Expertise Areas
User and Society
Thus far, the knowledge from the user and society hasn’t been applied to either of my courses or projects. Although I forwarded some of the attention towards specific cases in the environment, such as bringing awareness to deforestation through a bag assignment and taking a more research-based approach to design a solution for decreasing accident rates in the case of Coentunnel in Amsterdam. Despite entailing societal issues in such specific cases of real-life issues, I believe covering more or this expertise area would be beneficial, especially in my B31 project, where I only briefly researched the topic of technology in the world of 2040, but lacked more specific user input and later an evaluation of my design.
I will have to change this for my FBP and include more user input and evaluation for the project, as that is something that I underestimated and even missed completely. Although I analyzed and researched ongoing societal issues, focusing more on the user would be more beneficial within the scope of the project, as it could help me better tailor the solution to the target user and uncover potential opportunities, which could help me better justify the reasons behind my decisions.
Creativity and Aesthetics
Through some electives, I was able to incorporate the knowledge and skills in sketching and prototyping, and acquire a new set of skills. For digital craftsmanship, I tried out one of the more interesting skills, which is gaining access to the Wearable Senses Lab. Here, I could get a hands-on experience in creating two bags, one as a safety and introduction to the lab, and another one for my specific elective. Working with fabrics and textiles opens a new dimension for me and enables me to expand my pursuit of craftsmanship within this department.
Working on planning the product development, all the way from getting the purpose and main motive, to later sketching and ideating, showed me again that ideation and concept definition prove to be a challenge, especially when there is no one to decide on where to go with the concept. In addition to physical making, we also had to come up with a creative visualization of different factors affecting deforestation worldwide. Having numerical values and utilizing some provided AI tools helped move swiftly through the process and explore possible data visualizations, and later incorporating these in the prototyping process
One of the main missed opportunities for development was to further work on the B31 squad project, where I could have tapped more into the graphic design of developing a set of posters for the project and creating a more hi-fi iteration of the digital interface.
Technology and Realization
As part of my goal for this semester, to develop TR further and more in-depth, I participated in the New Futures squad to focus on developing a smart product. This has gone well, as I managed to develop a concept of a smart window security system for a household. As part of the demo day, I developed 2 parts of the prototype: a digital interface and a physical input of the digital interface. I got to experiment with ESP32 and its wireless communication to make an interactive system. This was particularly enjoyable, as I never worked with this platform, let alone harnessing wireless communication.
I recognized that working with digital interfaces can be interesting and fun, even though it is not as enjoyable as physical prototyping and making. Tinkering with the components and connecting everything physically and digitally used to be something I would avoid or only focus on one of the given tasks. However, doing both tasks simultaneously can reduce the noise and allow me to fix any upcoming issues faster.
Prototyping for the Digital Craftsmanship in IDWS lab
Prototyping for the B31 project
Additionally, in a group setting, we were required to design a mobility solution and conduct a cost-benefit analysis of the proposed solution. Given the delicate topic of tunnel safety, trying to acquire actual costs for different solutions was almost impossible, and therefore, estimates had to come into play.
Being presented with the actual costs and marketing aspects made me recognize the entire structure required to present an actual product or solution to the world. Analyzing the competition can present opportunities for differentiation and possibly find gaps for new products to emerge.
Customer Journey map for the brand Vans for one of my electives (New product marketing)
Prototype for Digital craftsmanship
Exploring data visualizations
Business and Entrepreneurship
Regarding business and entrepreneurship, I took courses where I could incorporate some aspects of the business perspective, namely marketing of new products and analyzing the feasibility of a solution proposed for another course. Marketing of new products guided me and showed me the process of how new products come to the market, all the way from getting ideas, finding target customers, validating the concept and introducing it to the market. Revisiting and refreshing the conceptual frameworks like SWOT analysis and PESTEL framework helped me connect this existing knowledge and connect it to new area.
Math, Data and Computing
This semester, I wanted to gain a better understanding of MDC, as this expertise area has been neglected throughout my studies thus far. Therefore, I decided to do a project in New Futures, where all the projects work in an Internet of Things context. This means that every project has to be linked and share data with other projects. This was a particular challenge, as I had no idea how to achieve this and was more intrigued to understand this, not only conceptually, but also by directly communicating with another project.
Figuring the data sharing seemed quite challenging and also frustrating, since we had to develop it conceptually from the very beginning of the project, but I wasn’t sure how to implement it, given that the ideas and concepts kept changing and developing as weeks progressed. It was only halfway through the project that we got a dedicated workshop discussing and actually showcasing, with a hands-on approach, how to make the data sharing work.
Even though the data sharing didn’t actually work in my case, it served as a reminder that smart products need to communicate with other devices to create a smart home in the Internet of Things scope.
Data visualization
Communication between the ESP32 (physical input) and Processing (digital output)
Tutor feedback
Additionally, for every group project and coaching, we had a dedicated tutor, who always provided us with support, but also critiques and suggestions for improvement. Sometimes I found it difficult to listen to the tutor, especially when I understood that our worldviews and individual values were not aligned. However, this feedback was always there to help guide our process in the right direction.
Hard skills
This year was particularly challenging, as I did not give myself enough opportunity to develop my already existing hard skills. I wanted to improve my sketching skills on paper and gradually shift to digital sketching, but choosing more theoretical electives made it more challenging to include in my schedule.
However, I instead got the opportunity to edit multiple videos for some of the courses and projects. This became one of the few digital hard skills I enjoyed doing, mainly because of its similarity with physical prototyping. I find it easy to track my progress, and it gives me the opportunity to strive for perfection.
Professional skills
Communication
Communication has been a big part of working with different people and on various projects over the course of this study. I was never talkative or good at effective communication, which was underlined by my initial struggle to communicate my ideas. But as I took different courses and got assigned different team members, I gradually improved and became more confident in my capabilities and in sharing my ideas and thoughts.
However, the biggest challenge lied in communication when it came to the individual project. I had to communicate my progress to the coach continuously, and saw it quite challenging to interact and discuss aspects of data sharing with other groups or individuals within the squad.
Collaboration
Compared to last year, I believe I have become more comfortable in teamwork and collaboration with other team members. This could be because of mainly having good and reliable people in my groups, but also my effort to participate in all the assignments and contribute as much as I can. I have also had the opportunity to have team members from other majors, due to electives outside of Industrial Design and a Multidisciplinary CBL. Working with people from other majors is very beneficial to projects and assignments, as everyone brings their unique skillset and a different perspective to the project or assignment. I like working in such groups, as it provides the opportunity to expand my scope outside industrial design.