Taking a user-centred approach to solving societal and technological topics.
Vision
When looking at my past activities, my vision can be divided into three separate pillars: mobility, entrepreneurship and societal impact through education.
Mobility
At the moment, mobility is often seen as a way to get from A to B. Whether by public transport, personal vehicle or a shared vehicle, the ultimate goal is to get to the destination. For the most part, that is true – although a very abstract definition. However, the detail that is often omitted is that mobility can also be a pleasurable experience.
My vision for the future of mobility is not to strive to make mobility more efficient. We see trends around the world where metropolitan areas want to put a heavy focus on shared vehicles, but I strongly believe that the future of mobility is not only more efficiency. What I want the focus to shift towards is to make mobility even more enjoyable. The idea that mobility results in ‘time lost travelling’ is out of date – moving from one place to another can also be an enjoyable, productive or entertaining experience.
Impact
Having been involved with the European Youth Parliament since 2014 has shown me the deep roots informal hands-on education can have on people. Although I have never been fully interested in politics, I always admired the way this extracurricular organisation has been using problem-based learning. When I started working at TU/e innovation Space, I saw other ways that challenge-based learning can have a great societal impact.
Knowing and connecting these two organisations, I wholly believe that the role of education is shifting – it is no longer the source of knowledge for young people, it is becoming a way for young people to get involved in society and contribute. Education is already starting to shift away from standard classroom-settings and I envision this to happen more. Growing up won’t mean acquiring all the knowledge before an impact can be made – growing up will mean an iterative process of gaining knowledge and applying it directly in a hands-on setting, such as with challenge-based learning.
Entrepreneurship
The power of Industrial Design is that we devise systems and products that are intuitive to use; that engage you, that give you feedback or feedforward. I believe that the same kind of thinking that we use in these design processes can definitely be beneficial in the management of companies, even if they are not involved in Design.
By regarding the company as such a system or product, I believe it is possible to apply certain frameworks [1] that we use in design to iteratively improve the processes of the company itself, its hierarchy or even it’s work-ethic.
Identity
I have always had an intrinsic curiosity to explore. Whether it was to see the world, or by taking apart almost all electronic devices to see how they work inside. Next to that, I have always been a creative individual; from a young age I was already building websites, or simply solving everyday problems in creative ways. All of this, paired with a passion for technology and innovation, was the reason why I also chose to become an Industrial Designer.
User-Centred Design is a large aspect of my identity; in all concepts and ideas, I aim to include the user as much as possible. Paired with my vision, this an important aspect, as intuitively relates closely to usability, which is defined by the user. Through iterative design processes, such as the Reflective Transformative Design Process [1] or the Double Diamond process [2], I aspire to develop concepts which are intuitive and enriching to use.
I flourish as a team leader; not only in my studies, but also in professional circumstances I am comfortable and capable with taking the lead in the process. Managing tasks, managing team morale and taking on the responsibility are roles that I assign to naturally, which is why I aspire a master’s degree in Innovation Management, too.
I have an entrepreneurial mindset. I always seek new opportunities and challenges to be able to reach my goals. I hold a position in several different types of organisations where I can use as well as develop all of my professional skills, such as my team leading skills, project management as well as developing my sense of cooperation, communication and strategic development.
References
[1] Hummels, Caroline, and Joep Frens. "The reflective transformative design process." CHI'09 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems. ACM, 2009.
[2] Nessler, Dan, and Dan Nessler. “How to Apply a Design Thinking, HCD, UX or Any Creative Process from Scratch.” Medium, Digital Experience Design, 19 May 2016, medium.com/digital-experience-design/how-to-apply-a-design-thinking-hcd-ux-or-any-creative-process-from-scratch-b8786efbf812.