Previous | Next

My name is Yannick Brouwer, I am 19 years old and started this year as B1.1 student Industrial Design. I’m born in Rotterdam, moved my early years a few times across the country but ended up in a town near Rotterdam. In 2011 I finished my course at the ‘GSR Rotterdam’, I graduated on the courses science, chemistry, biology, mathematics, Dutch, English, German and art.

I’ve always been very curious and widely interested. As a young child I wanted to become an inventor or an archaeologist. From about 12 years old I was very interested in form giving, I read a lot of lifestyle magazines. When I started in first class I was already looking for a study and came across Industrial Design almost 6 years ago, the combination of creativity, sociology, technology and business attracted me. Secondary school never interested me that much, I wanted to explore things myself and not just listen to pre-prepared information. All my efforts during my secondary education like my profile choice were directed at my academic future.

I was convinced that I would attend Industrial Design in Delft or otherwise the Design Academy but last year I attended the open door day of the TU/e by accident. Here I found what I missed in the other studies, in Delft the creativity of making new products, on the Design Academy the substantiation and the research part. The project-based way of working suited my learning style and gives me the possibility to explore.

I am known as an information junkie and I’m constantly looking on the internet for new inspiration. I share the things I like by my blog. I’ve always been very interested in society and different cultures. In my free time I like to visit concerts and make music (funk, soul & jazz), hang out with friends, make pictures and making videos. For my graduation project on secondary school I did research about music marketing and I made a stop-motion music video for singer-songwriter Lucky Fonz III. I noticed how I like freedom in a project and that I become very enthusiastic. This was one of the most important reasons to go to Eindhoven.

Previous | Next

Identity

As a person I’ve always been widely interested and extremely curious. When I started on secondary school I was interested in technique and technology but in a few years it changed to a more social and creative perspective. Both my parents work in the social field, my father as forensic psychologist and my mother as a supervisor/coach. Social talk and direct communication were things I grew up with.

I am a team player, I like to get the best out of myself and the people in my team. I have a very outspoken character and I feel very responsible for the collective result. From my enthusiasm and my sense of responsibility I can be perfectionistic. According to the Kolb learning style test I am “learning by doing”. My explorative and intuitive way of working confirms this. Like I stated in my “Past” I think that this way of learning fits well with the education at TU/e.

I’m restless and constantly doing something else, 5 seconds focused on this and 5 seconds on that. It makes me chaotic but my restlessness also has positive effects. I’ve a big drive and I’m always busy, I switch easily between different tasks. I get a lot of opportunities and I grab everything possible because I love what I do at the moment and I’m eager to learn.

Vision

Design can create new opportunities and can improve the lives of human beings. Designs from which the entire society, and not only the elite, can benefit. For me design always starts from the side of the user. Because of the rapid changes in society you can’t just base your research on static data, you have to leave the comfort of your desk and go out, talking with users and other stakeholders.

Form giving for me is an important part of design, the looks and form of a product are the first interaction with the user. I like a minimal and fresh approach with pure materials like wood, aluminum and concrete. Combining production techniques with craftsmanship. Inspirational designers are for example Dieter Rams and Charles & Ray Eames .

As a designer you have the responsibility to care about the environment and better production methods. Design is a way to improve the life of people but if you break it at the other hand by demolishing the earth and exploitation of people it makes no sense. I have a drive to change the behavioral patterns of people and make them more aware about their way of consuming.

I think art is something interesting because it can change people, and in that way it can transform society. But what I often see is that art is just a statement of the artist. I have always been very interested in applied arts like design, filmmaking, advertising and documentary’s because the most important part is communicating your message to an audience.

I think that technology in design should be a valuable part in a coherent whole and not just an added part. I think that electronics should have less importance at our course and should only be implemented if it has a real added value. It often takes a lot of time and parts like user-research and form giving don’t get the attention they deserve. Integrating technology for me starts at the user. Looking what the user needs and wants, that is the only way to create valuable interaction.

