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Getting insight in a child’s world is important to be able to create valuable products for children. Contextmapping could be well suited to gain an empathic understanding of children, but little is known about how the underdeveloped abstract thinking abilities of children influence the results of a contextmapping session. Contextmapping is aimed at getting rich information from participants. This research investigates the influence of the abstract thinking abilities of children on the setup and richness of the results of a contextmapping session. Young children of six years old and older children of eleven years old participated in the contextmapping sessions that were part of this research. In this research, abstract thinking and richness of results are made measurable. The abstractness of statements children make is measured by two methods. The first method qualifies the statement on the micro-thinking level the child expresses. The second method relates the statement to an abstract thinking skill that is used by the child to make the statement. Richness is measured by counting the times a child shares a personal experience or memory. The richness of the reactions of a child is related to the measured abstract thinking level of a child in order to determine if there is any influence. In case the reached abstraction level during the session influences the amount of shared rich information, it is interesting to know how children can reach the desired abstraction level during a session. This research investigates which other factors influence the general abstraction level the participant is able to show. It was also investigated whether these factors influence how many rich information the participant shares. The investigated factors are the effort a participant has put into the sensitising package, the influence of peers that are in the same session, verbal guidance given by the researcher and the providing of ambiguous and non-ambiguous images. From this research is concluded that no relation between the shown abstract thinking level and the amount of shared rich information was found for the older children. Young children that show a higher general abstraction level during the session, also share more rich information. The cause for this relation is most probably the language development of these young children. Children that just mastered language are eager to use this new tool. These same children started to develop abstract thinking skills, since language is thought to be strongly related to the development of abstract thinking. Therefore, language development most likely influences both the sharing of a lot of rich information and the general abstraction level of the child. None of the factors that were investigated on their influence on the general abstract thinking level actually had this influence. These factors did not have a clear influence on the amount of shared rich experiences either. This research shows that contextmapping is suited for use with children that are verbally capable. Since the shown abstract thinking level is not directly influencing the richness of the results of a session, the setup of a session should not be aimed at getting children to reach a high abstract thinking level. When setting up a contextmapping session, the differences between children and adults should be taken into account. Furthermore, sensitising is recommended to create a bond between the child and the researcher and let the child look forward to the session.

This report describes a graduation report for Stichting Bio kinderrevalidatie on the nature experience of children with physical disabilities. It starts with a contextmapping research into the nature experience of children at the terrain of bio and concludes with a design to improve the nature experience of the children. Assignment The terrain of Bio in Arnhem is being redeveloped as a holiday location. Currently the surroundings of the premises are being adapted to facilitate play. The terrain is surrounded by a forest, which is not used much at the moment. Bio wonders how the nature experience of the children that stay at the resort can be improved. Therefore they would like to have an object to be placed on their terrain which lets the children experience nature in a playful way. Analysis To gain insight in the group of users at the Bio terrain and their view on nature and playing outdoors a contextmapping study was set up. Several user groups were involved in this study. The study aimed at answering research questions that were set up in order to come to a valuable design direction. From the research could be concluded that To the participating children nature is virtually everything that is outside. The children do not know much about nature itself, but enjoys being taught on the subject. Some of the children only get in contact with nature when their teachers take them. The children have different attitudes towards nature. While one can see the beauty of things and talks about nature in that way, others just see play possibilities in digging holes and biking on difficult paths. Outdoors most of the children enjoy being active: riding a bike, go-kart or playing games like hide-and-seek or tag. Children in wheelchairs can not always participate, but the children that express they want to participate are helped as much as possible. Jumping on the trampoline is something all children can and like to do. The children who are in a wheelchair lie down on the trampoline to feel the movement of the others. The children always need supervision at the activities they do outside and there is always a caregiver present. The children enjoy playing together. This usually goes well depending on the personalities of the children. Generally children of the same intellectual level bond and will play together. Design From the analysis was concluded that a design that offers play possibilities for all children on the terrain would be designed. The group of children at the Bio terrain was based on the analysis phase divided into three groups. The division of these groups was based on cognitive abilities. With these three groups in mind idea sketches were made. From these sketches 3 ideas were chosen to be developed into concepts. One of these concepts was chosen to be developed into the final design; het Bio Belevingen Bos (The Bio experience forest). The design of the Belevingen Bos consists of different elements or experiencing and doing. The elements are grouped in the forest to provide nature experiences to all children. The Belevingen bos has a central space with a bench from where the parents can watch their children. From the bench there are routes to the other elements in the forest. There are trays in which children can collect and play with natural materials they find in the forest. With bigger materials the children can build their own natural landscape in the ‘build’ area. Three cabins across the terrain offer sensorial experiences like vision and sound, and can get the children in contact with nature by watching birds.

