About me
I am Chapter Lead of Design at Rabobank, leading the teams responsible for the design system, the app, the website, and other core banking platforms. Before that I co-founded Tinybots Tinybots changed their name to Tessa Care in 2026. Source at which I designed and built Tessa, a social care robot now used across hundreds of healthcare sites in the Netherlands.
My work has spanned various domains and sectors: pharma, energy, healthcare, finance, and others.
On my own time I design and build things end to end. My latest project, Quiet Tarot, is a tarot app with its own visual identity. I designed and built it solo and it’s now live on the App Store and Google Play.
Digital innovator & systems thinker
Some of the startups and corporate clients I worked for:
- Rabobank
- Johnson & Johnson
- Tinybots / Tessa Care
- DSM Innovation Center
- Philips
Invited international speaker
A few of the places I have been invited to talk about design:
- Glasgow School of Art (2012–17)
- Creative Mornings Turin (2015)
- DDW Eindhoven (2017)
- Hospitalar São Paulo (2017)
- Customer Experience Management Summit (2024)
200k+ collective typeface downloads
My typeface designs have been used internationally. A few of my typefaces:
- Thesis (2012)
- Artificers (2015)
- Polygon (2015)
- Occult (2020)
- Cursed (2025)
Curriculum Vitae
Experience
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Rabobank Jun 2021–presentFull-time · Utrecht, NL
- Chapter Lead Design, PlatformFeb 2026–present
Rabobank · Full-time · Utrecht, NL
Leading several teams of designers focused on platform and the design system, driving standardization and platformization across Rabobank's retail banking app and web channels. Part of the Chapter Design leadership team.
- Design Lead, Digital Platform (App & Web)Jul 2024–Feb 2026
Rabobank · Full-time · Utrecht, NL
Responsible for the design team behind the Rabobank app, Rabo Business Banking, and the bank's global sites, owning design quality, prioritization and planning, and both existing and new journeys.
- Design Lead, Digital Platform Consumers (interim)Feb 2023–Jul 2023
Rabobank · Interim · Utrecht, NL
Covered a colleague's maternity leave, leading the design team for the consumer app's digital experience, including navigation, insights, the transaction timeline, and onboarding.
- Design Lead, Insurance & PensionJun 2021–Jul 2024
Rabobank · Full-time · Utrecht, NL
Responsible for the design team working on all insurance and pension customer journeys, owning design quality, user research, and both existing and new journeys.
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Show 10 earlier roles
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Advisory Board Member, AAL GuardianSep 2020–Mar 2023AAL · Freelance
Advised the European AAL GUARDIAN program, a cloud platform connecting a social robot companion and caregiver apps to support home care nurses and help seniors live independently.
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RMDY Creative Feb 2020–May 2021Full-time · Antwerp, BE
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Senior UX/UI Designer, VDABFeb 2021–May 2021VDAB · Contract · Brussels, BE
Designed VDAB's education platform (Opleidingen, Vind een Opleiding) and internal tools for consultants. Figma design, HTML/CSS mockups, and stakeholder management.
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Product Lead, Johnson & JohnsonSep 2020–Dec 2020Johnson & Johnson · Contract · US / Belgium
Product and UX lead for a React web app supporting the collection, cleaning, and submission of data to an operational database. Owned the technical roadmap, backlog, tech stack decisions, and stakeholder management.
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Senior UX/UI Designer, AtriasFeb 2020–Nov 2020Atrias · Contract · Brussels, BE
Built Atrias's first design system, including component documentation, a new Figma library, and a React package, and prepared the organization to embed design thinking in future projects. In parallel, redesigned the Atrias public website, live September 2020.
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Co-founder, Lead DesignerOct 2015–Sep 2019Tinybots · Full-time · Nijmegen / Rotterdam, NL
Co-founded Tinybots and built Tessa, a social robot supporting people with dementia and other cognitive impairments. Led the product team and roadmap, and designed the robot's interaction model and the companion app's UX and UI. Tinybots changed their name to Tessa Care in 2026.
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Visiting LecturerDec 2011–Dec 2017Glasgow School of Art · Contract · Glasgow, UK
Designed and taught a one-week course on interaction design and prototyping with Arduino for second-year BSc design students, part of the standard design curriculum.
