Professional Identity
I am a designer who wants to focus on creating tangible human-computer interactions. I do this using the tools learnt at the TU/e, using them to discover the most significant interaction-possibilities. I prefer to do this in a hands-on capacity: creating and, more importantly, experiencing mine and other’s prototypes.
I have also done this in my work experience, where I encounter different (IT-)products and experience how they are designed. For example, in my work at Uw Computerstudent, I see a lot of different products and more specifically the users experience with using those products. In my work as a student-driver, I also encounter and experience firsthand a broad range of different driver interactions.
I am always curious to expand my knowledge on most subjects and to learn new tools for ideating and realizing prototypes. I like to teach myself new prototyping skills that are beneficial for a single or multiple projects and though I’m not proficient in every tool, I can quickly learn new skills.
I am optimistic and realistic and can quickly identify the best approach to problems and identify pitfalls in projects. I am not overly confident, but I appreciate any feedback on how I can improve my projects or methods. Overall, I am an enthusiastic and creative designer, with a broad skill set and the mindset that anything is possible.
Professional vision
Technology is becoming increasingly important in new designs, and I believe that designs can improve by using technology and data in the right way. I believe technology-driven design should improve life by making it easier & more practical, healthier and safer.
Though this is a good endeavor, it also poses a huge challenge: capturing technology in meaningful design is hard. More often than I’d like, new features and aesthetics suppress good, intuitive interactions. Without well designed interactions, the purpose of a product can be missed by users.
An example of this can be found in the car industry: with an increasing focus on minimalistic design and touch-screen consoles, important features are moved away from where the user expects them. For example, in Tesla Model 3’s, the windscreen wiper settings have been moved to the center console. If for some reason the automatic setting is not working as expected, the driver must take their eyes off the road to search for these settings in the console. This is a trend that many car designs are following.
Another challenge in combining technology with meaningful design, is using and presenting data. Presenting data can have mixed results, while it might seem clear for designers and data analysts, users can easily misinterpret graphs
[1].
A similar problem can be seen in the use of A.I. Though most LLM’s have warnings about wrong answers, many users tend to accept answers as the truth without realizing LLM’s only predict the most likely word based on the previous word.
This poses a responsibility for designers to design this in a meaningful way.
Skills & Competencies
Sketching & Visual Communication
CAD & 3D modeling
(In Autodesk or Solidworks)
Prototyping & Model-Making
(Creating physical prototypes)
Sustainability & Lifecycle Thinking
(eco-materials, design for disassembly)
Adobe programs
(Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign)
Prototyping with electronics
(Mostly Arduino)
Beginner
Intermediate
Proficient
Intermediate
Proficient
Advanced
Business & Entrepeneurship
Creativity & Aesthetics
Math, Data & Computing
Technology & Realization
User & Society
Intermediate
Proficient
Advanced
Advanced
Proficient