Skip to content

My work

  1. UTFPR Curitiba master plan (2022)

    UTFPR Curitiba master plan (2022)

    UTFPR Curitiba formed its first Campus Master Plan Committee in 2022 to plan its future spatial developments. The campus has three localities. Seeking for broader adoption, the committee adopted a participatory design approach. The entire university community will be invited to collaborate in the planning process through various activities and methodologies. The goal is to […] - Dec 13, 2022
  2. Wicked Problems, Wicked Designs (2021)

    Wicked Problems, Wicked Designs (2021)

    Wicked problems, Wicked designs is a remote forum theater held during the Attending [To] Futures conference in 2021 organized by the KISD School. Forum Theater is a technique developed by Augusto Boal to make structural oppression visible through acting while also rehearsing liberation from oppression. This play aimed at exposing and discussing the sexist, colonialist, […] - Nov 22, 2021
  3. Artificial Intelligence in Higher Education (2021)

    Artificial Intelligence in Higher Education (2021)

    Instead of delivering an invited talk in the UTFPR’s Informatics student week of 2021, Rodrigo Fresse Gonzatto, Claudia Bordin Rodrigues, and Frederick van Amstel performed an invisible theater on artificial intelligence in higher education. In this kind of performance, actors stage the play without telling the audience that they are acting. They pretend to be […] - Oct 4, 2021
  4. The Invasion of the Gringo Design Thinker (2021)

    The Invasion of the Gringo Design Thinker (2021)

    On the World Theatre of the Oppressed Day on March 16, 2021, the Design & Oppression Network broadcasted a forum theater called The Invasion of the Gringo Design Thinker. The play proposes a debate about the relevance of foreign design thinking to Brazilian popular culture and its forms of expression. Following the remote forum theater method, […] - Mar 4, 2021
  5. Design and Precarious Work in Digital Platforms (2020)

    Design and Precarious Work in Digital Platforms (2020)

    The Design & Oppression network produced a remote forum theater play on platform work and precarity in the USP design academic week of 2020. Young design students joined the forum to discuss the dystopian future of their profession while considering the dystopian present of other professions. Following the remote forum theater method, the spect-actors wore augmented reality […] - Dec 3, 2020
  6. Conscious Periphery COVID-19 communication (2020)

    Conscious Periphery COVID-19 communication (2020)

    Conscious Periphery is an emergency outreach activity funded by UTFPR to fight misinformation about the COVID-19 in vulnerable communities around the university. To reach this aim, the students involved in the activity will collaborate with community leaders to find the right tune as well as with healthcare professionals to deliver the correct information. The messages […] - Apr 9, 2020
  7. Copel+ Platform (2018-2019)

    Copel+ Platform (2018-2019)

    Copel+ is an open innovation platform designed for a utility company in Brazil as part of a research project that focused on organizational learning. The company had just started the transition to smart grids and realized that it was necessary to nurture the regional entrepreneurial ecosystem to populate the grid. The platform sponsors believed that […] - Mar 24, 2020
  8. Participatory Undergrad Program Evaluation (2018)

    Participatory Undergrad Program Evaluation (2018)

    In 2018, the Catholic University of Parana set to revise all its undergraduate programs to find opportunities for more active learning. I was invited to create a workshop model to revise each course with the participation of its stakeholders. The undergraduate courses in Pharmacy, Biotechnology, Veterinary Medicine, and Dentistry adopted my workshop model, which called […] - Oct 31, 2018
  9. Strategic Planning for Hotmilk (2017)

    Strategic Planning for Hotmilk (2017)

    Hotmilk is an innovation hub inside the Catholic University of Parana which connects the University to the industry. In 2017, a new director was appointed to PUC Agency (its former name) and one of his first acts was to organize a participatory strategic planning session. I facilitated the session and helped to compile the results into […] - Oct 31, 2018
  10. Digital Trends Observatory (2015-2017)

    Digital Trends Observatory (2015-2017)

