Early inspiration

Way, way back…

I have always been intrigued by innovators. The fields of aeronautics, physics, biology and technology captured my imagination from a very young age. While other kids were lost watching the A-Team and its brute force, I was watching Chriet Titulaer explaining innovations heading to the market, and Wubbo Ockels on television explaining all about space exploration, and visiting the Evoluon in Eindhoven for a tech exhibit. I was lost in my own world reading Natuur & Techniek and KIJK, which my brother was subscribed to. I was always enamoured of that world and strove towards it. That outlook touched me, shaped how I understood the world, and I dreamed of the ways innovation could save the day.

By the end of primary school I was obsessed with building things to scale: model planes and ships, assembled and then painted, over and over. The F-16 above all. I wanted to be a fighter jet pilot, and never became one: I grew past the 1.88 m limit. Alongside that I took electronic devices apart to investigate them, asking what is in there and how can I make it faster, while my parents only hoped I kept my hands off the toaster for my experiments.

When computers became more available to the masses, halfway through the ‘80s, my life changed. In the beginning it was predominantly the Commodore 64, MSX with cassette tapes at my godparents’ house, and PCs (8088, 80286/AT). Do you remember the so-called Hercules monochrome screen? I was doing all sorts of things, from experimenting and getting acquainted with what a computer is and can do, to playing the early Sierra adventure games, assembling hardware and messing with BBS systems. I ran Remote Access and built my own RA board, moving files around with ZMODEM, or YMODEM when a transfer had to be restarted. By then the telephone bills had risen to crazy figures (I’m sorry, dad). Then came communicating with other people behind the screen, and early web pages when they first became available with the rise of Planet Internet in 1995. I had found the vehicle for my voice, a way to channel my interests.

I am a techie with a microbiology background who found his home in user-system interaction. I never desired to compete with graphic designers; that was never my path. My focus was to facilitate technology and innovation, at first by looking at the physical interaction. I found it by an unusual route: it started with an internship in electrical engineering, which led me to industrial design, and through my Master’s and post-master projects the importance of positive engagement between user and interface became concrete.

That focus has not changed, but what I apply it to has. These days the interaction runs through systems rather than screens. I build and operate the integration platforms that organisations depend on, and the habit of mind is the same one: a system interface is a contract, with explicit expectations, failure modes and error handling, in the same way a button on a table is a promise to the person pressing it. The question I asked at the kitchen table, what is in there and how can I make it faster, is still the question. It is why my own house now runs on an energy system I built and keep in version control.

I am very grateful for the amazing mixture of people I have met and worked with throughout the years. It means a great deal to me to be surrounded by witty, helpful, funny, passionate, educated and insightful people.