Blog of Nikki Veldhuis

In wrote down what I wanted for my graduation project. I have done this the last couple of weeks. These are not all my findings, but a summary what I thought would be a good basis for my project.

Interests

design - graphic design - usability - little things that make the difference - visuals - new forms of interaction - new interpretations - trends - interactive art - the night - light - colors - ambient - abandoned buildings - deserted public places - new alternative ideas - frontier - bizarre humor - humor - shiny - psychedelic - thoughtful things - premise - underlying message - endurance - solid - science - international - atmosphere - look - feel - research - user testing - piracy - privacy - hacking - future - books - movies - animation - comics - music - special effects - unique games - thoughtful gameplay - nature - biology - ergonomy

My skills and things I like to do

design - drafting - research - empathizing with the user - understanding context - understanding users - groupwork - knowing how people work - working visually - direct feedback - building physical things - praktical work - going abroad - being responsible - discovering - experiencing - discussions - traveling - new uncharted areas - make people aware of new developments - RFID

Things I don’t want to do

programming - bury myself in literature - production work - 40 hours a week behind the desk

Things I want to improve

thinking out of the box - alternative solutions - giving presentations - clearly convey ideas - express myself more - more toward object design - industrial design

Tags and inspiration

the smell and taste of electronica - old school electronics - mechanics - radars and clock work - ink & magnetism - haptic interfaces - brain waves - multitouch - pico projector - data visualization - data logging - context aware - physicial computing - connection between digital and physical

As most people know, I have chosen the Master program, or EMMA for that matter. It means that the program will be a bit more theoretic and the focus will be on expanding and contextualizing the understanding of human-machine interaction. I will be go more deeply in the subject than the Bachelor program, for instance. I will be busy until September, and then I will be done!

My start is a bit rough, because I don’t know yet what I want to do. Of course, I have some areas were I’m interested in. I need some time to focus myself on the subjects, and make a choice what I really want to do. I think this is hard, because suddenly I’m all on my own again. The past 3 years I’ve been working mostly in group projects, so it’s a bit though for me to flip the switch. I will start with writing down what I really want, what I’m good at, what I don’t want and so on. This I will use as a base for my subject.

Moleskine Reporter

To write down my ideas and inspirational things everywhere and anytime, I bought a Moleskine. A small, practical notebook. Previously I had a big one, not very easy to carry with me. In the next post I will publish my findings.

So my goal to post regularly failed. Maybe because I’m not fond on telling the world what I’m up to and telling about my average personal adventures. Same reason why I have a twitter account, but don’t find the motivation to tell about my “unexceptional life”. Twitter is mostly used as personal jibber-jabber platform, for the world to read. I don’t care that you hate snow, the battery of your phone is almost dead or you just arrived at work. Retro, silly animation, but hits spot on:

What I mean is that I find only a small portion of the tweets useful, mainly from tech-blogs or people who are deeply involved in innovation and design. There is a lot of noise in the information stream you get, and this can easily replaced by an aggregator like Google Reader. Twitter is an interesting platform for sure, but I think it’s mainly used for the wrong reason. Maybe I should learn to look past the noise, or appreciate what everybody thinks.

Anyways, I’ve been busy the past half year. To much to tell I think (and not very interesting). One of the main events is that I moved from Hilversum to Utrecht. I live in a nice, big room in almost the center of the city. Here I will stay until I’m done with my studies.

I’m starting with blogging again because I want to keep track of my graduation project for my study Interaction Design. It will be a good reference of my process.

Like I said I try to keep my blog up to date with what I do. So here is my first attempt to keep this blog interesting.

After getting back in Holland I stayed at my parents place for a while. There I looked for some new place to live for my studies (My parents live all the way in the south of the country). I tried searching on websites that offer rooms, but they are crap or way to expensive, or both. I also have send some e-mails to people I know who live in the neighborhood of Hilversum. Luckily, my old roommate had some room left in his big apartment. So here I am, living in the center in the city of Hilversum. It’s a great place to live and I feel settled already.

The view out from the room in Hilversum.

My studies don’t start until the 15th of September, so that means I have more spare time than expected. I was selected for the master program at our school, so I’m really happy. That means I have an international degree and I will be called Ing. instead of Mr. Veldhuis when I’m done. But it’s going to be a tough year I think.

With that extra spare time I decided to go back to Sweden for a short week in the beginning of September. I will go back the place where I lived and I will go to Stockholm to meet with a certain special someone  .

With that extra spare time I also decided to do something useful, instead of laying down in the sun sipping booze. I’m working on a small technical project with Arduino. Arduino is a small interface board whereby you can connect all kinds of sensors and actuators and program its behavior on the computer. Simply that means you can build something physical and interactive. It is great fun, but I never had the time to learn the programming language at a decent level (also because I suck at programming). I have different kinds of stuff on my desk, like light sensors, motors, buttons, LED’s and some other small things. I hope to build something autonomous in the next weeks.

My arduino project…for the moment

Next week I have to go back to my parents place to look after the house and animals, because they are leaving for holidays. So I have to leave this city again. I probably leave tomorrow and will stay there until next weekend.

So this is it. This is how an exchange study supposed to be like. I had a great time with the Swedes and some exchange students. Quite unique actually, because exchange studies usually mean that you’re going to be with other Erasmus students. I barely had contact with other international students, except for the International Presence Exhibition project in Vasteras. Instead I was hanging around with local students in Eskilstuna. They we’re truly great friends and damn, I’m going to miss those guys. Always good for a crazy laugh and they we’re always a great help and company. I consider myself very lucky that I met them. David, Sandra, Henderson, Henrik, Oscar, Veronica, Klas, Andreas, Urban, Sophia, Andy and Robert; you are all fucking awesome.

Damn, I’m going to miss this country, the town but especially the people. If I ever have the chance to do an exchange study again, I will do it without thinking.

Of course, one of the reasons I started this blog is to report my school what I’ve done here. So here comes the official stuff.
I’ve learned especially some practical skills. I’ve learned 3d modeling and animation, got quite experienced in InDesign in a relative short time. My interaction design study at my home university is mostly about project methods and design ethics. It was very useful to learn some practical skills instead. However, from this point of view, I didn’t think I’ve learned some new methods in Sweden. I’ve learned to work in a team consisting of foreign people, but I used mostly the methods I’ve learned in Holland.

Most students (and some teachers) I talked to said that exchange studies are not about what you learn in school, but what you learn socially. You learn how to deal with difficult social situations, like languages and cultures. You learn how to fit in and use your own skills and expertise in a different environment. In this case, I learned more than enough and I think I got to know myself better. You discover things about yourself you never thought about before and look at it from a different perspective. This is the reason that everybody who has the chance has to go definitely on an exchange study. It’s a lot of work and a hassle before you go (and after) but it’s more, much more, than worth it.

At the moment I’m home with parents in the south of the Netherlands. The past few days I’ve been busy finding a room in Utrecht or Hilversum again. I really hope that I’m settled again before I have to start my last year at my school.

I was thinking to change this exchange study blog to a regular blog. It is a good way to learn writing English (I noticed that I still make terrible mistakes here and there). Also I want to keep my friends and family up to date with what I do. You will hear from me!

Finally, one more thing. I missed the dutch “quality” music!