Areas of expertise development
In the past years, I have established an understanding of the different expertise areas and their place within the design process. In these areas, I have found my own interests and preferences in how I like to implement them, and how they connect to my identity and vision.
Here I will elaborate on how different past courses and projects contributed to my development in the competency areas and my professional Identity and Vision. If you click on the areas it will filter the courses and projects that added the most to this area you can hover over them to read more. The bigger projects most of the time added to all competencies but I highlighted my biggest learnings, if you want to read more about them click the pictures of those.
Course: Creative Programming
Taught me the basics of programming in processing (java) and Arduino (c++). It taught me what you can do with an Arduino in the form of prototyping and gave me an attitude of learning by doing and teaching yourself by looking up tutorials etc.
Course: Creative Electronics
Gave me more confidence in electronics. It created a foundation in this area and taught me how to use electronics the right way with calculations etc.
Course: Aesthetics of Interaction
Taught me how to create meaningful experiences, and made me consider aesthetics beyond appearance. It taught me methods on how to do this, such as Interaction relabeling and the interaction frogger framework. The setup (design critiques) of the course made me a more critical designer.
Course: Design Innovation Methods
Made me think in a totally different way about the products I designed. I learned how to revisit business models, how to make value propositions, and how to apply the Get-Keep-Grow method. It made me realize that applying these theories is not only about money but also about creating value for your users.
Course: From Idea to Design
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Introduced me to the design process and taught me all kinds of ideation techniques like body storming, mind mapping, and pressure cookers. It gave me experience in how to walk through iterations and reflect after every step. It taught me that the process is sometimes more valuable than the end product.
Course: Data Analytics for Engineers
Introduced me to data analysis and python. It taught me how to sort and clean quantitative data and how to handle data sets. I learned the importance of data visualization to make sense of all the information we have in our digital world.
Course: Design <> Research
Introduced me to research through design, it let me see that design does not only have to be market focussed but that it also can be focussed on generating knowledge. It also taught me how to find and write research papers.
Course: Intercultural Design
Taught me what it would mean to design for a societal context. The dimensions of Hofstede gave me a bird's eye perspective on the world and made me see opportunities for improvement. It made me realize that you can never design one perfect solution because people in different cultures have different desires.
Course: Socio-Cultural Sensitivity
Officially belongs in User and society but it taught me most in this area. It taught me about making, all the small assignments gave me the mindset of exploring through prototyping and thinking of aesthetics and the message instead of functionality. I found out that this approach fits me well.
Course: Design For the Everyday
Introduced me to interaction design, and creating value with rituals in interaction with everyday objects. This course sparked my interest in this topic, I loved the way of working focused on making and the speculative perspective of making products big and meaningful.
Courses: USE, Human in Technology
This learning line taught me about human behavior and cognition and introduced me to psychology and perception. This made me see that the human perceives almost everything unconsciously and it is the responsibility of designers to create systems that provide a pleasurable experience.
Course: Exploratory Sketching
Improved my visualization skills and gave me tools on how I can communicate my ideas, it also helped me explore these skills on different types of media like an iPad.
Course: User-centered Design
Learned me how to focus on a specific user group. I created persona’s, did user tests and interviews for the first time, and implemented the wishes in the design. I realized the importance of a second-person perspective for the quality and value of your innovation.
Course: Engineering Design
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Taught me from a technological feasibility perspective, I learned from my teammates of electrical engineering and mechanical engineering and got new hard skills in prototyping. Next to that, I learned what the role can be of an industrial designer in a multidisciplinary team.
Course: Making Sense of Sensors
Made me further develop the skills I got in data analytics and allowed me to make the connection with design and design research. Next to that, it taught me how to ethically treat qualitative data.
