When someone thinks about design, most likely this person associates it with the aesthetics of an object. This is not wrong because creating an aesthetically pleasing product, digital or physical, is part of the profession. But it is much more than the looks of a solution for an identified problem. Design has so much potential to strengthen and give power to a group of people and I am making it my mission to maximise this potential, rather than just focusing on the looks of a product. There are a lot of good examples of how ethnographic research, co-creating solutions with patients & experts, following trends, prototyping and iteration based on user testing can create fantastic product solutions. Because of that, I am exploring the benefit of design for paediatric IBD patients, who unfortunately will have a whole life of disease management ahead of them. Currently, I am working on my master thesis in Advanced Product Design at the Umeå Institute of Design in northern Sweden and hope to work together with you!
My name is Daan Hekking, I am 24 years old, born in The Netherlands and was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease when I was 18.
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