Erik is thrilled to be back in NUS, where he started his design studies in 2002 and also met the love of his life.

While doing his doctoral study, Erik continues to teach User Experience and Product Design in Singapore Polytechnic. In his 10-years of teaching design, Erik has led numerous projects across different disciplines, from designing lifestyle consumer products, to food, to mobile applications, as well as retail experiences and services.

Apart from school and work, Erik treasures his time most with his wife and two children.

His favourite design principle:
“Build digital services, not websites”
- by the Government Digital Services, United Kingdom

Research abstract: 

Two shifts are under way in the design world in Singapore. Firstly, with more multinational corporations and innovation service firms building in-house design teams, many of today’s designers are working in multidisciplinary settings, whereby they need to marry their design skills with different domain knowledge. Secondly, there is a bigger push for non-design professionals to pick up the knowledge and practice of design thinking. This is because the next generation of Singapore’s workforce will require not only a strong foundation in professional skills but also in design innovation skills. To address these shifts, it would be necessary to review the design education in Singapore. Being in the design education for almost a decade, it is in my interest to use my Ph.D. research as an avenue to gather data and insights that can be beneficial to organisations and individuals to enable them to make better informed decisions in the areas of design education, training and career advancements.