    In the Digital Design Trends Laboratory course, my students were requested to identify one digital design trend each week and post it in a Medium publication. Since they must not repeat a trend that has already been published, the publication topped 1.700 identified trends. This publication became the largest public repository of digital design trends in […] - Oct 31, 2018
  11. Renault Experience 2.0 (2016-2017)

    Renault Experience 2.0 (2016-2017)

    Renault Experience is a competition run by Renault car manufacturing company in partnership with Brazilian universities. Students form teams and develop new mobility services or products within an online platform. The platform guide students to developed their ideas using a design thinking framework I developed. The framework was developed using the UX Cards planning tool. The open innovation […] - Sep 13, 2016
  12. Smart Urban Mobility Lab (2016-2018)

    Smart Urban Mobility Lab (2016-2018)

    The Smart Urban Mobility Lab (SUM-LAB) is an initiative by two local universities – the Pontifical Catholic University of Paraná (PUCPR) and the Federal University of Technology Paraná (UTFPR) – and the University of Twente with the support of the City of Curitiba. Researchers from the partners will work together in the SUM-LAB to formulate the […] - Apr 20, 2016
  13. Organization change at a major hospital (2015)

    Organization change at a major hospital (2015)

    A university hospital in Paraná faced severe coordination challenges between the surgery unit, materials unit, and surgery center. Political conflicts among these departments disrupted patient care while the hospital underwent an extensive organizational overhaul to address corruption and mismanagement. I was invited to conduct a pilot study to assess whether my design games could foster […] - Dec 13, 2015
  14. Dialoga app and Social Participation Living Lab (2015)

    Dialoga app and Social Participation Living Lab (2015)

    Brazil former president Dilma Rousseff wanted to improve the participation of society in the decisions of the federal government and ordered the creation of a Social Participation Secretary at the beginning of 2015. By that time I just returned to Brazil after my four years as a PhD student in the Netherlands. Ms. Rousseff officers asked my help […] - Aug 13, 2015
  15. The Conceal and Show Game (2015)

    The Conceal and Show Game (2015)

    The way Facebook conceals or shows up messages in the news feed is a mystery to most users. Facebook gives the impression that if a user posts a status update, all of her friends receive it in the timeline, but that is not always true. The Edgerank algorithm decides what is shown in the timeline based on three variables: This abstract […] - Jul 31, 2015
  16. Flood protection area planning (2015)

    Flood protection area planning (2015)

    Grebbedijk is a flood protection complex around Wageningen and Utrecht, The Netherlands. The stakeholders are considering adding extra functions to the area in order to generate more economic activity and nature-oriented leisure. The project is facing dilemmas because the available strategies present both advantageous and disadvantageous effects. For example, enlarging the harbor is deemed to […] - Mar 25, 2015
  17. High-speed train social impact study (2014)

    High-speed train social impact study (2014)

    This study conducted by Architecture Sans Frontières UK aimed to highlight the social impact to be caused by the high-speed train connection to Birmingham, HS2. The connection will cost around 50 billion Pounds and will transform part of London into a big construction site. To accommodate the expansion of the Euston Station, 3 to 6 housing […] - Sep 25, 2014
  18. Coralizando book (2014)

    Coralizando book (2014)

    Coralizando is a collaboration guide for the creative economy. This book was written as a companion to Corais, an online platform for collaborative project management. The users of the platform suggested writing the book after the success of the Design Livre book, with the intention of feeding new platform users with the concepts for organizing […] - Sep 13, 2014
  19. Natuurhus Almelo Nature Center (2013)

    Natuurhus Almelo Nature Center (2013)

    Different nature-related associations join forces to build a nature center in the middle of a small city in The Netherlands. My role in the project was to interview the stakeholders and provide a map of controversies around the project requirements. After mapping controversies, I helped them to organize a workshop where these controversies would be […] - Nov 13, 2013
  20. The Expansive Hospital Game (2013)

    The Expansive Hospital Game (2013)

