The past
Before Industrial Design
Passion for design from
a young age
If you would have asked the six year old me what I wanted to be when I have grown up, I would have answered an inventor. Inspired by the genius cartoon character Gyro Gearloose, I dreamed of inventing cool things for the people around me.
Since then my view on design and invention has changed, but my passion has not changed. My curious nature has led to a wide area of interests. I like to sport and to follow sport. I am most interested I in speedskating, inline skating and cycling. Sport is good at connecting people and their it shows a
similarity with a good design, because some good designs are also able to connect people. Another interest of me is cooking and traditional Italian food. I had this interest already from a young age and I learned from this by trying new recipes and constant adjusting them based on the outcome till I am totally satisfied with the outcome.
This is also an interest and a skill that I can use as a designer. I am inspired by people that are passioned about what they are doing. It doesn’t matter if they are a cook or a professor in mathematics, I like it when someone sends out a sense of compassion for their task. And I also want to become a person that shows compassion for what I do and to inspire other people with my work or with my enthusiasm.
I have chosen for Industrial Design in Eindhoven because I want to become the designer I want to be.
Expertice Area's
Business model Project 1
click on the image to open the pdf
BUSINESS &
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
To work on my development in the expertise area of business & entrepreneurship I used mainly Project 1 to bring this in practice. Our goal of project one was to help student build healthy habits. Before my study of industrial design, I had little to no knowledge about business and entrepreneurship. For this year I wanted to learn more about making profit with a product. The first thing we have done in Project 1 is an analysis in the habit building products that are already available. And most of those products are apps or paper habit trackers. So, to make a product with more potential we decided to make something that is not only an app or only a paper tracker.
Another important part in making a profitable product is the selling and promotion of the product. To gain more knowledge in this field I have read: ‘Made to Stick: Why some ideas survive and others die’. This book is about the difference between idea’s and products that are successful and ones that are not. The insights I have used from this book are that emotional connection to a product and the story around your product are important. This has become the main strategy for the promotion of the product. Also, the expert vision of an employee of the SSC on … has helped to learn more about business and entrepreneurship. Al the knowledge I have used to create a business model around the product from Project 1.
By following the USE line New Product Development and Marketing I will develop further in Business & Entrepreneurship.
Interview SSC Project 1
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CREATIVITY &
AESTHETICS
Like a master painter must know all his brushes and tools in order to make the best painting possible, a designer needs to know his tools as well. The tools of an industrial designer are not necessarily brushes and scalpels, it is important to know your (digital) tools in order to use them while focusing on the important things.
One of the important tools of an industrial designer are the ideating methods. I have learned different ideation methods and have used them regular this year in order to know them well.
To generate and express idea’s, visualization is verry important because it a clear way of communication to yourself and to others. To become good in visualization the first thing is following the course exploratory sketching. I have learned how to create visuals on paper specific for Industrial Design and how to keep in the design flow while drawing. By designing the digital visuals in multiple projects and for example for advertisement for the local political party and posters for student activity’s, I have learned how to use the Adobe programs, Illustrator, Photoshop and InDesign. The basics I learned in a digital course in my free time. One thing I have learned from Exploratorily sketching and design digital is how to be critical about your design and how to use this to make the design better. After a digital or paper sketch I look always what to change before making the final design.
To improve furthermore in Creativity & Aesthetics I will keep practicing in drawing and I will keep making digital designs for the courses and for things in my personal live.
Drawing of flash light for Exploratory Sketching
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S.C.A.M.P.E.R. ideation methode for P1
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Adobe InDesign poster for house activity
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Ilustration for Creative Programming in Java
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Video for Creative Programming with a Teensy
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TECHNOLOGY &
REALIZATION
An important skill I have learned for technology and realization is how to code, both in Java and Phyton. In creative programming I have learned to make visuals in Java using processing. This assignment taught me the basic structure of programming. This is not only helpful for programming in Java but also for programming in other programming languages. I also learned how to connect Processing to Arduino software and how to use a Teensy. The programming skills will be helpful as an industrial designer. The first thing is that a lot of prototypes needed to be programmed in order to work realistically. And the second benefit is that I will be able to better understand more complex programming challenges and how to communicate in a team to a programming expert what I want and discuss the possibilities.
To develop furthermore I will prototype more in my next projects and I will follow the course Making Sense of Sensors.
USER & SOCIETY
Keeping the user always in mind during the design progress is very important. That is wat I have learned in the course user-centered design. It also taught me how to conduct user tests and to use a consent form when you include users in your process. To design more from the users need, I learned how to storyboard and how to make a persona. But I have also learned that the background of the users is very important to keep in mind during the design process. In Socio Cultural Sensitivity I learned how to make a product with a message by creating a dress for the political leader of ‘Partij voor de dieren’. We created a message to recycle clothes. It was verry learn full to create a product with a message and how to carry out that message. In USE Basics I learned to take responsibility as a designer and to think about the attics of a design and that to ethical values can cause a conflict.