Nowadays dementia is a common disease; around 250.000 people in the Netherlands suffer from dementia. It is a collective term for diseases characterized by memory problems, intellectual problems and changes in behavior. The process of dementia can never be reversed, but moving seems to be a solution to delay the process. With dementia there is a decay of the neurons in the brain, while in other parts there is atrophy (shrivelling of the cells). These nerve cells become smaller, but there is still metabolism in those cells. This means that these areas in the brain can be reactivated. By moving with the body, the shrivelled brain cells can be reactivated, which can possibly delay the process of dementia. The aim of this graduation project is to identify the needs and wishes of the visitors of the meeting center and their carers in terms of movement, in order to design something to stimulate the visitors to move, individually or with the co-operation of their carer, in order to delay the process of dementia. Literature research is performed in order to find information about dementia and user research is performed to gain information about the needs and wishes of both visitors and carers regarding movement. The main conclusion was that a lot of things the visitor and carer loved to do together in the past are not possible anymore. It was often mentioned that they would love to cycle again. Another conclusion was that the visitors like the social contact they have with other visitors when doing physical activities together at the meeting center. The results from the analysis and research are used during a brainstorm and to create a design vision. In general, the design vision is to develop movement stimulation for the visitor, individually or with the co-operation of their carer or another visitor. In order to stimulate the visitors to move, it is important to have something that motivates them to keep moving. All visitors and carers share an extensive history and have a lot of memories about the past. Photos can be used to recall these memories, because people with mild dementia can still talk about the past quite well. Recalling memories from the past by using photos is called reminiscence. This is something that probably can be used as motivation; in order to see a (new) photo the user needs to move. Besides photos, music can also be used to reminiscence. After generating different idea direction, the chosen direction is ‘cycling in exchange for photos or music’. This direction makes it possible for the visitor to make the cycling movement again. A kind of bike trainer is used to ensure that the visitor can sit on a chair while he makes the well-known cycling movement. During cycling the visitor can hold handlebars in order to increase the ‘cycling feeling’. On top of these handlebars a tablet pc is attached on which photos and music can be shown. As long as the visitor is cycling, photos or music are shown on the screen, but if the visitor stops cycling, the slideshow of the photos or music pauses. This needs to be the motivation for the visitor to continue cycling. While the visitor is making the cycling movement, the carer or another visitor can sit next to him, in order to talk together about the things that are shown on the screen. Due to this they can recall memories from the past. At the same time watching photos is memory training, because the visitor needs to think about the things he sees on the screen. A prototype of the product is made in order to test the product. The user test turned out that all visitors and carers like to use the product. They really like to see the photos (especially the personal photos) or hear the music while they are cycling. Some of them mentioned that it is more pleasant to use this product than the exercise bike they have at home. Asking the visitors on another day if they would like to use the product again, they all said yes. Moving and memory training are two important aspects in the meeting center. This product combines both aspects, which ensures that the product indeed fits the vision of the meeting center. The employees of the meeting center are really enthusiastic about the product. They like the idea that the visitors will see photos or hear music while they are cycling. They can imagine that if the product would be located at the meeting center the visitors will use it, although they would need to stimulate the visitors because they would not take the initiative themselves.

This master thesis shows the design process of Precimo, a product that supports pregnant women at home. Pregnancy is a special time and the bonding process between the expectant mother and the unborn are of vital importance. During the thesis project a literature research and contextmapping research were executed, followed by the conceptualization and finalization phase, both based on user-centred design. From the research can be concluded that pregnant women find it difficult to take time to be pro-actively engaged in the pregnancy and to share their pregnancy experiences with their loved ones. With the Precimo the user can capture precious memories and is visually reminded of the pregnancy. Precimo Online gives the option to follow the weekly developments of the unborn and share the collected memories with others via Internet. Precimo is a personal way of collecting memories during the pregnancy. It gives unexpected light feedback; a sensation that stimulates the user to think of the unborn.

