dr.ir. W. Eggink (Wouter)

As a design professional and design researcher I am especially interested in the relationships between design, technology and society. I am already teaching this subject at the University for a couple of years, at this moment mostly within the Master programme of Industrial Design Engineering for the Mastertrack Human Technology Relations.

My research activities are about the shaping of human-technology relations. My research approach is concentrating on both Design History and insights from Design for the Future, supported by Scenario Planning. The results of this history-future methodology are beneficial for both addressing societal challenges and the design of innovative technologies.

Since several years I work on a project about the benefits of Philosophy of Technology tools and methods for Industrial Design practice (and vice versa). For this I coined the term "The Practical Turn in Philosophy of Technology". Two of the remarkable results of this research strand are the contribution to Responsible Design and the web-portal about the Product Impact Tool.

I also published extensively on Design Education, and on enhancing Creativity in Innovation and Design through application of Visual Essays.

Expertise

• Computer Science

  • Design
  • Education
  • Design Practice
  • User

• Arts and Humanities

  • Philosophy of Technology
  • Design Education

• Social Sciences

  • Technology
  • Students

Organisations

My research activities are about the shaping of human-technology relations.
My recent work is focussing on the use of Philosophical Tools in Design and Design Research, together with Steven Dorrestijn.

My research approach concentrates on both Design History and insights from Design for the Future, supported by Scenario Planning. I also published extensively on Design Education, and on enhancing Creativity in Innovation and Design through application of Visual Essays.  Besides that, I use the same research approach to shed light on the aesthetics of Innovative Technologies, enhancing the adaptation and diffusion of innovations.

I obtained my PhD with the history of "unruly design", concentrating on the development of the relationship between meaning and functionality. On 23 September 2011, I defended my PhD thesis Regels ter Ontregeling, lessen uit de geschiedenis van het tegendraads ontwerp (in Dutch). Unfortunately it is no longer available via the publisher (boom|lemma), however if you want to acquire a copy you can send me an email with your address details. In 2016, I have made an English translation which you can find here.

The research of our group is concentrated in the Universities' DesignLab, a collaborative space for 'doing design'. Together with the initiators of this wonderful place (Vanessa Evers, Peter-Paul Verbeek and Mascha van der Voort) and our students, I developed the interior design concept for the lab. See also the publication I wrote about the idea behind this design: Eggink, W. [2015]. DesignLab, making space for doing design as a process

Publications

Research profiles

I am mainly teaching in the Industrial Design Engineering master track Human Technology Relations which is aimed at raising "People oriented Designers", in order to make technology available for users. I am teaching Design Histories in the master and also the course Create the Future (together with Jairo da Costa), where student groups develop design concepts for within 25 years based on scenario development.

Design Histories is deliberately plural, as there is no single "right" perspective on historic developments. I especially use all the different views on design from historic precedents to make the students better prepared for the future.

I have always been interested in developing design education, right from my involvement in the start of Industrial Design Engineering at the University of Twente in 2001. After that I was also involved in the design of the new Creative Technology Bachelor in 2009, the setup of the DesignLab in 2014, the Design master Honours Programme in 2015, and the Transdisciplinary Master Insert Shaping Responsible Futures in 2019.

Affiliated study programs

Courses academic year 2025/2026

Courses in the current academic year are added at the moment they are finalised in the Osiris system. Therefore it is possible that the list is not yet complete for the whole academic year.

Courses academic year 2024/2025

Address

University of Twente

Horst Complex (building no. 20), room W258
De Horst 2
7522 LW Enschede
Netherlands

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Organisations