Expertise area development
Creativity & Aesthetics
This year I developed further in CA. Firstly, through the course of “Aesthetics of Interaction,” where I explored design that engages users through visual and functional interactions. Aesthetics of Interaction are important to think about when designing. From a personal perspective, the aesthetics of interaction invite us to view design as a language through which products and technologies communicate with us, influencing our feelings, behaviors, and perceptions.
Secondly, I developed my practical and prototyping skills throughout the “CBL Project 3” within New Futures, we created Evanesce, a piece of furniture helping people to transition from their work to home life, which required a lot of woodworking, and for this I had to get familiar with different tools, machines and material properties. With our final prototype, we really focused on the aesthetics of the final design, which taught me that aesthetics can often come down to small details. Within the design we also applied the theory we had learned in other courses like “Aesthetics of Interaction.”
Business & Entrepreneurship
One of my goals for year 2 was to learn more in the Business &
entrepreneurship expertise area. For BE I have been learning various theories, frameworks, and basic knowledge, through courses like “New product marketing,” “Introduction to Business Design” and “Design Innovation Methods” which I can apply in my projects. With the knowledge and insights, I have gained from these courses I can say I have achieved this goal. Nevertheless, I hope to develop further in this area.
Within “New Product Marketing,” an Industrial Engineering elective I followed in the first quartile of the year, I learned various tools and methods for marketing, brand building and advertising. The course also goes a bit into the psychology of people and how companies, especially today through social media, can influence them. I really enjoyed this course, and it was a great base for my BE development.
Because in quartile 2, the “Introduction to Business Design” course followed, in which we went deeper into the full picture of business and providing strategies for companies to distinguish themselves from other brands and gain a competitive advantage. I learned how businesses are organized, how they set goals and how they can compare themselves with competitors. Additionally, I also applied the knowledge I got from “New Product Marketing” and developed my knowledge in marketing further.
Within the course of “Design Innovation Methods,” in Q3 of this year, I learned additional tools and methods to apply to analyze and advise companies. My powerful base from the BE courses in Q1 and Q2 gave me a head start in this course, and an opportunity to apply my previous gained knowledge. For the final assignment, we were asked to create an innovative business strategy for a project, with this I came up with a festival organization approach to my CBL project 3 of Evanesce. This assignment provided a nice opportunity in combining my vision with a project and seeing what all comes in to play when designing for- or organizing an event.
User & society
This year during the second quartile I did the course of “Design Research,” in which I had to actively research a group of students, a sports association in my case, by designing probes and with this, gaining many qualitative data of participants. The core of this course in relation to US is that it showed me that it is easier to empathize with- and design for users when doing deep research into them and collecting qualitative data.
Within the courses that also contributed to my BE development, I also learned a lot about users, as they went into analyzing customers psychology and mapping out the customer journey, you look at users from another perspective. With this, I realized that it is important that we keep a human-centered perspective and not a financially centered perspective, as many marketing and businesses only have the goal to make money.
Math, Data & Computing
Throughout the course of “Design Research,” we learned how to analyze qualitative data, by doing thematic analysis, which is vastly different from quantitative data. It is important to be unbiased and to look at things objectively, which is a new mindset I got familiar with that I can apply within research projects. The methods and perspectives I learned from this course contributed to my development in the ‘data’ part of MDC.
Technology & Realization
In contradiction to year one, where I have learned programming, physics and working with microcontrollers, I have not been able to really develop in TR this year. Because I unfortunately failed my “CBL project 3” in B2.1, I am re-doing it right now in B2.2. because of that I decided to drop the electives I planned to follow, “designing connected experiences” and “designing actuated systems,” to not overcomplicate my semester. I am planning to do these two courses in B3.2 and with that refresh and refine my technical skills and TR development.
Vision development
In year one at Industrial Design I struggled with my vision, due to my many interests in various subjects. This year has been particularly important for my vision as a designer, where I decided that I want to specialize in experience design, and making people happy through designing unforgettable experiences. My interest in Music and people have been the main reasons that the festival industry is my preferred area to create these experiences.
A part of my vision also entails including sustainability in my designing, by taking ecologically responsive decisions and minimizing environmental impact, through the course of “Sustainability and Design” I became familiar with many methods and tools and made me think of how I really position myself in terms of sustainability. I realized that I want to promote a circular approach in my designs, and relating to my vision within the festival scene, there are many fields it can improve.
Extracurricular Activities
One of my extracurricular activities was arranging sponsors for my Football team. With this, I learned how to approach companies, manage stakeholders, make agreements with them, and communicate ideas with them and with the shirt printing company.
For an internship application, I was asked to design a stage for a festival decoration company. This challenged my creative thinking, and I really enjoyed designing it, 3D modelling the design has improved my modelling skills and assessed my creativity towards my vision. There will be a big chance I will do my internship with this company.
