Practitioner Podcast 1 - Wouter van der Hoog

Design Theory and Methodology 2019

In the first of several podcasts with design practitioners, Peter talks to Wouter van der Hoog, who set up the Rotterdam-based design practice Hoog+Diep in 2006. The aim of the practitioner podcasts is to get more of a professional view of how working practices and design theory & methodology are related. Many of the questions asked relate directly to Assignment 2.

Wouter touches on many aspects of designing in the interview. As an IDE alumnus he starts by reflecting on his education and notes his thirst for learning as many subjects as he could. He explains in detail what working with clients involves. There is often education required, and clients aren’t necessarily always after design outcomes he says.

As he has acquired more experience Wouter has learned to trust his intuition – something that both Matthijs van Dijk in the Design Expertise podcast, and the associated paper Expertise in Realworld Contexts note. He explains how design methods and theories provide a structure and discipline that he can then use to improvise with, working in a more opportunistic way.

A key element of Wouter’s design practice is working effectively with others. He explains how the process of ‘alignment’ is important, communicating with all stakeholders. He describes how you always need a person as a ‘sounding board’ to test your ideas and also to reflect on your own learning. And he explains how you bring new employees into the business. Perhaps surprisingly he describes a large part of the design process as being about managing the design process, something that might not be obvious to design students using methods where the element of management is lessened.

Finally, Wouter gives a tip for design students: get as much experience as you can! It’s a fascinating conversation with a lot of insight from a practitioner, but also an educator and thinker about the activity of design.