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20-09-2015 - Physical vs. virtual products

My study in Delft was, especially during the bachelor, mostly focused on the design of tangible products. Materials, ergonomics and manufacturing played an essential role. My master 'Design for interaction' added the sensory and emotional part. Touch and smell can truly affect the experience of physical products.

Currently, I design software at Pega, a completely different discipline. The dimensions of the product and the sensory perception of the user are secondary to product structure and integration with the existing system.

On Product Design Management, the differences and similarities are simply explained. User experience/ergonomics applies to both disciplines and production is for both important, but in a completely different way.

17-08-2015 - NK Atletiek 2015: Sub 11

My big goal is realized. During the Dutch championships I broke the 11 seconds barrier in the 100m. During the qualification round I clocked 10.97s and I made it to the semifinals. In the semifinal I competed against Jamaican Yohan Blake, the second fastest man ever (after Usain Bolt): a beautiful experience.
I also qualified for the semifinals on the 200m by running 22.37s (my second best time).

As icing on the cake, on the final day of the Dutch championships, I won a silver medal in the 4x100m relay. Togeter with Elvis Afrifa, Bram Teunisse and Rutger Bien we set a new personal record of 42,34s with very good baton exchanges.

A beautiful championship, for which I would like to thank everyone for their support, specifically my coach Els van Noorduyn, my parents, girlfriend Anna and all of my AV'23 teammates.

17-06-2015 - PegaWORLD 2015 Keynote

PegaWORLD is the annual customer event of Pegasystems. During the two-day conference, Pega gives keynotes about new functionality and Pega's customers about their experiences with the Pega software. Just like last year, Kerim Akgonul (Senior Vice President of Products) described Pega's 'Strategic Applications' using a highly entertaining live demo.

This year, I designed and made a part for the keynote by Dr. Rob Walker (Vice President Decision Management and Analytics). The presentation 'The Always On Customer Brain' is available online. CEO Alan Trefler also made use of some of the designed visuals. Very impressive on a screen of 22 meters wide and 5 meters high!

08-06-2015 - NK Teams 2015

Last Saturday was the highly anticipated major league competition. During this Dutch National Championship for club teams, the eight best athletics clubs from the Netherlands compete for the championship and to avoid relegation. It was expected that my club AV'23 would fight for the latter.

The competition was very high level, but my team and myself performed very well. I ran the 100m in my second best time ever: 11.05s, just 2/100 of a second above my PB. Our 4x100m relay was good but hoped to be a bit faster and I ran a very good race in the 4x400m.

At the end of the day it turned out that relegation was inevitable, which means that we compete in the first division once again next year.

15-05-2015 - Design Break

Games for designers, random inspiration, videos and other design trivia are all collected at DesignBreak.io. Whenever you need a break from your design work, visit this website and relax for a couple of minutes.
It's possible to play some design related games like shoot the Serif font. Less intensive are some reads for example about design myths or funny videos about design(ers).

12-04-2015 - Training camp Düsseldorf 2015

Traditionally during the long Easter weekend, I've been at camp with my training group. About 3 weeks before the start of the competition season this is the ideal time to train hard and to focus on speed and technique. Personally, it was also good to make steps to be top fit again after my ruptured hamstring.

On June 6, the premier league competition or 'Dutch championship for teams' takes place. During this competition the eight best teams of the Netherlands compete against each other. The goal is to participate completely fit in the sprint disciplines.

23-02-2015 - Content snippets

Styling, interactions, animations are all very important for a beautiful and user-friendly website or application. However, perhaps the most important aspect is the content or content. It is essential for the transfer of the purpose of the site or app. It determines the whole experience of the users and contributes to a good use.

Good copy writing requires creativity and Content Snippets can serve as inspiration. This site collects specific examples of copy of website and applications, organized by type, such as instructions, confirmations or warnings.

24-12-2014 - Animations to improve UX - Update

Animations and transitions that are used in interfaces can be very important for good user experience (UX). For example, an animation can give a hint about the action that the user can perform. Especially on devices with smaller screens, such as smartphones, subtle animations are not only used for clues, but especially to give a sense of orientation, progress and time.

Examples of animations that are being used in interfaces are collected at blogs such as SIXUX, UYI or CAPPTIVATE.co. These sites are packed with inspiration.
Animations and transitions can be beautiful as well. Which is proved with the collection on hoverstat.es.

Update
In 1981, Disney animators Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas introduced '12 basic principles of animation'. Designer Cento Lodigiano created animations of those principes applied to simple shapes: The illusion of life.

03-12-2014 - Een universeel lettertype

Pen manufacturer BIC collects handwriting from people all over the world and unifies them into one universal typeface. On the website of Universal Typeface handwritten characters are uploaded and merged to an average font by an algorithm. On the site you can download this typeface, but also filter the characters on gender or country for example.

01-10-2014 - 4x Gold at Relay Championships

The Relay Championships in Amstelveen were very successful for me and my team mates (Bram Teunisse, Alain van Tholl and Rutger Bien) last weekend. We participated in four relay distances and we won gold in each one of them!

In the first event, the 4x100 meters, the handovers were not that smooth, but better than the competition's. A moderate time was the result, but still good for first place.
The next day started with the Swedish relay. A spectacular event in which the first sprinter runs 400 meters, the second one 300 meters, the third one 200 meters and the final one 100 meters. Our terrific time of 1.58.79s was not just good for gold, we even broke the 68 year old club's record.
Later that day, we won the 4x200 meters with supremacy and traditionally, also the concluding 10x100 meters, in which I brought the baton over the finish line.

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