Summer Programme, Human Computer Interactions
Netherlands – Aug 2021

Studying human computer interaction abroad

This was my first time studying abroad. It landed right in the middle of a topic I had not given much serious thought to before: how people actually experience the technology we build, rather than just whether it technically works.

Radboud’s programme on human computer interaction was compact, just a few weeks. However, it was dense enough that it changed how I approached every product decision afterward.

• Grade: Completed Satisfactory
• Courses: Shaping the Future of Human-Computer Interactions, Chatbots as Digital Agents

What chatbots taught me about trust

The chatbot module stuck with me most. We spent a lot of time on the gap between what a conversational agent can technically do and what actually feels natural or trustworthy to a person typing on the other end. That gap has only become more relevant as more products lean on automated and AI-driven interfaces.

The broader course pushed further into questions I had not considered as a computer science student. How do you design for trust? How do you design for accessibility, for people who will never read a help article before using your product?

A new design constraint

Coming from an engineering-first mindset, the biggest shift was learning to treat “does this feel right to use” as a real design constraint, not an afterthought once the functionality was done.

That human computer interaction lens has followed me into every product and UX decision since, from SiDOMPUL’s checkout flow to how I think about the pages in this portfolio.