Suus
van
Gogh
“As a human-centered designer, I strive towards a more inclusive society by creating health and wellbeing related products that empower people in their daily lives.”
Professional Identity
The belief that everyone deserves equal opportunities in life, regardless of their ability or environment, drives me most as a designer. Everyone has different capabilities, and design should support those differences. Inclusivity became the core value of my professional identity and drives my decisions throughout the design process.
As a designer, I contribute to a more inclusive society by creating health and wellbeing related products and systems that empower people in their daily lives, particularly in the home setting. To create meaningful designs, I want to design not only for people but also with people through a participatory design approach.
I see myself as an empathic, human-centered designer focused on the early stages of the design process: identifying users’ needs and shaping concepts. To achieve this, I embed myself in the user’s context through methods like ethnography and observational research. Moreover, I use experience prototypes for roleplaying to simulate experiences and explore diverse perspectives. To communicate concepts effectively to stakeholders, I use my graphic design skills, including illustrations, posters, and interface design. This allows me to gather feedback, iterate quickly, and ensure alignment in the team.
Engaging closely with users, experts, and stakeholders sparks my creativity. I believe in co-creation and continuous user involvement to ensure that designs align with the underlying values and needs. While my technical skills are still developing, I aim to strengthen my ability to implement emerging technologies. This way, I want to create adaptable designs tailored towards each individual, rather than the average user.
In a group setting, I am a structured and professional worker who maintains the overview. I ensure everything fits together both conceptually and visually. I see myself as a result-driven team player who values a positive and collaborative atmosphere. By bringing my enthusiastic and caring mindset to the team, I strive to create an open, supportive space where everyone feels encouraged and engaged.
Vision
I like to imagine a future where design contributes to building a more inclusive society. I strive to empower people through health and wellbeing related products that support everyday life. I specifically focus on the home environment. To achieve this, I focus on equity-focused designs. Each person is different and therefore needs different resources and opportunities to realize an equal society [1]. Therefore, I believe in adaptable products, where each individual is supported based on their unique needs and values. As designs are most often created for a broader group, they should be personalizable to meet each individual’s needs. Person-centered care should be used to restore dignity and autonomy [2].
Emerging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) offer opportunities to support this shift. AI can contribute to tailoring experiences, predicting needs, and unburdening caregivers. However, because technology is getting more powerful, we as designers should remain critical. We should ensure that these systems are used to enhance, and not replace, human intuition and decision-making.
I believe using a human-centered design approach is essential. We should get to know the people behind their diagnosis by embedding ourselves in the problem context to understand the underlying values and needs. We should use their experiences as expert knowledge to design products that matter.
I believe the future of design is a combination of technological innovation with human-centered design. By embedding ourselves in people’s context and collaborating with stakeholders, we can design products that empower people. As designers, we can contribute to creating a world where everyone gets the opportunity to feel included, regardless of their abilities.
[1] Lawrence, K. (2022). Digital Health Equity. In Digital Health (pp. 121–130). https://doi.org/10.36255/exon-publications-digital-health-health-equity
[2] Berntsen, G. R., Yaron, S., Chetty, M., Canfield, C., Ako-Egbe, L., Phan, P., Curran, C., & Castro, I. (2021). Person-centered care (PCC): the people’s perspective. International Journal for Quality in Health Care, 33(Supplement_2), ii23–ii26. https://doi.org/10.1093/intqhc/mzab052
Suus van Gogh