Mindscapes & Healing Gardens

Mental health issues are becoming ever-more common in contemporary societies as urban landscapes are over-stimulating and stress-inducing. Studies suggest that lacking access to green infrastructure may be a fundamental factor. In post-industrial cities and health care systems, nature’s healing abilities are however commonly neglected and have...

Meaningful Voice Interactions: How to design smart speakers that foster well-being

What is the impact of smart speakers on our well-being? As the popularity of these devices continues to grow, so does the discussions around their potential dangers. From reports of children developing aggressive behaviours to studies on the perpetuation of sexist stereotypes, our interactions with smart speakers are accompanied by a series of...

Feel Good: Designing a sound experience to reduce stress and optimize sleep

Sleep is a vital restoration mechanism for our health and well-being. Deficiency in sleep can cause physical and mental health problems and reduced quality of life. How well we sleep is closely related to our behavior, and day to day stress can immensely influence sleep quality. Sound and music, on the other hand, is a powerful way to influence...

The future of the municipal service center: A focus on experience and well-being

Municipalities all over the world are struggling to find their role in this fast-paced society. The general attitude towards the government is negative and people experiencing its services as inefficient, irrelevant and unpersonal. Their functioning shapes people’s sense of trust in and expectations of the municipality. Despite efforts by...

Well-being Driven Design: Creating a Meaningful Streaming-platform

People are actively looking to pursue happiness by spending their precious time on meaningful experiences, which are often sought for in media entertainment as it is people’s most engaged in leisure activity today. However, current services fail to support them or even counter them, with their manipulative media-platforms in favor of their goals...

Towards Smart Flexibility: A study on how IoT can improve employees' well-being in flexible office environments

Towards an optimal thermal comfort and energy efficient workplace

We, humans, spend 80-90% of our lives indoors. Thereby the building has two main functions, namely: protect their occupants and provide the occupants a comfortable indoor environment. However, the last one seems a big challenge, since every individual is different from each other, based on the factors as age, gender, clothing, activity,...

Well-being for all: Using the theory of Consumer Wisdom to guide design that promotes the consumer, societal and environmental well-being

The aim of this thesis is to explore how designers can create well-being for all through product or service design. Well-being for all can be achieved through designing with the focus on Consumer Wisdom. Consumer Wisdom is defined as the pursuit of well-being for oneself and for others through mindful management of consumption-related choices...

Design for connectedness: Designing a playful product for people living with moderate to severe dementia to support emotional well-being

This project focuses on contributing to a feeling of connectedness for people in the mid to late stages of dementia living in a nursing home. Feeling connected is still important for people living with dementia. They may suffer from disabilities caused by their disease, losing their memory and ability to make decisions, but there are also things...

Meaningful Gift: A website that inspires and supports people in finding and preparing gifts

Nowadays, individuals always find themselves in various situations where they need to choose gifts. Gift exchange helps individuals to signal commitments as well as promote social closeness. However, in many cases, people are also facing the occasions in which finding a gift for an unknown-preference person, or miss-predict recipient’s reaction...

Erosion for Betterment: Designing with Erosion to improve well-being | a case study of the Volta Delta, Ghana

Erosion for Betterment is a graduation project within the Landscape Architecture master track at the TU Delft. The project examines an underdeveloped coastal area in Ghana that is sadly facing severe erosional threats due to previous unfortunate human activities. It offers an unexpected direction in handling issues as such by proposing an...

Occasions: Enhancing the psychological well-being of office workers through smart building technologies

Over the past few years, workplaces have placed increasing importance on enhancing well-being. The benefits are clear: increased productivity, improved employee engagement, and reductions in health care costs. Another recent development has been the rise of smart office buildings. MAPIQ, a system integration company, is an active player in the...

Increasing awareness about the influence of air quality and noise on well-being

The aim of this master thesis is to create a product that can increase awareness about the influence of air quality and noise on well-being. About 6% of the total burden of disease can be accounted to influences of the natural environment on well-being. Part of the problem is the unawareness of people about these influences. In order to improve...

Transformation 4.0: A Closer Look at Mode of Operations in Nokia GOPS

The fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0) is in full swing and organisations across the world pour efforts into the digitisation of manufacturing operations and services. The working practice changes and entails an increasing interaction of humans with technology. At the same time, from across society actors exert growing pressure on...

Green is the New Black: In search of an alternative vision for eco-city development in China

The world’s population is set to reach 9.7 billion by 2050 – up from 7.2 billion in 2012 (UN News Center). That global population will be a vastly urban one. The increasing demand for supplying the future urban dwellers and the threatening climate change have posed the question about our current urban development model. Our urbanization has...

Strategic development for a Philips’ lifestyle product that enhances mental wellness through sensory stimulation

The Brain, Body and Behavior department of Philips Research have been working on the development of a new technology based on the stimulation of the human brain through the visual sense. This stimulation is made by a light source that presents specific characteristics (frequencies given by flickering conditions) that can influence the brain...