Maud Vermeulen
Co-Creation By organizing multiple co-creation sessions, I have learned the importance of designing these well. An example is working on the Repair Store concept, where we overlooked participants' practical thinking. I've realised that each session has sharpened my intuition for how to design for different participant groups, and I would now approach many of them differently. Across different participant groups, it is challenging to encourage conceptual thinking. I've learned that concrete prompts and examples help unlock creativity, but I also need to manage my own expectations. I can't assume others will approach creativity the way I do.
Educational Theories Supporting User Experience I have taken courses in Educational Sciences at Utrecht University to deepen my theoretical understanding of designing for the user most interesting to me: a learner. These courses taught me the value of theoretical frameworks as a backbone for design, providing a third-person perspective on designing for learners. However, among instructional design peers, I also saw how theories suppressed my peers' creativity as they wanted to validate all decisions through theory. I have therefore adopted learning theories as lenses to understand learners’ needs, combining them with other approaches to knowledge creation.
Design Supporting Paradigm Shifts Throughout the master's, I worked on projects that took on different roles in society. The Itineration Station, a social design project, aimed to stimulate discussion of the future, whereas the Repair Store functioned more as a design that embodied social ideologies. I have also done projects that did not address society at all. Reflecting on these projects, I realized that I am most proud of those that exemplify change. Although I appreciate the ambition of social design, I have learned that my strengths as a pragmatic thinker are better suited to projects that translate ideology into tangible, actionable interventions.
Repair Store
FMP
Noticing Nature
Aesthetics as Communicative Tools Aesthetics play an important role in how I communicate my ideas and in the user experience. Sketching has never been my strength, which made me hesitant to sketch, especially in collaboration. Nevertheless, I have learned to sketch either way, as the sketches may not be aesthetically pleasing but remain effective, especially when laying out ideas in the moment. I have invested more effort in developing my storyboarding skills and experiential prototypes, aligning with my experience-focused approach. It has enabled me to use them more quickly, which has become central to my design approach.
Aesthetic Qualities I have also learned to embrace aesthetics for their own sake. Working on the Co‑Creation Camera was the first time I treated aesthetic qualities as an inspiration source rather than simply aiming to make something look nice. This foundation has helped me in following projects to understand and analyze the aesthetic qualities of each project. In my FMP, I enjoyed exploring this new understanding: How do the aesthetics of play, nature, and technology come together? With this stronger foundation, evaluating the aesthetics of prototypes and mockups became more intuitive.
Creative exploration Working on Itineration Station, I embraced broad creative exploration, supported by a group open to diverse methods and new perspectives. This project shaped my view of the design process as ‘itinerative’, with the designer as an explorer of possibilities rather than an engineer of solutions [1]. However, I knew that exploration was easier for me in collaborative settings, whereas my solo projects posed a greater challenge. In my FMP, I used co-creation with users and stakeholders to spark creativity, and I used my peers to bounce ideas off. When collaboration wasn’t possible, I learned to rely more on myself, drawing from existing methods and frameworks. I am happy to have developed a way to stimulate creativity when I am working solo, but I still see much room to grow, for example, through using more first-person research [2].
[1] Tim Ingold. 2019. Art and anthropology for a sustainable world. J. R. Anthropol. Inst. 25, (September 2019). https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9655.13125
[2] O. Tomico, V. O. Winthagen, and M. M. G. van Heist. 2012. Designing for, with or within: 1st, 2nd and 3rd person points of view on designing for systems. In Proceedings of the 7th Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction: Making Sense Through Design (NordiCHI ’12), October 14, 2012. Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 180–188. https://doi.org/10.1145/2399016.2399045
Co-Creation Camera
Itineration Station
Prototyping Starting the master's, I already had a strong foundational knowledge of hard skills in technology and realisation, which were further strengthened through programming and prototyping in courses, supporting prototyping throughout my FMP. Before the FMP, I had only built proof-of-concept prototypes with limited functionality, so I set the goal of creating a deployable final prototype. In addition to delivering an attractive prototype that effectively communicates the project, building it helped me understand the design details. For example, building a deployable prototype led me to consider details such as bearing selection. This selection influenced not only the technical realisation but also the interaction, as different bearings offer different levels of resistance. It showed me how concept and technology shape each other.
