PORTFOLIO

Vincent Steurs

Creating a more social, playful and sustainable world

by designing societal relevant products

Delft University of TechnologyMaster Industrial Design Engineering

I have a dream:

I am a socially motivated designer and prefer to design societal relevant products and services. I like to design for connectivity and playful interactions between people with a focus on the user experience. I have a special interest for product-service systems, sustainability and design for children’s play and learning.

I am instructor in youth work at Scouts & Gidsen Vlaanderen and like to work with chil-dren and youth animators. After 4 years of leadership I started to give workshops to new leaders, using methods of ’experience learn-ing’. I am gradually improving my skills in understanding one’s behaviour and position in the group and how to deal with it. These are very useful skills when dealing with user-centred design challenges.

I like to travel around the world and meet new people and cultures and to work in international teams. Last year I organized a research project to Argentina, for a group of 30 design students. The aim of the trip was to learn about the local market, design industy and education and to do research for several Dutch and Belgian companies concern-ing the project destination.

Vincent Steurs (Industrial Design Student, Belgian, 03-07-1985)

Studied in: Antwerp, Barcelona, Delft

Design Interests: communication, children’s play and learning, sustainability, product-service-systems, mobility, emerging markets

Personal Qualities: conceptualizer, teamplayer, motivator, enthusi-astic, pro-active, optimistic, a healthy portion of empathy, open-minded, visionary, multi-cultural oriented

About Myself

Vincent Steurs Personal Information DEC 2008 .oiloftroP

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Smart Table: a broadband communication system for elderly

The smart system is aimed to prevent possible social isola-tion between elderly people and their social contacts. It consists of the Smart Table and the Smart Messenger, which provide easy and intuitive way for elderly people to benefit from the advantage of communication technology and improve the satisfaction of their social activities. During the design research, a working prototype is made and evaluated by a user test.

The Smart Table offers people a way to use broadband com-munciation without the need for a computer. The television will be used for video communication (web-cam) and the table as user-interface. On the table contact persons can be selected and images and video can be shared. The elderly person can capture images that will be shared instantly. The contact person can select images from his or her computer, which will be pro-jected on the table of the elderly person.

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TARGET GROUP

ENVIRONMENT

EQUIPMENT

EXPERIENCEcooperationcompetitionstrategic thinkingindependencyfun & excitement

outdoorfamiliar

explorationnew perspective

discovery

belongingpart of a grouprecognitionsharingfriendship

INFO

INFORMATION

The ultimate outdoor gaming experience

The game is meant to give teenagers a playful and exciting outdoor gaming experience. The equipment, existing of a watch, a pair of glasses and a stick, provide different game possibilities. It can be used for shooter type of games as well as for informative and explorative games. The games are lead by a game leader, who also possesses the equipement and offers this outdoor gaming experience as a service (comparable with paintball). He can adjust the software and the way the equipement is used, depending on the players and the purposes of the group (fun, education, awareness of environment, etc.).

Every players gets a set of 3 objects: a watch, a pair of glasses and a stick.The objects are connected by bluetooth and to a wireless network with the rest of the game players. The glasses give information about your team and opponents, your watch about your personal equipment and the stick is meant for pointing and shooting.

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Get Connected: a game for barter clubs

Get connected is a game designed for barter clubs. In these clubs people exchange goods and services using an own cur-rency. In this way they try to make use of each other skills and save money. Next to this it also is a nice place to meet new people and build a social network. What came out during the user research was that people often had no idea what to offer or demand, espacially in the beginning of their membership. This game helps them in creating ideas and helping each other out to find something interesting.

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Philips Business conneCT: Usability testing and redesign

Philips Business conneCT (BCT) is an all-in-one business communication solution, which provides powerful tools for call-handling, voice mailing and reachability. The focus of this project is on the reachability and directory functions of BCT. A usability test was taken with 7 participants to find out what problems users experience when using BCT.

In this test, there was found that the functionality of the pro-gram was quite sufficient, but that navigation, hierarchy and feedback are the main issues of the program. BCT 2.0 has most of the functionality BCT has, but the structure and hier-archy of the program are changed quite radically.

The most remarkable changes are the size (about 1/2 to 1/4 of the original design), with the addition of sliding windows, and the addition of a help bar. For this concept, a prototype was made with macromedia flash, and a second usability test was performed.

JAGA TextiLight Radiatior

With the Jaga TextiLight radiator you can let your radior fit in any interior you want.

Like the name suggest, it is a radiator with light functionality and a textile cover.

The light can be dimmed and the textile cover can be replaced, in order to create the right atmosphere.

The cover is a vacuumform and so the shape can be personalized as well (modular molds).

The radiator has also a air filter function. Since the heat is distrib-uted using small ventilators on top op the radiator (Dynamic Boost Radiator), it will provoke air circula-tion. A filter at the bottom of the radiator collects all the dust in the air and is easily replacable.

Air Filter

Personalize your radiator

Value for money

With this product JAGA can offer it’s clients a unique and exclusive product line. The cost-value balance is quite high since the production technique is relatively cheap and it offers a high amount of possibilies for personaliza-tion.

Vincent Steurs HA - Antwerp Sept.-Nov. 2006 .oiloftroP

Hot Sponge: an on-the-go stain remover for Procter & Gamble

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The Hot Sponge is a stain-remover that works efficiently by heating up the sponge.

The container can be reused by heating it up in boiling water.

The sponges can be replaced by new ones you can buy in the supermarket.

by clicking the metal element inside the hotpack, the Hot Sponge gets activated. The liquid inside the hotpack crys-talizes and transforms from a flexible to a solid container.

When the container is solid it means that the sponge is warm enough to be used to remove the stain by rubbing it over it several times.

The idea behind this concept is to turn the unpleasent moment of making a stain on your cloth-ing into a pleasurable tactile experience.

Furthermore it is very easy to distinguish the used and the unused sponges by their state (liquid vs. solid).

The original target group were business hotels, but it can also be used as a normal consumer product.

O’livin Multi-Toast

O’livin Deep Fryer

Product DetailsThe Multi-Toast is designed for people who like to eat toast together but who don’t like to wait for very long times or to let one person do all the work. It offers people a pos-sibility to experience the act of making and eating toasts in a more social way.

The Multi-Toast exists of a control unit and can run up to 4 toaster modules. With the possibility to attach the modules in two direction, it can be used on the work top as well as on the table, pointed to the direction the people are sitting.

The toaster is designed together with a deep fryer, as a product family. The products are given the brand name O’livin,inspired on the names of the two designers, Olivier and Vincent, and refering to ‘own way of living’

The ‘O’ logo of the brand name is toasted into the bread.

A finger-sweep temperature controler

Opening lid

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