Materialising the Intangible
Past
INDUSTRIAL DESIGN - BACHELOR
My professional design journey began in the Bachelor of Industrial Design, where I recognised the effectiveness of tangible, visual, and collaborative sense-making to make the intangible tangible in complex decision-making processes. During my Bachelor’s graduation project (iLAND), I applied these methods to support career decision-making, using a reflective toolkit intervention to help students navigate the complexities of their identity and future career paths. By tapping into theories like embodied learning, visual sense-making, and the Self-Determination Theory to spark intrinsic motivation, I realised that physical artefacts could serve as powerful anchors for reflection.
From Applying to Adapting
INDUSTRIAL DESIGN - MASTER
The Master’s program marked a shift in my practice: from applying generative and theoretical frameworks to strategically adapting them. I came to see design methods not as rigid moulds, but as flexible scaffolds that must be reshaped to the unique contexts of each project. This required greater contextual sensitivity and moved me beyond following a fixed design “recipe” toward intuitively combining and tweaking methods, depending on the needs of a context.
This shift also helped me move beyond identity labels like “social designer” toward a more self-defined niche: designing reflective interactions. I recognised “designing through translation” as my natural methodology for idea generation, using metaphors and narrative shifts to make abstract or overwhelming contexts more comprehensible. I explored these principles across diverse and sensitive contexts to develop contextual awareness. For example, in the M1.1 project I explored how people with dementia and their caregivers navigate assistive technologies, in the M2.1 project how playful museum pathways can spark STEM identity reflection, and in the M1.2 project how the physicalization of a student’s professional identity can drive vision-based goal setting. Transitioning from standalone toolkits to integrated service system experiences for reflection, I have shifted perspectives and layers of value propositions.
Competence Development
MY AREAS OF EXPERTISE
Over the course of the Master's program, I have developed across 5 areas of expertise (user & society, business & entrepreneurship, creativity & aesthetics, technology & realisation, and math data & computing) through diverse projects, seeking specialisation in creativity & aesthetics and user & society. In these projects, development of my professional competencies and exploration of my professional identity and vision have been a gradual process. A visual overview of the development of my personal perspectives on and approaches in the areas of expertise, how they are interconnected in my practices, and how large my ultimate development in each area is in contrast to the others, is illustrated below.
As each course and extracurricular activity has uniquely contributed to the development of the distinct areas of expertise, a more in-depth reflection for each individual area is provided by navigating to the corresponding page by using the buttons below.
Click to read the reflections for each expertise
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Present
My Design Vision and Identity
WHAT TYPE OF DESIGNER AM I?
Currently, I am a reflective interaction designer at the Eindhoven University of Technology, dedicated to the power of shared, tangible, and visual sense-making. My practice is defined by the ability to externalise internal thinking processes, transforming abstract challenges into physical or visual dialogues that facilitate informed decision-making. I stand at the intersection of Industrial Design and social innovation, ready to apply my expertise in "designing through translation" to create interventions that don't just solve problems, but empower users to reflect and act with clarity. Read more about my identity and vision below.
Where Developments Come Together
MASTER GRADUATION PROJECT
Ultimately, following my intrinsic passion for helping prospective students navigate the career sense-making phases which I have encountered myself, I have now returned to the theme of career decision-making for my Final Master’s Project by detecting pitfalls on a systemic level of career decision-making support in higher education. In contrast to my Final Bachelor Project, I shift perspective from the individual student and a toolkit intervention, toward a broader cross-institutional approach and a service system.
Career Chef
Final master project
A cross-institutional study choice support service that helps students explore their fit with study environment through experiential, situated reflection prompts and hybrid interactions. This ultimately contributes to an anticipatory sense of belonging, a key factor in career decision-making.
Future
What's Next?
AFTER GRADUATION
Following graduation, I aim to apply and further develop my expertise in contexts where complex human transitions require empathy and clarity. For example, I envision myself as a learning experience (LX) designer, helping individuals or organisations navigate possible futures and transitions through reflective tools, such as at Frisse Blikken as a learning and development consultant through serious gaming. Alternatively, I see a path in the public sector as a social designer, perhaps within the Eindhoven municipality, facilitating participatory decision-making.