The graduation project is a collective project between TUDelft and JAM visual thinking. This study is devoted to unveil the potential of Visual Thinking in business sessions and to eventually improve the effectiveness of the method. JAM visual thinking, a consultancy company based on the Netherlands, features in providing various products from visualization to suggestions of strategies with their drawings. This graduation project is conducted to help JAMmers to harness the magic power of Visual Thinking effectively.

Recently developed co-design methods ask for users’ creative outcomes all through the design process. Designers are familiar with the creative process but users are not. The heuristic tasks given to users should reveal their creativity and harness it for high-quality outcomes. Contextmapping is a new co-design method following the same need as others; the method involves generative sessions in which users are asked to create artifacts communicating their needs and dreams about future products. Children are taking part in these processes and their involvement requires an understanding about their needs and abilities. Contextmapping with children has many aspects yet to be discovered, one of which is harnessing children’s creativity during generative sessions. This forms the basis for this research. The thesis traces an overview of creativity, co-design with children, contextmapping with children and children’s creativity. The literature review opens a new area for investigation about using competition, which is seen both detrimental and challenging for eliciting creativity from children, as a motivation during contextmapping activities. The empirical study is formed from six sessions aiming to find an answer to the effects of cooperation and competition on children’s creativity during contextmapping sessions in regard to gender differences. The analyzed and discussed findings show that competition is a motivating element and has positive impacts on children’s creativity, it increases children’s motivation towards contextmapping tasks and the outcomes of the sessions are more appropriate to the expectations of the task.

This is the master thesis of the graduation project entitled “Ironing out the interface: design of an iron user interface that elicits the feeling of simplicity”, performed for the Philips Garment Care marketing department based in Amsterdam. The goal of this project is to improve the user interface of steam and system irons, by designing an interface that elicits the feeling of simplicity. The term ‘user interface’ is defined for this project as the parts of the iron that the user interacts with. Simplicity plays a significant role in this project; therefore the term simplicity is defined during the first ‘exploration’ phase: ‘The new interface should be simple and intuitive, in order to create a product that is easy to use. The interface will create a feeling of being in control and of being able to use the product optimally.’ With the intention of grasping the existing user knowledge, previous Philips user research is explored. Recent developments of iron interfaces are also discussed, as they influence the interactions with the users. The second phase concerns two types of qualitative user research with one common goal: ‘Understanding the users and their needs when interacting with an iron’. The initial explorative research (consisting of observations) reveals interesting directions for the second research. This research strives to gain tacit knowledge about the context of use of the iron, by conducting contextual research known as context mapping. This research consists of generative sessions with users that have been sensitized beforehand. A booklet containing the findings of the research is created. The aim of this booklet is to inspire, create empathy for the user and share these findings with the involved parties within Philips. In order to describe the envisioned interaction between the user and the iron, the following interaction vision is created during the third ‘conceptualization’ phase: ‘By creating relevant and unambiguous features & feedback, the interaction with the iron will stimulate a natural flow of the user’s actions into a state of distraction’. Ideas are generated and some fundamental decisions (based on technical insights, user insights and interaction insights) are taken. A selection of the potentially interesting ideas is made and this results into concepts for the steam and system iron. The two concepts are created consisting of an amalgamation of features believed to improve the interaction for the steam and system iron. In order to evaluate if the concepts have potential of complying with the interaction vision, an experiential prototype and storyboards are created and tested on several participants during the fourth ‘evaluation’ phase. Overall the participants responded positive about the concepts and most features seem to be regarded as relevant and unambiguous. There are signs that the concepts could elicit flow, and it is believed that it can stimulate the distraction during ironing. This means that the concepts have potential to comply with the interaction vision and therefore have potential to elicit simplicity. Finally some recommendations are made regarding the concept and the future.

