E-quarium is a rich visualization which enables an intuitive representation of the entire home energy flow and affords both an ambient and data-centric approach to data visualisation. The goal of the E-quarium is to optimize energy efficiency within the household in a fun and engaging way to benefit both the user, as well as the environment. To provide all household members with rich insight into energy consumption practices, the challenge was to decrease the cognitive load and required background knowledge associated with the interpretation of typical data-centric solutions, while still being able to provide multiple energy consumption parameters in a single display window. In this thesis the E-quarium concept, which was designed in 2013, was revisited to find if it still is relevant in today's (2021) context. The structure of the research was based on the idea that a truly successful HEMS interface needs to be able to inform the user, be able to hold the attention of the user and engage him to act on the information and feedback which he receives, as well as offer the user control over energy management. It was found that commercially available HEMS might have greatly improved in terms of UX when they are compared to older devices such as programmable thermostats, they fail to address the context of the user in important ways. The issues that E-quarium addresses namely, helping the user gain a better understand of his energy context and engaging him to increase his energy efficiency, remain relevant to this day. With that said the trend in the industry is much more towards automation, than it is towards motivation and helping the user gain a better understanding of energy management.

In this report, I have explained my iterative design process using research through design approach. This project focuses on the context of Artificial intelligence and design collaboration. It also represents a design method of integrating human and non – human biases while designing intelligent products.Abilities of Artificial Intelligence (AI) are expanding so rapidly, that it already surpasses the human in specific tasks that were not thought before. Recent advancements in machine learning algorithms (ML) and its techniques e.g. ‘deep learning’, enable the machine to develop creative content on its own (John, 2016). Meanwhile, in the design domain, people have already begun to consider artificial intelligence as new design material (Holmquist & Erik, 2017). One can consider it an intelligent design material as it can include creativity as individual machine learning models.To understand this new paradigm of using AI in the design process, I created a speculative prototype of a design toolkit called objectResponder (v1.0). A toolkit which enables to design and prototype from the perspective of AI in the ‘wild’(Rogers & Marshall, 2017). I explored this toolkit with six professional designers from various discipline. Initial results suggested that looking at the world from the perspective of the AI may enable designers to balance human and nonhuman biases, enrich a designer’s understanding of the context, and open up unexpected directions for idea generation. The results from the study initiate my graduation project with — identifying what designers need, their concerns and challenges while working with Artificial intelligence and Machine Learning projects. In my thorough investigation with professional designers and design students, I learned that there is a gap in comprehending Artificial intelligence technology in design practice. Such as, designers struggle to incorporate these technologies into their products and services due to the complex nature of it. It was also evident in the literature study that, designers’ need to understand the underpinning principle e.g. limitations of Artificial intelligence and Machine Learning (Dove, Halskov, Forlizzi, & Zimmerman, 2017). Designers’ currently working with Artificial intelligence technologies mentioned that they are looking for a tool or prototyping toolkit which integrates AI with embodied ideation and rapid prototyping methods.To understand the state-of-the-art of AI, a literature study was conducted with the exploration of various ML technologies and prototyping tools. The purpose of this literature study was to understand the state-of-the-art AI and its current state. In this literature studies, I encountered some initial prototypes of tools that showed the possibilities of Artificial intelligence intervening into the design process. Meanwhile, technology exploration with various AI and ML tools and platforms allowed me to learn some facet of current AI and ML tools and ML platforms and perceive its limitations. From this observation, I designed three varied computer vision enabled experiments. Designers from various expertise have participated in the experiments. They were asked to follow the idea generation process with and without an AI’s Computer Vision technique (Machine perspective). Based on designers’ feedback about the experience of working with a designed speculative prototype, I propose a design toolkit called ‘object responder v2.0’ — with further advancement in it.

Past and current product design practices have not been and are not skin tone inclusive. People with darker skin tones are regularly excluded from the design process and the final product. Examples of this are the simple adhesive bandage and the more advanced facial recognition software. This project aimed to change this through an exploration of this type of exclusion, generally caused by designer bias.  Products that are not skin tone inclusive can be clustered into four different categories; Inadequate Color Selection, Failing Technology & Software, Undereducated Service Providers, and Unequal Communication & Representation. The products in these four categories have recurring issues, i.e., things that are consistently faulty. These issues led to thirteen Skin Tone Inclusive Design Guidelines to aid the designer in the design process.  The current Industrial Design Engineering curriculum does not pay any attention to the issue of skin tone inclusivity. The first-year bachelor course Understanding Humans is the ideal place to introduce this topic with the Skin Tone Inclusivity Lesson Plan, to be used during the Wonder Assignment. With four sub-goals; Raise Awareness, Trigger Self-Reflection, Trigger Self-Awareness, and finally, Trigger Inclusive Design Behavior, the students are led through a session that leads to an understanding of the skin tone inclusive design guidelines. This is done incrementally, with the guidelines being introduced during the last activity of the Assignment. Using the three designed components, the Beige by Default website, the Card Set, and the Skin Tone Inclusive Design Guidelines, the students complete different activities to ultimately reach a more inclusive design behavior.

