Work

For this project we created a dynamic, interactive scenery of colours which could be influenced by the movement, speed and position of passersby. The visitors are (subconsciously) making a dynamic ‘painting’, and in the process creating a performance for the lounging people in the surrounding area of the playground. The ‘painting’ is created through the collaboration of the movements of visitors, either consciously or unconsciously involved in the game.
All individual parts of the concept already existed; The Luminous Textile Panels (LTP) by Philips, Kinect Sensor from Microsoft, Processing and theKinect Library . The combination of these parts created a whole new platform for giving shape to an unlimited number of interactive activities and visualizations. This also means there was no (real) final design, it was evolving every day it was exhibited at the STRP-festival (and still is in our minds).

Presently, mobile devices and computers are deeply intertwined with our lives. Inspired by quadrocopters, we saw the next step in the evolution of how we connect and interact to the world wide web. Bridging the gap between the Internet and us, fast flying personal assistants can act as hosts for digital identities, replacing our current fixation on hand held devices and screens. The quadrocopters can be equipped with all kinds of gadgets making them useful for work, social life and personal business. For example, quadrocopters with projection capabilities could display information, or create interfaces. These devices could process information and respond to an ever growing range of situations, from medical emergencies, to natural disasters.The robots could maintain a network with relevant data about current situations that require attention. Behaving like locusts by working in extreme numbers, major emergencies like tsunamis could be significantly deterred by creating a barrier to break the impact. These robots are shared so they can work together to form a new skin.

With the Musicionet I made a musical instrument that uses the input from other instruments to visualize and emphasize the musical communication between instrumentalist. The intention is to, like a conductor, be able to let the musicians who are connected to each other influence their own musical building blocks. Caused by their own body movements musicians are able to manipulate the volume, pitch or tempo from their own, but also the other’s instrument. . In this way you get the same interaction as jazz musicians have when they pass their improvised solo to one and another. The physical connection that is represented by the elastic wire make the musicians more aware of their body movement while making music, and the importance of it in relation to how the music is expressed. Within a group setting the Musicionet creates a physical awareness that improves the interaction while playing together.

Theoretically 1 out of 5 people will get dementia when growing older. This means that currently about 35,6 million people worldwide suffer from dementia. Since the word population is aging this number will be doubled by 2030 and more than tripled by 2050. In this project the task for designers is to come up with an intervention that can contribute to people suffering from dementia in order to be able to stay in their home environment for a longer period of time.As a final result of the project I made a service that contains a toolbox which is used to creatively visualize the past of a person with dementia. This information is used to stimulate physical and mental activity in a social context. By collecting these activities as new memories the toolbox makes helpful information accessible in an active and creative way when there is a next step of care needed.

During my internship I discovered how my gained knowledge at Industrial Design could contribute withing a real company. With my knowledge of persona development and other principles of UFP assignments I managed to create user-journeys and wire frames that serve as the basic of designing digital experiences. I could add value by inventing new methods (paper prototyping) and learn from new techniques and methods (website audits). After the first few weeks I got assigned to a real client for which, through several meetings, I redesigned their digital experience by doing an audit and wire framing new user-journeys. Gaining more and more knowledge gave me the possibility to help with writing a white paper. Since the company is still very young I got the possibility to help formulate their market position within their industry.

Co-creation was an important aspect of my process. I used a principle of my vision to let participants generate information in a co-reflection session.

Implementing my assignment in my project helped creating the right mindset to start the development of my concept.

The research that was done in the different phases was always a combination of internet reserach but also literature and exploring with visual material.

Experimening with simple tools like LEGO helped a lot in the development process. Using creative tools in one of the things that enriched my design process.

Sketching out the mechanical structure that I had in my mind helped communicating my idea to others so I could get useful feedback on certain improvements.

The complicated prototype resulted for an building flow during the last weeks of the project. However, it was difficult for me to look back to the research during this intense period.

The hard work payed off and I was able to present a working prototype during the exhibition.

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The project Connected to Light was brought to life to improve the interactive experience of the Philips Hue Lighting System. In order to let a user benefit from the increasing freedom of this kind of novel lighting technology and control multiple parameters of the system there is need a new kind of user interfaces. Through researching and designing in an iterative process it is possible to come up with a solution that offers more meaning than the existing smart-phone interface.

In order to define my personal design approach it was necessary to become more conscious of the process towards this proposal. Therefore I introduced an existing design method (double diamond [link]) in order to create the possibility for adapting and personalising this approach. By doing this I could implement an iterative process that allows for reflection afterwards. However, I did not use my time to present a clear conclusion of the research. Instead I jumped from paper to paper to gather as much input as possible. I noticed myself that this could negatively influence the continuity of the process when needing the output of a previous iteration in order to start with a new one. I found out that it with setting weekly objectives and discussing these events during coach meetings I helped myself moving on.

