Past
U&S
Over the master, the core skill I developed within User & Society is the ability to understand a user's underlying needs and values, and to translate that understanding into a design that genuinely fits them. I learned to look beyond what users say they want, towards why something matters to them, and to use that deeper understanding as the basis for my design decisions.
A range of methods across my projects supported this, from sensitising and interviews to field studies, lab studies, video observations, heuristic evaluations, and thematic analysis. Just as important as the methods themselves was learning to judge which one fits a particular project and user, so that I gather the right kind of understanding rather than simply applying a familiar method. The methods are the means; understanding the user and responding to that is the actual skill.
This connects directly to my PI/V, where my focus lies on understanding the user in order to match their needs and create the best possible experience and impact. Every project and every user is different, and this skill lets me step into a user's perspective in an appropriate way and create a genuine match between their needs and values and the right design. It also reflects one of my core values: that the user should be actively involved throughout the process, not only consulted at the start.
T&R
Next to User & Society stands Technology & Realisation: building the products that fit the goal. The core skill I developed here is knowing what I am building a prototype for at each stage of the process, and matching its fidelity to that purpose. Early on, a quick mock-up or low-fidelity prototype is enough to test a specific assumption, while later I work towards high fidelity to test how the whole system functions with the user and to communicate the intended product clearly, for example towards a potential production team. Choosing the right level deliberately is as important as the making itself, because it determines what I can learn or convey at each step without over-investing too early.
To realise these prototypes, I developed a broad set of making skills: working with Arduino, sensors and actuators, soldering, Python combined with computer vision markers, the Feelix motor, SolidWorks, and 3D printing. These technologies allow me to translate my thoughts into physical artefacts that can actually be experienced and tested.
This connects directly to my PI/V and to User & Society. For me, a prototype can serve two purposes: testing whether something technically works, and making an idea tangible so that users can respond to something concrete and I can evaluate the fit between product and user. Realisation and user understanding constantly inform each other, and a technical decision becomes meaningful once it is grounded in what users experience. Realisation also serves the interaction itself: the technology I build is what makes an embodied, tangible, screen-light interaction physically possible.
C&A
Within Creativity & Aesthetics, my focus lies on the aesthetics of interaction: how an interaction looks, feels, and reads to a user. The skill I developed here is shaping interactions that go beyond the screen, designing how a product behaves and how a user engages with it through their body, movement, and the physical form of the object itself. I learned how affordances and feedback help a user interpret what a product is doing and why, so that the interaction feels understandable and inviting.
Throughout the master I also broadened how I approach creativity. I learned to engage with artefacts in a hands-on way, sitting with them and trying them out myself, and to go beyond simple buttons towards haptic, tangible interaction. I used methods such as scenario-based design and storyboards to imagine how a product lives in context, and in one project even placed myself in the position of the product itself to explore what sound it should make. Alongside this, I learned to evaluate interaction from the first, second, and third perspective: my own experience as a designer, that of the user, and that of outside stakeholders and experts.
This connects directly to my PI/V, where I focus on interactions that are embodied and screen-light, and where users engage through movement, touch, and presence. It also supports my interest in light as a modality: a way to communicate and give feedback within an interaction without putting a screen at its centre.
B&E
Alongside C&A, U&S, and T&R, I came to realise that a good design also has to fit the market and create value for a company. Within the Research, Design, and Development (RDD) track I learned to balance what the user wants with what the company needs. The user remains my main stakeholder, but I learned to see them within a wider field of stakeholders who also shape whether a design truly fits. Through the course Values-Based Leadership in Business Innovation I learned to map stakeholder needs to underlying values, to assess a concept's context and viability, and to position a product against its competition through benchmarking. During my exchange I also followed a course in which I analysed organisational problems by tracing them to their root causes using a fishbone diagram.
What I took from this most is where my own strength lies: business thinking works best for me when it stays connected to creativity, turning conflicting stakeholder needs into new opportunities rather than treating them as purely analytical tasks. This connects to my PI/V, where I want my designs to create lasting value, which means making them work not only for the user but within the wider system of stakeholders around them.
MD&C
Math, Data & Computing plays a supporting role in my work: it builds on User & Society by adding a layer of understanding through data analysis and representation. Within this area I developed two skills: analysing quantitative data, and making large amounts of data understandable. To test a hypothesis, I processed questionnaire data using paired t-tests, learning to structure quantitative data, apply statistical methods, and interpret the results. I also learned to read those results critically, recognising that a small sample size limited their statistical power. Alongside analysis, I learned to reduce large, messy datasets to their essence and translate them into clear visual representations that make patterns and differences easier to read.
This connects to my PI/V: structuring and clearly communicating what data shows helps me ground design decisions in evidence and make them understandable to others.
Together, these expertise areas form one connected way of working rather than five separate skills. User & Society and Technology & Realisation are my main areas: I start from a deep understanding of the user and translate that into working prototypes, with each constantly informing the other. Creativity & Aesthetics sits closely alongside them, shaping how the resulting interaction looks, feels, and reads. Business & Entrepreneurship and Math, Data & Computing act as supporting areas, helping me position a design within its wider context of stakeholders and ground my decisions in evidence. This connects directly to my PI/V, where understanding the user, realising it, and shaping the interaction come together to create meaningful, well-considered products.