Research activities

For many of us, a work day consists of a fragmented pattern of activities. Consider for example a police officer, who continuously has to switch between surveillance, driving, taking action at incidents, and doing office work. At the same time he or she has to monitor incoming messages on the radio. This combination of consecutive and parallel activities may lead to complaints about experienced workload.

In my PhD research project I investigate the influence of work dynamics and our ability to prioritize tasks on task performance and workload. The first part concerns a series of observation studies and addresses the question how to describe work dynamics. This resulted in the Transitional Journey Maps (see HFES conference paper) visualization method. In the second part, a series of dual-task experiments were conducted with a driving task and an auditory memory task. In these experiments priority allocation was manipulated, and the results on performance and subjective workload were interpreted within the framework of Hockey’s compensatory control model (paper to be submitted). In the final part of my research project I aim to examine the influence of workload history (e.g., workload caused by previous events) on current task performance and subjective workload, thereby addressing the work dynamics described in part one.

Apart from my PhD research project, I am also involved in education. Designing appropriate product sounds can help in making this world a better place. I’m interested in what would make an optimal sound design process: which steps are to be taken? What tools, methods and techniques can be used? After graduating on a concept for a new tool for sketching product sounds, my goal as teacher in two elective courses is to examine how to convey information & meaning through product sound.

Background

MSc. Design for Interaction || BSc. Industrial Design Engineering || Propaedeutics Electrical Engineering

Interests

Product sound design || Interactive prototyping || Conceptual design || Teaching || MaxMSP

Free time

Drums || (fretless) Bass guitar || Sound engineering || Photography || Belgian beers