Communicating I also learned to distinguish the essential elements of the concept from details that were only part of my initial mental picture. Realising the concept made it clear I couldn't have everything I wanted. I sometimes felt "difficult" when communicating with experts because I wanted all these things, but translating my ideas into must-haves, wants, and nice-to-haves helped align communication and supported further decision-making on my own. Overall, this experience strengthened my ability to translate concepts into requirements, an important skill as I move on to do projects in larger teams, where others may handle the final realisation.
Exploriphy
Co-design I find it important to understand the market so that a design can find its place in society. Co-designing the Repair Store highlighted how, while I focused on the broader vision, stakeholders were concerned with immediate, practical issues. That contrast showed me the importance of keeping stakeholders closely involved in concept development to ensure that the project doesn’t drift from real-world constraints. I applied this insight to my FMP, involving primary stakeholders through co-creation and regular updates.
Business model To understand business prospects beyond my primary stakeholder, I set up meetings with three additional stakeholders. I used a business model canvas [1] to prompt the conversation. Despite the business model containing many assumptions, it functioned well as a tool for discussion. Developing the business model has given me a better understanding of the range of possible business directions, and I expect to refine my evaluation of these possibilities as I advance in my professional career.
Stakeholder management From setting up the proposal, I learned to be proactive in reaching out to companies, approaching many of them early, and not being afraid to ask something of them. This experience influenced my general growth in stakeholder management. Finishing the bachelor's, I thought I understood stakeholder management: keeping stakeholders informed and aiming to understand their needs. However, looking back, I see that this would result in me working only to please the stakeholder. During the FMP, I learned to respect my own work more, and I realised that this strengthens stakeholder relationships by making collaboration more balanced and mutually inspiring for both parties. This is an attitude I now aim to bring to any collaboration.
[1] Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur. 2010. Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers. John Wiley & Sons. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/236650466_Business_Model_Generation_A_Handbook_for_Visionaries_Game_Changers_and_Challengers
Supporting realisation Throughout my projects, math, data and computing were used as tools to support technology and realisation, where programming knowledge and calculations helped me develop a well-functioning prototype.
Building a contextual understanding of the user I’ve explored how data and computation can enhance the user experience. Developing the Cassette-to-Bed, I used data to build a contextual understanding of users. It made me realize how behavioural data uncovers patterns that other methods, such as workshops or interviews, might miss. I saw the potential of this data‑collection method to further validate and improve my FMP, since my user‑experience tests were conducted with a researcher present and couldn’t fully capture the experience in context. A more passive data‑collection approach would allow for a more contextual and longitudinal study. Time constraints prevented me from using it, but I see it as a valuable method for future projects, offering an objective complement to conventional user testing [1].
AI To stay relevant and understand AI, I also took on projects to explore this. While developing the Co-Creation Camera, I explored the aesthetics of AI and data; while developing Listen2Learn, I strengthened my programming skills by working with foundation models. Although both courses have given me a better perspective on how AI can contribute to design, they have also highlighted that societys shift toward AI-first approaches does not align with my vision or beliefs. Especially the project Listen2Learn does not reflect my design priorities, approaching the design process from "how can we use AI?" rather than "how can we make a meaningful change?" For my future work, this doesn't mean I don't want to use AI, but rather that I use it only when it aligns with a design goal.
[1] Bill Albert and Tom Tullis. 2022. Measuring the User Experience: Collecting, Analyzing, and Presenting UX Metrics. Morgan Kaufmann. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1016/C2018-0-00693-3
Cassette-to-Bed
Listen2Learn