About Us

Frank Kloos and Maaike van Cruchten are both teachers at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (AUAS). Frank has a background in interaction design and Maaike in (online) video and storytelling. At the AUAS they’re organizing and teaching courses on data visualisation and information design for almost a decade now.


Frank and Maaike have a lot of experience in online and international education. They developed a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) on prototyping interaction and recently run an international project on data literacy.

Read about the experiences of the participants and partners of the 2021 project Cross-cultural Data Literacy:

“A huge thank you to my amazing instructors for the immense support, guidance, and inspiration to tell stories through data visualization. 
I look forward to applying a data-humanistic approach to my everyday surroundings!”

Student Afrah Usman, Toronto, Linked-In post

“I can share some happy news that next month I am starting as a data visualization designer in the artificial intelligence lab at Jozef Stefan Institute in Ljubljana, Slovenia! This wouldn´t be possible but for all the amazing things I have learnt on this course so I am really very grateful to the two of you! What seemed a dream at the first Zoom meeting we had in November is now the reality!”

Student Alenka Gucek from Sweden

“What a formidable experience this project has, it is very gratifying to accompany the students on this adventure”

Collaborating Teacher Roberto Garcia from Mexico

“Bella and I had a really great time talking to your students. They were so engaged, creative, and willing to learn and take feedback.. We loved hearing from them their motivations behind their project in terms of the theme, angle, and data visualization ideas. All in all, this CCDL project has been very meaningful”

Information designers and international coaches Mick Yang and Isabella Chua form Singapore

Isabella wrote a blogpost about her experience of coaching the CCDL students, with pointers and advice for aspiring data vis designers.