Project

Feedback | Report

In our project Cultural Interventions we developed an object in outdoor space for the first step in informal communication between youngsters and the elderly. We started this project with a long orientation and research phase. The briefing had a lot of opportunities but was really abstract, I found it important to have a clear target group to focus on.

The goal of the project was to bring different groups together and break borders, help questioning people's preconceptions and prejudices. We had to become actors in the process and be part of the social structures we design for.

What attracted me in this project was the direct and social aspect of it. Not working on ideas for the future but doing things that can be implemented immediately, becoming an actor in the process. The specific target group gave me the possibilities to dive into the research. I think that the research has enriched our project but that it took too much time in the whole process. The orientation phase was too long and we missed clear research objectives, the research never felt ready .

If I have to describe my task in the team it would be communication; I spoke with a lot of people in the neighborhood, managed my team, had meetings with experts and was responsible for the cooperation with China. I did also a lot of desktop research and worked on the actual design, prototype and video.

Sometimes it was hard to work in team with completely different visions. For me it is important to work from research to a fitting solution. Sometimes I felt that others were too fast satisfied with a solution while it felt that we had to look for a wider perspective. We discussed a lot but at the end we managed to come up with a solution where everyone was ok with.

My coach Kirsten van Dam was the perfect coach for this project. She likes to works out of office and she constantly challenged and inspired me to look for the next level. About my work she wrote:

"Yannick, you have a great attitude – very enthusiastic and very passionate in the whole project. You showed throughout the project a good level of responsibility (for example driving the communication with Chinese, but also after each Skype call capture the next steps). You also took the role of communicator – try to make sure that you are in a team. You feel responsible, but make sure that you can also delegate tasks. Maybe the improvement in your attitude could be that you balance time and work. Your enthusiasm will make that you want to do ‘everything’ – this can create tension in a group projects since simply you cannot do everything.”

— Kirsten van Dam

I learned a lot in this project, on the part of teamwork I learned that my enthusiasm and sense of responsibility sometimes can be a conflicting situation, I have to keep track on the essence of the project and sometime give less attention at minor parts. In the research I learned how much external people can add to your project. This is really something to use in upcoming projects.

DGOOO

Feedback | Report

The Industrial Design department set up DG000 assignments to introduce the first year students to the new course. It’s an introduction to all the competency areas, to create a start for the ‘awareness’ we are likely to develop this year. The assignment was divided into two parts; presentations about every competency area and meetings with experts of some assignments. I started with Ideas & Concepts, Social Cultural Awareness and Self Directed Learning. In consultation with Johanna Kint, the expert of SCA I decided to move to another competency area because I would develop SCA within my project. I signed up to Design & Research Process.

Within the expert meetings of Ideas & Concepts we had to show evidence how we came up with ideas. At Design & Research Processes we had to read Quality Memory Jogger and apply some different techniques in our project. We also had to read a chapter in the book “Design Expertise” by Dorst and Lawson and present that to the group. I found this a very inspiring book because it shows the different viewpoints on design in a compact book.

The feedback I got for my DG000 Booklet was very mixed. My coach Kirsten van Dam was very positive about my attitude and vision but expected more from my booklet. The main things she mentioned were:

- My reflections were not clear about the things I learned.

- The use of evidence could be more.

I have to say that I totally agree with the feedback. There were problems in my home situation that time and didn’t take the amount of time I wanted to spent on my booklet. When I read my booklet now I feel a little bit ashamed because I know I can do it better. My way of reflecting was unstructured, I didn’t tell always what I learned from an activity, which is the most important part of a reflection. In my later reflections and in my showcase I use some basic questions to give more structure to my reflections.

This assignment gave me insights in the basics of every competency area. In the year before my study I read a lot of showcases and got some understanding about competency centered learning but the presentations gave me a basic understanding on every competency area. The expert meetings were the first dive into different competency areas. Especially the area of Design & Research Processes felt valuable. We were working on the intersection of design and research in our project but sometimes it was hard for me to set clear research objectives.

