Past

Througout my bachelor Industrial Design I have been developing myself in 5 different areas of expertise. In this section I will go through all the areas and describe my personal growth. To develop myself I took different courses to gain knowledge and skills. This development helped me to see where my interests are in the field of design and where I still wanted to grow.

Want to know more about what I did during learning and how I implemented my knowledge? Visit my project page or the page about my current design implementations.

I developed a user-centered design approach by learning about how to involve users into the design process steps and how I, as a designer, am able to create a valuable product with the user at heart. With different study methods learned and used throughout the years I am able to explore the users’ thoughts and needs which can be used to develop any concept into a better user-centered design. When conducting research that involves users, several courses taught me skills on how to work ethically approved regarding privacy and data. I believe this is very important to give the participants a safe feeling. I experienced that working in such a way can make the participants feel at ease and that might result in better answers. It is interesting to combine these findings with relevant theoretical aspects.

Throughout the years I realized that user & society is a direction I like to focus on when designing anything. It might be because I often ask myself, why would I design something that the user cannot value? This is in line with my vision, where I mention that any design should be valuable for the user. Therefore this area was one of my focus areas during my bachelor.

I am aware that whenever you design something it might not fit everyone. Therefore it is interesting to research the right target user or to be able to use methods which enable me as a designer to satisfy all (or most of the) the stakeholders involved when using it. To research the stakeholders and users, I can make use of several user study methods. Some methods that I find interesting particularly are in-depth interviews, diary studies and photo safaris, for qualitative answers. For more quantitative research I learned several interview ways to gather numerical data.

The first time I worked with business perspectives was during the course Designing with and for Multiple Stakeholders and I also tried to implement this area in my first design project. Working on business tools enabled be to see the full picture, find a solution for missing parts, and create a complete design.

Next to several business models I learned about strategic design during the course Trends & Forecasting. This opened my eyes. With a bunch of new techniques/tools I learned how to analyze (competitive) markets and creatively come up with a business strategy to be prepared for the future. I was sad when this course ended, which empathized that I had to go on with learning about business strategies.

An interesting aspect, which combines this area with User & Society too, is the idea of creating a satisfying design for multiple stakeholders, who might want to gain conflicting values out of it. Over the years I developed interest and knowledge in taking all the stakeholders into account to create a valuable and strong design with a good business perspective.

The first course on this area represented a small design project: From idea to Design. Getting to know the design process, and learning how brainstorming and ideation can result in amazing ideas. Over the years, more courses added new knowledge to this field. And during my internship I was able to experience how these techniques are valuable in the ‘real’ design world. During this internship I also learned ‘hard’-skills like sketching, 3D modeling and I developed my graphical skills. These skills enabled me to translate my ideas and stories in multiple ways.

Brainstorming can be done with a paper and a pen, but Industrial Design taught me that brainstorming by making Low-Fi prototypes can work very effective too. This technique came into practice very much during the course Aesthetics of Interaction. By means of materials I brainstormed with 3D shapes to see what I had in my mind, to make an experiential prototype. By making the ideas in low quality, more ideas can be generated through quick validation and reflection.

Creativity and aesthetics can be used for more than just making and coloring. Throughout the years I realized  that creativity lies in the field of ideation and the aesthetics are not just for graphics and colors. Both aspects can be used as valuable tools to lift a design to another level. Throughout the years I developed techniques to be creative and use aesthetics that are focused on the user experience.

The idea of when something looks nice/pretty divers per person and the way a design looks should be dependent on the target group. I learned that by involving the target user and the context of usage, the look and feel of the design can be shaped to those needs. And the look and feel can also influence the way of how an interaction will go. I learned that with the right aesthetics, a designer can stir interaction and way of usage. It is quite interesting to use the aesthetic aspects as a research tool, to discover small adaptations in the live’s of a user.

I have made quite some prototypes during my bachelor. There is a great variance in techniques applied to them, which is mainly caused by the kinds of materials used and the knowledge gained over the years. My main realization skills are with fabrics, but to be able to work with different kinds of materials I learned different skills regarding working with other materials.

Technology and realization is not only about making a good looking prototype. It also encounters coding and electronics sometimes, to make the prototype a stand-alone object. Coding has not been my skill over the years, still I tried to update it and become better at it with the use of several courses I have been following. I realized that whenever I have to code something I have never done before, I find it very hard. Though, whenever an expert is guiding me in what I have to make I am able to code on my own and create something which works. This is the same with using electronics and building circuits. Expert help could come from peer students, for example.

I have always been intrigued about projects of fellow students where they combined coding and materialization. Next to that I envision a future where the old crafting techniques are being combined with new realization technologies. Therefore I choose the course Digital Craftsmanship, here I was able to learn how to combine the digital technologies with materials to create something unique. I learned that digital aspects (like code for example) can change material qualities.

To be able to design for reality I have to know how to deal with its complexity. Throughout several courses I learnt about computations and data analysis. With the knowledge from Data Analytics for Engineers for example, I am able to visualize complex (big) data files and do the right analysis for it. The right visualizations can reveal patterns in the data, which help with making right conclusions.  With right analysis methods, valuable information will be able to make further design decisions or to make the right conclusions.

During my bachelor studies I mainly generated new knowledge in courses which were part of the basic curriculum. Though, during several design projects and also my final bachelor project I have been working with data and its analysis. I am able to use several techniques like Python coding to analyze big (quantitative) data sheets. Also for qualitative data I am able to do the right analysis with for example theme categorization. But I am also able to analyze qualitative data with the use of theme analysis for example.

When working on digital analysis learned to annotate the meanings of certain pieces. This helps myself with understanding what I have been doing or as a start on what (for example) code should be doing. Annotations also help other to understand the things I used/made. During several projects I realized this more and more, because I worked with multiple people on the same calculations and codes. Time was saved whenever everyone annotated the things they had done correctly and understandable.

I learnt that data is extremely valuable the current days, due to the enormous amount of information it carries. I like using data for design decisions, with the ability to create a profitable or valuable design.