Vision
Life can be very demanding. The world is struggling with economic, geopolitical, and environmental instability [2], while an ever-increasing amount of people are dealing with mental health issues [4]. The transition to the age of information and the dawn of social media has exacerbated political and societal polarization [1] and has assured that most people face these harsh realities daily.
Therefore, I believe that as a designer, it is not so bad to occasionally take things a little less seriously. I see design as a powerful tool to create meaningful and joyful experiences. A designer enables the interaction between technology and humans by transforming technological innovations into intuitive affordances that make products accessible and usable to larger audiences. Usability does not have to be limited by a technology’s inherent complexity if its interface is presented in an intuitive manner. The work and insights of a designer are crucial to unlocking a technology’s full potential. However, designers do need to be conscious that their products can also be tools for creating experiences. High usability can, but does not have to be the goal of a design. Designers need to be critical about what they truly want and can get out of a technology and be willing to sacrifice usability to make experiences more meaningful.
Good design is not only key to bringing user and technology closer together; it can also bring people closer together. I strive to harness the power of playful design to accomplish this goal, especially during these polarizing times. Playful mechanics not only facilitate inclusion through social interactions, but also create joyful experiences through “People Fun” [3]. Aside from play being fun, it is essential to a person’s development. Engaging in it fosters creativity and helps develop cognitive and social skills [5–7]. Furthermore, play is a natural stress reliever [5, 7], helping people deal with the seriousness of life. I strive for my designs to combat polarization through playful inclusivity. Play can and should be for everyone, no matter your age, gender or background.
The continuation of the digital age has also led to the creation of highly immersive digital interfaces, such as VR and AR. Industry giants such as Meta have invested incredible amounts of resources into the creation of a Metaverse with the purpose of completely immersing people sensorially and socially into virtual worlds. However, I think it is the task of designers to keep the connection with both the physical world, and the people in it, alive. I argue that technologies should enhance our real world experiences instead of simply moving them to the digital realm for the sake of immersion, novelty, or convenience. Why should elements of real world social interactions, such as seeing facial expressions, necessarily be replicated in virtual avatars, if they can be perceived in person? Designers need to be critical when identifying the strengths of both physical and digital interfaces and combine them to create experiences located in both realms.
I envision a future where digital and physical interfaces are designed to compliment, not replace each other. I see such interfaces as incredibly powerful tools for creating meaningful, joyful, playful, and social experiences spanning both the physical and virtual space. Good playful design can build shared magic circles of play where conventional social rules do not apply and people can be themselves and act however they desire to do. I strive for inclusive designs that are memorable and bring people together.
References
[1] Are Social Media Driving Political Polarization? https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/is_social_media_driving_political_polarization. Accessed: 2024-06-03.
[2] Global Risks Report 2023: https://www.weforum.org/publications/global-risks-report-2023/. Accessed: 2024-06-03.
[3] Lazzaro, N. 2012. Why We Play: Affect and the Fun of Games—Designing Emotions for Games, Entertainment Interfaces, and Interactive Products. Human Computer Interaction Handbook. CRC Press.
[4] Nearly one billion people have a mental disorder: WHO | UN News: 2022. https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/06/1120682. Accessed: 2024-06-03.
[5] The benefits of play are immense across all ages, research shows: 2022. http://hechingerreport.org/want-resilient-and-well-adjusted-kids-let-them-play/. Accessed: 2024-06-03.
[6] The scientific case for learning through play: https://learningthroughplay.com/explore-the-research/the-scientific-case-for-learning-through-play. Accessed: 2024-06-03.
[7] Yogman, M. et al. 2018. The Power of Play: A Pediatric Role in Enhancing Development in Young Children. Pediatrics. 142, 3 (Sep. 2018), e20182058. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2018-2058.
Professional Identity
Both as a designer and person, I am just trying to have some fun. Games & play have always been integral to me, helping me to build lasting relationships, and take the edge off of life. Consequently, one of my main goals is to share the joy I experience from play by incorporating it into and facilitating it through my designs.
The development of my technical skills is essential, enabling me to not only come up with innovative ideas, but also put them to the test utilizing highly interactive prototypes. My proficiency with industry-standard gaming engines such as Unreal Engine & Unity enable me to rapidly create immersive and enjoyable virtual experiences. However, I am particularly interested in exploring the bridge between the physical and virtual world. I enjoy experimenting with various technologies to uniquely integrate them into non-standard gaming interfaces. Through this approach, I aim to stimulate people’s senses in unexpected ways, creating novel, memorable, immersive, joyful, and inclusive experiences. My expertise in working with electronics, microcontrollers, 3D modelling, and laser cutting gives me the ability to produce tangible physical prototypes that are ready for rigorous testing. Furthermore, these rapid prototyping skills allow me to manipulate my prototypes’ aesthetics to not only make my games functionally, but also visually a digital twin to my interfaces. Coherent aesthetics also assist me in telling a more convincing story through my games and makes its separate components feel as a part of a complete system.
My design processes tend to start by critically and extensively analysing literature to properly frame my design and learn from other’s findings. I then tend to visualize my ideas through sketches so they can more effectively be communicated to others and facilitate discussions. Based on expert feedback I iterate on my ideas to eventually create highly functional prototypes. Getting these prototypes into the hands of people is essential to my user-centered design approach. An academic analysis of user feedback forms the backbone of the validation of my concepts. Therefore, well functioning and highly interactive prototypes are especially important to me as these are tools to gather user data. Prototype usability problems can distract users from reflecting on the true essence of their experience.
I have experience with quantitative research methodology to validate my choices, but also qualitative to explore and truly understand what makes my designs successful or what is holding them back. These insights assist me in the creation of new design iterations that better fit people’s needs and desires. I understand that users are not a homogeneous group. Different individuals will interact with my products in different ways and at different moments. It is of utter importance to me that the abilities and interests of all these various users and stakeholders are considered, ensuring that my designs are inclusive and bring people together through play.