about me
I’m a Master’s student in Industrial Design, on her way to obtain a double degree in Science Education. My work focuses on designing inclusive and accessible learning experiences, combining design, education, and society. Let’s dive a bit deeper into that.
Vision
The ever-changing world we live in today demands a shift for society: learning is no longer limited to school, but is a necessity for participating in society and adapting to new circumstances. After all, it is in people’s nature to learn and acquire skills and knowledge to steer through life (Wedemeyer, 2010). For me, learning is more than a necessity, it is a source of energy, joy and fulfillment, because I feel that learning is living. Learning is not merely the acquisition of knowledge, but a fundamental process through which people shape their identity, develop agency, and participate in society. By staying curious, people can move towards self-actualization, which drives me to make learning fun, intuitive, and engaging.
However, classrooms become more diverse and learning is not always accessible and suitable to everyone. The current education system often fails to meet the diverse learning needs of individuals, something I have experienced among my family, friends, and professionally. This traditional ‘one-size-fits-all’ education overlooks individuality, motivating me to design for inclusive and accessible learning experiences.
Inclusive learning methods recognize it is not just about accessibility, but also about adaptability, as all learners differ in how they engage with, process, and express information (Ralabate, 2011; Rose, 2000). In an ideal classroom of equity, the teacher could accommodate to the different strengths and needs of the students, as differentiated learning makes people more engaged and motivated (Tomlinson, 2014). In reality, the education system is under a lot of pressure and teachers face growing workloads. This prevents them to facilitating the individual attention that people need to grow and develop agency. As designers, our creative and innovative approach can bridge this gap by developing educational tools that support ownership and versatility. By translating learning challenges into tangible, user-centered experiences, designers can complement educational approaches and empower learners to participate more confidently in society.
Achieving this requires listening carefully to the people we design for, the voice of the people must be heard. A design is never an isolated product or service, it is always for someone. User-driven design brings a unique lens that goes beyond current efforts to improve and support learning, which are often pedagogical and didactic. When approaching this problem through user-driven design, it offers a perspective that is grounded in real user experiences. This not only leads to innovative solutions, but also ensures that they are intuitive, meaningful, and truly fit into people’s daily lives.
Identity
The foundation of inclusivity lies within understanding people: how they think, what they do, and why they do it. I value equity and giving a voice to those who are often overlooked, this trait drives my interest in inclusive design. Creating a deep user understanding is essential to my vision of designing inclusive learning experiences, as inclusive educational interventions become meaningful when they are grounded in the needs, motivations, and experiences from learners. I learn from them in various stages of my design process to make user-driven design decisions.
To achieve this, I take on an iterative, reflective, and user-centered design process, which naturally aligns with the Triple Diamond Model (Chen, 2020) that I use frequently in my design approach. I prefer to take an empirically-based approach, grounding my decisions in what I see happening within society, my users, and other stakeholders. Additionally, taking the user as a focal point of my design process allows me to create empathy, and validate my designs with them and other relevant stakeholders that I include. I use these validations as reflection moments in my process, while also taking a step back myself to reflect on my design and approach so I become self-aware and stay close to my design goal. My pitfall in reflection moments is being self-critical; while this pushes me to continue iterating and working until I am satisfied, it can also result in getting stuck occasionally. Fortunately, I get grounded by the people I work with through shared reflection.
I have a strong visual and tangible approach, starting to visualize and organize my ideas early on so I can communicate them effectively. This translates into sketching, paper prototyping, laser-cutting, milling, and graphic design. I aim to create products that feel intuitive, playful, and tangible, by focusing on user experience and interactions as well. The solution I design should take different perspectives into account, resulting in well-rounded, coherent systems that fit within their context and continue to provide value over time, rather than disappearing after one use.
My skills and attitude are reflected within my role in a team, where I am often the system thinker. I think of my product as part of a system of users, stakeholders, and their values. This perspective allows me to identify relationships others might overlook and build the bigger picture behind an otherwise isolated product. This comes back within my teamwork, where I take a step back to take a bird’s-eye view on the process and team, listening to everyone’s perspectives and finding common ground in moving forward together.