dr. Maaike van den Haak

As a researcher, I am particularly interested in the evaluation of (digital) communication. As part of my PhD research, I conducted a number of large-scale user studies to investigate the merits and drawbacks of employing various think-aloud variants for usability testing.  For the past few years I have been working, in collaboration with Dr Olga Damman (VUMC), on an NWO project entitled You are at risk: how health risk information can be made more meaningful for consumers. Our study involved a number of qualitative user studies (think aloud, eye-tracking) and quantitative experiments to discover how lay people understand and interpret health risk information in online health risk tests.  See also:http://www.nwo.nl/onderzoek-en-resultaten/programmas/begrijpelijke+taal 

As a lecturer (BKO-qualified), I strongly believe in combining theory and practice in my courses. I frequently collaborate with language professionals, translation agencies and usability companies to ensure that my teaching remains theoretically grounded and practically relevant.  

 Courses I teach/taught in the past:

• BA Translation Dutch-English
• BA Website localization
• BA Intercultural communication
• BA academic English writing
• BA discourse analysis 
• MA Translation English-Dutch 
• MA Translation tutorial
• MA Usability testing of corporate websites

 Supervision:

• BA and MA theses on translation, discourse analysis and usability (user research). Topics include: translating cultural elements (realia, humor) in various genres (literature, subtitling); analyzing the effects of subtitle errors on viewers' attitude; investigating the effect of different variables (user demographics, test procedure) on the effectiveness of the think-aloud method.   
• BA and MA internships in the fields of translation, writing and usability testing. 

• NWO Aspasia (2016): Funding for a professional UX training with the Norman Nielsen Group
• NWO Begrijpelijke Taal (Comprehensible language and effective communication) (2013-2017): Funding for the project You are at Risk - a collaboration with Dr Olga Damman (VUMC).

• Degree (Drs) in English linguistics (2000: VU, Amsterdam).
• Degree (PhD) in Applied Communication Science (2008: UT Twente).

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