Master development
During the master, my specialism focus has been placed on the expertise areas User & Society and Technology & Realization within the master track Research, Design and Development. The courses have been used to expand knowledge and implementation perspectives, and work on specific challenges to directly implement the knowledge, new frameworks or theories. The projects have been focused on larger intertwined connections between knowledge, skills and process thinking within complex problem projects.
Below are the connections between the expertise areas and my development activities visualized. The main take aways of my projects and courses describe my past activities and learnings. This page ends with the extracurricular activities that have contributed to my professional and personal growth.
Close-up text EA's and connections
Previous Master Activities
From an empathetic personality to a professional empathetic interaction designer
Personal circumstances
Personality and first-hand experiences
My personality and experiences are closely related to who I am becoming as a designer. Supporting others is always my first intuition, either if this is within a group setting, family or friends or even strangers. This has also been the main driver for my passion to design supportive aid tools. I feel strongly for others and want to help where I can. Connected is also my own experiences with the impact of supportive aid tools and designs that grounded within empathizing with the user's experiences. I have my own experiences with moments of inequity throughout different domains of life and different reasons, a learning disability, an injury, and changing mental and physical health. Throughout the years I have learned first-hand the impact of good supportive aid tools and services on your ability to feel empowered and fulfillment. The understanding of how much such products or the leak of can have on people has also been fueled by close personal relations with people living with Down syndrome, Parkinson's, fifth disease, stroke, cancer, dementia and blindness.
All these influences combined have developed an empathetic and attentive way of working, which naturally determines how I investigate problems, interpret user context, and shape my role within a team.
Design for behavioral change
The Read Facilitator, a behavior change intervention
* multiple theories and frameworks on psychological background of behavior
*.multiple methodologies on how to involve users and collect user data
* Methodologies to use empathy within design
* psychological background on changing someones behavioral pattern
User experience theory and practice
Immersing myself within the meaning of user experience
* designing for a company case focused on their clients user experiences
* User experience not as knowledge but a design approach
* Immersing yourself within the users world view
Main take aways
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I learned that my empathetic character is not only a source of inspiration for the kinds of projects and user groups I feel drawn to, but also a guiding approach for how I work with and for my users throughout the design process.
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Throughout both my bachelor and master years, I have gained a clearer understanding of the types of design challenges I want to engage with, and I have grown confident in positioning myself as an designer who aims to contribute positively to a society where people can feel empowered and find enjoyment in their everyday lives.
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I came to recognize that my designs naturally emerge from moments of inaccessibility, inequity, or lack of agency, and that these contexts motivate me to create meaningful change.
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I learned how to combine Creativity & Aesthetics with User & Society to shape experiences that support users emotionally and socially, rather than focusing solely on solving a physical or functional problem.
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I realized that by designing for a specific experience, one that fosters well‑being, inclusion, and positive feelings, I can elevate the impact of my work beyond the product itself.
Finding my research & development approach through exploring outside the known
M1.1 - Design project
Understanding how to manipulate the shape and sensations of fabrics by using overtwisted yarn
During the first master project, we had a shared main goal, to work via a completely different then used to project process approach and problem solving strategy. I had been used to working via a user problem statement towards a solution, grounded in user research, design criteria and evaluating with experts and users. Within this project we explored the approach of an open-ended interest question around the effects of craftsmanship variables on a material.
We explored how using different amounts of (over)twist within yarn expressed itself when used within creating fabrics via weaving and knitting. The project was fully focused on an exploratory exploration of yarn properties and working with the machine, involving a highly first-person perspective throughout.
Constructive design research
Why Follow the Stars? Polaris an Uncomfortable AI Design Fiction about Trust
Within this course, my focus been on using the Showroom research methodology for the first time and reflecting the other proposed research methodologies. Gaining a clearer sense of how different research approaches align with my professional identity.
The last few years have AI powered tools extensively grown, e.g. through implementation in websites, search engines, personalization within products and services. We saw a growing trust among peer students in the outcomes generated by AI agents. Therefore we decided to create a provocative artifact that challenged critical reasoning in two ways, a checkbox with which you agree to fully give away your auteurs rights on the afterwards created input and secondly by generating random (and mostly wrong) solutions for world problems based on a users doodle. The observations and post-interviews should that we succeeded in sparking discussions and awareness on the 'blind' trust students lay in AI powered tools.
Although the use of the research methodology was interesting to reflect on and has provided me with another mindset that can be applied when wanting to generate behavior change through provoking self--reflection, this approach does not fit my personal design and work vision.
Main take aways
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I discovered that I naturally gravitate toward starting from a concrete user‑experienced problem, where direct contact with users allows me to shape solutions that support their needs.
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At the same time, I learned that an explorative, open‑ended approach can push me beyond familiar patterns, helping me uncover unexpected directions and more creative insights.
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I also realized that my design motivation lies more in creating moments of enjoyment and positive engagement than in deliberately provoking or confronting users.
Master Graduation Projects
M2.1 - Preparation Final Master Project
Bring Switch2Move to home
The Switch project, introduced by Aumens, sparked my interest due to its complex challenge and connection to my vision.
M2.2 - Final Master Project
SWITCH it on
Within this project has my focus been on exploring how the interest of people with dementia can be sparked and how to play in on their situational experience to get them enthusiastic to start up an active activity and participate in it. It is a project that combines the understanding of the user's experience, co-designing with the target group, creating activation triggers through aesthetical elements and its technological realization. This all while staying true to the companies vision of bringing autonomy and enjoyment to its customers.
Extracurricular activities
Board year
During my bachelor's in 2022-2023, I completed a year on the board of my women's sorority. I held the position of chair. During this year, a strong emphasis was placed on improving public speaking skills, managing internal conflicts, providing overarching leadership to a group, and analyzing and improving systems that were in place or needed to be created based on the board's vision.
Confidential Contact Person
After my year on the board, we introduced the position of member Confidential Contact Person, a role I have fulfilled for the past few years. Currently, this position is being transferred due to my alumni membership status.
In March 2025, I was also installed as Confidential Contact Person for my sports association. For this, I completed an additional course to specialize in this role within a sports association.
In this role, I focus on monitoring the relationships between members, trainers, and other stakeholders. I conduct conversations on topics such as mental health, social safety, and discrimination. In doing so, I function as a listening ear, advisor, and observer.
Competition sport and support
Within the sports association, I was also part of two competition groups with which we participate(d) in the Benelux competition and NK. After an injury, I remained involved as support during training sessions.
Learning impact...
Childcare of the church
Since January of this year, I have been involved in the church's childcare. Together with a group, we provide childcare during the church services. I am involved in the small group that looks after the youngest children.
Learning impact...