The Medical Psychology and Social Work department of the Wilhelmina Children´s Hospital (WKZ) helps children between 0 and 17 years old and their parents to cope with psychosocial problems caused by medical events and/or (chronic) illness. In therapeutic sessions psychologists help children to overcome their fears and develop effective coping strategies. In addition, the department monitors the development of children that have an increased risk of obstruction in their cognitive development with psychological tests. Treatment and evaluation sessions are performed in a so called 'playroom'. The current playroom does not support the psychologists in the wide range of activities they perform. The department addressed this demand in the form of this graduation project. Research in the context provided insight into the usage of the playroom, its users and their experiences. The main problem identified for the current environment is that it does not support the psychologists in the different sessions they perform. A flexible environment is wished which can easily be changed from an atmosphere where the child is able to concentrate (stimulant free) to an atmosphere that invites the child to play (stimulant). In addition, the importance of the child feeling at ease at the start of a session became apparent. It was discovered that the journey that the child makes before he/she enters the playroom is of significant influence on this. Children that visit the department for the first time are nervous and do not feel at ease when entering the playroom for the first time. Two design directions were identified. One focusing on improving the therapeutic environment and the other on improving the journey towards this environment. This resulted into one final design 'Gentle First Contact' which consists of a tactfully designed patient journey and a master plan for a new therapeutic environment. The master plan for a new therapeutic environment consists of a proposed design for the room and recommendations concerning colour, lightening and sound. A flexible environment is created that can be easily adapted to the different sessions that are performed and the characteristics of the child. By turning and sliding panels in the closet, the psychologist can easily and quickly change the atmosphere in the room. In addition, a patient journey was designed to make children feel at ease at the start of their first therapy session. Several elements are designed to support the child at different moments in the patient journey: a flyer with information about the appointment, a new waiting room experience, a playful transition to the playroom and an ice breaking activity as start of the therapy session. The elements are designed in line with the new vision for WKZ in which every department is related to an animal. The animal assigned to the Medical Psychology and Social Work department is the seahorse and therefore this animal is used as connecting theme to create a gradual journey. The seahorse supports, guides and distracts the child when needed.

According to the literature, sleep deprivation is becoming more common among women between the age of 35-54. These women are easily affected by stress due to their peculiar hormonal, familial and social conditions. Their lifestyle rhythm is shifting towards a 24/7 time-schedule where there is a massive presence of technologies and stressful factors during each moment of the day. This ‘modern’ way of living has a major influence on their lives and in particular affects the sleeping preparation phase of the day (corresponding to the 2-3 hours before sleeping) when the body starts to produce the hormone melatonin that prepares in falling asleep. Maya, is a future vision on how technology could empower women who are suffering from sleep deprivation in conducting a consistent routine during the 2-3 hours before sleeping, through moments of awareness and motivation. The final design involves a journey during the 2-3 hours before falling asleep aided by different sceneries of environment within the house. To help smoothening the transition from being awake into falling asleep.

Today, the foundation of the textile industry is built upon the possibility to purchase synthetic fibres as these allow people to have an extensive amount of choices. Unfortunately, they are as far away from nature as it can get. Over the last decade, the industry is increasingly trying to move towards a more bio-based future, often this can be seen in the increased demand for materials sourced from renewable resources such as plants (living organisms) fabrics like cotton. Alongsides the increase in traditional fabrics multiple new initiatives are popping up to connect the textile industry with nature. Due to these endless possibilities, future consumers find it hard to see the wood for the trees. Navigation into the world of biodesign is a necessity to set the next step towards this envisioned sustainable future. What if I told you, to think beyond sourcing materials from living organisms? What if we let living organisms become part of our daily life again? Bioassembly makes it possible to source raw materials from living organisms, produced with living organisms to create a material that is still alive in the use phase. This concept changes the relationship between the consumer and the material. To create comfort around this new relationship innovators should be more interactive with future consumers' so preconceptions can be addressed. Currently digital platforms are the most efficient way of communication between the consumer and the innovator, especially since the shift towards digital channels particularly increased the past year due to social distancing measures as a consequence of Covid-19. However traditional tools are still inadequate in capturing and communicating the qualities of these living materials (D’Olivo & Karana, 2021). Clear digital communication should be transparent and interactive. Besides, it should give a clear image of the aesthetics that currently go beyond beauty and include morals. Morals encourage change on a societal level, where the individual is part of something bigger. The appreciation, attention and understanding of new innovations is built upon social situations and group associations, which are also digitally visible since the rise of social media. So we can state that digital social influence matters since it affects what we think and do. What if we could thoughtfully use social dimensions for the communications of new innovations like ‘living’ textiles? Social dimensions can be split into different levels. Firstly the macro-level of society is envisioned as a concept which is called social impact storytelling. It envisions a clear image on what we could create together in order to provoke change worldwide. Secondly social presence can be used to create a space where people feel safe and free to share and cherish information with others. To finally be influenced by each other; you can pioneer, you can follow or you can do the complete opposite. A qualitative study researches how these particular social dimensions can contribute to the level of understanding and appreciation regarding living textiles. Taking into account the data of 160 participants it should be noted that social dimensions should be used carefully. Innovators should be very specific in what they exactly want to communicate. Social presence can lead to a less professional story since the innovator is not the only source of information anymore. Furthermore innovators should clearly decide to whom they communicate since different groups could be addressed differently. For social impact storytelling this mainly applies when distinguishing between different age groups as there is a lot of difference in what kind of relationship they have with the digital world. The digital world can be a notably broad playground for communication. Let’s design a place that stimulates creativity by giving shape to a material and its ‘livingness’. A world where preconceptions around health, smell and hygienics can be addressed. A world where we can try something new, together.

