Identity
I am an optimistic person and believe everything is possible, giving up is never really an option for me. That is why I like to solve Wicked problems in the social domain. I want to walk paths nobody walked before, I am interested in designing/doing design research in domains initially unrelated to design such as politics. I have an entrepreneurial mindset that helps me to achieve this. I see opportunities in all the things around me and have the motto; “If you are unsatisfied, stop complaining and do something about it”.
I like to work multidisciplinary and often take either a leading or connecting role in this context. What helps with this is that I am emphatic and able to understand other people’s way of thinking. My strength lies in the fuzzy front end of the design process, I start with a human-centered design approach and use methods like co-creation and observations to map the context of the user. After this, I often use extra desk research, together with the qualitative insights enabling me to come up with innovative and creative solutions. When doing this, I am critical and often think about the why. The combination of these three aspects distinguishes me from other designers in the social domain.
Furthermore, I am an enthusiastic person and get easily inspired and excited about things, because of this I often give groups a positive and energetic vibe.
Vision
Design thinking is getting hotter and hotter and people are talking about the value of balancing desirability, feasibility, and viability. And the sweet spot of innovation (see image on the left)
This figure is appearing everywhere even in non-design fields. But is it true that if we check these three boxes that you create the ideal innovation? I don’t agree, I believe there is one missing namely, “responsibility”. When you look at what is desirable you do not cover what is actually good for that person, one can say he only desires MacDonald’s, but this is not actually good for him. It must be the designer’s responsibility to make sure that the innovation is actually responsible, the designer should be critical in order to do this. The combination of desirability and responsibility is most interesting to me. Desirability is best accomplished if the user is intrinsically motivated. I want to address challenges together with the people that are experiencing the challenge using co-creation and design probes to get to the latent needs.
I believe we can use these responsible designers everywhere and use this to solve wicked problems in the social domain. I want to accomplish this by introducing generative research through design in politics, so for example to gather opinions for codetermination or when writing policies in municipalities.
Development
Here you can an overview of my vision and identity development, hover over the text to read more
Product design, ‘inventor’. First focus on looks “I have found the ‘artistic’ properties of designing very attractive, I like to make graphics, prototypes and give attention to the aesthetics of a design” at the end of the year starting interest in interaction design and rituals because of Design for the everyday.
Product design, graphics,
prototypes & aesthetics
After Aesthetics of Interaction more interest in interaction design and an interaction that creates meaning. Using psychological aspects of people to anticipate reactions (USE). Using rituals and interaction aspects to create value, getting interested in societal issues (project 2)
Interaction design, creating meaning, psychological aspects, rituals, societal issues
Focusing on the educational system of ID and
getting more interested in societal issues and
solving complex problems. Designing for different cultures, by intercultural design. seeing that you can also create value with designing for this.
Learning about intrinsic motivation: “I strongly believe in intrinsic motivation, in my designs I don’t want to change behaviour directly, but I want to change the way of thinking, more in solutions.”
Educational system, societal issues, complex problems, different cultures, intrinsic motivation
Learning how to make that difference and designing for these complex problems. Learning methods, in generative design research. use of probes in research. focus on co-determination/societal/political problems and creating interventions. making experiences better in the world and thus create value