By not defining the exact path of the semester but using the double diamond as a hand-held I developed my learning rather than showing all the skills of the past. This experimental way of working made the results of the project directing towards a unclear end. It was clear that I was not going to end with a product fit for the market but rather with a tool to validate the research that was done. That undefined closure could therefore be interpreted as an open ending or unresolved ending. With working towards a proposal and a research question I steered the project towards a stepping stone for a next phase and with that an opening towards a next research project. In this way I could focus on the complexity of the prototype and how this represents the research.

Concerning the condition of the previous semester I made sure that there was enough attention for the academic attitude within the project. This meant that there was a lot of time invested in paper research and design approaches. Therefore the emphasis of the academic attention laid more on the input side of the project than on the output side. As a result of this there was a clear division in the type of input and output. However I was fully aware that this happened it was not optimal for the flow of things. Especially during the making process it was hard to simultaneously look back and connect the output to the theory. To improve this I need to adapt the methodologies of the develop and deliver phase and go back and forth between those stages to balance out the process.

Working on different case studies during the assignment I discovered the extremes of co-creation and how everything fitted in between.

Presenting the insights of the case studies caused discussion among the other students and helped shaping our definitions.

Using new kind of tools gave me insight in how a social project with multiple stakeholders and revenue streams could work in the real world.

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The main drive for choosing the assignment co-creation was the relation to my vision on designing. The past three years at Industrial Design directed me towards a perspective that focuses on understanding the needs, behaviour and motivation of the user. As I state in this vision I believe that designers have the responsibility to co-create with their audience and use this input to design products and services that fit with their requirements. This assignment was needed to get a clear view on the different aspects of co-creation and find a definition that fits my perception of all co-x elements in design. The quest towards this understanding became a co-creation on itself. By actively participating during the lectures, using the input of other students, papers and the lecturer I gradually forced myself to make consideration about a.o. co-design, co-production and co-creation. The different case studies during the assignment sketched an image of the extremes and how everything fitted in between them, including my B22 project [link]. With the interpretation of these cases I was able to reveal that I am not afraid to show a certain level of abstraction and colour outside the lines when delivering this interpretation (S. Mulder). As in my project I got insight in how the created vision on a design approach could be valuable within a business model. I saw how the co-creation of value could serve as a value proposition and be fitted within a financial model. With tools of the Board of Innovation I could place my ideas into a real life situation with multiple stakeholders and revenue streams. Therefore the assignment helped me to concretise and synthesize my vision by using real life cases and theoretical material. Although the outcome would become open and free for interpretation I managed to rely on the process and take action to influence the outcome towards a desired result.

Co-creation was an important aspect of my process. I used a principle of my vision to let participants generate information in a co-reflection session. 2

With learning the techniques my visual communication made strong progress. I surprised myself with the results.

Combining exploring and communication makes a pen and a sheet of paper a much more powerful tool. Now you can show where ideas come from in a presentable way.

I liked to push myself a bit and go for rather difficult exercises. In this way I wanted to see what my limitations were.

The combination of the different techniques helped becoming more fluent in both mindsets. However, I have to keep practicing to speed up the creating and rendering processes.

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The goal of doing this assignment was initially to learn proper sketching techniques. I believe that being in the creative industry requires a certain skill to communicate your ideas and concepts. With learning sketching I wanted to make visual representations that can fill the imagination of my audience. However, I quickly discovered that the main focus for me was not to learn specific skills but rather conveying a certain mindset with the appropriate tools and techniques. By introducing two different domains, namely exploratory and communicative, my pen suddenly became a much more powerful tool. During the exercises within this first stage I used the tips and tricks to generate a creative mindset and applying that blue pencil to experiment with my creativity. When then switching to the communicative mindset I formed the ability to translate the scribbles and sketches into an appealing and effective visual. Switching between these two stages was a continuous process during the assignment while while with every repetition I learned new techniques that helped building confidence in these domains. The flow that was the result of this process could be used beneficially within my project. The exploratory mindset was implemented during the develop stage and was very fruitful concerning the evolvement of the concept. At the end the value of the assignment for me was this beforementioned mindset that enriched my way of working.

Working in a team with people that have different backgrounds can result in a diverse and innovative concept. It felt good to work in a team during an individual project.

User shadowing felt in the first place a bit like stalking. It gave however the desired results, especially when we started combined the insights of each other.

Although people in the first place think you try to sell something they like to open up if you explain what you are doing. It felt that they respect the fact that you take initiative to do something.

Presenting in a creative way helped our audience to engage with our concept. By letting them role play in a certain context we communicated the essential value of the design proposal.

