Present
Expertise area’s
Creativity & Aesthetics
Due to my personal interest in creative practicalities since I was young, I have spent a lot of time exploring this field growing up. Accordingly, I have learned that making mistakes and spending time and effort researching subjects is necessary to gain experience. Starting at the TU/e caused a new insight in relation to this area of expertise. I realized that with the substantial amount of designers in this field, creating original work is a significant challenge. However, by regularly thinking creatively about aspects in your daily life, gaining knowledge, and understanding how concepts work, I believe the chances are higher to succeed in crafting creatively in the future. Therefore, in relation to my future endeavors, I would like to be able to fall back on this experience.
Furthermore, I believe aesthetics in design has the power to inspire interaction or communicate a purpose with visual stimuli. An example project where these aspects had been applied on a profound level was the project JESI Visualizing Fruit Freshness. By solely displaying colors, recognition of fruit freshness could be established with the eventual purpose of reducing fruit waste in Dutch households.
Technology & Realization
During the project ‘The world is wired’, a first understanding in regards to electrical circuits and technological components had been established. Due to this first encounter, the value of developing more knowledge in this field had been recognized. Namely, technological implementations in a design concept could be the key to realizing intended and visualized notions. Following courses like ‘Creative Electronics’ and ‘Applied natural sciences’ at the TU/e, caused this first step towards expanding my knowledge in this domain. Consequently, learning different kinds of technological-related elements on a more advanced level made it possible to realize the ideated constructed designs. For example, the controlled pressure sensor sewed in the pressure-sensitive pillow of the project ‘Pillow Talk’ made it possible to time how long employees of the HTC were seated behind their desks and increase the vitality in the workplace. Also, a mechanical construction including a servomotor made it possible to open and close 6 petals of a tangible flower destined for elderly with dementia. Since this area of expertise evolves over time, I would like to make a consistent effort in staying abreast with new developments in the field of technological innovation, also addressing the theoretical aspect. Subsequently, I won’t be constrained by my own enactment in terms of potential prospects in the future.
Business & Entrepreneurship
The fundamentals of both introducing products to the market and the significance of preserving intellectual property rights (IPRs) had been acquired by following the course “Introduction to Business Design”. I have learned that in order to effectively be original and launch products at the right moment, knowledge with respect to these concepts is essential. Minor experience in this area of expertise had already been attained in the process of collecting sponsors in the past. During conversations with several companies, I learned that good communication, explaining ideas and what you gain from the collaboration is important. Furthermore, in previous design projects, the business & entrepreneurship aspect is mostly applied to developing a brand, creating a logo, and developing a business model canvas. An example of a created brand can be seen in the project ‘Embrace’, where the logo aesthetic can be recognized in the shape of the designed bracelet, intended to be wrapped around the user’s wrist.
Math Data & Computing
Due to following the courses ‘Creative Programming’ and ‘Data analytics for Engineers’ at the TU/e, I have learned the basics of writing code using the software programs python and Arduino. By doing so, it was noted that clearly structuring your code is advantageous for your own understanding and communication with others. Furthermore, in the course ‘Data analytics for Engineers’, I have learned to process large amounts of data into appropriate visualizations. An example of where I used this skill, is the last course out of a total 3-course USE learning line. Here, I was able to create multiple geographical maps from a marathon, due to the gained experience in python.
Because I am inspired by technologically advanced designs, I frequently accepted this responsibility in cooperative projects. Consequently, during the design process of my FBP, I was able to fall back on previous experiences, such as working with LED’s, developing an app, and programming an RFID tag. Additionally, due to following the course ‘Calculus’ I was able to employ new formulas, which expanded the possibilities for coding in general.
User & Society
I’ve always been curious about human psychology in general, the reasons behind people’s decisions, and e.g. the controversy of nature vs. nurture. Therefore, following the course ‘User centered design’ at the TU/e sparked my intention, as these topics were elaborated. Furthermore, addressed in this course, is how to set-up an illustrated journey map, which addresses each step a user makes in regard to a design. This is an element I incorporate into every design project that I create, as many iterations can be envisioned after a comprehensive analysis. Additionally, the more advanced course ‘User evaluation methods’ tackles every possibility in investigating the user with a user test. In the following projects therefore, I have been able to apply the correct method, and use valid results. For example, considering the duration of the study survey, I created a digital online questionnaire for my FBP to investigate the relationship between fruit types and multiple visual colors.