In the coming semester I want to reach the awareness level on all the competency areas. My idea is to develop my competency’s on both, a practical and a theoretical side, because I think that that is the only way to get a proper understanding of a competency. My aim is to do this coming semester but I don’t know if it is reasonable. Otherwise it will be next year. Like stated in my future plans I will be member of the Education Committee of the faculty coming semester and one of the things that I will work on is the communication within DG000. Me and a lot of other students felt a bit lost because of the bad organization, nobody knew what was expected and when the expert meetings will take place. I hope that the B1.1 students of coming year have a better start of the year.

DG300

Feedback | Report

The reason that I did this assignment this early in my course is because I think that the user, and the way the user experience your product, is one of the most important things in design. UFP basics thought me that user centered design can not only come from the mind of the designer but that the designer needs a constant feedback of the user. When going through the user-centered design cycle, every step had an impact on the outcome of my design.

My assignor Harm van Essen was not convinced that I got the full understanding of this assignment:

“Acceptable for a student at this level. Although it appears you picked up the basics from the assignment, I’m not yet fully confident that you will be able to apply the acquired knowledge in projects in an adequate way “

— Harm van Essen

On the occasion of the feedback I thought about what went wrong in the assignment . The feedback surprised me partially. I thought that I developed this competency area well. A part of the problem was caused by my leaving teammate 3 days before the report deadline. I had to write the report alone and due to time pressure I forgot to implement some parts in the report. But when I look back I think that there missed something in my project and assignment:

I approached the assignment and project by doing while UFP has an important scientific side. For, example I didn’t succeed in doing a proper scientific measurable user test. I think that I as a doer have to keep track on using sufficient scientific knowledge to come to an optimal result. That I not only make choices on intuition but also do scientific approved research to underpin the choices I make.

Harm van Essen confirmed this:

“Apply the knowledge that you’ve acquired in projects and use the book and resources in projects as a manual for further exploration and competency development in the area of User Focus and Perspective.”

I think that I have an good idea of what this competency is, what you can do with it and where I have to work on in the future. Coming semester my focus will be on the development of other competency areas but next year I will work on more in-depth knowledge in user research.

SDL Weeks

In my SDL weeks I had 3 weeks to develop myself in another way than my projects and assignments. During this 3 weeks I did a lot of different activities:

In the first week I signed up to the “Reporter Bootcamp”. I’ve always been very interested in media and video and I wanted to learn more about filming, composing, and journalism. Every day from 9 to 21 we worked on a lot of assignments and workshops in a team of 3, an camera operator, editor and journalist. We had to make a video report with a famous person, a promotional video for our team and a report about design and the city of Eindhoven. Besides assignments we had also workshops from Omroep Brabant and other people about journalism and composing. At the end of the week I became best camera operator. I was happy because I got some compliments from people that I appreciate because of their video skills. The jury was impressed by my personal style, composition and my eye for detail.

Our team became selected to make in-depth interviews with designers for the second week of “De Dutch Design Week Draait Door”. I worked on interviews with Piet Heijn Eek, Bill Buxton and a lot of ladies for the broadcast about feminization in design. It was a week of preparing interviews, shooting and editing. As camera operator your work is in the middle of the process, it means that you work together with the reporter to prepare the interview, you do your own work by shooting the video and help the editor with editing the video. The reports were well received in the studio, a classmate working as producer of RTL watched the livestream online and his colleagues were impressed by the image quality of the reports on our particular day. Besides my work as editor I went to the live broadcasts of “De Dutch Design Week Draait Door” and went two days to the Dutch Design Week, one with my mother and one with Wouter van der Wal. I’ve seen a lot of locations, discussed a lot with designers, Wouter & my mother and shot a lot of pictures of inspiring things.

In the third week I worked on a freelance job together with Wouter van der Wal. You can read more about it here.