    The Expansive Hospital is a board game in which players collaborate and compete to build a hospital with plastic blocks. The game design is based on research conducted with three healthcare construction projects in the Netherlands, commissioned by Pioneering. The research found that hospital design is often over schedule due to the conflicts of interests […] - Nov 12, 2013
  21. Walking paths parametric design tool (2012)

    Walking paths parametric design tool (2012)

    Walking Paths is an extension for Autodesk Revit, an industry standard tool for architectural design. The extension allows tracing the paths that patients, nurses, and other users should follow inside a facility. The application provides objective criteria to evaluate the work efficiency of a particular facility design. Walking_Paths [RFA] An Autodesk Revit parametric design family […] - Dec 13, 2012
  22. Social participation vocabulary (2012)

    Social participation vocabulary (2012)

    This was one of the projects that emerged in Corais Living Lab: a vocabulary to classify and share data across electronic public participation applications and websites. I did not organize the project but joined as a host in Corais. I really liked this project since it lays the foundation for a more democratic society in […] - Nov 24, 2012
  23. Medical Imaging Center (2011-2013)

    Medical Imaging Center (2011-2013)

    The intervention had the goal of assisting practitioners to bridge the gap between the design activity and user activity in a Medical Imaging Center project, in the Netherlands. The center would have state of the art diagnosing machines based on techniques such as Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), Positron Emission Tomography (PET-MRI), Computed Tomography (CT), and […] - Jun 14, 2012
  24. Design Livre book (2012)

    Design Livre book (2012)

    A book written by 12 people in one week using open source collaborative tools. The book’s aim is to introduce the Free Software philosophy in the Design community. I participated in helping to organize the process and designed some parts of it, like the book layout and its cover. The book is distributed as a […] - Feb 11, 2012
  25. UX Cards (2011)

    UX Cards (2011)

    A card deck for collaborative planning user experience projects. Each card is a UX method, with the necessary inputs and the expected outputs. The cards can be organized in a linear fashion to represent the planned process. There are also cards for representing risks, expected delays, and extra human/financial resources. UX Cards enables pattern-based codesign […] - Nov 24, 2011
  26. Corais Platform (2011-actual)

    Corais Platform (2011-actual)

    Corais was launched in 2011 as the open innovation platform of Faber-Ludens Interaction Design Institute. Since 2012, it became an independent cooperative platform for cultural producers in Brazil, maintained by Instituto Ambiente em Movimento and developed by Frederick van Amstel as an outreach activity of his academic work. An open design platform Development forked from […] - Nov 14, 2011
  27. O Globo iPad App (2011)

    O Globo iPad App (2011)

    O Globo, a major newspaper in Brazil, wanted to test their new iPad app to check if it was doing good on usability. We suggested doing a benchmark against two other competitors and executing the tests not in usability laboratories, but in real use contexts. We set up a mobile lab that could capture user’s […] - Nov 14, 2011
  28. CICITY (2011)

    CICITY (2011)

    Codesign of an interactive installation for the 2nd International Innovative Cities Conference, held in Curitiba, Brazil. The main conference’s theme was about the responsibility of individual’s action on the macro scale, bringing speakers like Fritjof Capra, Steven Johnson, and Jaime Lerner to discuss new frontiers of urban innovation. The main hall of the conference had […] - Jul 22, 2011
  29. Infinity I-Kitchen (2011)

    Infinity I-Kitchen (2011)

    Usability consultancy for the Infinity I-Kitchen project at Electrolux Latin America, the first touchscreen controlled fridge. The touchscreen panel offers a messages application, recipes, and photo slideshow. The project included heuristic evaluation, usability test, and emotional affect evaluation. - Jul 22, 2011
  30. UFPR University Website (2010)

    UFPR University Website (2010)

    The website of a major public university, with hundreds of pages and departments competing for a pixel at the homepage. It took 3 years to redesign it from the ground up. The University had to assemble a team to develop and manage it internally. My role was to train and guide this team to achieve […] - Sep 11, 2010
  31. Bharatanatyam with projection mapping (2010)

    Bharatanatyam with projection mapping (2010)

