In his thesis ‘What You See Is What You Feel’, ir. Koert van Mensvoort, MFA, argues that haptic feedback can be simulated visually and that this principle will enrich the human computer interaction.

Van Mensvoort’s study began with an aspiration to increase the sensorial qualities of the graphical user interface. Inspired by renaissance painters – who, centuries ago, already applied various types of optical illusions in order to enhance the expressiveness of their paintings – van Mensvoort introduces a method of touch with merely visual means. Interactive animations are used to create an optical illusion that evokes haptic percepts like stickiness, stiffness and mass, within a standard graphical user interface. These principles are demonstrated on the PowerCursor website.

Koert van Mensvoort is assistant professor in the User Centered Design capacity group. Prof.dr.ir. Berry Eggen and prof.dr.ir. Jack van Wijk are his first and second supervisor.

The defense will take place on 29 April, at 4 p.m. in the ‘Zwarte Doos’ on the TU/e campus.

On 2 April the special Master’s track Automotive Technology was accredited. Students graduating from this program, the TU/e’s very first interdisciplinary Master’s program will now receive the title Master of Science in Automotive Technology. Industrial Design (dr. Jacques Terken e.o.) is one of the main participants in the program, which is aimed at further development of intelligent systems related to cars. The automotive industry needs all-round engineers who are able to realize innovative solutions.

Six TU/e departments are involved in the Master’s program: Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Chemical Technology, Industrial Engineering & Innovation Sciences, Mathematics and Computer Science and Industrial Design.

Ronald van Tienhoven, coach at the ID department has designed the ‘Manhattan Vijfje’, a five-euro coin to celebrate the discovery of Manhattan by the Dutch four centuries ago.

Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende struck the first coin and offered it to US President Barack Obama. The memorial coin shows current-day Manhattan and on the flip side the Manhattan of the beginning of the 17th century.

Lissa Kooijman’s graduation project is a collaboration between Industrial Design, the Catharina Hospital, and Nedap Healthcare. Many people tend to eat too fast. As a result they do not receive signals from the stomach that they are in fact full. The result can be overeating.

The plate Lissa designed comes with built-in LEDs, indicating how long you should take to swallow one mouthful. The LEDs keep on burning to indicate how long you should wait to take the next bite. Due to the LEDs you will pay more attention to eating. You will enjoy your meal more and avoid eating too fast.

The design was tested by tens of children during de ‘Klokhuis vragendag’ on 5 April. Klokhuis is making a TV program in collaboration with the TU/e about the home of the future, designed according to the wishes of children. Children are in fact the designers of this home. The departments of Architecture, Building and Planning and Industrial Design help with advice, lectures and workshops.

Zuzanna Skalska is in her third year as coach and assignor at ID. She is a trend watcher at Ad van Berlo studios in Eindhoven, one of the biggest design studios in the country. Skalska’s expertise is mainly in analyzing trends and using the results of the analysis as a basis for storytelling, defining the context of a new design. She considers herself a counterpart of the best-known Dutch trend expert, Lidewij Edelkoort, who focuses on the prediction of trends.
‘Trends are like the weather . You think about what is coming your way and what will be the result for various people’, says Skalska.

Position of design in society

‘Society changes at a dazzling pace and designers often do not seem to catch up. That is why a lot of design is no more than restyling of already existing products. I think a lot of designers are navel-gazers and do not pay attention to the needs of the world outside’, Skalska observes.

‘We are very much dominated by the internet. It is impossible to have a good overview of what is happening. Not so long ago, reading a pile of good magazines would give you sufficient insight. Now it’s like we are dropped in a gigantic forest in the middle of the night’, Skalska says. 

‘You need to have knowledge of design in order to understand trends. Designers tend to be very subjective, but they need to become more objective, they need to be able to communicate about design. Often the designer considers himself to much the consumer’, Skalska thinks.

Design in a technological context

‘There is no design without technology and no technology without design. Design without built-in technology is often ‘art’. Design is positioned in the middle between pure technology and pure art’, Skalska explains.

‘TU/e ID has a unique opportunity to make the match between technology and design. Industrial Design has the potential to become a ‘pan-European’ field that fulfills a true leading role in the world.  Compared to design academy students, for example, ID students have a much greater chance to get interesting jobs. This is because they can, potentially, cover the whole range between technology and art. In Poland, my native country, design is often defined as the motor of economy. The city of Eindhoven is also convinced that the economical potential of design should be stressed more compared to the artistic value. But in the Netherlands, design is most of the time conceived as applied art and not so much as an economical factor. Things are starting to change, but it is more an evolution instead of a ‘design revolution’, which is taking place in Poland at the moment’, Skalska observes.

The assignment trend watching

Skalska:  ‘Students have to visit fairs that they would normally avoid, such as the ‘huishoudbeurs’, the ‘Medica’ in Düsseldorf or the dentist fair in Cologne. They have to observe and trust their intuition when they walk around. Most of the time they are quite confused when they return, they do not understand what they have experienced. This is the start of their discovery of what they still need to learn. By understanding why the products they see are designed the way they are designed they collect arguments for design decisions, ‘ammunition’. In the end students have to be able to explain their design decisions with appropriate arguments. Good trend watching leads to storytelling and good storytelling leads to well-thought out design’, Skalska concludes.