Niti Bhan

The Dutch have embraced being human centered as an integral part of their design philosophy, at least as far one could tell from the places we visited. They are walking the talk in the work that they are doing and that they showed us. There is a depth and breadth that they bring to their early stage research in order to understand the user – this empathy was coming through clearly in the presentations made in every location, though each is very different from each other. This resonance with the needs of the user, the emphasis on the experience, the concept of service and quality, particularly the deep dive immersion into medical knowledge – engineering students at TU Delft learn anatomy by dissection for example – seems to be the secret behind the success of Dutch design and innovation.