CHI NL Meet: Wo Meijer

Hello everyone! We are very excited to introduce this month’s CHI NL Meet guest Wo Meijer, where he shares with us his bio and aspirations! 🙂

What is your name?

Hi, I’m Wo Meijer!

What’s your current job / occupation?

I’m a PhD Candidate in Industrial Design at TU Delft.

And what are you currently working on?

At this moment, I (should) be working on a paper about the effects of adding heart rate either visually or audibly to ethnographic video. Hopefully I will be able to give recommendations for which method increases “empathic accuracy” and “state empathy”!

I’m also working on scoping my next study about using video ethnography and biosignals to research and redesign cooking experiences, so if anyone wants to dive into that (or be a participant and get some free food), please reach out! 🍽

What is your proudest achievement so far? Can be anything, professional or otherwise.

Recently I wrote a short position paper about a silly idea I had that got accepted to ETIS (and I will share the link when it’s available), which is good on its own but also my supervisor said it was a “fun paper”, which gives it some extra pride.

Which person, paper, or concept has had the biggest influence on your work?

Currently it is Fannie Liu who recently completed a PhD on expressive biosignals, which I am drawing a lot of inspiration from, but then trying to see if these concepts are applicable for user research instead of communications.

What breakthroughs or developments do you expect in your profession in the next 10 years?

I think a few things will develop, in no particular order:

  • Proliferation of Biosignals: more and more people will have wearables like the Apple Watch and the number of biosignals they capture will increase.
  • Proliferation of Video: cameras will become more ubiquitous and increasingly common, leading to more video in design research
  • Immersive Playback: user research material will be viewed in more immersive ways (VR anyone?)
  • Hyper-Personalized Services: as more companies move from products to services we will see increasingly specific “versions” of services that work to match user needs more closely.

What have you recently read, watched, or listened to that you would like to recommend to others?

I just started reading Consider the Fork: A History of How We Cook and Eat which, so far, has been a fascinating discussion of how mundane logistical, societal, and design choices have massive influence over our habits and nutrition!

And for watching I want to recommend the very specific content of Stephen Patula who releases PoV video of him working at McDonalds. I find it fascinating, but I am doing my research about user research via ethnographic video so it might just be me.

Finally, a chance for self-promotion: what should we read, watch, or listen to so we learn more about your work?

CHI NL Meet takes place around once a month, where board members Lisa and Abdo invite a member of CHI NL to introduce themselves to the wider SIGCHI community and the world 🌍.

CHI Nederland (CHI NL) is celebrating its 25th year anniversary this year, and we have much in store to acknowledge this occasion. Stay tuned!