"I've always been intrigued by problem-solving. If I'm working on a project, I look for the special case, the security issue, that hypothetical situation that you don't consider right away. I guess that's one of the things that attracted me to interaction design", confesses Els Rogier. When she can tear herself away from problem-solving strategies, you might find this classical violinist playing in a Brussels amateur orchestra or even practicing the Japanese martial art of self defence Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu.
While still an undergraduate, I became more interested in how a program could be used and I realised I wanted to seek a more practical direction to design. A professor told me I'd find this at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
For a major Dutch newspaper, I had to do a task analysis of the company's information systems. The editorial department asked us to find solutions to how they could improve their move to a new system. The project's focus was much more on the user and not just dealing with the user interface.
I also teamed up on a project for a cultural organisation that functioned as a consortium, with several museums as members. The organisation had created a database with information on how to set up contemporary artists' installations. However, they wanted to attract more museums and incorporate more information on artists and their work. Our solution was to make a virtual environment that explained and illustrated the added value of the consortium. It enhanced the information flow among the different actors—the organisation, museums and artists involved in the consortium—and gave a multimedia-enhanced presentation of a particular artist's work.
During my internship I was responsible for attending sales meetings and drawing up reports both at a project's beginning and conclusion. For a major client in the gas sector I conducted user observations and drafted reports on what improvements could be made to the interface design. I worked on a number of other projects and assisted with modelling, which gave me a taste of the variety of work you get at Namahn.
First, aesthetically, I love the design of the building, the combination of old and new elements. There's a wonderful sense of light and space here. Second, my colleagues are all very different but very open minded to a lot of other people, probably because many of them have worked or studied in foreign countries.
It's true that I love reading science fiction. And Asimov, for example, employs a lot of problem-solving strategies related to interface design because many of his books are based on robots.
One of my favourite pastimes is getting together with friends and doing role-playing. It's an incredible learning exercise to set up an environment, make up a location and play characters from a certain time in history who must discover certain things. To place yourself in the mind of someone else like this is such a great journey and one of the most pleasurable aspects of, yes, problem-solving!