This project aimed at figuring out how the user-centered design agency Muzus can adapt their way of working towards the needs and the approach of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). Context research A context research was executed in order to map out the current development processes of both Muzus and product developing SMEs. Interesting findings were that some SMEs are not aware about involving users in the fuzzy front end of their design process and some SMEs are not aware of the added value of user-involvement at all. Also hiring external design agencies in their process is a big step. Muzus has troubles to surprise the SMEs with new insights, because the SMEs have so much prior knowledge about their target group and their product. Finally, Muzus has to reuse their tools and techniques, but without loosing the personal touch in the project. Design vision Based on the findings of the context research, the following design vision was formulated: “I want to design an SME tool that facilitates a product development process in which Muzus and the SME collaborate, in order to enable and enthuse the SME to use the tool independently afterwards.” Tool development The design vision was taken into account during the tool development. In the end, the tool development resulted in the Connect&Go approach. This approach consists of eleven steps, divided in three phases: Focus, User-insights and Concepts. These steps should be completed by following a structure that is based on four workshops. During the workshops, Muzus and the SMEs wrap up a previous phase and start a new one. By means of this structure, the client of Muzus is actively involved in these decisive moments of the approach. The work in between the workshops can be carried out in three different scenarios. In the first scenario, it is Muzus who carries out the major part of the work. In the second scenario, Muzus and representatives of the SME carry out the work together. In this scenario Muzus will transfer their knowledge towards the SME and thereby this approach has an educational character. The third scenario is available for experienced SMEs, who can carry out the work themselves and only need Muzus for some coaching. A set of techniques is compiled for every step of the approach. Muzus and the SME can select the techniques that are most suitable in a certain situation. Depending on the different scenarios, the SMEs are more or less involved in this selection procedure. Finally, seven types of support tools are developed to facilitate and visualize the Connect&Go approach. Some of the support tools consists of some support tools that are primarily meant for Muzus and other support tools that are mainly meant for the SMEs. Conclusion To conclude, the SME approach for Muzus lives up to the following guiding principles. The Connect&Go approach enables Muzus to reuse successful tools and techniques, without limiting Muzus’ the freedom to make every project unique. On top of that, the SMEs are enabled to work on their problem with an almost tailor-made approach, but not for a tailor-made price. The overview of techniques stimulates Muzus to use other techniques than only the traditional contextmapping technique, to anticipate better to the situation of their client. The Connect&Go approach aims at giving the SME insights in the process. Because of the active involvement of the SME, the entrepreneur gets the chance to contribute to the outcomes of the project. The three scenarios enables SMEs to make a long-term investment, by educating their employees. This enables Muzus to build a long-term relationship with their clients. In the end, it is this saying of Confucius that describes the collaboration between Muzus and their clients, as it is facilitated by the Connect&Go approach: “Tell me and I will forget, show me and I may remember, involve me and I will understand.” [Confucius]

Introduction You only have to read the paper or watch the evening news to understand the problems local hang-out youth is causing recently. Last year, Mayor Mr. Cohen called youth-molestation one of the biggest problems of the city of Amsterdam. Humiliation of the youth, safety cameras, the Mosquito1 and gathering restriction orders; in recent discussions, nothing is too much to control youth which is hanging out on the streets. This graduation assignment will give a positive solution for the Youth Meeting Point of the Future. Context To understand the meeting adolescents in the public space, the first step of the process, was to build up the current context by a questionnaire (left behind at youth forums), observation (of meeting points), generative techniques (with more structural hangout youth) and literature research. It seemed that the adolescence phase of life is very important in the process of creating an own identity. Part of this process is belonging to different groups of cliques and seeking for sensation (risky behaviour). The youth’s transition from dependence to independence happens in different adolescence arenas. Home and school are the most common arenas. Some adolescents have to cope with a lot of stress in these scenes, because the internal structure of schools cannot stimulate them and the financial situation of their parents is not sufficient. A relatively new arena is the virtual world, which is, especially during adolescence, important to get and maintain social contacts. The fourth arena is the public space, which is for 80 percent of the (Dutch) youth a place the meet friends and escape from supervision. Future Context In a world that is becoming more stressful (by an economic recession), more crowded (bigger cities) and more individual (lack of religion, leisure planning), youth will be pushed towards the Boy’s Room Culture (having all the technical and social possibilities, which is being conducted behind closed doors) or the Street Culture (being excessive assertive/ aggressive, driven by the lack of success experiences, financial pressure and low self-esteem). In both situations, youth does experience an individuality, which does not work for all adolescents. Either way, youth has to self-explore their values, education, leisure time and social interactions. Vision In order to provide the adolescents and others in the neighbourhood of the social interactions they need for creating their own identity, the statement I would like to make is: I want to enable adolescents to express their social and explorative behaviour, in such a way, that it stimulates the participation of strangers. Product The product that fulfills this statement consists of LED-tiles integrated with pressure censors. The configuration of the tiles is, that it provides the adolescents of a place to meet their friends (see figure). While meeting, users will be challenged to hit tiles, that spontaneous light up. When users doing extremely good, they will be rewarded by, for example, an entire floor that starts blinking. To find out what really happened, or to achieve the same result, youngsters will become active. The exploring, searching, doubting and trying, create an interaction that can be called vulnerable, which makes the situation more approachable for strangers. Since the configuration has a boundless character, it also invites by-passers to hit a certain tile. The result is a social interaction between the different users of the public space. Test To find out if the concept worked out as described, a prototype has been built to execute a usability test. The prototype consisted of seven interactive tiles (tiles with a lighting heart and four switches) and one remote control, which was necessary to tune in certain programs. The usability test was nothing more than the placement of the prototype in an environment that was suitable for youth meeting each other (place of retreat and interaction). In total three groups of youth were observed during their exploration with the prototype. The interaction with the product could be described as active and vulnerable. According to the youth itself, the concept was inviting and challenging. Some by-passers stopped to look at the action that was going on.

