This article was written in 2013. It might or it might not be outdated. And it could be that the layout breaks. If that’s the case please let me know.

Career alignment

Last week I signed a contract at the University for Applied Science here in Amsterdam. From February on, I will be a lecturer there. I will teach students about developing for the web, and about designing for the web. As a principal front-end developer at Mirabeau, the largest web agency in The Netherlands, I’ve always complained about the technical and practical level of web design in The Netherlands. And I’ve tried, from different angles, to improve web education in The Netherlands. Now I’ll resign as a principal, and start teaching. I’ll try my best to teach my future students the stuff that principals and art directors and clients find important. I’m looking forward to our fundamental discussions about quality in the near future. Now it’s your turn to tell me I don’t understand it, hahaha.

Apart from teaching

I think one of the pitfalls I have to watch out for as a teacher is the danger of my knowledge becoming outdated. Instead of creating stuff for the web on a daily basis, I will mostly be talking about it. I don’t want to become a teacher whose knowledge is obsolete. There are a few things I want to do to prevent this.

Research

Apart from teaching I will also be researching web design and web development. I’m especially interested in what it means to design for this highly flexible and weird medium, so I’ll take my time to research this stuff and publish about it. Very happy that this will officially be part of my job.

Work

My contract at the university is for three days a week, so you will be able to hire me as an external expert. I’m very good at giving my opinion about stuff we create for the web, and I’m very good at giving workshops about designing and creating for the web. Feel free to contact me if you think you or your team need a workshop about responsive web design, or if you need some (periodic) feedback on your (re)design.

Contact

The third thing I want to do to stay up-to-date is to regularly visit web agencies in The Netherlands. I think it’s very important that there’s an active dialogue between agencies and universities. I have clear ideas about what a student has to know when they’re done, but it’s important to constantly test these ideas to the needs agencies have. I’m very much looking forward to visiting all these fantastic agencies here in The Netherlands.