Profielfoto

About me 💁🏼‍♀️

“I am Leona, a design researcher graduated from Design for Interaction at the TU Delft. I aim to discover human journeys, including their needs and hidden wishes to translate this into products, services and experiences. Therefor, it might be obvious that I adore the term ‘human centred design‘. 

 

I would describe myself as an enthusiastic team player with a sharp focus on the bigger picture. Work hard, play hard and laugh even louder, is my way to go, made possible by my (sometimes obsessively) use of todo-lists.”

 

Education 🎓

Sep 2016 - May 2019

Msc Design for Interaction - TU Delft

Graduated Cum Laude : Average grade 8,3

Sep 2016 - Jan 2017

Minor European project semester - Valencia

Average grade 9,0

Sep 2013 - Jun 2016

Bsc Industrial Design Engineering - TU Delft

Graduated Cum Laude : Average grade 8,2

ProfesSional skills ✨

Software programs

Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop, Microsoft Office, Sketch, InVision, Solidworks

Research methods
Context mapping, usability studies, diary studies, interviewing

Design methods
Sketching, wire-framing, prototyping, creative facili

Languages
Dutch: Native proficiency
English: Professional working proficiency
Spanish: Limited working proficiency

Contact 🤙🏼

Experience 💼

Feb 2021 - Now

Design Researcher - Valsplat

At Valsplat, I make part of an enthusiastic team of people who aim to make digital worth people’s precious time.

My responsibility as a design researcher is to make sure that both concept and design resonate with the users goals and needs. We uncover what people say, think, and feel. We observe how people live, work, and play. To create digital things that have positive impact on real life.

May 2020 - Now

Freelance Designer - Studio Leona

With this studio, I am enabled to help people with their design dreams in a more professional manner. From logo’s to sunglasscords, from creative sessions till live visual note-taker. Contact me with your challenge and together we will design the solution that fulfils your needs.

Nov 2019 - Nov 2020

Service Designer - WARP

At WARP, I was part of the Strategic/Service design team. With this team we approached projects by combining user’s needs, market reality and technology into well grounded customer experiences and service propositions.

We validated propositions by testing with real users, and keeping a bird’s eye view during the entire process to make sure everything not only lines up with the user’s goals, but also the goals as a business.

Oct 2018 - May 2019

Graduation Thesis - HumanVUI

Commissioned by the TU Delft and Valsplat, I have investigated the field of Voice assistant design. During this research study I created a toolkit to help fellow designers/companies in the creation of meaningful voice interactions. 

Feb 2018 - Jun 2018

Design research intern - Valsplat

Learning by doing – being an intern at a Dutch design consultancy with a love for digital and passion for people. During this internship I performed usability tests, deep-dive interviews, design sprints, creative sessions and diary studies. The results of these studies were analysed by us and reported back to the clients in the shape of insight-overviews, next steps and workshops. 

Jul 2018

10 day case trip - Brazil

A study business trip to five different Brazilian companies: ITAU, Mondelez, Klabin, OLX and Tigre. Together with 20 fellow design students we aimed solving their cases by running small design teams by ourselves. This made us responsible for the planning, execution and presentation of our own design projects. 

Sep 2017 - Jun 2018

Student representative - DFI

Making a contribution to the education as given at the faculty of Industrial Design Engineering in TU Delft by giving advice from a student perspective. This includes being part of the committee: i.d-education, attending by-weekly meetings with the board of professors and writing the annual education report. 

Sep 2016 - Apr 2017

Committee member -IDE business fair

Together with a committee of 8 people I organised  the IDE Business Fair of 2016. On this fair hosted at the faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, design students can make their first contact with 45 companies to find internships/job opportunities. I was responsible for all our expenses to be able to create a memorable 2-day fair.

Mar 2015 - Nov 2016

Co-creater -Personal Leadership Book

Writing, creating and designing the challenge-part of the book: ‘Studenten hebben dorst’ Published in 2017. In these challenges I captured personal leadership theory and translated this into interactive exercises.