Next to a great physical experience with the world famous blocks, there is a push to explore new ways of integrate a virtual play experience with LEGO building activity. Tangible Interaction for Playing (TiP) explores possibilities for a search initiated by LEGO Concept Lab. The project aims to find a new play experience able to integrate seamlessly: the traditional LEGO play with virtual elements. To assess the play value – the worth of a play experience in the opinion of the child – the designer approaches the assignment with a Human-Centred Design mind-set, sustaining close contact with children from start to end. At first, the designer builds an emphatic understanding of children’s play and context by means a Contextmapping done with parents as co-researchers. The research resulted on a set of Personal Cards, reporting children’s play, their family and their social contexts. In a second moment, the designer involved children to play with prototypes, in a sequence of short iterative cycles. By receiving children in regular basis, the designer could adjust key ingredients of the experience until the toy was considered to offer a coherent set of tools that facilitates a worthy play. At last, an experiential prototype simulating the complete experience was introduced to children in a final iteration. An evaluation on this last session led to considerations and recommendations regarding the play experience created for LEGO. RESULTS: AugmentedCity is a concept that brings augmented reality technology into the LEGO play. By using augmented realty, the designer was able to create a new layer of meaning and interactions without loosing the original qualities of the building blocks. By adjusting the scale and iconicity of the models, and by offering a viewer as tool for playing, the concept brings a small interactive world to the children’s hand. All ingredients together prove to support children to move seamlessly between physical and virtual play. Above all, the play felicitated by those ingredients offered a respectful interaction – respect towards children’s as the one in control of the play. AugmentedCity offers a play experience that kept spatial reasoning and all qualities present in the traditionally LEGO building system, while integrating it with a new virtual layer. The final experiential prototype confirmed the value of the experience that is now been taken further by other designers in LEGO Concept Lab.

