Emiel Ruis


Hi there, I am a Service Design & Innovation Advisor

Design Thinking • Service Design & Innovation •

I promote thoughtprovoking concepts that reframe the way people and organisations relate to their environment, helping them toward new insights and solutions.

What I Do

Service Design @ Rijkswaterstaat

I work as Senior Advisor Customer Experience at Rijkswaterstaat, where I design how digital innovation improves service and strengthens trust between citizens and government. My focus is on reshaping processes, ownership and collaboration rather than introducing new tools.

I develop the omnichannel strategy and drive change through pilots and prototypes in practice. By connecting strategy to daily operations, I make new ways of working usable, adopted and scalable, helping the organisation become truly customer-centric.

At this level, innovation is not about channels or systems. It is about behaviour, accountability and the ability of an organisation to learn and adapt continuously. Read more on my work as a Service Designer

Previous: UX Lead @ NN

From March 2023 until August 2024 I worked as UX Design Lead at Nationale-Nederlanden.

I focused on enhancing NN's omnichannel customer interactions through innovative UX strategies. My goal was to elevate our UX and conversational design capabilities, creating a compelling vision for the future, setting clear progression frameworks, and guiding our teams in adopting a customer-centric approach. I was also responsible for developing our channel strategy, implementing IVR systems, and integrating digital assistants to streamline and improve customer interactions. Read more on my work as UX lead

Fieldnotes

A curated collection of Thoughts & Writings & Work

  • 01.
    The Oratio Hominus Digitalis

    I have writen a design manifesto by which I tend to operate...

    The Oratio de hominis dignitate (Oration on the Dignity of Man) is the never-held speech by Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463–1494). Although it was banned by the Catholic Church at the time, it is his most famous work posthumously. The work can be seen as one of the first humanist manifestos in Europe. Both Mirandola and his Oration have fallen into oblivion over the years. That is a pity because human dignity is still at stake every day. Maybe it's time to dust off Mirandola and give it a more modern look. Mielwerk brings you the Oratio de Hominis Digitalis (Oration on the Digitality of Man).

  • 02.
    Digital Ground

    In an era where physical and digital realms converge, "Merging Physical & Virtual Worlds" delves into the concept of Interactive Landscapes. These landscapes fuse tangible and virtual spaces, offering unique experiences and altering the traditional notion of presence, or "Being-there," as framed by Heidegger's Dasein. Through comparative analysis, the study reveals how these interactive environments transform user interactions and space production, enabling a more immersive engagement than mobile technologies. Dive into the full exploration to uncover how this integration redefines our interaction with the world around us. Design for Dasein

  • 03.
    Service & Innovation Design Module

    Over the past years me and my team at HAN University of Applied Sciences have been working on a design program that fitted the needs of our professional workfield. We have created a holistic program in wich we invite our participants to identify opportunities and create new uses for technology - but more importantly, to humanize technology - by creating meaningful, pragmatic and socially relevant concepts. In this post you can read about our Service & Innovation Design Module

Get in touch

I enjoy working with dedicated people & businesses that make the world beautiful.

Let’s talk.