research & creative work
After having been and worked in different places, I found that what drives me is the exploring and defining user experiences. That’s why, doing architecture and industrial design felt like a natural path to me, which was just about changing the scale of activities.
My fascination for diving deep into the world of users can be used in my work in an innovation agency, which gives me the possibility to do so in very different types of mainly qualitative user research projects. This is not only an exploration for users’ wishes and needs, but also for the right tools. As every challenge brings new requirements and our context is constantly changing (the pandemic just being an extreme example), the methods that we employ in UX research have to adapt as well. For some time now, I’ve been working on developing a structuring framework for this At the PUSH UX 2023 conference, we’ve shown a digital toolkit we developed, aiming at providing an overview of different methods and a guide to find the one that fits the challenge best. And in this article, you can find some of my learnings (and illustrations) about doing remote testings.
visual recording
The moment when there’s most space for creativity, is when we can translate learnings into implications and designs. Most of the results I’ve worked on in recent years can’t be shown yet, but the outcomes of another type of creative work can: visual recordings. These are visual syntheses of workshops, talks or meetings and can serve as powerful foundation for discussions and further work. We’ve described the process and strengths of visual recording in this article. One of my favourite results are the outcomes of the Sustainable Transformers Talks, which are filled with inspiring nuggets of knowledge around sustainability.
moderation & future foresight
I don’t only love being creative myself, but also enjoy supporting others in doing so. This can happen in different formats, as interactive workshops or talks. One very exciting field to do this is Future Foresight. During the Munich Creative Business Week 2022, we invited participants on a journey to the future: we presented different methods which we successfully use with our clients and which allow us to envision different future scenarios. Using these, we can design for our envisioned futures and derive action decisions for the present. We’ve described the process in more detail here.
I’ve also had the chance to share some insights on this during a talks and a symposium for bayern design and the INNOX network in Vienna.
exhibitions & conferences
Our project FRANK, which we developed as part of the course Interactve Materiality at the TUE, is the exploration of an interactive material for a future, where our everyday environment will be composed of dynamic objects, and where programmable material behaviour can create stronger emotional connections between users and products. We presented our concept for this human-product interaction based on a smart material at the 13th TEI conference (International Conference on Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interactions) in Tempe, Arizona. It won the Award for ‚Best Implementation‘ and was also elected as ‚Attendees‘ Choice’ in the Student Design Challenge.
Volo is a project we started as part of a master degree’s course at the TUE and developed furrther. Volo is a communication system which allows passengers and autonomous vehicles to communicate twth each other through haptic interaction. Volo was exhibited at the Dutch Design Week 2017 and in an exhibition at the museum TwentseWelle, in Enschede (Netherlands) in 2018.
My design aqua for a drinking bottle won the competition „Beba água da torneira com confiança“, which aimed at making the public more aware of the good quality of Portugal’s tap water and encouraging to drink it. The competition was held by the Portuguese water and waste Services Regulation Authority ERSAR, together with the employers’ association of the cork sector APCOR and the national organisation of Portuguese designers AND. The resul was presented at events like the IWA, World Water Congress Exhibition in Lisbon, and the Annual Gala of the Cork Association in Porto 2014.