This report is part of Graduation course for the master Design for Interaction at the faculty of Industrial Design Engineering of the Delft University of Technology. The project was done in cooperation with Exact, also in Delft. For this project, the interaction between the online bookkeeping application Exact Online and its users was analysed and redesigned, to improve the user experience of the first use. At the moment, a certain percentage of the people that try out Exact Online for free do not follow through with the purchase of a paid subscription. Some of the potential users are overwhelmed and confused by the many options that the program has to offer and are not sure where to start. The First Experience of Exact Online was analysed, to get an overall picture of where the user could experience problems. The main problems were: • The user was not guided during the first experience in a smooth process; it was fragmented and not always consistent. • Finding help could be troublesome, as there were many options and not all were easily found or were not up-to-date. • Communications from Exact were not always consistent or appropriate. Exact Online is mainly targeted at the Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) market segment. To find out more about this type of the user, a contextual inquiry was set up. Seven (potential) users from the SME were interviewed about how they experienced bookkeeping in their daily life. A probe (booklet with assignments) was used in advance to prepare the participants, and to be used as a guide during the interviews. Using the probe helped the participants to share personal stories of their experiences, wishes and needs regarding their work and doing bookkeeping. The interviews were analysed and interesting quotes were grouped into themes. To present the results of the research, several visualisations were made. The visualisations act as a summary of the interviews and other materials. The themes and the participants profiles were presented in a graphical way. The visualisations were used as guidance for the concept phase. Combining the results, storyboards were created, using a combination of personas and scenarios. Illustrating the two different types of user which were found in the research, two fictive characters were created: • Mary-Anne Peterson works four days a week, many of her tasks involve bookkeeping. Her bookkeeping knowledge is on an expert level, her computer skills are average. Words to describe Mary-Ann would be: cautious, efficient, friendly, calm. • Paul Rossiter owns a small shop selling books. He spends an afternoon per week on bookkeeping. His bookkeeping knowledge is between novice and average, his computer skills are on a high level. Words to describe Paul would be: passionate, explorative, straightforward and impatient. A storyboard was made for each character, in which they try out Exact Online. To illustrate what kind of interaction Mary-Ann and Paul would like from the experience, Interaction Visions were formulated. The current first experience of Exact Online offers many options to a user, for instance the different types of subscriptions. During the first idea generation for a design concept, trying to design for all these options and at the same time trying to solve all indicated problems became too complicated. To regain focus and develop concepts which were targeting the most important goals, design boundaries were created. The design boundaries were to: • Use Paul’s Interaction Vision (“open and straightforward”) and storyboard • Start when the user enters Exact Online • Use demonstration data, without wizards • Consider only the first use A corresponding design goal was formulated: “To make the experience of the first use of Exact Online open and straightforward to a new user, offering appropriate guidance when needed and satisfying curiosity, resulting in the user being pleasantly surprised and confident about the suitability of the program” After a new idea generation, three concepts were formulated: • “Time machine”, illustrating that bookkeeping is a process in time, using an interactive time line • “Trusted Guide”, virtual experts guide and help the user through Exact Online, offering advice using collaborative filtering • “Start-up gadget”, a physical gadget which contains explanations on the first steps, using short code to interact with Exact Online The “Time machine” concept was chosen to be developed into a design proposal. In the concept, a time line symbolises a period in which an example company, a bicycle shop, does its business. The user can, amongst other things, enter some of the shop’s last sales and purchases. These are presented as “example events”, assignments which are placed along the time line. By using the slider along the time line, the user can see what kinds of events occur during a year. On overview pages, the user can use the slider to jump back and forth in time. They can decide which events they want to try out and see what happens in the overviews. During each event, the user gets an explanation of the company’s activities and the terms used. Links to more (help) information are provided. To test the concept’s interaction, a prototype was made. After test sessions with (potential) users, some alterations were made to the design. Even though the test participants understood the concept of the time line and event examples, the way the events were presented was improved. The Time machine design proposal offers a new approach to introducing users to Exact Online. The user is offered an appealing way to start exploring the trial subscription of the program, without requiring them to invest a large amount of time and effort.

Assignment: Investigate in cooperation with the HU the experiences of users with an on board crew-rest just before, during and just after their resting period and find opportunities for an improved experience. And based on the investigation and the found opportunities: create an innovative LDMCR concept that enables the crew to have a more positive experience with the LDMCR. Setting up parameters As with most (if not all) research and design projects the first part of the project consisted of looking for possibilities and setting up parameters. To manage expectations and to have all parties involved row in the same direction, the beginning of the project was all about sketching outlines for the project. A preliminary session held in the beginning of the project, kickstarted the project; providing the first insights and setting up the parameters. Research Started with the search for existing knowledge about the found directions. The following methods were used: literature research, interviews with experts, and a visit to a LDMCR, to look for these themes: Crew-rest | Culture | Healing environment | resting theory After that, new insights were sought in order to fill the remaining knowledge gaps. The focus was on the “human side” of things, providing qualitative results using two research-paths. The first, designed to get a broader view of things and to find new insights, consisted of co-researchers doing research on location. The second was a session designed to deepen insights and to formulate statements used as inspiration in the design phase. The three themes that appeared to best describe the insights are: Control | Closing off | Care / Attention Design The insights gained in the research phase served as input for a creative session with Driessen and were used to create ideas. The most promising ideas were combined into a collage describing look & feel and three concepts: Flexibility | Closing off | Nurturing These concepts were rated and combined into “Safe haven”, the final concept proposal for this project. SolidWorks was used to create a viable CAD model to help combine and fine-tune all the components and turn the ideas into one product.

