Welcome to My Journey. Here you will read about important events that shaped me into the designer I am today and the designer I aim to be.
My Journey
Past
Before I started studying Industrial Design I haven’t really done anything with design. So in my first year of ID at TU/e I got introduced to a lot of new information. During the first semester I got to know the design expertise areas and how important they are realizing your product. During the year I worked with these expertise areas and I was able to apply them in different projects and assignments.
Using the brainstorm techniques from Creativity & Aesthetics helped me come up with a lot of ideas and concepts. The techniques I used most were creating scenario’s and personas, sketching, and prototyping. This helped me come up with topics, elements and aesthetics in a very short time.
By making scenario’s and personas it was easy to identify the issues that needed to be solved. Creating mind maps allowed me to get a lot of ideas on paper very fast. I was able to group ideas and add on to them along the way.
Sketching helped me with the realization of a product and had me getting started on thinking about the use of the product from a User & Society perspective. It got me thinking about all the small details that involve interacting with a product. In our recent project we were asked to make a companion that involves a human-product interaction. By creating a sketch I got to visualize the product and think about the placement of elements while looking at a low-fidelity version of the product. This made it easy to come up with logical placements and communication of elements to improve the users experience with the product.
Prototyping helped me communicate my ideas to my peers and helped me visualize my idea and identify certain errors I would not have found just by sketching and brainstorming. It allowed me to put my product in perspective and to see whether my ideas are feasible. By asking my peers to interact with my prototype I got to see how people would interact with the product and I was able to make adjustments according to my observations and their feedback to improve user experience.
I would also incorporate surveys to gather feedback and collect other type of data, which helped me identify certain issues. This is where Math, Data and Computing played a key role. By collecting and analyzing data I was able to identify important issues or find evidence to support my observations. Working with a dataset and being able to organize them efficiently allows for a clear and quick overview without losing valuable information. Being able to plot information from big datasets in the right, helps me highlight the importance for a solution.
Mind map - Floor Kruijtzer
Scenario sketch - Floor Kruijtzer
Product sketches - Floor Kruijtzer
Prototype 'Flow' CBL-2 - Floor Kruijtzer, Bram Sendem, Gergely Pálfi, Marii Raasuke, Ross Luijten
Data gathering - Floor Kruijtzer
Processing - Floor Kruijtzer
Processing - Floor Kruijtzer
Arduino set up interactive game - Floor Kruijtzer
Interactive game processing - Floor Kruijtzer
'Flow' CBL-2 render - Gergely Pálfi
Present
In more recent activities I explored the fields of Technology & Realization and Business & Entrepreneurship.
At the start of semester 2 I had the Creative Programming course where I learned through Technology & Realization the importance of picking the right type of prototype for each stage of my design process and learned a new way of prototyping. I used coding in Processing and Arduino and got to discover this whole new level of communicating ideas and realizing interactions between human and product. Using technology made me expend on my abilities and made it easier for me to design with endless possibilities. Although programming is still something I could become much more fluent in, I’m already very open to the idea of using it a lot future projects. This way I get to explore new features which can help me bring my designs to the next level.
I’m currently working on CBL project 2. I’m making a companion together with four other students. For this project I challenged myself to dive deeper into Business & Entrepreneurship, since I haven’t gotten the chance to explore this area yet. I quickly realized how important the role of Business & Entrepreneurship is in realizing your product.
One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned is how much Creativity & Aesthetics and Business & Entrepreneurship go hand in hand. While brainstorming companion features, I found myself rejecting ideas simply because they didn’t fit my home’s aesthetic. This made me realize that design isn’t just about function, but it’s about how a product fits into someone’s life. If I wouldn’t buy something because it clashes too much with my space, why would someone else?
Another key take away was finding a balance between usefulness and subtlety. If a companion talks or moves too much, it could end up being more annoying than helpful, which would have a negative effect on the users experience. A great product should feel like a part of your environment and shouldn’t be something that constantly asks for attention.
Reflecting back on the year. I can see how I have grown as a designer and how the expertise areas has giving me the right tools and skills to develop and communicate ideas. Following the double diamond process helped me create order in my design process. I learned how to incorporate the brainstorm techniques from Creativity & Aesthetics. This helped me discover issues and important topics in a very fast and efficient way. By using data gathering techniques from Math, Data and Computing I am able identify the main issue, which helps me divine my topic. After, I would go into the develop phase where I would make prototypes of my product and have people test them. User testing is a key element in User & Society. It allows me to see how people would interact with my product and I gives me the opportunity to receive feedback on how I can improve the user experience. In the last phase I adapt the feedback, refine my product and deliver it by presenting and reflecting on my work.
I have made all these tools and skills from the 'past' and 'present' my own and it formed me into the designer I am today.
Future
What I want for my future in Industrial Design is to combine technology with human behavior. I want to study how people think, feel, and act. I want to use this information to design products that begin with behavior as their foundation. My goal is to create products that feel intuitive, neutral, and don’t demand too much attention but instead blends perfect into their environment.
I want my projects to go deeper than just function. I hope my products can stand as an art pieces on their own, while still offering functionality when it’s needed. I'm passionate about reaching a wide audience with my work, especially through inclusive design. I want everyone to be able to use products I create, regardless of their background, abilities, or experience.
For my products to be truly inclusive, they need to be simple to understand and natural to interact with. That's why I want to create products that are not only designed for people, but with people. By having user test your product and give you feedback, you get a clear understanding of peoples behavior, making it easier to make adjustments. Working together with user allows you to deeply focus on the user experience.
My goal for this semester is to dive deeper into the field of User & Society, I want to gain more information about problem-solving, human-centered design, collaboration, communication, and how to make ethical and sustainable choices. I’m eager to learn, grow, and adapt, so I can create meaningful products that resonate with people.
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