Portfolio Jochem Verstegen

Welcome to my portfolio! The purpose of this portfolio is to allow assessors to assess my development during my Master's at Industrial design, and especially during my FMP.

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PI&V

Professional Identity

Vision

Past

FMP and Development

Future

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Professional Identity and Vision

Professional Identity

As a designer and person, I enjoy smart, clever products. After exploring designing various types of smart and connected systems, my work now revolves around IoT and smart home technologies. I feel satisfaction when designing valuable interactions and experiences for the smart home. I love staying up-to-date with tech and using design to bring its value into homes. RDD was the natural track for me.

Strengths

I’m organized, which helps team communication and is often appreciated by teammates. While often quietly observing and supporting, I can lead when needed, especially in areas aligned with my strengths. When leading, I prioritize inclusion and clear communication.

My core strength lies in prototyping. Before Industrial Design, I was already skilled in making things (woodworking, sewing, smithing) which expanded during my studies to include mechanisms, electronics, 3D printing, and programming. I’m confident in making both physical and digital prototypes.

I also bring deep knowledge of smart and connected products, gained through years of interest. I’m quick to learn and adapt new tools and techniques, making me a versatile and flexible designer.

Design Process

I value non-linear, iterative processes like design thinking [2]. Inspiration grows with subject familiarity, prototyping and testing lead to new ideas. An iterative approach offers structure with creative flexibility, enabling user involvement and better design.

Vision

Human-computer interaction is evolving as computers and systems gain more functions. We moved from Command-Line Interfaces (CLIs) to Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs) [12], and now toward Conversational User Interfaces (CUIs) [1, 10]: Using natural language via AI for complex tasks. CUIs can empower users to do more, especially in complex systems like smart homes. Besides clear advantages AI systems can deliver, it will always remain important to beware of their risks when it comes to privacy, ethics, and sustainability.

When products are connected to the Internet of Things (IoT), they gain new emergent functionalities that come with being part of a system. They can be controlled remotely, automated, and personalized. Designers should make these emergent functionalities easier to understand and use, bringing the values of IoT systems to more people. That’s my focus when designing.

Intuitive IoT systems benefit from rich/aesthetic interactions. These use affordances to provide natural feedforward and feedback, without needing textual labels [4, 7]. Designing rich interactions benefits from exploratory and iterative design processes, which provide a lot of room for creativity while ensuring user involvement at multiple points during the design process. Even if they don’t end up in final products, they inspire user-friendly design ideas.

As technology evolves, designers must ensure usability and deliver the needed level of intuitiveness. I believe my skills, flexibility, and eagerness to learn make me ready for that challenge. As technology evolves, my vision on design will evolve with it as well.

References