This graduation report shows the design process followed during designing new playground equipment for Boer Speeltoestellen in Nieuwendijk. The assignment for this project was: Develop a new product for outdoor playground equipment for the Dutch sub-urban environment, that interacts on a multi-sensory level with both boys and girls in the age of six to nine years. While focus lies on this target group, it should be possible for younger and less able-bodied children to understand the product and participate in the play. The product should help children develop their skills, but learning should not be the main goal of the design. Above all, the design should follow the ‘rules’ for play, characteristics derived from child psychologists’ theories. Take into account that the design should have the influence that children are and stay motivated to play actively, hereby improving physical exercise and their health. Literature was frequently used during the analysis of the market, the company and the target group. These analyses led to many good results. In order to investigate the requirements and criteria of the target group, the contextmapping method has been used. By sensitizing children from the target group with assignment booklets (cultural probes) about the subject of ‘playing outdoors’ and having sessions with Velcro modelling (building your own playground equipment with objects that are covered with velcro) afterwards, a large amount of rich information was gathered. Important conclusions from the analysis phase and contextmapping phase have been used to compose a list of requirements and criteria. These contain directions for production, safety, aesthetics, play and ergonomics. The list is important: the product should meet the requirements, besides this it should also meet as many criteria as possible. Next, sketches have been made and brainstormsessions have been held in order to come to new ideas. By ranking the best ideas, three were selected and developed further. Of these three concepts, one quickly dropped out because of safety regulations (Klim-op). The other two (Tuimel and Bengels) were compared with each other by using a Harris profile and the Weighted objectives method. By using the mentioned methods, Bengels was chosen being the best concept. Bengels is a product in which a seesaw and swing function are combined, along with some sensory experiences. The concept has then been developed further into a detailed product proposal, hereby proving that the product is viable. In order to test the mechanism, a prototype has been built at the factory of Boer. This prototype has been evaluated by the designer, after which a couple of recommendations have been drawn up. The mechanism in the prototype worked as expected, but should be tested more to be sure it will also be working in the real product. However, most important of all is what the children think of Bengels: by letting children from the target group play with the prototype, it became clear that they liked to play with it. It can be concluded that Bengels fulfils the assignment and with a few adjustments, Bengels could potentially become a good product with a new combination of interactions.

This thesis presents the graduation project ‘Play on Your Way’, in which play route concepts have been researched and designed by using child participation. The project was committed by the National Youth Fund Jantje Beton, who aims to create and retain a public space where children (age 6-12) feel free and encouraged to play and be active in. They do this by devising, financing and organizing projects that contribute to reaching this goal. Project scope: A problem with current projects is that most ideas are generated from an adults point of view, and therefore do not meet with the wishes of children. The project’s scope is to design play concepts for the public space, starting with thoroughly researching what the target group wants and needs and including them in the process. This way, an example can be set for the approach of generating solutions for play opportunities in the future. Play routes were chosen as an example case. Shortly put, a play route is a route with play elements, enabling children to play (safely) on their way from point A to B. Analysis: First of all, the project scope was specified further by researching for which age group and type of location the public space is least accessible and encouraging for play. It was found that children in grade 3-5 (about 6-8 years old) and living in urban areas face the most restrictions when it comes down to playing in the public space or getting somewhere. Next, a short literature study on the target group’s characteristics and behaviour was done, giving some insight in what the target group is like and how to execute research with them. The target location was analysed further as well, which made clear that the most urban areas of the 5 most urbanized municipalities of the Netherlands mainly exist of ‘urban, stacked residential streets’. This concluded in a list (and examples) of characteristics of this type of street that could be important in the design phase. Finally, the rules and regulations for play elements were analysed to get familiar with the basic restrictions for designs. Research: The research phase was where the child participation mainly took place. To find out what the experiences and wishes of the target group are concerning the public space (focussing on routes and playing), contextmapping and co-research was executed. During the contextmapping, 20 children of the target group filled in a sensitizing booklet with short assignments about routes and playing, and 15 children (groups of 3) participated in generative sessions about these topics. Five couples participated in the co-research, where the children walked a route of their choice and made assignments on their way. General conclusions about playing were for example that the target group likes competition/challenges, climbing/clambering, games like tag, hide and seek and hopscotch, and playing together. The most common route is from home to school and back, followed by routes to friends, sports, music lessons, playgrounds/parks and the swimming pool. Nature and art is liked on a route, and traffic and vehicles are associated most often with negative experiences. Some children already play along these routes (for example by doing a bicycle race). The specific examples that came out of the research were clustered into inspiration sheets. These quotes, drawings or pictures appeal to one’s imagination much stronger than a general list of conclusions, and make child participation such a powerful method. Design: In the design phase, ideas were generated from the inspiration sheets (backed up by the general conclusions and findings of the analysis phase). Since the inspiration data was not clustered yet when the very first ideas were generated, these ideas were more often based on general conclusions than on unique remarks of children. It became very clear that the remarks gave much more inspiration than the general conclusions, and thus what the use of child participation can be. In the end, about 25 ideas were documented as examples of the project’s output. A range of the ideas was evaluated by a group of the children that participated in the research, and some adults. This showed that the children felt connected with the ideas and both the children as the adults were enthusiast about most of them. The evaluation also resulted in some suggestions concerning function, safety, appearance and maintenance that should be taken into account when developing the ideas further. Tool: To make sure that Jantje Beton can communicate the process and results of this project as an example of why child participation should be used more often, a tool was made. The tool is a fan with 17 sheets, summarizing the process step by step. A general explanation is presented on the front side of each sheet, with a specific example of this project on the back. The tool is mainly meant to inspire and enthuse municipalities to apply child participation more often. An evaluation took place with two adults with little to no experience of child participation. It showed that the information was clearly put and the fan inspired and enthused the readers with the presented examples and possibilities of child participation. Recommendations: The tool that resulted of this project is a way to make municipalities enthused about child participation, but more information and training should be provided before they can actually get busy. It is recommended that the tool is completed with a range of workshops, or a program for setting up and executing child participation. Additionally, the tool is now based on only one example project. For the tool itself this is not necessarily a problem, but more examples should be documented to show in general that child participation works. Lastly, testing the ideas in practice will give additional insights in the results of using child participation, and shows where this method still needs improvement.

