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Vision
Vision
Today’s world sees increasingly complex systems and technological innovation at an accelerated pace. These advancements pose challenges for societies to keep up, highlighting the importance of societal change. As a designer, I encourage active collaboration with the users, while incorporating play and visual communication.
I believe designers are in the unique position to both have the power to foster a deep connection with a community and have the tools to create something from that connection, ultimately contributing to societal change. Designers can make a difference on a systemic level, by actively addressing societal issues that arise from the connection they form with their target group. A project that inspires be, is “Design Beyond Vision”, by Boey Wang (2022). In this project, Boey aims to radically change the way designers traditionally approach the design process by putting themselves in the shoes of their stakeholders, who are blind in this case. By doing this, the designer fosters a meaningful connection with the target group, creating an open environment.
Design Beyond Vision - Studio Boey. (2022)
Creativity is a necessary ingredient for sparking transformation and societal innovation, and playfulness has the power to evoke it (Brown, 2008). As a designer, I strive to give playfulness a prominent role in both the design process and the final design, as it lowers thresholds and allows for creativity to thrive. Playfulness can also reside in information design, where complex ideas can be communicated in a manner that is both low-threshold and fitting for the community it is aimed at. By communicating visually, designers can speak to a community on a deeper level.
Design Beyond Vision - Studio Boey. (2022). Studio Boey. https://boeyw.com/project/designbeyondvision
Brown, S. (2008, May). Play is more than just fun [Video]. TED Conferences
Professional Identity
Professional Identity
As a designer, I see myself as someone who is meticulous in building the foundation for design projects, while maintaining a playful and curious attitude, using visualization as a communication and exploration tool. With this, I aim to foster a deep connection with the people I am designing for and with.
One of my strengths within a design process is paying attention to detail. This is expressed through documentation, defining values, and mapping assets, to make sure all points of view within a project are considered. I do this by dissecting every asset and stakeholder within a design challenge until it cannot get any more specific. This is especially valuable in the research and exploration phase of the design process, as it allows me to get to the core of a problem or challenge, which benefits the overall foundation of a design process.
Within a team, I use my strength of planning as a tool to prioritize the order of business, which is useful to keep collaboration streamlined. I encourage myself and my peers to actively reflect, as a means to reveal new design opportunities and make decisions accordingly. I aim to maintain a playful attitude to establish an open design environment, in an effort to foster creativity and curiosity. Regarding my position within the context of stakeholders, I see other points of view as a source of inspiration and a way to gain knowledge. I attach significance to the people a design is aimed at and I wish to understand their way of thinking by relating to them in a certain way, which is one of the reasons why I have an interest in co-creation and active collaboration as a design method. By doing so, multiple perspectives of a community are actively taken into account and a synergy is created between the designer and target audience, allowing innovation to flourish. I believe probes are a playful tool to gather information from users, making it easier for users to empathize and get inspired.
Throughout the design process, I utilize visual design thinking as a means of idea generation and inspiration, as I believe sketches have the power to reveal elements of a concept that cannot be identified by traditional thinking alone. Additionally, I attach value to “thinking-through-making”, in which I allow myself to tinker and play with materials, while actively reflecting on its relevance within the design context. Furthermore, I apply visualizations to communicate and express complex concepts to stakeholders, as a way to foster a deeper connection and understanding. I create this both by means of traditional drawing, as well as through Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop.
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