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Design ResearcherSep 2012–Sep 2015VU Amsterdam · Full-time · Amsterdam, NL
PhD research on how realism in robot embodiments is perceived and designed, focused on robots interacting with patients with acquired brain injury.
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Interaction DesignerSep 2011–Jul 2012ID StudioLab · Internship · Delft, NL
Developed a methodology for sketching in software: the Code Companion and the Pattern Dictionary, two tools bridging the gap between design and code for designers.
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Service DesignerFeb 2011–Jul 2011DSM Innovation Center · Internship · New Delhi, India
Developed and tested new business models for livestock feed supplements with farmers in rural India, including two months of ethnographic fieldwork across Rajasthan, Maharashtra, and Gujarat.
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Brunel Oct 2008–Aug 2009Full-time · Zwolle, NL
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Industrial Design Engineer, Annmar EngineeringOct 2008–Aug 2009Annmar Engineering · Contract · Kraggenburg, NL
Designed interiors and exteriors for industrial and private naval vessels, covering engineering, CAD, hull topology, and fairing spatial geometry.
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Industrial Design EngineerMar 2008–Aug 2008Philips Consumer Lifestyle · Internship · Hoogeveen / Drachten, NL
Optimized a prototyping process using Six Sigma methodology, reducing errors and production queues and standardizing parts of the process.
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Concept ArtistSep 2007–Feb 2008Maxx Marketing · Internship · Hong Kong
Created concept art and packaging design for premium giveaway toys for clients including Kellogg's and KFC.
Education
- M.Sc. Design for Interaction 2009–2012
Delft University of Technology
- B.Sc. Industrial Design Engineering 2004–2008
Windesheim Zwolle
- HAVO, Natuur & Techniek 1999–2004
Carmel College Salland
Skills and tools
UX / UI
- Figma
- Sketch
- Adobe XD
- InVision
- Zeplin
Design
- Illustrator
- Photoshop
- InDesign
- Premiere
- HTML / CSS
Prototyping
- Python
- JavaScript / P5.js
- React & NodeJS
- R
- Git
3D & CAD
- AutoCAD
- SolidWorks
- Rhinoceros
- Autodesk Fusion
- Maya
AI & LLMs
- Claude Code
- ChatGPT
- Copilot
- Midjourney
- Stable Diffusion
Other
- Statistics
- Data analysis
- User research
- Design system
- Service design
Selected talks
Design thinking, social technology & robotics: Tessa
This Happened! #13 · 2018, Rotterdam
Interaction design & prototyping with Arduino
Glasgow School of Art · 2011–2017, Glasgow
Tessa: the social robot that is all about people
Dutch Embassy in Brazil, Hospitalar · 2017, São Paulo
Designing for dementia
Embassy of Health, Dutch Design Week · 2017, Eindhoven
Scaling up robotics and domotica for active and assisted living
ZonMW, eHealthweek · 2016, Amsterdam · top speaker award
The science & fiction of designing robots
Creative Mornings Turin · 2015, Turin
Selected publications
Minimal Requirements of Realism in Social Robots
Paauwe, Hoorn, Konijn, Keyson · ACM CHI EA · 2015
Designing Robot Embodiments for Social Interaction
Paauwe, Hoorn, Konijn, Keyson · International Journal of Social Robotics · 2015
Fake It or Make It? Tools and Toys for Prototyping Connected Products
Paauwe, de Roeck · CRISP Magazine #3, cover story · 2014
Interweaving Digitality in the Fabric of Design
de Roeck, Standaert, Paauwe, Verwulgen, Baelus, Stappers · E&PDE · 2012
Teaching Interaction Designers to Sketch in Software
Paauwe, Aprile, van der Helm · Edulearn · 2012
Selected awards
- Winner, Monuta-Sprout Challenge: 100 ideeën over afscheid
- Top speaker & session award, eHealthweek 2016
- Startup winner, NRC Live IoT Forum
- Winner, Rotterdamse Startersprijs 2016
- Best poster award 2015, GSSS Graduate School
- Exhibited designs at the Torino Eataly festival 2010 and London Metropolitan University
Companies & brands I've worked with
