Regina Morán's experiences in Delft

The reason behind this installation is that people increasingly are consumed by their thoughts, worries and tasks. Without realising it, they are moving through the day without taking a break to enjoy or reflect on what brings them happiness. Blip seduces people in a public setting to practice momentary happiness and ideally improve their subjective wellbeing by being fully engaged and present in a moment with the installation.
 

What was your biggest challenge to present your work?

The project was the deliverable of the course called "Interactive Technology Design" from the MSc Design for Interaction. For the deliverable, we had one balloon fully working and we "wizarded" the rest. One of the challenges was to make it a stand-alone installation, robust enough for Dutch-Design-Week proof. Hence, we had to do some extra work refining the codes, hardwiring, making a mechanism to make sure the balloons were airtight, and of course to stay on top of all the requirements for the exhibition.
 

What did you learn from this experience?

I learned to trust the design process, or at least to go with it. Also, I learned (and enjoyed) how good teamwork works; each of my teammates added different ingredients to the table that were visible at the end.

This case is an example of how you can take your projects one step further; not only like a deliverable in a course but also as a project you can present to more people. An experience like this can demonstrate the pitfalls and successes of the project. Besides, it is an enriching experience as a professional and as a person because you face new challenges that can provide you with a learning experience.

In the project I did for KLM, I worked with three classmates. The assignment was to design a solution to improve the experience of passengers during the flight. We worked during one quarter on the project and had the opportunity to visit the Crew Center and interview some Cabin Attendants. Then, we did the validation of our project on a real plane at TU Delft! Finally, we presented our results at the KLM Headquarters and our project was selected as the best project by the jury from KLM.

Later, I found out that we were not the only ones working for KLM. The collaboration between TU Delft and KLM involves employees, researchers and students, it is called Design Doing. The aim is to deliver knowledge to KLM and have a long-lasting impact on their customers and employees by fostering a culture of design throughout the company. At the same time, TU Delft is able to research and educate students in the KLM practice to learn about the impact of design. This collaboration is present in multiple ways; for example, there is a design elective called X-Lab and there are graduation and internship opportunities you can get to know during the ‘meet and match’ events. Also, some IDE Alumni have being hired at KLM.

Currently, I am part of the Design Doing collaboration because I am working as a student assistant in the Design Doing team, formed by KLM’ers and TU Delft employees. I have had the opportunity to experience and learned about the value of Design Doing. Me and other student assistants were present at the celebration of KLM for their 100 anniversary and at the Dutch Design Week (see Image 1) in a stand where we invited people to design the future of flying. Therefore, Design Doing has external recognition and also has an impact outside TU Delft and KLM. I also helped organize a workshop for students (in the MSc course IDE Academy) where around 60 students went to the KLM Headquarters for a design sprint on three different challenges.

I am happy to see how design is present in organizations and to see what the value of designers could be in a big organization as KLM; for example, by improving the experience of passengers or suggesting how to transform KLM into a sustainable company. As a student, it is a great opportunity to see the innovation possibilities to design and build design-driven organizations!

The healthcare sector is facing many challenges nowadays, due to global development and societal changes (see Medisign Brochure). Professionals with a creative background are needed to design the future of healthcare. The Medisign Specialization is meant to form students capable of designing new products and services that answer to current needs and are also future-proof. It is designed for master students from Integrated Product Design (IPD), Design for Interaction (DfI) and Strategic Product Design (SPD)* that would like to make a difference in the healthcare sector.

To be part of the Medisign Specialization, you should be enrolled in one of the masters previously mentioned. You do not need to apply for the specialization on advance, you may choose to do it when you have already begun with your studies. One of your projects during your first year of master should be related to healthcare. For example, I am currently doing a project on Value-Based Healthcare in the course of SPD Research (see Picture 1). Then, 9 ECTS of your electives should be focussed on medisign courses; there are different options, like Capita Selecta Medisign, Complex Ergonomics for Complex Systems, Biomechanics, among others. Finally, your graduation project should also be related to healthcare, you can see some projects in the Medisign webpage.

If you are willing to learn more, there are some options beyond the courses. TU Delft has three Design Labs related to healthcare. The three of them work with different organizations and it is a good opportunity to get deeper into a topic of your preference through a research project. The first is the CardioLab, they work collaboratively to explore how smart technologies can reduce cardiovascular diseases. The second is the Critical Alarms Lab (CAL), which focusses on sound in healthcare to shape the future of alarms and soundscapes. And the third one is the End of Life Lab which explores how design could help improve the quality of life in its last stage. If you want to be part of any of these Labs you can contact them to define how could you contribute to the project.

Design in healthcare is expanding worldwide. If you wonder about future possibilities after graduation, here are some examples. In the Netherlands, a well-known company were designers are collaborating is Philips, you can take a look at Philips Design. For smaller organizations, you can check MEDD or Vilans, where some IDE alumni have worked. There are also opportunities in other countries in Europe, some examples are Scope in Finland and The Care Lab in Spain. In case that, there is nothing related to Medisign in your country and you wonder if it would be worth it, I bet it will. You can always take the lead and contribute to improve the healthcare sector.