I had 3 very inspiring weeks in which I learned a lot in different fields. In the first week I worked on competencies like Form & Senses. We analyzed a lot of different movies, why was it aesthetic or what made a certain movie boring. And we got the opportunity to practice the things we learned. All the videos we made were under high pressure, in one day we had to write, shoot and edit a video. When brainstorming you have to come up really fast with new ideas and when a certain guest is not available you have to immediately think of something else. I think that we as a team found an efficient way to make a video, we were one of the few that delivered our videos constantly a quarter before the deadline while the other teams were stressing in the editing room. We divided the tasks and helped each other when needed. In future projects I will be more confident in working structured under high pressure.

In the future I want to work more in the area of audio-visual media. I’ve seen that a camera is an opportunity to get in places you otherwise would never be and I’m thinking of a platform with in-depth interviews of designers and creatives. I have already used my filming and editing skills to make a simple project video and I used it for freelance work, something that I will use in the upcoming projects. The training in journalism can be used for user interviews and communication.

Extracurricular Activities

China

Our coach Kirsten van Dam offered us the opportunity to work together with the Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, China. We took this opportunity with both hands because it gave an extra dimension in our project. I chose to be the chairman of this side project and was the link between the Dutch team, the Chinese team and the coaches of both teams. We had a Skype meeting every week and afterwards we send an e-mail to confirm the things we discussed in the meetings.

I learned a lot in the competency areas of Teamwork & Communication and Social Cultural Awareness. I had to explain even the most basic things about Dutch society to give the Chinese students more background information to design for our context. In that way I gave things that seemed so normal to me a moment thought and in that way reflect on societal differences. I also learned a lot about Chinese culture, something I’m interested in. The first meetings with the Chinese students were hard because they were very passive and polite in the discussions. In consultation with Kirsten and Jeff Mann, the Chinese researcher on international collaborations, we decided to change our approach. Instead of discussions we had to give clear tasks and reflect on it the next meeting. It was cool to see that a different approach really improved the project. At the beginning I found it sometimes exciting but at the end it became more natural.

“I think you guys did a very good job in the cooperation with the Chinese students. Your communication was clear and direct. This experiment worked out a lot better than last year.”

— Jeff Mann,(Leader of experiment and member of Realities)

I think that the skills gained in this side project can be helpful in a new project. The psychological barrier to speak in English is reduced. There are quite a lot Chinese students at Industrial Design and I think that I can better communicate with them if I have to cooperate with them in a future project or assignment. China is an upcoming market, also in design, and the possibility that I have to cooperate with them in the far future becomes bigger and bigger.(see the site of Kirsten’s’ agency) If there is a new opportunity to work together with an international team I would definitely be interested.

Involved competency areas:
Teamwork & Communication
Social Cultural Awareness

Freelance Out Of Office

As part of the Out of Ofice network | Video password:OOO

Together with Wouter van der Wal I worked on two freelance projects for Out Of Office, the agency of our coach Kirsten van Dam and Sam Colijn. The first was a promotional video for their trend lecture “Next Stop China” and the second a research project called “The Future Of Retail”.

For Next Stop China we went to Amsterdam to film the lecture, located on a floating house. During the reports of DDDWDD we directed the interview, in this case we had to register the lecture. Everything had to be recorded in once. It was difficult and yet instructive to edit an ongoing story from 3 minutes out of more than 100 minutes of footage. We had to analyze what the essential parts of the lecture were and what sentences can create a story in logical order. Kirsten introduced us to some people of agencies and we got a new video offer.

I learned how to write business mails to negotiate about the new video deal, but I also learned how to communicate a message in the video. There is a spoken message in the video but also a “hidden” message to communicate the fresh and dynamic identity of Out Of Office.

“The Future Of Retail” is a visionary research presentation for the Provence of Overijssel. Retail in small cities is declining and the last years the news became more and more negative. Out Of Office worked together with a group of freelancers from all over the world to show a new spirit with refreshing initiatives to inspire the local government and entrepreneurs. As freelancer we had to come up with new initiatives in different categories; for example packaging, crowd initiatives and branding. We also had to interview young and old people about their favorite shopping experiences. To support our report I made some pictures of inspiring branding ideas.

I learned more about the business side of design, I had to think of changes in the market, analyzing what initiatives could be applicable in the context of the province and had to interview a lot of people.

