My story

I see myself as a designer that places the human perspective on the first place. Before defining a problem or proposing a solution, I focus on the individuals behind it, their beliefs, dreams, struggles and desires. Only through understanding who they are, a design problem can be clearly and completely defined without losing sight of those who will ultimately experience and benefit from the outcome. Throughout all of my design processes, I let this come back. The users’ perspective will shape all the way from the ideation, via technical decisions and market analysis till the evaluation. I see it as a continuous dialogue that shapes the whole development of a product or service. This philosophy is reflected in my previous projects such as Learnum, Uptempo and EDZO, as well as in collaborations with experts in the healthcare sector. Across these projects, my goal has consistently been to enhance well-being, stimulate participation and create opportunities rather than dependencies.

One of my key strengths as a designer is my ability to empathize with individuals. I see myself as capable to listen without judgment, recognize underlying needs, and translate lived experiences into meaningful design insights. I reinforce this firsthand by support tools and by my role as a Confidential Contact Person (CCP) for two associations, where trust, sensitivity, and ethical awareness are essential next to understanding and being able to translate and react accordingly. Additionally, I continue to strengthen this skill by learning more about psychology, particularly in relation to my current target group, elderly living with dementia.  

My empathic ability sometimes also results in a challenge. I can experience a certain concern and hesitation when testing early-stage or unfinished prototypes with users, out of concern that I might place an extra burden on them. Even though, I fully value participatory design and know, and even want, to priorities users’ involvement throughout the process. I would like that the product would be able to directly help them, but I know that this will not be the case early on in the development. Recognizing this as an area for growth, I am actively pushing myself to engage users earlier and more openly, trusting the process and the value of co-creation. 

Another challenge, noticed throughout my development, is to maintain structure while allowing room for creativity and exploration. I have a strong curiosity to explore multiple perspectives and possibilities in depth. While this results in interesting findings, they sometimes cause me to go of track regarding the focus point and can lead to difficulty prioritizing and maintaining focus. To address this, I consciously create moments of reflections, writing down goals, defining endpoints and re-establishing overview when productivity decreases. However, I have noticed that my creativity gets restricted by over structuring by too many reflection points. 

Ultimately, my professional identity is shaped by the belief that people should be supported based on their abilities rather than defined by their limitations. I am developing myself into a designer who contributes to equity through accessibility-focused, human-centered and empowering design solutions. By continuing to collaborate with healthcare professionals, technology developers and users themselves, I am building the skills and mindset needed to contribute to my ideal vision of future society.