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...

Towards wise experiences: The role of wisdom in design for well-being

Design for mood: Twenty activity-based opportunities to design for mood regulation

This paper introduces a theory-based approach to design for mood regulation. The main proposition is that design can best influence mood by enabling and stimulating people to engage in a broad range of mood-regulating activities. The first part of the manuscript reviews state-of-the art mood-focused design research initiatives, grouped into four...

Respect Bread: Urban ways of dealing with daily leftovers

The graduation project of Titus Wybenga intends to make Rotterdam more beautiful by avoiding large quantities of bread leftovers in public space and by promoting understanding between different cultural groups in the area. Own assignment: As an Integrated Product Design student, Titus started an independent graduation project about shattered...

FORD THRIVE - Time Spent Well: Designing Mobility for Well-being

Autonomous driving technologies are expected to revolutionize the way people will
experience travel time and interact with new means of transportation. Simultaneously, the consumer mind-set is found shifting from the desire to own towards gathering meaningful experiences and having access to services and goods on demand. Thus, it its proposed...

How to design for taboos? A design intervention to overcome the taboo of menstruation in India

Taboos are like ‘’open public secrets’’ and often dealing with these topics can be challenging due to the negative societal view. However, taboos can have a strong impact on the well-being of people, therefore, addressing these subjects is of high importance. In this paper seven building blocks to design for taboos are presented. These blocks...

Beyond Maslow’s pyramid: Introducing a typology of thirteen fundamental needs for human-centered design

This paper introduces a design-focused typology of psychological human needs that includes 13 fundamental needs and 52 sub-needs (four for each fundamental need). The typology was developed to provide a practical understanding of psychological needs as a resource for user-centered design practice and research with a focus on user experience and...

Design for Youth's Flourishing: Intervention design strategies to enhance teenagers’ mental resilience and well-being

The urge to promote mental health and well-being is gaining increasing importance and attention in recent years. Adolescents, who are among the most vulnerable under this aspect, are experiencing an increase in mental health complaints and need of youth care in the Netherlands. In addition, they perceive current means of care as inappropriate to...

Increasing employees’ sense of belonging: Design of an intervention to stimulate meaningful chats in offices

This project aims to improve employees’ social well-being in offices through informal interactions. It consists of 3 phases in total, context research, idea generation and concept development. Experiencing prototyping was mainly used in the design process.<br/><br/>In the first phase, observation and interviews were conducted in 2 offices in...