Starting my studies of Industrial Design at the TU/e I was inspired by a combination of Donald Duck’s Gyro Gearloose and Steve Jobs. I wanted to invent the next best thing that the world needed and realized that even if I had that, I would still have to market it cleverly like Steve Jobs did with his Apple products in order for it to have any impact. Design was my way of shaping my ideals, and entrepreneurship my intended way of sharing it with the world.
Besides this goal being at best ambitious and at worst naïve, I’ve come to slowly change my mind on this during my bachelor. I now believe some of the system our society runs on are fundamentally flawed and lead to unwanted outcomes. I find it more important to adress these systems and their 'wicked' problems than to bring yet another product to the market.
Business & Entrepreneurship
In my first year I followed my first business course ‘Introduction to Business Design’, learning the basics on approaches like market research, intellectual property, branding and business model development. I was able to apply this directly to my project by developing a business model and a marketing approach for the Embrace.
In the second year I followed the USE learning trajectory Technology Entrepreneurship, with the additional course Intellectual Property Rights for New Venues to attain my BSc in Technology Entrepreneurship.
During this USE trajectory I set up multiple hypothetical companies, studied the literature on organizational structures and performed more in depth market research as well as a variety of different market and business analysis tools. In the course on Intellectual Property my group set up another hypothetical company and I learned how Intellectual Property can be applied as a strategic tool in businesses and which strategies can be applied.
While I no longer strive to become an entrepreneur, the skills and tools I learned in Business & Entrepreneurship, like PESTEL and stakeholder analyses, are still useful in the social challenges I focus on now.
Creativity & Aesthetics
Starting with the course From Idea to Design but present in all my projects since, I’ve developed a toolset of various methods of ideation and concept creation. I’ve come to prefer ideation in groups, using methods like crazy 8’s and round robin. I believe building on each other’s ideas and combining perspectives comes up with the most innovative solutions.
Aesthetics for me have always mostly been a functional part of design, chosen mostly based on what best and most clearly communicates what I’m trying to portray. During the course Aesthetics of Interaction I learned how the aesthetic of a product can influence how people interact with it, and the importance of aligning functions and aesthetic.
Creativity is also imagining a world outside of the one we live in today; Challenging current systems and proposing new ones. That’s what I’ve been doing in my last few projects, like in the project Forgoing Ownership, where my group portrayed what a potential future could look like where society moves from personal ownership to mostly sharing products.
User & Society
In the course Socio-Cultural Sensitivity I’ve learned to view designs in a broader societal context, and just how different various cultures might look on something.
During the course User-Centered Design I first learned both qualitative and quantitative research methods and how to responsibly apply them to best design for the user. I have since learned to apply a variety of research methods during my projects to involve users, like co-constructing stories during my project 2 and 3, and surveys and user tests during project 1.
During the course Disruptive Technologies I conducted an impact analysis of a new disruptive technology entering the market, learning how to use literature and reports to predict the impact of a new technology entering the market and writing a consult based on that.
Because of my interest in how processes work I wanted to explore psychological processes in decision making. I followed the course Thinking and Deciding. I learned how decisions come to be and the important role biases play in many decisions.
Math, Data & Computing
In my first year I followed the basic courses Calculus, Applied Natural Sciences and Data analytics for Engineers. Calculus and Applied Natural Sciences formed a basis of being able to approach and solve technical problems.
During Data analytics I learned to work with big quantitative datasets and analyze them by using python scripts. I learned how to analyze data and draw the right conclusions from it, as well as which types of data to collect to answer a research question. During Making Sense of Sensors this was applied by forming a research question, collecting the relevant data on ourselves with sensors, and drawing conclusions from the big dataset collected. I have also applied this in my project Planting Habits where my group conducted a survey and I analyzed the results to draw conclusions.
Technology & Realization
During From Idea to Design I built my first prototype. For the Hexperience we made an interactive prototype, teaching me some basic woodworking skills and I learned about how open source code can be used and adjusted to achieve the effect wanted.
During the courses Creative Programming and Creative Electronics I learned how to apply basic programming and electronic skills to make a project. I learned that for almost any function tutorials can be found online to help guide you through it. During the project Planting Habits I proved this again by making a semi functional prototype.
I feel I have a solid enough basis on Technology & Realization to know how things might be made and realized. While it is not my most developed expertise area, I’m able to judge what applications are viable and realistic which is what’s most important for the system approach I want to take in my designs.During From Idea to Design I built my first prototype. For the Hexperience we made an interactive prototype, teaching me some basic woodworking skills and I learned about how open source code can be used and adjusted to achieve the effect wanted.
During the courses Creative Programming and Creative Electronics I learned how to apply basic programming and electronic skills to make a project. I learned that for almost any function tutorials can be found online to help guide you through it. During the project Planting Habits I proved this again by making a semi functional prototype.
I feel I have a solid enough basis on Technology & Realization to know how things might be made and realized. While it is not my most developed expertise area, I’m able to judge what applications are viable and realistic which is what’s most important for the system approach I want to take in my designs.