Uncovering a Sonic Blue Ocean: Moving towards a more inclusive commercial background music ecosystem

Be it for providing a positive customer experience, a holistic brand identity, or a way to combat stress and exertion, background music has been used by businesses for profit since the invention of the phonograph. (Thompson, 1995) Modern technology enables this to happen fast, and tailors it to the needs of the business. Kollekt.fm is an...

Bicycle helmets for the Netherlands: a new strategic design approach

This graduation project concerns the prevention of bicycling head-injuries in the Netherlands, by overcoming the socio-cultural unwillingness and undesirability of non-sports oriented bicyclists to wear a helmet. Getting cyclists to wear bicycle helmets is a task that requires behavioral change as well as a shift in perception from society. The...

Designing Interventions to Facilitate Reciprocal Strategy Formulation and Execution

This thesis set out to investigate how small to midsize industrial design practices address strategic challenges. For this a literature review was conducted, as well as complementary desk research and an interview study with design practitioners. Later on three small case studies helped set the direction of the project. The findings and insights...

An international growth strategy for electric vehicle charging product-service startup

This thesis presents the results of the research into and the development of an international growth strategy for Revolt, a B2B provider of a product-service system for EV charging. <br/><br/>Revolt provides charging points for electric vehicles through a subscription model. For a fixed monthly fee, customers receive a charge point, the...

I Love You, I Love You Not: Enhancing Female-Specific Mate Selection in Online Dating

Nat King Cole once sang “the greatest thing you’ll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return” in the song “Nature Boy” written in 1947. Four years prior to its release, the psychologist Abraham Maslow published his book “A Theory of Human Motivation” in which the hierarchy of needs is explored (Clark, 2010). Above our physical needs and...

Designing a framework to enhance & implement customer orientation in buyer-supplier dyads: Organising customer orientation

The growth of a supplier is restricted when buyers have unmet expectations and thus frustrating experiences during the dyadic (between two parties) interactions. Hence the establishment of buyer-supplier relationships is limited. The organisational challenges of a supplier have a negative impact on the conveyed service quality. Customer...

Voice Technology as a tool for enhancing the dialogue between company and customers

Speech is the most natural and most comfortable method of communication for most people (Tadeusiewicz, 2010). So why not use speech for digital communications between company and customers? This graduation assignment aimed to examine this by questioning how voice technology could possibly enhance the dialogue between TUI and its customers. <br/>...

Developing a new Brand Strategy for DHL Parcel

In order for DHL Parcel to increase its market share in the growing C2x-market, a new Brand Strategy is developed, consisting out of a Repositioning of the brand, as a Creator-archetype in the Aspirational quadrant, a new Brand Identity and Big Idea, built on the combination of American and German culture and the potential contradiction of ...

Technology-Inspired Design: A conceptual model for Strategic Design Professionals to design for Disruptive Innovation

The objective of this thesis is to find an approach on how strategic design professionals can utilize their design capabilities to help companies cope with these challenges. Building on the fact that companies are painstakingly developing new-to-the-world technological innovations brokering this newness to find other possible applications and...

Developing an introduction strategy for SimGas' domestic biogas plants that responds to the needs of potential customers and fits the local context of Gujarat, India

SimGas provides households in developing countries with clean and affordable energy and sanitation solutions that improve their lives and income positions. Their solution is domestic biogas plants. In March 2012, SimGas launched their first affordable, domestic biogas plant in Tanzania, by Joint Venture SimGas East Africa Ltd. Next on the agenda...

Education in the processing industry: Designing new consultancy services

In this graduation project a new consultancy service has been developed for a company that traditionally offers educational services to their clients in the processing industry. By using Service Design methods such as the Service Blueprinting technique, insights were gained in current services and opportunities for new service design. In the...

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...