KARIN NIEMANTSVERDRIET

WELCOME!

Hello and welcome! I’m an interaction design researcher, and I am interested in how people co-exist and interact with technologies. I think that machines should to adhere to the human rules. Instead of placing technology central, they should take their rightful place in the complex nest of goals, dreams, obligations, relations, identity-construction, considerations, actions, and behaviors that are part of human life. This means that interactions should not be designed within a vacuum. By looking at the context and learning from people’s everyday at habits, routines, and practices, we can design for people as people – not as users.

On this website, I show some of my latest research work, as well as a selection of designs – although admittedly, the distinction is rather arbitrary when doing design research. You can also find a professional biography and CV, and a complete list of my publications. Please do get in touch if you have questions or want to talk!


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ABOUT ME


Me Portrait by Yu-Ting Cheng

Professional Bio

Karin Niemantsverdriet is an interaction design researcher. She tries to understand how people interact with their environment in their daily lives, and uses the insights to design new technologies and interfaces. Karin was trained at the department of industrial design of the Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e). First in the Bachelor, which she started in 2007 and finished in 2010, and later in the Masters program from which she graduated Cum Laude in 2014. In her graduation project, she investigated how to design for enhanced product attachment with physical-digital hybrid products. It was in this graduation project that she realized the value of design-oriented research – also called research-through-design. By designing something that did not previously exist and deploying it in real life settings, it becomes possible to study a possible future and explore its implications and desirability. To further specialize in this type of research, Karin decided to stay at the department of Industrial Design for a bit longer, and to pursue a PhD. In her PhD research, which started in 2014 and will finish in September of 2018, Karin looked at how to design interactions with systems that are shared in use. The project took place in the Future Everyday research group and was done in collaboration with the Intelligent Lighting Institute and Philips.

Karin has a broad range of interests, and has always looked for ways to connect to other fields of study, other cultures and countries, and to other organizations. To give some examples: she took an extra minor in Art History at the University of Utrecht and several Spanish courses in Utrecht and in Barcelona (up to Dele B1 level). She taught English in Chinandega (Nicaragua) for six months in 2006 and joined the FabLab in Lima (Peru) in 2011. She was involved in the organization of TEI2016 and the FAB7 conference, as well as with three different Design United exhibitions for the Dutch Design Weeks of 2011, ’12, and ’13. And in 2016, she visited IBM Research in Yorktown Heights (NY, USA) for three months, where she collaborated with Thomas Erickson on the design of meeting support technologies.

With her PhD coming to an end, Karin is looking for a new challenge. She is interested in industry positions in design research and development. Her strengths are in human-centric interaction design, early concepting phases of the design process, contextual enquiry, and design-oriented and qualitative research. If you have any advice or opportunities, please do contact her! She is always in for coffee and a chat.


PUBLICATIONS

Papers & Abstracts

Patent Applications

Other


Last update: September 2018
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