I final tip would be to talk to people and solve your doubts to enrol in the Medisign Specialization when you have started your MSc in Delft. More information is shared during the Manage Your Master days, at the beginning of the first and the second semester. Also, you can join the Medisign Community on Facebook.

This year, during the first days of the semester (Manage your Master days), we had a Research Day. For me, it was enriching to get to know the research possibilities we have in the faculty. For this reason, I decided to interview Professor Pieter Jan Stappers, director of Research at IDE, to share with you the options we have at TU Delft. Here is a summary of what he shared with me:

During the research day, you mentioned that TU Delft is the largest design research institute. In which sense it is the largest?
“We have 100 design researchers doing research that particularly supports design or creates new ways of doing design. Other leading design schools in the world, have 20 or 60 students. Also, at the faculty of IDE we have 120 PhD students who do research, so if you are looking for a particular piece of expertise we have a lot. And I hear often from visiting researchers that sometimes come for an exchange; "Oh my God! for every topic you have an expert. When I go back to my own school we have six researchers." They cannot carry all the expertise. So, I think that is unique about Delft. We have so many different approaches, many different ways of working.”

You also mentioned that the main themes of the faculty are health, sustainability, and mobility. Why did you decide to focus on those 3 themes?
“There are three societal challenges that we are focusing on, sustainability, health and mobility. Those are three issues that are considered urgent in the United Nations, Europe, and the Netherlands. We also have disciplinary perspectives. Those are the perspectives of the departments according to the backgrounds of the people (psychology, sociology, technology, etc.). We say designers bring together the multidisciplinary perspectives of people, technology and organizations; but health, sustainability and mobility are what people ask for. The challenges are the market pull and the other three are the disciplinary push with the knowledge from different areas. The pull is what society needs. (Figure 1)”.

What do students need to do or who do they need to approach in case they want to know more?
In the master program, there are plenty of opportunities to find and discover people with research expertise. Number one, gossip; talk to other students. Probably they have met someone in a course and they know about a specific topic. Of course, there is the website (IDE Research) and the advertisements that we have on the wall. Also, one of the places where you can find some enthusiastic group of researchers is in the Delft Design Labs. I would suggest students to take a look at the opportunities that are already there in the courses. Many of the projects have research components and have opportunities to get in contact with researchers and experts who know a lot of things that might be a connection for them.

I hope this article gives you an overview of the research possibilities in the faculty. If you are willing to learn more about design research, TU Delft is the right place for you!

The students at the IDE (Industrial Design Engineering) faculty come from different backgrounds. A high number studied their bachelor in Delft, but there are other ones who studied in Eindhoven or other cities in the Netherlands. Or as it is my case, I traveled all the way from Mexico to come to study in Delft. I have classmates from Indonesia, Colombia, India, Denmark, Greece, and many other countries. Currently, 38% of the students in the MSc programmes are international. If you are curious to check the nationalities in the faculty from previous years, you can check the Student Population in TU Delft.

So, why is it relevant that we all have different backgrounds? I think that the way of learning and the way we have been taught in our previous university might be different from the way of teaching at TU Delft. How I call the way of teaching in the faculty is “Experiential learning”, you need to put all your knowledge into practice and experience it. You will have an assigned project and you will have some lectures that will help you prepare for the case, but you won't get a guide for how to do things. You need to try, to dare, and to suggest innovative solutions. During my first two quarters, I have already worked in projects for important companies such as Vanderlande and KLM; and it has been very enriching.

To help you a bit with your first projects, I have some tips for you. Whenever you go to a lecture you need to be ready, meaning that you should read the Lecture Manual on advanced, and probably there will be a paper to read before the lecture (check Brightspace; ask a friend if you don't know how to use it). Professors provide the material that you need, like slides, papers, books, and references. Make the best use of those documents, they will help you as tips or guidelines for your projects. You will have constant sessions with your coaches; be prepared for every session, write down your main concerns, they are always willing to help. A coach suggested us, that we should always choose three main questions to guide the conversation. In case you need extra help, you can ask them for extra coaching sessions. Also, learn from your classmates, we organized some sessions with other teams to share what everyone had been doing, and it was useful to see different approaches to the same problem. Working in teams is also very common in the faculty (Picture 1), so if you want to know more about it you can read the story about <link io studeren masteropleidingen msc-design-for-interaction experiences study-activities>Studying in a Dutch environment.

What I can tell you about the way of teaching at TU Delft is that it is very different from what I was used to, back at home. Despite the differences, I am positive that in the past months I have been able to learn more than I could have imagined. It is just that by putting your knowledge into practice you personally experience each stage of your project, and experience is not a thing that books can teach you. I am also impressed by how much do the coaches know, so I am trying to read all the papers that they suggest and dive a bit more into the topics I am interested in. A good thing about studying a master at TU Delft is that you can shape it the way you want and focus on the topics you like the most. So my suggestion would be, enjoy and get ready to learn as much as you want!