Designing with “Experience” in Mind

About the Webinar

Inclusive design is often framed in terms of accessibility, usability, and equity. Yet at its core lies a more profound and human dimension: experience. This lecture explores how designing with experience in mind can elevate inclusive design from a technical exercise to a multisensory, emotionally resonant, and socially engaged practice.

Drawing on artistic methods, embodied knowledge, and lived realities, Jasmien Herssens argues that experience, how people feel, sense, and interact with their environments, is not a peripheral concern, but a central design principle. She highlights the importance of experience as a form of knowledge, both for experts by experience and for designers. This expertise, though often invisible, is essential and must be valued.

Design, as a cultivated skill, is inherently experiential. Through compelling examples, the talk invites designers, researchers, and policymakers to move beyond compliance and embrace design as a relational, situated, and sensory act, one that recognizes every-body and every sense.

About the Speaker

Jasmien Herssens PhD is the founder of Fourmind, a social enterprise that facilitates Universal Design processes in real time and bridges the gap between theory and practice. With over 20 years of experience in inclusive design, Jasmien combines academic depth with hands-on innovation.

Trained as an architect and holding a PhD in Universal Design, she has taught design methodology and Design for All at KU Leuven and Hasselt University and served as visiting professor at institutions worldwide. Her research focuses on multisensory design, exploring how non-visual senses can enrich environments and foster inclusion.

Jasmien’s design philosophy is rooted in the belief that every living being offers valuable insights to improve design. This mindset became even more personal after she experienced a minor stroke in 2019, deepening her commitment to creating environments that support wellbeing and diversity.

In 2021, following rehabilitation, she took on the role of site manager for artist Koen Vanmechelen at LABIOMISTA, a park and living artwork that celebrates the potential of diversity. A year later, she launched Fourmind, continuing her mission to make inclusive design tangible and transformative. Jasmien advocates for the idea that environments can be disabling, not their users. Her work has been recognized with multiple awards for its visionary approach and social impact.