Energizing sleep-deprived parents: Unlocking parents evening activities with mindful and secular rituals

Being mindful in the evening is overlooked for sleep-deprived parents with young children, especially with tv's and smartphones grabbing their attention. This graduation project explored in the context of personal energy care to unlock evenings for parents and found out that mindful and secular rituals can energize them. The core elements of a...

Activities as a Gateway to Sustained Subjective Well-Being Mediated by Products

Research in positive psychology indicates that sustained well-being is more determined by our actions than by our possessions. Products' contribution to well-being may thus be grounded in their potential to support well-being-enhancing activities rather than in their material value. In a laddering study, we investigated how products shape a...

Ahrend Portrait: A design to foster interdisciplinary prosocial behaviors in office environments

Work-life balance is becoming increasingly important in today’s job market. Young professionals actively search for jobs that promote their well-being. The concept of well- being encompasses not just physical health. Psychological health, such as social connectedness and engagement, is just as important. Katz (1964) stated in his research that...

Objects with symbolic meaning: 16 directions to inspire design for well-being

The symbolic meaning of a product can contribute to people’s well-being. Previous research (Casais et al., 2016) has identified six distinct well-being enhancing symbolic meanings in products (based on Ryff, 1989): positive relations with others, personal growth, autonomy, environmental mastery, purpose in life, and self-acceptance. To support...

From good to the greater good

In this chapter, we outline why and how design can (and cannot) support the sustainable wellbeing of individuals and communities. Building on findings of well-being researchers, we first address the reasons why material well-being, as experienced through the consumpfion and ownership of products and goods, does not necessarily contribute to...

Provocative design for unprovocative designers: Strategies for triggering personal dilemmas

Traditional design approaches stimulate the creation of products that make daily interactions more efficient, comfortable, and pleasant. In contrast, provocative design approaches, such as critical design, have a different focus: they aim to challenge the status quo through products that expose assumptions and stimulate discussion. In this paper...

Happy moments: A well-being driven design of a Car2Go

User well‐being is increasingly addressed in design and design research. Previous work has proposed a design for well-¬‐being framework that includes three main ingredients: pleasure, personal significance, and virtue. While useful for analysing the well-¬‐being impact of existing designs, it is difficult to use the framework as a resource in...

Design for parenting well-being in daily interactions

This design project focused on the joy of early parenthood in contrast with the daily hassles young parents deal with when raising their infant(s). The project goal was to design a product that contributes to the subjective well-being of early parents and their infants by initiating a new and meaningful activity during dinner time in the context...

The pursuit of happiness; redefining the interior design of a Car2Go vehicle.

This graduation project redefines the interior of a Car2Go vehicle by using Design for happiness as explorative research. Design for Happiness is a fairly new term in the design world and is increasingly applied, though there is still no existing methodology. The outcomes of this report will be used as a case study for a scientific paper at the...

A Gratitude Ritual

This project started off with gathering information on gratitude: what it is, how it can be practiced and how it contributes to subjective well-being. Amongst scientific papers, two specifically interesting books can be found: Gratitude works! (Emmons, R. A., 2013) and The How of Happiness: A New Approach to Getting the Life You Want ...

Positive design: An introduction to design for subjective well-being

This paper addresses the question of how design can contribute to the happiness of individuals–to their subjective well-being. A framework for positive design is introduced that includes three main components of subjective well-being: pleasure, personal significance and virtue. Each component represents an ingredient of design for happiness, and...

Positive design in office environments

This Masters graduation report presents how design methodology founded on theories of positive psychology can be used to design for happiness in an office setting. Office workers spend a substantial portion of their time in an office environment. This environment should be designed to be safe, efficient and comfortable. According to the World...