.Skills
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I specialize in interactive and intelligent products and systems in which user experience, new technologies and business opportunities come together.

My way of working is characterised by its iterative hands-on nature. The following five qualities are key to my approach.
Hover over the images for more information.

Vision Building

To guide projects I formulate a vision that describes desired future scenarios. I build it by combining insights of experts, experiences of users and my own research. Over time the vision will become more profound and embedded in the result of the project.

Design Research

Creating new knowledge and validating my ideas is an important part of my process. Through qualitative research methods I investigate the impact of an idea using experienceable prototypes. The findings are used to develop new ideas or refine existing ones.

Prototyping

By building my ideas using electronics, programming and rapid prototyping techniques I am able to verify them in the real world. This lets people physically experience to impact of the idea and generates rich information to use in the next iteration.

Concept Development

My strengths are best employed in the first phases of new product and system development. I am trained to quickly absorb new information, talk to multiple disciplines and adapt to new contexts. I enjoy presenting a proof of concept with a working prototype.

Teamwork

My experience with multicultural teams and the ability to communicate with disciplines such as IT, engineering and electronics allows me to lead complex projects. I believe it is vital to take a step back and oversee a project to steer it towards the set vision.

Iterative Process

In each iteration I go through cycles of envisioning, creating, validating and analyzing. Throughout these cycles I refine my vision on the situation and come closer to the best way to smoothly introduce the product in the users social fabric of life. My biggest inspiration source are the different perspectives of stakeholders and experts on the subject, whom I constantly engage in my project.

Design Ambition

In my opinion one of the most valuable characteristics of people is the drive to explore and understand each other and the world around us. I believe this creates a more flexible and enjoyable society. My designs are aimed at stimulating the curiosity of people and showing them other perspectives; by doing so I intend to increase openness and connectedness in society.

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.Work
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Client: Philips Lighting
Duration: 26 weeks
Starting Date: 09-2011

In this project I proposed a new product development process model, called the Involved Innovation Process (IIP), and a product platform for interactive home lighting named LivingHome to Philips Lighting.

The Involved Innovation Process describes how a company can form a vision on the life context of interest through collaboration with a diverse set of experts, and mould that vision into a product.

The LivingHome is an interactive home lighting platform that offers both physical and digital freedom in its use.

The user can explore and design with light using LED-strips, combine those with sensors and create their own lighting installation. As an introduction to the platform three boxed propositions were developed. These applications are ready to be fitted in any home and personalised to the residents' wishes. Playing with these installations will pave the way for further exploration of the platform.

The community that is vital to the platform allows people to help each other, share programs they made for the system and even share their sensor data. This community is not only beneficial to the users; it is also a great source of inspiration for Philips, as they get an in-depth view of the users' problems and desires.

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Client: SOFIA
Duration: 9 weeks
Starting Date: 02-2011

Multi-user interaction with a dynamic lighting system has a significant impact on the social situation; how and to what degree can this contribute to the social experience? The influence of the interaction with the system on the Social Aesthetics of a meeting is studied in this project. Three controllers for a dynamic lighting system are designed to explore the topic. In order to generate knowledge several approaches to data gathering and analysis are explored.

Client: SOFIA
Duration: 10 weeks

Starting Date: 09-2010

I investigated the opportunities that arise at the crossroads of the Internet of Things and home energy consumption. Two PhD students, connected to a European wide project called SOFIA, functioned as clients. The result is the Doormate, a doormat that supports the user in decreasing their energy consumption. One the one hand they can easily switch off appliances when leaving and on the other hand they get informative tips on how they can improve their appliance use in order to save electricity.

Publication

Client: STRP Festival
Duration: 14 weeks & 24 weeks
Starting date: 09-2009 & 02-2010

For the STRP Festival I designed a system that gave people the opportunity to give their opinion on artworks. At each artwork they were stimulated in their evaluation and reflection on the artwork through keywords. This lead to an overview of the festival in keywords. Based on this overview, and a 'festival personality' test, personal recommendations on artworks and shows to visit could be made.

After finishing the project I was hired to further develop the concept in the 6 months leading to the festival. Together we created the 'e-Sphere'; connecting digital information to the people on the festival floor and allowing for interaction between them. The visitors were given a personal RFID bracelet to identify themselves at the eSphere interaction screens. They could give their opinion about the interactive art works, learn from others and donate 'coins of appreciation' to the artworks. The next STRP edition made use of the successful eSphere again.

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Client: Beijing Design Week
Team: Sina Kazemi, Haokai Zhao, Hao Chen
Duration: 3 weeks
Starting date: 11-2011

A 22 day journey in China to create an installation that reflects on an issue found in Beijing. Starting with a completely blank sheet we teamed up with Chinese students to investigate lives of people in Beijing. After the intensive two day investigation we began creating concepts to build for the exhibition. In our exhibition we tell a story about people who work in Beijing just to be able to gather enough money to take care of their parents (and future wife) in their hometown. While millions of construction workers from outside Beijing are shaping the city, they feel lost in Beijing; far away from their family and working all the time. To communicate that these people deserve recognition we build an installation where visitors can get lost in a 'city' to be eventually guided back out by projected faces of the builders.

Client: Heineken
Duration: 1 week
Team: Norma de Boer, Jordy Wubbels.

Heineken was looking for a way to promote the drinking of their soft drinks in alcohol-centric places such as bars and clubs. Through emphatic methods insights were gained over a day together with subjects of the research.
'Frisse Zinnen' ('Fresh Sentences'); a set of drinking glasses with words and brands printed on them, was our concept. By collecting the glasses and stacking them, people could form sentences. It shows people a new way of interacting and collaborating in a bar. Creating together ideally changes the social behaviour from 'it is cool to drink' to 'it is cool to interact and create'. For the client in particular the low cost and market value of the idea, as the glasses show the costumers what is available at the bar, was valuable and chose our design as the winner.

Client: de Fabriek
Duration: 2 weeks
Team: Hugo Christiaans, Jelle Dekker and Frits Stam

Based on the tv-series 'The Mentalist' an installation was build that expresses the manipulative and confrontational characteristics of the main character. Two chairs, separated by a pillar, were placed in such a way that people could watch a movie on an iPad attached to the pillar. The chairs were slightly turned away from the pillar, stimulating the person taking a seat to turn it a little bit. While turning, the other chair would turn away from the pillar, encouraging the other user to turn back, which then would influence the person on the other side again. After struggling with the chairs for a while most participants confronted each other with their behaviour and had some more fun with the installation.

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.Contact
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After graduating from the Master Industrial Design at the Eindhoven University of Technology I began working as a freelancer. I am currently working on several projects.

I am looking for a full-time job. If you are looking for someone to create new opportunities with, please contact me!

My clients as a freelancer:
OpenRemote, Open Source for Internet of Things
U-Approach, apps for U
Sapiens, Steering Brain Stimulation
IP-Solutions, Partner in project management


Curriculum Vitae / LinkedIn / don@donwillems.nl