News archive

29-07-2014 - Dutch Athletics Championship 2014

11.03s, that was my result last Saturday on the 100m during the Dutch National Championships in the Olympic Stadium. It was not only my fastest official time ever, but I qualified for the semifinals as well. The race was nearly perfect, and it was really enjoying to run such a performance on this level and location. In the semifinals, I was a split second slower, but my time was eventually good for the 21st place.

During the second day of the championships I participated in the 200m sprint. Because I was ranked last and did not feel quite fit after the first day, my expectations were not too high. However, the time I ran in the preliminary round was enough for again a place in the semifinals. All energy was instantly back in my body when I saw that I would run against and next to Churandy Martina. I the semifinal I ran a pretty good 22.56s, good for even 20th place!

30-06-2014 - Premier League!

We finally succeeded. I promoted with my club AV'23 to the highest level: the NK Teams (Premier League). Before the third and decisive competition in Zwolle we were only one point ahead of rival PAC Rotterdam, but because of very strong performances this lead was extended to 16 points and the first place.

I contributed to the promotion by finishing in third place in the long jump (6.89m) and by running superb times in the two shortest sprint distances. I ran the 100m in 10.96s and the 200m in 22.18s. Unfortunately, the wind assistance was in both races a bit too much (+2.1m/s), but I've never been that fast.

Also read the reports on atletiekunie.nl and on AV23.nl

18-06-2014 - PegaWORLD 2014 live demo

Last week PegaWORLD 2014 was held in Washington DC. During this annual event organized by Pegasystems, the software company shows its latest developments. One of the most interesting presentations was the keynote by Kerim Akgonul, Senior Vice President, Product Management, BPM and Case Management. With an entertaining live demo he explains which powerful capabilities of customer engagement Pegasystems offers to companies. An important part is the social, mobile, cloud and big data technologies Pega uses that enable the experience that customers demand.

05-05-2014 - Athletics 2014: season opening

Last Sunday, May 4th, the season's first competition was held in Hilversum. To appear completely fit and ready at the start I went to training camp with my athletics group. During Easter we went to Meppen, Germany and prepared for the coming season.

In this season opening match, I ran the 100m and the 4x100m relay. I also participated in the long jump to score the points for the team. The 100 meters was an exciting duel with Ignisious Gaisah, silver medalist at the 2013 World Championships in Moscow. Although narrowly lost, I am very satisfied with my time of 11.17s for the first race of the season. It is a nice overture to the next races with faster times!

09-02-2014 - The origin of UI symbols

Every day we use devices and their user interfaces. Icons and symbols are designed to make their use easier and faster. Many of these icons have been around for years, but with new technologies, new symbols are introduced as well. Who comes up with these symbols and how do they arise?

Shuffle magazine and Gizmodo figured out the origin of common symbols and built a nice website around this. Among others the origin of the at sign and power icon is explained.

10-01-2014 - It's all in the details

Did you know that when it is a friends birthday, Facebook chat shows a tine cake icon next to their name? Or that when you just click the search button in Google Play without entering a search term first, it will search for ‘unicorns’.? This are just a few examples of little things that are used in software or sites. The website littlebigdetails collects these details, many of which are funny, but also add value to the user experience. For example you can find there that OSX Mountain Lion automatically turns down the fans when you trigger the 'Speech & Dictation dialogue' to prevent background noise.

28-11-2013 - New job at Pegasystems

On November 11, I started with a new job! I now work as a UI Product Designer at Pegasystems Inc. Pegasystems is an American company that develops a Business Process Management and Customer Relationship Management software platform. In Amsterdam, I will work on the user experience of the Decision Strategy Management part of the platform.

22-10-2013 - Ready to start!

In the beginning of October the week of children's books took place with the theme "Ready to start!". Therefore, the kindergarten from my old elementary school St. Lidwina organized for several weeks the theme "sports & games". As part of this theme I was asked to organize an introduction morning for athletics.
Wednesday, October 16th, there were nearly 60 children on the track to try six events of athletics. Each group of ten children did all the disciplines: sprinting, shot put, tire throw, long jump, high jump and ball throw. The results of the children were listed on a specially designed performance card that the children received to take home as a souvenir.

30-09-2013 - Double gold in relay championship

At the annual Dutch relay championships in Amstelveen I won the gold medal in the 4x200m relay with teammates Bram Teunisse, Alain van Tholl and Rutger Bien from AV '23. With a super fast time of 1:28.95s (that is 22.23s per person) and almost 5 seconds ahead of the runners up we almost broke the 80 year old AV '23 club record.

To conclude the championship our club also took part in the 10x100m. For the third consecutive year we won the first prize. With 1:51:48s we were once again faster than the previous year and we are getting closer to the track record.

The season is almost over with only the traditional club championships still to be held!

15-08-2013 - Leap Motion and the future of UX

On the web design blog Smashing Magazine I came across the Leap Motion in an article about the future of user experience. This is a small device that accurately records the movements of hands and fingers to operate your computer. Especially the speed, precision, size and price (€ 75,-) amazed me.
If this kind of technology becomes available to the masses, this has implications for the interaction with the computer and therefore the user experience. This 3D interaction shall be mainly used on desktops and laptops and therefore, 3D interfaces will probably be developed.

