Past               

Past

From high school and elementary school, I did not really get any design related opportunities. This resulted in me doing such activities at home. Although those were not very big projects, friends and family still were impressed about how I got to such ideas. From making a relatively complex 3D boardgame, to making my own theme park experiences out of paper and cardboard. However, these concepts were not the result of any design process where multiple aspects such as stakeholders and aesthetics were critically inspected and integrated. To really become this skilled and professional designer, I decided to steer my study choice in this direction. This made me eventually choose to follow the study Industrial Design at the TU/e Eindhoven.  

In the beginning of my first year of my bachelor, I did not have any clue what kind of designer I wanted to be. This was also visible in my PI&V as it was quite general, and I did not have any context for my vision yet. However, through the courses From Idea to Design (digital x physical hybrid boardgame), Introduction to Business Design (how to get products ready for the market), and project 1 (bringing the office to nature), I slowly started to figure out what kind of designer I want to be. I noticed people feel increasingly disconnected from each other, making me focus on how to reconnect people through entertaining experiences. I even started developing a physical x digital hybrid party game (Rigged) which currently is already released on the market for people. 

Project 2 (AR games in theme park queues) built upon this by transforming blend places into entertaining experiences. Until now I was mostly focused on connecting people through some form of games. However, project 3 (usage of AI for reconnecting people with dementia with close ones) made me start to rethink my vision. I shifted my vision towards people facing various obstacles when trying to adapt to new innovations and technology, making them miss out on things which potentially could have supported them in their lives. To help them, I see potential in creating shared and engaging experiences for them using IoT and AI (see Vision). This made me specifically choose for courses such as Intelligent Interactive products, Designing Connected Experiences and the minor AI & Business Innovation to become skilled in this field.  

Complex 3D boardgame, Queue Quest (project 2), and a user-test (project 3)