‘I see beauty in moral values, where the challenge is to keep intelligence beautiful through ethics and morality. ‘
Professional Identity
I have always been a social and caring person. I enjoy doing things with and for people, both personally and as a designer. This makes me naturally focus on the human perspective during the design process. I want to really understand all the people involved and discover their needs, desires and concerns. I am able to ask critical questions to define the real problems that need to be solved, because I empathize with all the people involved, immersing myself in the whole situation and trying to push boundaries.
This critical eye has brought me to my personal goal as a designer, which is to keep technology human. I immerse myself in technological developments, understand them, see where the opportunities and pain points lie, unravel the challenges. I see beauty in moral values, because intelligence brings complexity over which humans lose control, where the challenge is to keep it beautiful through ethics and morality. I strive to turn this complexity into something understandable and accessible, as well as beautiful. To do this, I combine my analytical thinking with my creative skills.
I like to do this in a multidisciplinary team. Working with people from different disciplines who all have a different perspective on a project inspires me. I like being the link between these different disciplines. I value being involved in organizing the project and creating a nice workflow, as my strengths lie in planning and keeping an overview. Just as I take care of the people around me, I also take care of team spirit and motivation. I often check in with the team and ensure good communication. I initiate discussions that ultimately enhance the quality of a project. I am also an opportunity seeker. I am not afraid of new challenges and I persevere until I am satisfied with the result.
‘It is important to empower the human to understand the intelligence and show where action is needed to bring about change.’
Vision
Intelligent systems are rapidly gaining prominence in our daily lives. These growing connected systems are increasing the importance and value of data. Data is a topic with many perspectives and critical points, which raises the demand for designers to question the relationship we have with these data-driven systems. People are no longer in control as systems begin to push our boundaries, steer us in directions, influence our choices and invade our privacy. We need a fundamental change, because right now the focus is on innovation and technology and not on consequences. I believe we need to unravel this complexity to ensure that technology remains human.
To bring about fundamental change at the socio-technical level, we need to focus on social change and movements at the socio-cultural level. I believe this starts with creating awareness and understanding in society. Through my designs, I want to provoke criticality. It is important to empower the human to understand the intelligence and show where action is needed to bring about change. We can use aesthetics to bring the complexity of intelligence closer to humans. I see beauty in ordinary things, unraveling complexity through materials and shapes that are recognizable and close to humans.
In an ideal world, the values of all stakeholders would be more aligned to avoid conflict. Therefore, it is important to keep opening and facilitating discussions with all stakeholders. Designers need to ask the critical questions, create meaningful, inefficient moments by slowing down to reflect. I think it is important for designers to put users at the center, keep their needs at the center and challenge technology to grow towards this, because ultimately, technology has to be the answer to a human need, so keeping the world a little bit human.