Publications:

• Curiosity and Interaction: making people curious through interactive systems – Proceedings of BHCI 2011 (best long paper award)

Exhibitions:

• ID’10 2010 – Dutch Design Week exhibition @ ID TU/e

Awards:

• Young Talent Social Design Award [nominated] – shared 2nd price, design competition of all Eindhoven Design student projects
• British HCI 2011 conference – best Long Paper Award

In this internship at the Mobile Life Centre, I worked on the actDresses project: programming by means of physical accessories. Through various design and evaluation iterations, on several robotic platforms, novel ways of programming robotic devices have been explored. Metaphors from comics and fashion have been used, resulting in a better understanding of the end-user programming principles. A video submission has been submitted and accepted to HRI2010, and a long conference paper is being written at the moment.

The approach followed was explorative: starting from a quick literature review, different principles of programming and controlling robots were embodied and evaluated. Paper prototypes, glowbots (small robots) and the Roomba vacuum cleaner robot were used as platform. Videos of the explorations can be viewed in this vimeo album; my thought process is reported in this blog.

Result – roomba flags & clothes

video explanation

In the final exploration iteration, the Roomba programming was further developed. Controlling the robot was divided in two segments: first of all, movement characteristics, such as ‘evade walls’, could be programmed by attaching an iconic flag to the robot. Second, different personalities could be programmed, by putting the appropriate dress over the robot.

Reflection

By working with researchers from a variety of disciplines, I was forced to find my ‘niche’: which of my competencies could add something to the multi-disciplinary team in which I worked. Throughout my internship, I learned that interacting is what distinguishes me from others: interacting between design and research, between exploration and analysis, but also literally between people and disciplines. My ability to quickly integrate e.g. software and hardware in a smart solution, or studied literature in a design decision, was a competency that was really valued, and where I really felt I added something.
My ‘way of working’, of 4d-sketching, exploration and analysis, quick user encounters and justified reasoning, fitted in this role of interacting: it builds upon my strengths, my preferences, and my competencies, while delivering good results as well. I’m glad I realised this ‘combination’, as it really helped me to decide how I want to work in my future career.

In addition, this internship was a confirmation of my preference for design-research: I’ve always preferred the content, the reasoning behind, and the depth in a project; the challenge of discovering why people and a design behave in a certain way, the discussions to convince myself and others, and the silent proudness of sharing such discoveries.

Last, but not least, this internship confirmed my ‘where I want to work’ question: multi-disciplinary teams, of people working alone on specific tasks, but together on the overall image. The cooperation, discussions and inspiration you get from interacting with all those interesting projects, that is what really motivates me. Our Eindhoven department is very strong on this, and this internship had the same community and atmosphere: that is what I really like, and need, to stay enthusiastic day in day out.

In this study, I designed several concepts for stimulating intergenerational play between elderly and their
grand-children. An evaluation on design, user and business level resulted in a first foundation for projects on physical and social play.

Research study on elderly communication: how do elderly communicate with their adult children, and how do they experience this. Different evaluation methods were developed and used to do a qualitative and quantitive research study.

In this design class, we explored and designed a novel way of experience logging between backpackers. Using a combination of physical cards and digital highlighting, backpackers could share their experiences on an interactive piece of furniture.

Project video

As chairman of the board, I organised this fifth Student Interaction Design and Research conference. With 80+ participants from across the world, this student conference on design research was a great success. Managing all the business relations, planning the entire organisation of the event and leading our enthusiastic team were my main tasks in this position.

Conference website

Design and implementation of an adaptable awareness system, allowing users to choose and couple their own information sources to their own way of visualisation.

Project video

TouchMeDare has been successfully implemented and evaluated on the Lowlands festival (55.000 visitors), and on various other occasions.

Publications:

• Meeting Duet; Challenging People into a Body Language of Meeting – Proceedings of DeSForM 2006
• Meeting by Moving, Mediated through Music – Journal of Urban Computing and Mobile Devices 2007
• Contact Through Canvas, An Entertaining Encounter – Journal of Pers. and Ubiq. Computing 2009
• IDzine – TU/e ID news letter
• Daily Paradise – Lowlands festival program guide 2007

Exhibitions:

• Design United 2006 – Dutch Design Week Exhibition (Meeting Duet prototype)
• Design United 2007 – Dutch Design Week Exhibition  (TouchMeDare prototype)
• DeSForM conference 2006
• Lowlands festival 2007 (55.000 visitors)
• TU/e open house 2007
• Opening /d.search-labs 2006
• Inaugural lecture Prof. Overbeeke 2007
• V2 Test_LAB multimodal

Original project team: Koen van Boerdonk, Eva Deckers, Hugo Nagtzaam, Jesper Schwachofer, Rob Tieben
Continued by: Koen van Boerdonk, Rob Tieben
Coach: Sietske Klooster, Elise van den Hoven
Client: Eric van Eerdenburg, Mojo Concerts

Publications:

• Cursor 2005 – TU/e news paper
• Telegraaf  2005 – large Dutch national news paper
• IDzine 2005 – TU/e ID news letter
• SBS6 television news 2006 – major Dutch television network
• various TNO publications (client)
• various national and international blog items

Exhibitions:

• DesignUnited 2006
• TNO Sport Exhibition 2006
• Symposium FieldLab Eindhoven 2006
• Sport & Technology conference 2006
• Nederland Innovatief conference 2007

Design team:
Lisa op ‘t Hof, Ivo Stuyfzand, Balasz Szekely, Pieter van Wegberg, Jurgen Westerhoff, Rob Tieben
Client:
Tinus Jongert, TNO Quality of Life
Project coach:
Peter Joore