Dashboard

I believe that the world is in need for more creativity. We are facing a set of social, environmental and economic problems which aren’t going to be solved in the traditional manner. I want to design for a new model of innovation in which collaboration and social renewal are key. With new policy and tools I want to stimulate self-empowerment and improved ways of creating value.

VISION

I see myself as a facilitator of creative thinking. Using my ability to bring people together and analyse a chaos of opinions I can methodologically let people be the creators in the context of their own life.

IDENTITY

Hello! I am Tom van ‘t Westeinde, Master student Industrial Design. On this website you can find everything that has to do with the development during my M1.2 semester.

Here on the dashboard you will find an overview of the parts that make me the designer I am today. Each panel contains a short summary of a specific element that has been developed during this semester and goes with the appropriate links that will guide you to more in depth evidence.

After exploring the panels you can continue onto my vision to see what I would like to do and why. On that same page you will find my identity in which I will tell you how I think that I can achieve the things I want to do with my vision. Furthermore there is a growth page that gives the complete overview of my personal development based on the goals for this semester. Finally the activities that made the development possible are put together for reference.

INTRODUCTION

I deliberately had chosen to do a project in which I could explore my development towards my FMP. I had the possibility to find my way as a designer in society while facilitating a design thinking vision in a multi-stakeholder collaboration. I emerged in a societal context and searched how I would fit in a network of bottom-up and top-down approaches to societal challenges.

PRESENT

PAST

An 'identity crisis' at the end of my Bachelor made that I opened myself up at the beginning of my Master to redefine myself as a designer. Was I really as analytical as I said I liked to be or am I still someone who like to work with his hands? Doing a research semester has given me the answers I looked for.

The core of my conditional could be found in the lack of abstraction in writing my reflections. The academic writing I did for the research paper was in huge contrast with the mind dump approach I had for describing my activities. In this way I missed the zoomed out perspective of these activities and the essence of my learning. At the beginning of this semester I started to use an in-action and on-action approach to tackle this problem. I started to document my daily activities and with help of my coach I began to see how I was reflecting in a conversational matter. Together with a new approach of making this showcase I turned around my way of working and set up a new way of reflecting.

CONDITIONAL

TOM VAN 'T WESTEINDE

My main personal characteristics that I have developed this semester relative to each other:

analytical

empathic

motivated

open

reflective

cooperative

With a suitcase full of new experiences I am ready to start the final part of my studies. One year left of experimenting and defining myself before I can start in the 'real world'. Working with a client is for me essential to make that gap as small as possible. By using existing connections and making new ones in a multi-disciplinairy eco-system I will use this year to proof myself worthy as the designer I want to be.

FUTURE

COMPETENCY PROFILE

This is an overview of my competency profile. With every competency goes a short description and links to activities that will give a quick overview of my current competency status and development, compared to each other.

SELF-DIRECTED AND CONTINUOUS LEARNING
As the core competency of our educational model it has always been one I valued. It has showed me the importance of a reflecting attitude and has been a major influence on my vision development in the last few semesters. Now that I have been shaped by this way of learning I think it is partly my role as a designer to pass this on to other disciplines and show a new perspective on dealing with societal challenges.
IDEAS AND CONCEPTS
Since I have been developing an identity with which I work mainly in the front-end of design this competency has become one of my core skills. The idea generating processes I have used over the years have been coming closer to the creative processes that I aim to facilitate as a designer. I am gaining more and more methodological skills in order to let people be the creators in the context of their own life.
INTEGRATING TECHNOLOGY
Although I have become known with the possibilities and need for technology I often rather had the tendency to completely lose myself in figuring out every small detail. I however do like to implement technology when this is a logical step in the design process. While last semester a bit too much focus laid on figuring out circuits and code this semester it has completely not found any place. This has to be balanced in my FMP.
USER FOCUS AND PERSPECTIVE
Together with an evolving vision on design my own perception of this competency has shifted from an end-user-testing approach to a more participatory-user-involvement approach. I have gained knowledge in the basics of social psychology and the behaviour of people in regard to social design. Together with the competency socio-cultural awareness this has grown into one of the core skills for me as a designer and as a person.
SOCIO-CULTURAL AWARENESS
Although I always saw it as a minor part of design this skill has made me into the socially sensitive person that I need to be for my identity. I have seen people's individual potential based on their background and how their experiences can be of value in a design process. I developed the skill to use these experiences, come to insights and give back a valuable intervention that they can relate to.
DESIGNING BUSINESS PROCESSES
I always had to force myself to implement aspects of this competency in my design process. I came to realise that the market perspective you develop is one of the things that makes a design process realistic. Especially when designing in the field of social design there is still a lot to discover and I think I can also bring innovation to the traditional business models. Therefore, having a client for my FMP is necessary for my growth.
FORM AND SENSES
From an aesthetic point of view I have only been forming minor sensitivities when it comes to prototyping. However I have always found great pleasure in the graphic design of all kinds of communication material. The senses part has gained more interest when I started to see the abilities of our bodies when it comes to our behaviour, actions and skills. Using senses to explore and see differently has lead to a new richness while designing.
DESCRIPTIVE AND MATHEMATICAL MODELLING
Stating that you don't like the things you are not good at does not apply for me on this competency. It is however not a secret that I have difficulties with fully incorporating programming, 3D-modelling and statistics. Throughout the semesters I do have made myself aware of the possibilities and value of these skills but I have never gained sufficient knowledge to do it all myself. Therefore this competency is like my French; I understand it when I see it, but I can't speak it myself.
DESIGN AND RESEARCH PROCESSES
I have developed a strong preference for doing research as a knowledge-builder about the subject domain but moreover I have been focussing on understanding, contextualizing and inventing new methods. Although I could not fully place it during my Bachelor, my research semester has shown me how I can contribute to a design and research community. It made me think about what design is for me and which abilities I need to develop in order to become a designer within our society.
TEAMWORK
I am convinced that I cannot work alone. Besides that I see it as my role to be a connector of different disciplines and work to collective goals I feel that I perform better when I work in a team of motivated people. I have shown that I can deal with group dynamics and define roles and responsibilities. Meanwhile I have become an open person and always looking for unexpected input, feedback and critique from my coach, experts and stakeholders.
COMMUNICATION
The many aspects of communication have been an ongoing and parallel process in the past semesters. While working on strong graphical skills has become a natural process the way I communicate my learning is still in progress. I am working on making concise and on-point reflections that capture the essence of my development. Also I am working on selling a product and convincing potential clients since this requires more than only presenting my process or visuals to others.

EXTRA-CURRICULAR

Many of my extra-curricular activities have been closely related to my development in social design. I have joined the creative pool of social design collective 'Tante Netty', did a 7-week online IDEO course in Human Centred Design and presented my research paper at a student conference in Denmark. Furthermore I am busy with organising a TEDx event during the Dutch Design Week as the main activity of the study association to show how we can deal with the changes of the current transformation society.

MODULES

The three modules I did this semester each focused on a different aspect I wanted to develop. With Mental Models I broadened my interest in the workings of the human brain and the corresponding theoretical models. During Poetry in Design I focused on the abstract qualities and values of poetry and culture to fuel the re-design of a product. Finally, with Planning for a Design Start-up I have learned how a hypothesis-driven start-up approach could bring health data products to the market.

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Tom van 't Westeinde // 2015