In the future I want to work on more freelance projects. It is an opportunity to work on things you can’t learn on school. It is very interesting and it is a nice addition to my portfolio.

Involved competency areas:
Teamwork & Communication
Design & Business Processes
Form & Senses

LAPD

Video

I am a committee member of the LAPD: Lucid Activities and Party Department. This year we have to organize at least 3 activities and 3 parties for the students. Every week there is a meeting to brainstorm, discuss and plan new parties and activities. I decided to be a member because you have a lot of freedom in organizing and furnishing a party. In the committee I am responsible for the cooperation with the Promo committee, something that was problematic last year. For the first party I worked a lot on the furnishing of the first party with the theme Superheroes.

I learned the basics of Adobe Illustrator by making and plotting the big posters hanging around in De Spijker. I was also responsible for the movie that played during party which you can find here, I improved my skills in Adobe Premiere Pro. On the front of Ideas & Concepts I learned to come up with a lot of ideas and communicate them to the rest of the group. I also learned more about things like safety, I wasn’t aware that for example fire prevention was a big deal by organizing parties.

In the coming semester I want to organize some cool parties and activities for the students and learn some new things in a playful way.

Involved competency areas:
Teamwork & Communication
Ideas & Concepts
Form & Senses

Small Activities

I did a lot of small activities during the year, I will shortly mention what I did and learned to keep my showcase compact.

HTML/CSS workshop

Via ID share a student project to exchange skills I signed up to the CSS/HTML workshop. As a teenager I made a lot of websites and I wanted to update my knowledge. I’ve learned some new things in CSS and the design and programming of this showcase is the evidence of my HTML improvement.

Sketching Workshop

My teammate Nikki Butter gave me and a couple of other students a workshop in the basics of marker sketching. Marker sketching is totally different than the other types of drawing I did in the past and I think that it is really important to start with the right techniques. I think that sketching is a matter of doing and hopefully I get the opportunity to do an sketching assignment in my B2.1 semester.

Solidworks Workshop

I was already experimenting with Solidworks and I got some starting results but in this workshop I learned to make an official defined 3D model that could be 3D-printed for instance. After the workshop I did some online tutorials and learned some basics in this program.

PIL

The Program Introduction Lunch was organized by the Education Committee of Lucid. It was not a workshop but an introduction to the different programs on the market that are helpful for designers. Think of InDesign, Photoshop, Solidworks and Premiere. The PIL covered the differences and qualities of the different programs. The most things I heard I already knew but I learned some new details about some programs that can be useful in the future.

Photostudio

Max Rozendaal and me went on a calm afternoon to the photostudio to work on our photographing qualities. We wanted to learn more about studio lighting and product photography. We experimented a lot with different lighting setups and made a lot of pictures. I think that a good picture can really make a difference in the presentation of a product.

Blogging

I’m an avid blogger and it is a platform for me to get inspired and inspire others. Last semester I started to write more on my blog instead of only posting pictures and tried to describe my thoughts about something in fresh English. My blog shows that I’m also busy with design in my spare time. It helped me to improve my English and I feel more confident in writing English now. My blog gave also opportunities, Kirsten asked me to work on “The Future Of Retail” and UNID, the magazine of Industrial Design, asked me to become a writer. My blog about Dieter Rams becomes more famous every day and I have followers from over the whole world. I find it interesting to browse through all the stats and look how I can improve the number of visitors.

Personal blog | Blog about Dieter Rams

Fishbowl Interview Sander Mulder

To get a better understanding of co-creation and co-design I went to an interview with Sander Mulder. There were 2 interviewers and the audience(around 10 people) could intervene in the interview by sending a tweet. The interview gave me some basic understanding in the differences between co-creation and co-design, which was interesting for the project with China.