This graduation study investigates how (methods like) contextmapping can be applied within a large multinational company such as Philips. This Master Thesis shows the development of a research method for Philips to obtain and leverage rich experience research in the early value creating stages of its product development processes. The method developed is based on the method of Contextmapping (Sleeswijk Visser et al., 2005). This method has been developed at the faculty of Industrial Design Engineering at Delft University of Technology. Contextmapping aims to support the obtainment of knowledge about the contextual aspects that influence the end-users experience during product use. Next to that it offer an approach to analyse the data and inform and inspire project teams with the experience knowledge obtained. During this graduation project the conventional contextmapping method has been adjusted to meet the demand within Philips. Two major adjustments have been made to the conventional contextmapping method, to make the method applicable. The first difference is that the members of a project team themselves analyse the rich experience data, instead of (end-)user researchers. Next to that an online tool has been developed to support these analysis. Next to that the tool enables the project team members to present and discuss the rich experience knowledge (obtained individually) with each other and translate this shared knowledge into concepts during a group meeting. This report can be valuable for those interested in (method like) contextmapping and the implementation (of such consumer centered methods) in a large multinational product development company. Next to that the support in the analysis of the rich experience data (deriving from such methods) by a digital tool or web-applications and the support of consumer centricity during ideation workshops have been treated extensively in this report.

This thesis describes the work that has been done for a Master graduation project with Philips Research. The aim of the project is to realize a flexible ambient lighting device for the bathroom environment that is able to provide a spacious feeling. A literature study gave the insight into the ordinary bathroom in the Netherlands but not enough on people’s expectations regarding ambient lighting. Consequently, an elaborate investigation was carried in a user study. The contextmapping method that was used in the user study generated a rich context information and understanding of the users’ aspirations that resulted into creating a spacious ambience for bathrooms. Within Philips, this direction has not been explored for a lighting device. Therefore, it was a great opportunity to be inspired by various fields, including the study of lighting design in architecture, art, and aircraft cabins. After generating the concepts, the concepts were rapidly judged on their ability to provide a spacious impression. The result was used to develop the light effect and interaction design. Eventually, a lighting prototype and physical-interaction designs were realized and evaluated by end users. The evaluation results showed the lighting design is able to enlarge the impression of the tested space and to provide visual interest. Although the physical-interaction designs were presented by images, the whole-hand and finger interaction were preferred by equal amount of participant. People thought both of the designs were flexible and easy to use in the bathroom.