Lake Cam's journey at CapU’s Interaction Design diploma program highlights mentorship, creativity, and adaptability in design
Lake is a Malaysian UX Designer with over two years of experience, specializing in insurance software. He levelled up his skills by completing a two-year Interaction Design diploma at Capilano University (CapU), where mentorship and hands-on projects were game-changers. One of his standout projects? A quirky e-commerce design mixed with a magical relics theme—think real-world meets fantasy vibes—that totally pushed his creativity.
Key takeaways? Regular feedback from professors, balancing work and school like a pro, and ditching constraints early on to avoid creative blocks. Lake’s design philosophy is all about evolution—design is never done and has to keep up with the world. His dream? To become a product designer focused on design systems and governance, making sure interfaces are sleek, on-brand, and super accessible.
Lake’s portfolio is packed with cool projects, like an eCommerce prototype, a car infotainment system, and a responsive insurance site, all built during courses that sharpened his motion design, storytelling, and interface skills. Basically, he’s all about creating designs that are as functional as they are fresh.
Introduction
Bonjour, hi, I’m Lake! I’m a UX Designer with over 2 years of experience in designing insurance software and an interaction design student. I am super fascinated with how information found in social sciences, such as psychology, anthropology, and sociology, can be utilized to design trustworthy and secure software. Oh, and I forgot to mention, I’m Malaysian! 🇲🇾
Why did you choose the two-year Interaction Design diploma program at CapU?
This has been several years in the making. I had been interested in going to design school back when I was attending the University of British Columbia, and during my research, I found out about the IDEA School of Design and the incredible visual design work that was coming out of the program. I eventually started working in various communications-related jobs, slowly integrating design more and more into the scope of my jobs before stumbling on my current role as a UX Designer. I felt that I was still missing a lot of the fundamental knowledge and mentorship in design that one could only really gain via design education. It was then that I received a newsletter in my email inbox advertising the interaction design program, and it just felt right.
About IDEA School of Design at Capilano University
IDEA School of Design offers two career-oriented programs for the next generation of creative professionals.
The Bachelor Of Design In Visual Communication is a four-year undergraduate degree with a variety of career outcomes in the creative field. Students can specialize in branding, Illustration or interactive design in upper years.
The Interaction Design Diploma is a two-year program with career outcomes in the field of digital product design and user experience. The focus is on creativity, design thinking, and problem-solving.
What was a highlight during your time at CapU? Can you describe a single experience you found to be memorable or impactful?
The biggest highlights were being mentored by the professors and getting their guidance on project execution and polishing the finer details. One memory that stands out was last semester, when I was studying motion design as someone who had never tried motion design before. I knew that I had to tackle learning such a new skill head-on and schedule regular check-ins with my professors to review work ahead of any deadlines.
While this setup is my usual go-to as a student, I wanted to push my creative muscle further by combining a real-world topic (e-commerce web design) with a more whimsical theme (magical relics and ancient items), experimenting in a way that I could as a student but not in my workplace. A lot of the critique when it came to my work stemmed from my lack of taking risks in my designs and I wanted to dismantle that habit for myself. To execute my vision, I had to also learn additional software, on top of the ones covered in the course, and while the result isn’t perfect, it helped me create work that stretched the boundaries of what I perceived my creativity ceiling to be.
Featured Work
“Mystic Mavens”
eCommerce Design Prototype
A design that mixes both a real-world interface (eCommerce web design) with a more peculiar whimsical theme (magical relics and ancient artifacts)
Instructor: George Papazian
About the course
IXD 203 Motion and Interaction Design introduces students to motion design for screen-based interaction elements and digital storytelling. Students will examine the user experience principles of motion design as well as the social impact of digital storytelling. Students gain technical knowledge in image-making software and coding for dynamic media.
“Bonobo”
Infotainment System Prototype
A car infotainment system that can take you where you need to go based on your events calendar
Instructor: George Papazian
About the course
IXD 203 Motion and Interaction Design introduces students to motion design for screen-based interaction elements and digital storytelling. Students will examine the user experience principles of motion design as well as the social impact of digital storytelling. Students gain technical knowledge in image-making software and coding for dynamic media.
“Oval Insurance”
Mobile Web Design
Responsive website of an insurance company named ‘Oval Insurance’ in the mobile viewport
Instructor: Christina Lee Kim Koon
About the course
IXD 107 Visual Design II focuses on developing advanced skills in the software used to design and prototype digital interfaces and experiences. Students will study critical patterns used in interface design combined with digital accessibility best practices. This course examines design solutions that promote environmental, cultural, social, and economic responsibility.
What are the top 3 takeaways lessons or skills you learned while studying here?
Always schedule regular check-ins with professors in advance of any major deadlines because they are there to guide and mentor you, and their feedback not only helps you with submitting better work but also helps you in your career long term.
Working and attending classes at the same time is definitely achievable but to do so and excel at both, requires regularly blocking out chunks of your calendar as ‘focused schoolwork time’, and taking mental breaks, meaning no social media scrolling, or Wikipedia rabbit holes, but rather, taking naps, meditating, going for a massage, whatever soothes the brain!
It’s so important to just design without constraints and without looking back for the first iteration of a project, not only does this minimize designer’s block, it’s also much easier to correct an initial draft, than it is to make a perfect design on the first go-around.
What is your current design philosophy – what do you believe in?
That there is no finality in design. Society and what is considered a convention is always shifting and evolving, and design must evolve alongside it.
What are your future career goals?
To be a product designer specializing in design systems and governance. I believe that a strong user interface should be both modular and aligned with branding because it often represents only one of the many touchpoints in an organization’s workflow, so it’s vital to have a design system that is brand-informed and accessibility-tested.
You recently transferred into the third year of IDEA School of Design's Bachelor of Design, what are you looking forward to?
I’m definitely excited to continue experimenting with my design practice under the guidance of the wonderful IDEA School of Design instructors. I’m also looking forward to being inspired by the IDEA School of Design student community. This is especially because as an interaction design student, I’m based in the Lonsdale campus, which is a bit removed from the larger IDEA student body at the main campus, thus, I’m very thrilled to be more integrated into the community!
