Innovation & Technology Product Design
Nim Schotanus
My design practice is driven by inclusion, empathy and collaboration. Through research and hands-on, human-focused methods, I create playful, tangible and thoughtful experiences. I’m interested in how design can respond to complex social issues and everyday interactions – helping us reflect, connect and engage with the world in more meaningful and emotionally driven ways.
I have a passion for collaborating alongside individuals and communities and understanding their lived experiences, valuing their knowledge as essential to shaping more inclusive and responsive outcomes. Their insights inform an iterative design process that is exploratory, adaptive and rooted in mutual learning. I’m especially drawn to the power of visual identity and storytelling as tools for making complex ideas more accessible and emotionally resonant, connecting people not just to the work, but to each other. Understanding the motivations and behaviours behind human actions drives my approach, allowing me to translate abstract challenges into grounded, tangible outcomes. For me, design is a collaborative practice that thrives on diverse perspectives and has the potential to generate creative interventions that are both meaningful and impactful.
Mood. // Focus Through Haptic Contact
Self Initiated Project
Mood is an inclusive, non-verbal emotional regulation initiative designed to support individuals managing distress in real time.
The initiative has been created with individuals with learning disabilities and/or autism in mind, particularly supporting those who may experience emotional shutdown during moments of overwhelm. The mood collection offers a series of discreet, wearable tools that encourage emotional regulation through tangible interactions.
At the heart of mood is our co-creation process. Through dedicated workshops, participants are invited to design their own talismans – personal, sensory objects which provide focus and comfort. These talismans are more than tools; they are unique, meaningful companions crafted to meet each individual’s needs.
Co-creation // Examples of Talisman Creation Outcomes
Mood's Collection
Uno // Ecological Sensemaking
Creating Future Experiences – Individual Project
Based on our future world I chose to focus on an empathetic, playful engagement tool to connect with ecological life through the nature of noticing; facilitated by designed interventions.
Uno is an educational tool designed for children. It is essential that younger generations are raised with an empathetic understanding of all ecological life as we work towards maintaining the collective system between humans and ecology in 2035.
The uno kit pairs physical exploration tools with the navigation app, creating an immersive experience fostering an emotional connection between users and ecology. Uno gives unseen life a voice, monitoring ecological wellbeing and detecting early signs of collapse through awareness and action. The system gathers collective intelligence, promoting ecological stewardship for all citizens.
All Being // Experience of Existence
Creating Future Experiences – Group Project
Our collective research gave us four key drivers informing our future world context; Full Circle Thinking, The Role of Scale in Creating Change, Human Growth at the Expense of Environmental Decline and Advancing Technologies vs Nature Based Solutions.
Our World Statement – Planetary Health Ecological
To combat the previous world in 2025 where divide between humans and other beings reached a destructive peak, our eating experience presents a snapshot of the way forward with our collective symbiotic system we are striving for maintaining in 2035. In order to counteract the immense negative impacts humans had on the environment, drastic steps had to be taken to create balance, enforce and maintain kinship between beings and planet.
The All Being branch aims to provoke, engage and immerse citizens within a familiar moment where the unseen, the micro and the living become interconnected within all aspects of life in the Experience of Existence.
