lectures Cees van Dok MSc
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Cees van Dok MSc
Executive Creative Director of Frog Design
Challenges in interaction design for consumer and professional electronics Being prepared to fail, and fail early, is essential for success
As Executive Creative Director, Cees van Dok is responsible for the creative direction and project management of Frog Design’s work throughout Europe, including Digital Media Design, Product Design and Technology. Major clients include HP, Lawson, Nero, Phonak, SAP, and Vodafone. Cees has over twelve years of experience in the software industry, with a focus on user experience design. Prior to joining Frog Design, he worked at Microsoft in Redmond, Washington, as product designer on the consumer software applications MSN Messenger and MSN Explorer. In 2003, he moved on to become design manager in the Microsoft Windows User Experience design team, focusing primarily on concept development and product design of Windows Vista and Internet Explorer 7. Cees holds a Master of Science degree from the Delft University of Technology, faculty of Industrial Design Engineering.
Himself a former student of Delft, Cees van Dok had left before the construction of the current building in which the symposium was held - which explains why he opened his speech with a surprised anecdote about the badly designed bathroom he’d just visited. He would have expected better things from an establishment dedicated to usability, he said. His observation underlined the ubiquitous nature of design in which usability has not been adequately considered (in the case of the bathroom, where the hand-drier had been awkwardly and inconveniently placed). Such poorly thought out design, Van Dok’s presentation went on to elaborate, is still a notable risk today, notwithstanding the growth of understanding regarding usability. Meanwhile the greater emphasis on the user experience, coupled with the greater complexity of objects, is complicating the modern role of design, and confronting the designer with a range of unfamiliar issues.