natasha Sonya Lee

I am a designer, a genuine communicator who seeks to strike a balance between being logical and sentimental to solve the right problems and deliver smart solutions.

As a former architecture student, my design philosophy is to create meaningful, influential, and innovative spaces, and have consistently adopted an analytical human-centered approach. I am inspired to translate such design thinking into actions – to truly accommodate users’ needs. Therefore, I further pursued studies in the art of designing services and delivering influences.

At the RCA, I developed my personal practice to identify real-world needs, discover gaps in existing systems, and create tailored solutions. With my innate empathy, curiosity and vivacity, I aspire to transform services and experiences objectively with the right meaning. I currently work as an UX designer at PUBLIC, working to implement design thinking in transforming public services.

Growing up in a chaotic and charismatic city like Hong Kong, I have always been an observer and listener. I often see doubtful decisions made by supposedly the smartest people, and wonder what could have been done differently. Hoping to solve challenges smarter and make people’s life easier. My naive childhood dream was to become a clown, eagerly wanting to put a smile on someone’s face. I still hold the same beliefs today, but I learnt that being a clown might not be the most efficient way, and that is why I am here as a service designer.

Cyched! is a service and community that takes Curious Newcomers, Anxious Not-So-Safers, Cautious Need-A-Refreshers, Cool Cafe Hoppers and Casual Neighbourhood Riders on thoughtfully-designed safe and scenic rides in London, helping them get comfortable and confident cycling, all while cruising around the city. Our mission is simple—to create a diverse cycling culture in London by enabling more people to cycle.

We leverage on the intrigue of place-exploration as the pull factor to encourage new and existing residents to get on bikes, and the assurance of a positive first experience to enable them to gain familiarity of their environment, regain cycling confidence and overcome their psychological barrier of cycling in London.

Collaborators: Serene Yap

Partners: Peddle My Wheels

Alternative to Recall - Conversation as a Practice, media item 2

Conversation as a Practice was created in partnership with Catch22, a social not-for-profit business that designs and delivers public services, with a focus on building resilience within communities. We supported Catch22 in delivering the ACE Pilot Scheme to the Ministry of Justice; the programme aims to reduce the number of individuals being recalled back to custody due to non-compliance with their license conditions. Working closely with prison leavers and probation staff, our role was to collaborate with Catch22 in conducting our own research and uncover new insights to be incorporated into the delivery of the pilot.

Based upon 10 weeks of research and working with prison leavers and probation staff, we have designed the “Conversation as a Practice'' framework, to facilitate dialogues between navigator mentor and service users that involve active listening and care. Conversation as a Practice has been implemented into the pilot programme by Catch22 and is currently being tested with service users as part of the pilot.

Collaborators: Anchit Som, Serene Yap, Sarah Morse, Signe Williams

Partners: Catch22, Ministry of Justice

Converation Dialogue Policy Probation Service Public Sector

Woomool was created in partnership with NHSX, with the goal to develop a digital tool to promote mental wellbeing among children and young people. Our solution aims at working on a prevention and intervention level to tackle the problem, as 75% of mental health problems are established by age 24. We learned about the importance of emotional expression in emotion regulation, and its benefits in maintaining good mental health through secondary research.

And further explored the reasons behind why young adults are unwilling to express emotions through conducting interviews and workshops with users. Which led us to set our core value and designed a framework to encourage emotional expression by providing a visualised way for expressions to aid users understand their own emotions and to explore an individual's need for emotional expressions.

Collaborators: Chenxian Meng, Chuntian Hu, Fei Long, Xiao Zhong, Ziwei Tang

Partners: NHSX

Children Emotions Mental Health Self Expression

Natasha Sonya Lee

Social

About

Royal College of Art