Al this knowledge I applied in project 1. We kept the user in mind by conducting interviews and doing user test. We tried to get to know our target group, students, good and design for their lives. We also took our responsibility as designers by creating a product to help the users and by designing a product that helped to create a sustainable future. We did this by choosing natural and envier mental friendly materials. And, when you did not use our product anymore you could bring it back to the store, so that we could refurbish it. This is more sustainable than only recycling the materials.
I will learn more about User & Society by working closer together with the customers in my future projects. By doing more user tests and other interactions with the customers.
Storyboard for User-Centered Design
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Practicing for Calculus
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Poster 2 of Data Analytics
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MATH, DATA &
COMPUTING
Theoretical knowledge about formula’s, calculations and physical laws is useful. But it has also taught me to think systematical and to work solution-oriented. In the course Calculus I have learned a lot of the base principals in calculus. Applied Natural Sciences taught me about the fundamental physical principals. Where the part about current, resistance and electromotive force is important for me to use for working with electronics and circuits. The course Data analytics for engineers has taught me how to handle big sheets of data. And how to analyze those data using phyton. Also, an important thing for me as a designer that I learned is how to present data in a clear and ordered way. This will help me to present data to others when necessary.
To learn more about data and how to use it in design I will follow the course Making Sense of Sensors.
Poster 1 of Data Analytics
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DESIGN &
RESEARCH
PROCESSES
In the course From Idea to Design I learned the first things about a design process. For example, I have learned that a design process can started from different points, like from a research start point or from an iteration start point. We used this direct in our assignment to create a game. In User-Centered design we learned another approach, namely, to design from the user perspective. I used the knowledge of those to strategies in my Project 1 design. But in Project 1 we where less guided in our process what made it a lot harder but also a challenge. We often used reflection of the process so far to decide what we would do next. I learned the hard way that if a concept in the middle of the process is not perfect you do not have to start all over. Because we have made a lot of different iteration without working further with the existing product. However therefor I have learned how to use gained knowledge from previous iterations in a new iteration.
I still want to learn a lot about the design process and how to make good and informed decisions in a design process. The next year I will learn this in Engineering Design and in Design < > Research. The best way to learn this is by doing and to dare to make mistakes and to learn from them. It’s a cliché but it is true.
Process of Project 1 before and after midterm
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Ideating process in From Idea to Design
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Projects
PI&V
THE Egg
A game around a giant egg in the midle of Eindhoven. By solving puzzels you can enter the egg. The puzzels are all made to create awairness for fake news.
Social- Cultural Sensitifity
Recycle dress
A dress made for 'de Partij voor de Dieren'. The message is that a recycled piece of clothing can look good and shoold be the standard. This can prevent a lot of waste.
project 1
Plant Habits
The planting habits helps students to create there own custum healthy habits. When your habits grow a real plant will growh simultaneously.
Goals I worked on
I want to learn how to make a product that is has the potential to make profit.
I have taken tree steps to reach this goal. The first one was to learn more about marketing and business models. I learned this by reading: ‘Made to stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, by Chip Heath & Dan Heath’. And by reading online information about business models. The second step was to create my own business model for project one. The focus of this business model was to keep the price low to make it adorable for students, our target group, to make the whole concept sustainable and to create emotional affection to our product by potential users. The last step was to talk to an expert about our product and the potential to sell it. It was an interview with an employee of the SSC.
Business model Project 1
click on the image to open the pdf
I want to learn to come up with creative ideas and to communicate them clearly with other people.
The first part of this goal I have achieved by using different ideation methods in Project 1, like ideating by sketching, S.C.A.M.P.E.R and Brainwriting. S.C.A.M.P.E.R. stands for: Substitute, combine, adapt, modify, put to other use, eliminate and reverse. The method helps to look through different lenses to your own design. And Brainwriting is generating a lot of ideas for different concepts. This helps to create a big quantity of ideas to later select and refine. To reach the communicative part I have learned the most in the elective Exploratory Sketching. It was not only about creating beautifully illustrations but more about how to communicate an idea and how to get the focus of the viewer on the things you want them to see. The most important things where: creating contrast, using arrows and making use of good comments.
Ideation Brainwriting voor p1
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I want to apply user centered design to Project 1.
To reach this goal I have conducted several interviews with students and done different user tests. By using the knowledge of the course User-Centered Design in a Project it helped to understand more of the principals. And how they can help to improve our design. An important thing I have learned is that you have to test your assumptions about your target group. Because some of the assumptions we made where not true. So by testing those assumptions we made fundamental changes to our product. For example, we made the assumption that students needed help with planning. But from interviews we concluded that not planning the problem was, but sticking to a planning was the real problem.
User survey for Project 1
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