War Photographer Documentary

I’ve seen a lot of documentaries last semester to get more understanding in design, for my project and for fun. But for one of the most impressive videos I went to the Zwarte Doos organized by Studium Generale. War photographer a documentary by Christian Frei about photographer James Nachtwey really inspired me in many ways. The documentary was perfectly shot and edited, Nachtwey makes “beautiful” pictures and had also a lot inspiring things to say. By showing the truth about wars Nachtwey wants to make people aware of others and he talks about the ethics in warphotography. There were a lot of things applicable on design and I wrote a lot of pages of my dummy full with quotes about Nachtwey. Absolutely recommended!

Overall Development

Here you can see my overal growth in an old-fashioned bar chart. To see all individual competencies scroll down.

Self-Directed & Continuous Learning

I learn while doing and I’m a typical project worker. When I encounter a problem in a project I can explore how to solve it and in that way learn from it. In this semester I’ve done a lot of activities to extend my knowledge. I’ve shown that I work hard and can come up with new activities to improve my skills. I took every possible opportunity to learn more, I realized in the last weeks that I want sometimes too much. I went in a big rush from project to project, but I didn’t take the time to rest and reflect. Kirsten confirmed this in the feedback of the project: “Keep on going, but take some time to breathe and reflect on your actions.”

Like stated in the goals for this semester I learned how to deal with the issues at ID, I get used to the way of learning and can now fully focus on my work and learning. I think that I made a good choice to go to Eindhoven, the way of learning at ID motivates me, I can discover and explore and develop my own way of working. The most important lesson I learned this semester is that I can’t take every opportunity and I need more time to take distance of the things I do and in that way reflect to learn and make good choices in my further development.

Coming semester I think it is important to have a fixed time to reflect on the things I did that week. I will ask my coach or an expert to give feedback on my reflections to improve my reflection skills.

Involved activities:
All activities

Descriptive & Mathematical Modeling

I haven’t developed this competency much during this semester. People do often think that this competency area is almost the same as Integrating Technology but I think there are big differences: I think that D&MM is an important tool in the industry to predict outcomes. I think that it is a way to make a simplified model of complex systems like electronics, user tests and production flows. With a model you can predict what will happen if you take certain steps in processes, you give an input and get an output that can be compared to expectations. One of the things I did in this project is making a model about different layers of problems to see how much impact a certain design could have. I wanted to predict what concept had the perfect balance between feasibility and impact. Through breakthroughs in the process we didn’t use the model. 

Next semester I have to work on this competency area. I will subscribe to an assignment where I can learn more about this competency area.

Involved activities:
Project
DG000

Integrating Technology

I soldered my first parts this year at Industrial Design but during this semester I haven’t developed Integrating Technology that much. When I started on secondary school I was really interested in programming and electronics. A few weeks ago I found an example online where I started a small open-source interaction design project on a forum when I was 14. (don’t mind the childish language) Through this background I understand the structure in programming. Sander explained the code of our prototype to me and I even could help some other groups with my knowledge by using common programming language.

Next semester I chose 3 projects in which I can develop the area of Integrating Technology. Like I stated in my Vision I will explore in what way I can implement electronics in a valuable way.

Involved activities:
Project DG000

Ideas & Concepts

For me Ideas & Concepts is about different ways to come with a concept. Ideas for design often don’t come as an “Eureka” moment but are a process where for example research, exploration and brainstorming are involved. This is why the integration of other competency areas is so important. In my project the research was an important part in the final design. We brainstormed in several ways but most sessions were not very satisfying. We still had the believe that all the things we did would connect later on in the project. I developed this competency also with other activities like the reporter bootcamp, in which I had to come up with ideas very fast and in the LAPD by brainstorming about new activities.

I learned that different ways of idea generating can influence the final outcome. I think that it’s good to develop ideas in more ways than just brainstorming because for example a body storm or an explorative experiment can sometimes prove if an idea can work or not. I think that concept generation doesn’t stand on its own, it is a part of an iteration together with other areas like research, prototyping and testing.

To get the awareness in this area I think that I have to do another project with other requirements and new team members. Working in a different way and a little less research focused.