The aim of this graduation project was to design a product/service to improve the psychosocial school experience of children with cancer aged between 8 and 10 years old (group 5/6 at primary school) and the people around them during the treatment phase. The projected is conducted under the project ‘Meedoen=Groeien!’. Within the current situation, children with cancer and the people around them experience several challenges which affect the school experience. One of these challenges is that teachers tend to underestimate children with cancer, while sick children tend to overestimate themselves. For teachers it is difficult to understand what to expect from sick children, since their mood and energy level is affected by the cancer and its treatment and can changes during the day. Sick children tend to overestimate themselves due to their willingness and enthusiasm. They want to do the same as they did before the cancer and do the same as their classmates to get a sense of belonging. The effects of over- and underestimation are similar. Both have a negative influence on the self-confidence, self-image, and development of the child. Therefore the project aim was to prevent over-/underestimation by designing a product/service that supports sick children to express their mood and energy level in order to create together with their teacher a suitable individual planning throughout the day. This is established by the ‘Humeur adviseur’ which exist of the ‘Gevoelens medaille’ – product and ‘Mijn les’ – cards. The ‘Gevoelens medaille’ is lying on the table of the sick children and can be used whenever they want. The ‘Gevoelens medaille’ stimulates the sick children to think and talk about their mood and energy level, makes it possible to express this in an easy, quick, and unforced way, and reminds classmates and teachers of the impact cancer and its treatment has on the sick child. Based on the mood and energy level of the sick children, the teachers can decide which tasks the sick children could do. This can be written down on the ‘Mijn les’. To involve the sick children and regain control, they can mark which tasks they are going to do by choosing from the tasks proposed by the teacher and/or by adding extra tasks. The ‘Mijn les’ – cards will be used by the classmates as well, to give the children the feeling that the sick child is treated like a “normal” child and create a sense of belonging. On the front of the cards the children can write down the goal of the lesson, the tasks they are going to do, and how long they have to fulfil the tasks. During the lesson they can mark which tasks they have finished and after the lesson they can reflect on the lesson. This makes learning visible and gives the sick children the opportunity to communicate to the teachers how they perceived the lesson. This information can be used by the teachers to create a better understanding of the sick children.

This Master Thesis describes a graduation project developed to investigate how to help people when disrupted life events occur and how to create strategies to empower them in coping with the situation. It is in connection with the research developed by the PhD candidate Patrizia D’Olivo. To date not many strategies were developed to empower people who suffer of the alopecia condition. Thus, the project attempted to help people with alopecia feel comfortable in their everyday lives by designing coping strategies for the individual with alopecia and anyone he feels close with. In this project different research and design methods were applied, like interviewing, surveys, a co-creative session and design evaluation with assistance of the Alopecia Vereniging. Context and user research deepened the knowledge on the topic and classified the problems the target group encounters. The disrupted life event of alopecia and the population affected by this condition encounter a lot of problems that differ according to the level of severity and risk. It was evident that the communication between the person with alopecia and anyone he feels close with should be stimulated and improved. Different design explorations combined with a concept evaluation study and a co-creative session showed the desired features for the final design. The proposed design ‘Imagine alopecia’ gives people close to someone with alopecia a better understanding of the impact of the condition and stimulates the communication between them. The design evaluation study confirmed that the target group feels that the design has the potential to improve the communication between them and the people they feel close with. In addition, also the people close to someone with alopecia believe in the added value of the design. However, to validate the effect of the design on communication, it should be evaluated by letting people use the design in real life situations.