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In order to add to my experience with social design I participated in the workshop ‘Design to Impact’ that was organised by ‘Het T-HUIS’ in Eindhoven. During this three-day workshop I worked on a real life design case within a multidisciplinary group of four people. Through several lectures I got introduced to different kind of design and research tools that were used during the first phase of the workshop. The intention of this phase was to identify the possibility for a design intervention at the ‘Woenselse Markt’. This weekly market attracts about 40.000 visitors on a good day and these visitors are a mix of different cultures. We observed these people by user shadowing and interviewing visitors about their experience and motives for going to the market. Next, we evaluated the results of every team member and presented the result back to the rest of the participants to find four different directions with possibilities. We chose to investigate the misused purpose of the meeting spot while trying to incorporate the surrounding shop owners.
In the second phase of the workshop I had to use my creative thinking to design a research method that allowed us to engage with the visitors so we could find out how they experience different parts of the market. I found it satisfying to see that this type of designing can lead to tools that help retrieve information. This type of designing was the start of my new view on my own design approach. For the workshop we came up with physical map of the ‘Woenselse Markt’ and different labels concerning a certain mood related to a spot. With that map we went on the street and asked people to point out where they spend most of their time, what they find the most unpleasant spot etc. This led to a semi-structured discussion that gave us valuable information. When again presenting this back to the group we got feedback to formulate our challenge; improving the livelihood of the market by offering a moment of relaxation through the involvement of surrounding facilities. As a solution we came up with the idea to make the empty spots on the market available for a stall owner for free if they collaborate with one of the surrounding shops and together facilitate a spot where visitors could have a break. In order to come to this idea I had to think outside of normal product design and rather with a service design mind. The concept was presented to the group and a panel of experts by letting them role play the situation. Half of the group were specific stall owners while the other half were shop owners from one of the surrounding facilities. By letting them search for a suitable collaboration and motivate their choice we explained how the idea would work in practice. The combination of user research, designing research tools and service design thinking stimulated my creative thinking and showed me the value of designing interventions for social relevant issues. I saw this weekend as a valuable addition to co-creation vision and an enrichment for my design approach.

Though a rather awkward situation in the beginning, we managed to find our common ground about a tampon. This immediately creates a bounding.

I notice I feel most comfortable and productive in a collaborative setting. This gives me to use the knowledge of others and combine this into a coherent train of thought.

Presenting is not scary anymore. I learned to open up for others and seeing the value of their feedback rather constructive than critical.

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In order to add to my experience with social design I participated in the workshop ‘Design to Impact’ that was organised by ‘Het T-HUIS’ in Eindhoven. During this three-day workshop I worked on a real life design case within a multidisciplinary group of four people. Through several lectures I got introduced to different kind of design and research tools that were used during the first phase of the workshop. The intention of this phase was to identify the possibility for a design intervention at the ‘Woenselse Markt’. This weekly market attracts about 40.000 visitors on a good day and these visitors are a mix of different cultures. We observed these people by user shadowing and interviewing visitors about their experience and motives for going to the market. Next, we evaluated the results of every team member and presented the result back to the rest of the participants to find four different directions with possibilities. We chose to investigate the misused purpose of the meeting spot while trying to incorporate the surrounding shop owners.
In the second phase of the workshop I had to use my creative thinking to design a research method that allowed us to engage with the visitors so we could find out how they experience different parts of the market. I found it satisfying to see that this type of designing can lead to tools that help retrieve information. This type of designing was the start of my new view on my own design approach. For the workshop we came up with physical map of the ‘Woenselse Markt’ and different labels concerning a certain mood related to a spot. With that map we went on the street and asked people to point out where they spend most of their time, what they find the most unpleasant spot etc. This led to a semi-structured discussion that gave us valuable information. When again presenting this back to the group we got feedback to formulate our challenge; improving the livelihood of the market by offering a moment of relaxation through the involvement of surrounding facilities. As a solution we came up with the idea to make the empty spots on the market available for a stall owner for free if they collaborate with one of the surrounding shops and together facilitate a spot where visitors could have a break. In order to come to this idea I had to think outside of normal product design and rather with a service design mind. The concept was presented to the group and a panel of experts by letting them role play the situation. Half of the group were specific stall owners while the other half were shop owners from one of the surrounding facilities. By letting them search for a suitable collaboration and motivate their choice we explained how the idea would work in practice. The combination of user research, designing research tools and service design thinking stimulated my creative thinking and showed me the value of designing interventions for social relevant issues. I saw this weekend as a valuable addition to co-creation vision and an enrichment for my design approach.

For a innovative Dutch Lighting Company, NDF, I branded their new product by making a brochure, website, the packaging and advertisement. (see www.caretlight.eu)

Where I come from we celebrate 55 years of carnaval with a party weekend. To gain publicity I designed the leaflets, posters and website for. (see www.feest55.nl)

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The theory of Kintsch and Van Dijk (1983) describes the complete reading process, from recognizing words until constructing a representation of the meaning of the text.

Since I want to improve both my writing skills and presenting skills I decided to dive into the theory of text structure. This was based on a tip of an earlier assessment. In this way I wanted to find out how I can improve my natural flow while both writing and presenting. To do so I used Kintsch' Construction-Integration Model for Text Comprehension. Just like in high school I used their theory to start analysisng text. I could apply this practice on the papers I was reading for my research as well as on the text I was writing for different small presentations. For the first time I now started writing with an opening, body and closing structure. I wrote, and rewrote several short paragraphs in a logical flow. When actually practicing this text for presentation I noticed how logical it sounds when writing. Looking towards my research semester I would like to write my report as of it was a paper. To do so this skill needs practice. As I am writing for example my reflections I am more aware of what I am writing but also how I am writing. Therefore I have to keep in mind this theory while both reading and writing during my academic development.