Involved activities:
Project
LAPD
SDL weeks

Form & Senses

Form & Senses for me is an important competency area because the form of a product is the first interaction with the user. At this moment I feel confident about my sense of aesthetics and due to art history on secondary school and my interest in form giving I have also knowledge about different movements and designers. This semester I worked on this area in different projects, within the LAPD I made and printed the posters of the party, during the reporter boot camp and freelance project I made a lot of videos and in my project I worked on the prototype and the posters for the final exhibition. I used some new techniques like laser cutting and sandblasting. UFP Basics was very helpful within Form & Senses because I had to think of and make a graphical interface for an iPad application for elderly people.

In my PDP I stated that I want to learn sketching to communicate with team members, funny was that the idea of the final design in our project started with a form sketch that I made. I learned the basics of several programs and sketching in various contexts. I want to keep learning on the practical side because I have often an idea but can’t always execute it because of my practical skills.

I think that overall I’m close to the awareness level. In the coming semester I want to work on form studies in foam and based on sketches, the users perception is essential and I think that this is something I have to work on to reach the awareness level. Besides my project I want to improve my sketching and software skills where possible.

Involved activities:
Project
UFP Basics
LAPD
SDL weeks

User Focus Perspective

I’m interested in user-centered design. I addressed User Focus Perspective in my project and UFP Basics. In my project I worked with different users together and it really uplifted our project. In UFP basics I had to design an iPad app for elderly people to look at historical pictures to call up memories. Recalling memories can prevent dementia.

I learned a lot about different elements of the iterations in user centered design. It can really make a difference if you go to potential users, you get information you otherwise wouldn’t think of. I learned in UFP basics that besides a explorative user-centered side there is also a more scientific research side with quantitative results to underpin your choices. I didn’t succeed in setting up a proper scientific user test. Often I work in a more intuitive way, I learned that I have to work on a scientifically measurable user test.

I feel aware on this competency area, I have developed the competency in several ways and I learned a lot by partially failing in UFP basics. I understand that I have to work on the scientific side of user testing and not always can work on my intuition. Next semester I will focus on other areas, next year I want to work on in-depth knowledge of UFP to quantitative underpin my design choices.

Involved activities:
Project
UFP Basics

Social Cultural Awareness

Social Cultural Awareness is one of the competency’s where I feel the most affinity with. I find different cultures, societal changes and social interaction very interesting subjects and I want to know how design can change society and how society changes design. I addressed this competency area mainly in my project, the side project with China and UFP basics. My project gave me the possibilities to dive into a problem with two different cultural groups. The cooperation with China gave our project an extra dimension, we had to communicate how our society works and in that way we had to stop and reflect on even the most common things for us. UFP basics thought me how to design for a different usergroup.

I learned how hard it is to actually come up with a design that brings people together. There are so much different aspects that you have to take in account, it sometimes paralyzed us. From Pink Pony Express we got the hint to actually start doing interventions and see what happens, sometimes there can start spontaneous things you couldn’t have dreamed of behind your desk. I think this is an important lesson I learned; society changes so fast that you have to go outside and also work with soft data.
In the next semester I will have my focus on other areas but from my personal interest I will read and watch a lot. I also want to know more about Open Design, a change in the design world caused by societal changes.

Involved competency areas:
Project
China project
UFP Basics

Design & Business Processes

This competency was mainly addressed in the freelance projects for Out Of Office and to some extend in my project. In “The Future Of Retail” I did research to new initiatives in the market, how does society change and what initiatives could be applicable in the context of the province. Kirsten introduced us to some people and we got an offer to work on a video, we had to negotiate about the offer and sent business mails. In my project we heard a lot of people that want us to go to the municipality to get our concept executed.

I learned how important communication is in business. To possible clients but also as a brand to communicate your message. I think that consumers are looking more and more for pure and unique brands. I have always been very interested in branding and marketing, it is an interesting combination of communication, creativity and economics. I think that it is useful to learn more about business models because it is needed when setting up a business or get an idea sold.

During the user research we heard a lot of positive reactions on our concept. People wanted us to go to the municipality to try to get it realized. My teammate and Sander Cobussen want to create a business model for our concept and go to municipality and submit our idea. To do this Sander arranged a meeting with Sander Mulder to learn more about making business models.

