“I’ve always liked engineering subjects like mathematics and physics, but on the other hand, I’m also into creativity, arts, and drawing. Back in France, my home country, the study programme that got closest to my interests was architecture. While orientating, I visited architecture schools, but I realised quickly that I’m not passionate about buildings.
The perfect combination of engineering and design
I went looking into studies related to design a bit more, but in France, those studies are usually art degrees and there’s no engineering involved. When looking for that perfect combination of engineering and design, I stumbled upon various programmes in Industrial Design Engineering.
Honestly, I didn’t know the University of Twente yet, but I had heard good stories about studying in the Netherlands in general, so I applied. To this day, I’m happy with my choice. The Bachelor’s in Industrial Design Engineering offers a good mix between art and engineering, and you can really be creative. The study is very flexible to your personality. For example, I’m much into drawing, so I really liked the design sketching course in the first year. I currently even work as a Teaching Assistant for this course.
However, there are also other students who are not into sketching at all. And that’s not a problem – you don’t have to be able to draw well if you want to study Industrial Design Engineering. That’s a common misconception. In general, it’s about turning creative thoughts into physical ideas.
Designing water-spraying fans and sustainable packaging
We get to do that a lot throughout the projects, from designing water-spraying fans to sustainable packaging for a food manufacturer like Johma. But it’s definitely not always about designing an actual product. There are a lot of theoretical and mathematical courses as well, and you will also learn to think of production processes and systems. For example, in one of the projects, we had to design a product service system like Swapfiets.
What I like about the programme is that you really learn to take the user into account. In one of the projects in the second year, we had to design something for a specific person with a mental or physical disability: any product or solution that could support them in their daily lives.
In this project, we got in touch with a woman with Stargardt disease, which is an eye disability. She works as a teacher and due to her bad sight, she struggled to recognise her students, so she asked her students to tell their names when they raised their hands. But over the course, people would forget to do so, which made her feel awkward and disconnected.
Glasses with a filter
When thinking of a solution, you might consider some high-tech product that enables better connection, but in the end, the real question seemed to be: how can we make sure that students will continue telling their names? We realised that it was more about building understanding and awareness among the students, so we designed a workshop that could help students realise what the teacher’s situation is actually like. For this, we designed glasses with a filter that could help students see what she was seeing. It felt really rewarding as the woman was very enthusiastic and grateful for our solution, and she would actually use it in the future.
The project made me realise I am very interested in the user experience and human-centred design. I spent my elective space in the third year in Thailand, doing a research project at primary schools that was focused on how gamification affects English teaching. It was great to be able to incorporate such an international experience in my Bachelor’s as well!
After my Bachelor’s, I think I’ll stay at UT and continue with the Master’s in Industrial Design Engineering as well. I’m not sure where my career will take me, but for now, I want to go more in the direction of physical ergonomics and human interaction.”
