Identity

I'm Willemien Aalbers, I'm a user focussed researcher-designer with an entrepreneurial spirit. I have never stopped asking the “why” question; I’m curious, willing to learn, dedicated, inspired by challenges and adventure. I’m someone who can quickly connect information, someone who is able to zoom in, but who likes to keep the overview at the same time.
I’m an autonomous person, but I’m also able to work together, like I have experienced in my previous careers. The last 20 years I worked as a social worker and massage therapist to coach people to get a clear view on their problems and to find a, for them suitable way, to deal with those. Those experiences has been proved as very valuable within a user focussed design process; I'm happy to relate to different kind of people and involve multiple stakeholders relevant to my research and design processes. My expertise enables me to quicly transform relevant information of a deeper level to the surface. As a designer I’m outgoing and open for knowledge of other people and like to collaborate with them. Nature also is a powerful source of inspiration for me.
My desire is to develop  innovative and intuitive products or systems for and with people with a positive value to society and with respect to the environment. I’m a dedicated person as well; my designs will be characterized mostly as thought trough and well finished, with an eye for detail. 

Vision

I will give my vision on some trigger points which will have priority in my designs. 
We are living in a century of rush and stress, living with a lot of pressure which easily disconnect us from our self and other people, however we live with a lot of communication technics.  We also are living in an aging century, where older people have to take care more of themselves and for a longer period.  With my designs, I like to contribute to help people to stay in real contact with them self, with others and with nature.

Nowadays we often have to deal with complicated technology. This technology often is regularly offered  with a substantial percentage of features that are not desired by a large number of people, ending up with big manuals and technology stress. In my opinion it is necessary to be aware and morally critical if the developed technology is a gadget to use by the engineers or is it accessible and userfriendly to the end user, supporting his/her quality of life. As such "user friendliness"  should be "the oxygen in the body of technology" in my opinion, which reaches beyond a well-designed interface. Therefore I will focus on intuitive high quality self explaining technology. Related to this, one of my focus points will be addressing and triggering peoples senses to adopt design and to stimulate a normal human healthy development.  

In my opinion it is important for people to stay in contact with nature, it often helps them to relax and literally come back to their senses. As such I'm very passionated about using natural elements or shapes, especially when it supports human wellbeing, which can be seen in my graduation project. According to taking care of the environment I will prevent exploitation and pollution of nature and will consider sustainable and re-usable materials for my designs, in order to contribute to a circular economy.