Involved competency areas:
Freelance Out Of Office
Project

Design & Research Processes

I developed this competency area in my project, DG000 expert meetings and UFP basics. Within my project I did a lot of explorative user research to find an target group and later on to find “soft” data about the people in Blixembosch. We went to experts to learn more about social design and did some interventions to see how people will react on different situations. Kirsten said in the projectfeedback that I have developed this substantially although I don’t feel aware on this competency yet.

I learned how important it is to go outside and get in contact with users and stakeholders. Within UFP basics I learned to do research focused on the user. I found it harder than expected to set up an approved scientific test. I have to work on this because it is important to get scientific measurable results to underpin your design.

In the future I want to work on scientific measurable results in my research processes to underpin my design in cooperation with the UFP area. I think that this is an important part in user-centered design.

Involved activities:
Project
UFP Basics
DG000 expert meetings

Teamwork & Communication

I have developed this competency area a lot this semester within different activities. I was team leader in the international collaboration with the Zheijang University, worked under high pressure during the reports for “De Dutch Design Week Draait Door”, had to negotiate with an agency about a videoreport and communicated a lot with team members, experts and users in my project.

In my PDP I said that I wanted to improve my English communication, written and spoken. In my DG000 feedback Kirsten said that my written English could be improved. Besides I found it exciting to speak in English. I improved my written English in the mails with the Chinese students and I tried to describe my thoughts in a fresh way on my blog.

I improved my spoken communication within the Skype meetings with the Chinese students, at the end of the semester I felt a lot more confident in speaking English. In the feedback of DG300 and my project I got back that my English was of good quality, I was pleased with this feedback.

I feel very responsible when I work in a team and I am outspoken. I usually take the lead in conversations with experts and coaches, I think this is not a bad quality but it would be good to give more room for others to take the lead. This semester I was very busy with dividing the tasks in the team, the internal communication took a lot of time, I learned that it is sometimes better to work more on the background.

In the next semester I want to work more on the background in the project. Working on the actual design instead of the communication.

Involved activities:
Project
China
SDL weeks
Blogging

Next semester:

For next semester I chose some realization projects that involve the competency areas that I have to develop. In two of the projects there is extra money for prototyping and I also want an real client to develop my Business Process Design. With Integrating technology I really want to look for the added value of technology in a project and combine it with technological- and user research. Last semester I worked a lot as team leader and communicator but the downside is that I couldn’t focus less on other parts in the project, coming semester I want to work more in the background and focus more on the development of the design.

In my assignments I want to work on “Design & Business Processes” and “Mathematical Modeling”. At the moment I don’t know what type of assignments will be given but I will look for something that fits my needs.

On the moment I’m constantly working in a chaotic rush but not always even efficient. I want to work on my efficiency and time planning to get the same work done in a shorter time and in that way have time to do other activities.

I am asked as a member of the education committee of the faculty. I see this as an interesting opportunity because I am interested in the ideas of the faculty in order to stay relevant to society and I am curious in the introduction of Bachelor College on the university.

Far Future:

If you’d ask me this question a few years ago my answer would be; my own design studio in a houseboat in Amsterdam. But in the last few years I found out what a team of people can add to a design process. Working with a team of people can really uplift your design. At this moment I would like to work in a multidisciplinary design agency where design, advertising and graphic design meet. I want to work on different projects in the design/advertising field. At one hand I would like to really design things but at the other hand I would also be interested in a role as manager, let other people function at their best.

I would also be interested to start a company together with some other young people with a product I really believe in. Starting from scratch do the complete business, design and branding. To be really entrepreneurial and inspire other people with a new approach.

Besides this I am an idealist, I want to add something to society. Bringing people back together and make people aware of others and the environment. Maybe I want to make a documentary or combine my ideals with my interest in entrepreneurship. Starting a business with a positive message to the world.

As you see, I’ve a lot of dreams but all the new influences at Industrial Design make my choices only more difficult!