MEGAN VAN GERWEN
Hello, my name is Megan van Gerwen
I am a third year Bachelor Industrial Design student at Eindhoven University of Technology.
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Professional Identity
Designing is often collaborative and therefore it is important to be a skilled communicator. I am both a good listener and can express my ideas and opinions clearly. By working with many different people, I have learned to involve all team members in conversations and create a strong group bond. Knowing each other’s strengths, weaknesses and goals you can teach and learn from each other, while all achieving individual goals in the process.
I have always been observing a lot, learning from nature, human interactions and different perspectives. I can use this observing skill that I have developed in design for observing human behaviour and the interactions with a product in the product testing stage. I use my sketching skills in observing, ideation and creation. I am good at thinking both broad and small, and I enjoy the ideation phase and working out ideas within projects. Sketching is a great tool to share ideas, no matter how general or detailed they are. Visuals are a good tool to help others understand your vision better than when only using words. I have a strong base of knowledge on programming and coding, which works with a lot of trial and error. I enjoy this manner of learning and believe I learn best through this method.
I am very driven and always try to gain as many skills and knowledge as possible. In group projects I try to motivate others as well and try to build trust within the group. I am an organized person; I keep track of deadlines and tasks. I can take the lead in a group when needed. I am proactive, I take initiative, and I anticipate. This helps in improving my overall results and it gives me more control within the design process. I have good special awareness, which is useful for design considering logic, proportions and balance. This can be applied in sketching and modelling.
Vision
Within design, I am most interested in ideation and working with users. In the past year, my interest in human behaviour and psychology has grown. I want to use psychology and behaviour to solve social problems and create using knowledge of these two subjects. I want to learn more about the conscious and unconscious processes of the brain, why sometimes we act by reasoning and sometimes use our instinct. Knowing more about why we behave the way we do, believe in certain things, trust who we trust and connect with certain people, will help me in creating a better world with equality, inclusivity, social connections, liberty and safety.
In my opinion, more education is needed on a lot of topics such as deaf culture, queerness, and human rights. I want to learn more about cultures, communities, and social connection. I also want to explore how design can be combined with human senses, food, photography, or music, since those are things that interest me.
In a world where diverse cultures are mixed and come together, there is much to learn from one another’s values and beliefs, as these greatly influence human behaviour. Values and beliefs can significantly impact design. I believe that design can serve as a tool to educate about cultures and to solve societal issues related to culture and beliefs. This can take many forms, such as educational games, conversation guides and more.
An example of design that inspired me is the adaptive accessories that Microsoft created for people that have physical impairments. Large companies creating inclusive design shows recognition for people with impairments. People with impairments should also be able to use for example a computer without going through a lot of effort. To develop in this topic of design, I want to work in the Health & Inclusive Design squad.
Another design that inspired me is the ‘SEE through COULOURS’ project by HongKai Li. He used colours and silhouettes to remove the division of gender and race in clothing. Since inclusivity is very important to me, this project really appealed to me. This project shows that design can contribute to creating a more inclusive world.
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My work
Megan van Gerwen 