22-07-2013 - National championships 2013

This weekend, July 20th and 21st, the Dutch national athletics championships took place in the Olympic Stadium. With a record number of participants from my athletics club AV'23, good performances and great weather it was a very nice weekend of athletics.

I myself participated in the highly occupied 100m sprint. Just in time recovered from my hamstring injury to participate completely fit, I ran my second best time ever: 11.07s. Unfortunately, I did not make it past the preliminaries, but after my injury I can be very satisfied with my race.

01-07-2013 - Back on track

On the 9th of May in Gouda, I have set a new personal best time on the 100m sprint: 11.05 s. Unfortunately, I suffered an injury in my hamstring during the finish of the race.
After several weeks of active rest and then slowly building up strength and speed I recovered sufficiently to run a race last Saturday, after more than seven weeks. Just in time to get ready for the upcoming Dutch championships on July the 20th.

Meanwhile, my team AV'23 managed to qualify for the promotion match to the 'eredivisie'. Fortunately, I will be back in the team in September to compete for a place with the eight best teams in the Netherlands!

12-06-2013 - Apple's iOS 7 and Mac Pro website

Last Monday, Apple presented a number of new products. As for me, the redesigned iOS 7 and the website that presents the Mac Pro stand out in particular.

iOS 7 got a very fresh and flat design with a few new functionalities. The 3D effect which places the icons above the background is a very cool feature.

The presentation page of the Mac Pro in itself is also worth mentioning. On one page, all the specifications of the new computer are shown step by step with animations by scrolling down the page.

28-05-2013 - Why user experience design?

In this video by UX Mastery is clearly explained what user experience design is and why it is so important during the development process.

Source: uxmastery.com

17-05-2013 - Site updated!

My site is thoroughly updated with a new home page and this separate new section. Here, I will give more updates about things that inspire me. Also a number of new projects were added to my portfolio some time ago.

20-02-2013 - English website

Since today, my website is also available in English! On every page it possible to switch from Dutch to English and vice versa. Feel free to let me know what you think about it on the contact page.

09-10-2012 - Dutch champion 10x100m

In the weekend of the 29th and 30th of September the Dutch championships relay took place in Amstelveen. Same as in 2011 I ran the 10x100m together with nine other athletes from my club AV'23. A year ago we finished first in this great discipline so this year we wanted to defend our title. With a time of 1:51,64 s, two seconds faster than last year, we are now once again the best in the Netherlands. Unfortunately, a fraction above the track record, but next year we will break this record!

23-08-2012 - Gold in the Olympic Games

Last week I visited the Olympic Games in London, where I watched Usain Bolt, Churandy Martina, David Rudisha and the decathletes. Besides watching the best athletes, I participated myself in the 25 meter dash in the Holland Heineken House. At the end of the Games it turned out that I had ran the fastest time of all participants: 2.69 s. Therefore, I may call myself Olympic champion as well!

19-05-2012 - Bronze at my last NSK

Last Ascension I participated in my last Dutch Student Championships (NSK) on the track. And it was a quite succesful championship, because I came in third in the 100 meters. In the Fanny Blankers-Koen Stadium in Hengelo I ran 11.20s in the heats and 11.23s in the final.
There were also medals for clubmates Anna (third in discus), Joram (second in high jump) and Jim (second in hammer throw).

02-05-2012 - New job at PANGAEA Internet Marketing

Thursday, the 19th of April, I got the call, but as of the 1st of May I officially joined PANGAEA Internet Marketing in The Hague!PANGAEA is a full-service internet marketing company that provides services from internet strategy and concepting to implementation, management and webmastering. As an interaction designer I will translate the needs of companies that hire PANGAEA into a framework of a website. This includes among other things, the structure of the site, the pages that are required and the buttons and menus that are used. Then I keep track of the further development process to ensure that the end result matches the chosen requirements.

27-02-2012 - NK Indoor 2012

Last Saturday, on February the 25th, the Dutch Indoor Championships (NK Indoor) took place in Omnisport Apeldoorn. I participated in the 60m and 200m sprint. With a time of 7.22s in the heats in the 60m I qualified for the semifinals. In this semifinal I ran 7.24s and finished in the top 20 of the Netherlands.
The 200m had to be run twice in different lanes. The total time of the two races determined the six finalists in this discipline. In the first round I started in the difficult second lane and ran 23.38s. In the second round I ran in the more favorable fifth lane. With a time of 23.12s in this second heat I equaled my PB. Eventually, I finished 12th of the Netherlands with these two races!

13-02-2012 - Silver and bronze on NSK

Saturday February 11th, I won two medals during the Dutch Indoor Championships for students (NSK). I am no longer a student, but to one year after graduation it is still possible to participate. In the long jump, I finished second after a good series of jumps. The furthest jump was 6.97m, a new personal best! On the 60m sprint, I reached the final with a time of 7.24s. In between these disciplines, I participated in the triple jump with which I won the bronze medal. In less than two weeks I will compete in the National Indoor Championships in Apeldoorn, where I will start in the 60m and 200m.

23-12-2011 - New website

My new website is online! The new design replaces my Adobe Flash designed website from 2010.
Besides a new design, there are also new projects available, including my graduation assignment.

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