    Projection mapping with a virtual trace of the dancer, with colors and tones changing according to the music. The show led by Caminho Vaikuntha band aimed to present a fusion of Hindustani music and western rock. The projection mapping represented the encounter of the two worlds in the body of the dancer. The projection mapping […] - Aug 24, 2010
  32. The Church of the Divine Design (2010)

    The Church of the Divine Design (2010)

    The Church of the Divine Design is a provocative design fiction project developed at Faber-Ludens Institute for Interaction Design. This initiative humorously critiques and explores the role of design and designers in contemporary society by parodying the rise of Protestant work ethic and corporativism in Brazilian design practice. It seeks to engage the public in […] - Jul 11, 2010
  33. Consumption Agency (2010)

    Consumption Agency (2010)

    Consumption Agency is a speculative design project aimed at imagining what communism inside capitalism would look like. Roughly speaking, the business model is a combination of an advertising agency with a bank. Why so? Currently, goods and services are pushed to consumers, who have to choose and pay for each offer. Banks help consumers in […] - Jan 2, 2010
  34. BrOffice.org website (2008)

    BrOffice.org website (2008)

    The website of the Brazilian OpenOffice.org community was a major hub for free software activism in Brazil. As a case-study for my masters, I helped the community redesigning their website through experimental participatory design techniques. The community was dispersed across the country in a way that face-to-face workshops would be impossible. I had to develop […] - Nov 24, 2008
  35. Transparent HD case (2008)

    Transparent HD case (2008)

    I made this after my friend dropped his external HD on the ground and lost all his data. He mentioned that he didn’t know that the case hold a real hard disk, so he was not cautious when dealing with it. My friend thought that the external HD was a big flash memory pen drive, […] - Nov 14, 2008
  36. Faber-Ludens Interaction Design Institute (2007-2012)

    Faber-Ludens Interaction Design Institute (2007-2012)

    Inspired by European Design schools that embraced the Digital Culture, like Ivrea Institute and its successor, Copenhagen Institute for Interaction Design (cIId), a multidisciplinary group founded Faber-Ludens Institute for Interaction Design in Curitiba, in 2007. As a non-profit organization, Faber-Ludens had a democratic (sometimes anarchic) governance model, which favored intense collaboration between its members and […] - Mar 26, 2007
  37. The doshas' disc (2005)

    The doshas’ disc (2005)

    A body-composition test based on traditional Indian medicine, Ayurveda. The disc is used to mark the responses of the person to the questionnaire, giving immediate visual feedback on the predominance of one dosha over another. This was created for an Indian Restaurant in Brazil who served dishes tailored to the ayurvedic body types. An interactive […] - Nov 24, 2005
  38. Ótica Visão (2004)

    Ótica Visão (2004)

    Website for an eyeglasses shop network in South of Brazil. The goal was to make a unique website experience without compromising usability. A 100% Flash website was produced with smooth interactions and fancy effects, such as 3D glasses visualization. - Nov 13, 2004
  39. DC2 (2003)

    DC2 (2003)

    One of the first websites I made in my career was for an advertising company. Every section has a funny animation with a baby that represents the audience for the ads produced by the company. It won the Construction New Media Award 2003 in Student category. The website is archived here. - Jul 11, 2003
  40. Usabilidoido (2003-actual)

    Usabilidoido (2003-actual)

    Usabilidoido is a cross-media Science dissemination project that includes a weblog, a podcast, a Twitter account, a Slideshare gallery, an Instagram account, a Facebook page, and a Youtube channel. Topics range from usability, interaction design, experience design, participatory design, and other issues linked to Frederick van Amstel’s research and practice. Launched in 2003, Usabilidoido is known […] - Apr 18, 2003
  41. Cone Sul news agency (2002)

    Cone Sul news agency (2002)

    This was my first job: webmaster and webdesigner for a regional news agency in Brazil’s South. I worked there as an internship during my bachelor’s in journalism. I assisted the journalists to make the transition from writing for press to write multimedia stories on the web. The experience in this agency let me realize I […] - Nov 24, 2002