As a child, I was fascinated by three things: Lego, drawing (comics), and computers. Unfortunately, we didn’t have a computer at home. So, I built one out of Lego in the form of a screen where a roll of paper was transported across it by a small electric motor. This way, you could see scrolling text or pictures.
On one sheet of paper, I had drawn a race track from a top-down view, complete with other cars. At the bottom of the screen was a Lego brick. It represented your race car. You could move it horizontally with a steering wheel to avoid other cars on the screen. Unfortunately, collision detection was missing, so you had to check yourself whether you hit anything.
Years later, with the money I earned from a paper route, I bought a real computer, an MSX. I learned to program in BASIC (a simple programming language). I particularly enjoyed programming graphical things. Still, after high school, I didn’t study computer science but Industrial Design. Computer science seemed like something for nerds. In Industrial Design, you could draw a lot.
My love for computers had not disappeared. I upgraded from delivering newspapers to delivering mail and replaced the MSX with a Commodore Amiga. While my fellow students made technical drawings of their designs by hand, I chose AutoCad on one of the six workstations the university made available for this purpose. I had to get up at six in the morning; otherwise, they were all occupied.
Left: playing with Lego. Right: signing a comic book.
I got to know the field of ergonomics, adapting products to the physical and cognitive limitations of humans. One of the ergonomics assignments involved making a video recorder remote control more user-friendly (yes, it was some time ago). I based my redesign on a rotatable wheel; it was somewhat reminiscent of the first Apple iPod. To test it with users, I made a prototype from Lego and my Amiga computer.
I took many elective courses in the ergonomics department and graduated with a course to retrain print designers as interaction designers. This was during the time of the CD-ROM; the internet was not significant yet. But three years later, I had my own internet agency with two other designers.
We were missing a programmer in the company. BASIC didn’t get me far, so I quickly learned ASP (a server programming language from Microsoft), HTML, CSS, and JavaScript (code executed in your browser). I discovered how fun it was to be a nerd. Creating games in Flash ActionScript fascinated me. Collision detection was built into Flash, so colliding race cars were no longer a problem.
After my own company, I felt it was time to realize another dream. I created a comic book published by De Bezige Bij. After that, I became an employee as a UX designer and developer. So, I’m still building, just not with Lego anymore but with software.