Environmentalists recently attracted a lot of international attention with controversial actions, including throwing food against famous paintings in art museums. Which is worth more, art or life? The fragility of art is similar to the fragility of the earth itself. But as quickly as the bunch of climate activists appeared in all the newspapers, they also disappeared from the public’s mind. The general public has become accustomed to yet another climate stunt. Some form of awareness is there, but acting on it, many people omit. Before even a slight adjustment of behaviour, our fast-paced society is already distracted by the next new soap opera, a new car or pondering about the impact of our next plane trip. Museums recognise their changing role in this society. Museums should no longer just entertain and amaze, they should from time to time be able to chafe, awaken us and urge us to change our behaviour. Topics such as sustainability, climate change and the energy transition lend themselves well to this. The urge to change a behaviour can be caused by a transformative learning experience. For example, experiencing the real-life effects of climate change in rural countries can completely change a person’s relationship with their self-world, thereby producing lasting changes in attitude and behaviour. Museon-Omniversum, a science museum, would like to research such a transformative learning experience for a new exhibit in a mobility zone of their current exhibition One Planet NOW!. Several research activities have been done to understand transformative experiences and place them in a museum context. A literature review, expert interviews, museum visits, and observations resulted in a set of 12 guide cards that can support the design of a transformative museum exhibit. Following from research, cycling as a sustainable mode of transport was chosen as an exhibit topic. Besides, the findings resulted in a transformative museum experience journey, which in turn inspired a specified design goal. Subsequently, various ideas were generated in brainstorming and creative sessions and translated into physical prototypes. Evaluation tests with these prototypes gave insights into the experiences and effects of the developed ideas. These insights resulted in the development of the final exhibit: ‘Pedalling towards sustainable urban mobility’. An exhibit which aims to let visitors explore and reflect on the mode of transport they travel with throughout the city. The interactive exhibit is a hands-on experience that introduces visitors to a city where bikes are the main mode of transport. Visitors can magically discover a hopeful future vision of a bicycle city, where an intersection has been transformed into a version without cars. They are encouraged to explore what is going on in this world. Would they want to live in a city like this? The exhibition’s connecting part deals with transport's influence on urban planning. Visitors will have the opportunity to reflect on how transport choices affect the construction of a city. Overall the exhibit successfully aims to inspire a sustainable urban mobility transformation. However, further alterations are needed to improve the design and test the impact over a longer period. Short-term design recommendations for improving the exhibit to be fully stand-alone and operational have been given. In addition, suggestions for long-term research and design activities have been made.

The Netherlands is one of the forerunners in the fields of international scientific research, education and innovation. Currently ,the country faces a dire problem - insufficient technologically skilled people to meet the demands of the fast growing technological development. To address this problem, the government mandated to actively encourage science among young children. Science museums play a crucial role in delivering lessons to schools, they are ideal spaces to make the maximum impact on a young mind. Thus, the idea for the Robotic and Programming lab at Museon was born. The lab is established to be at the forefront of this change and to actively introduce programming to primary school children. This project conceptualises the interactive experience of the robotic programming lab. It also formulates a framework for the experience which aids in the conceptualisation of interactive activities within the lab. These interactions are designed with an aim to encourage programming while closely considering the learning outcomes and the science concepts that children are already familiar with.

Technologies related to reproduction and fertility follow each other in a rapid tempo as we stand at the start of the biotechnological revolution. How could these technologies which are able to radically alter our evolution alter our families and lives? Big questions with no direct answer. Within this project speculation and exploration about possible futures within reproduction are constructed using Vision in Product design. A wide variety of information, from literature research to interviews is gathered and formed into clusters that aim to provide a future world-view. This future world-view is the basis that helps the designer create a statement which is a pivotal moment as the statement defines the designers response to the future world-view. Interaction characteristics help translate this response into actual experiences for the user and last but not least into the to be designed ‘product’, In the case of this project the product is an speculative exhibit that aims to make the visitor aware of the impact of new reproductive technologies and add to the conversation about our reproductive futures. The focus within the exhibit lies on new types of families that reproductive technologies could create and asks the visitor to think about their personal limits around this new radical make-ability in reproduction. In order to make the exhibit come to life, 3D drawings, prototypes and storyboards are created. A website allows all aspects of the exhibit to come together and is used as a tool to evaluate the design of the exhibit.

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. In the first phase, observation and interviews were conducted in 2 offices in Beijing to know about the context and discover problems and design opportunities. Another round of research was carried out in StudioLab for verification of the insights from Beijing offices. The results, combining with the results of the literature review, led to the design goal defined. Then the project started to focus on stimulating meaningful chats among employees to increase their sense of belonging. Ideas were brainstormed and selected, prototypes and storyboards were made to let participants evaluate the concepts through interviews. After 3 cycles of idea generation, the final concept direction was defined. After that, 2 cycles of concept development were conducted to iterate the concept. Again, prototypes were made and interviews were done to evaluate the concept and get feedback from participants. In the end, the final design was defined, final prototypes were made and final evaluation was conducted. Overall, it is a design project exploring solutions for solving one of employees’ social problems in offices, lacking the sense of belonging.

This project focus on forming a future flying experience for passengers in 2022. The design concept came from the usage of the approach ViP (Vision in Design), by deconstruction of current aircraft environment ,collecting context factors, forming future context. After the future context structure, four types of passengers’ behaviour in aircraft were distilled: “Freestyle working“,”Distant self-care taking”,”Reluctant developing”and “Stand out from the crowds“. Then design ideas and concepts were focused on “Freestyle working“ behaviour, which had a statement(design goal) as “make passengers see aircraft as means to optimise working and relaxing balance“. Four main activities of “Freestyle working”behaviour are also distilled: working, relaxing, connecting with others and learning. By ideation and conceptualisation, as well as iterations of prototyping and testing, the final concept consists of two parts: the seat part and the galley part. These two parts must work together to achieve the effect of the statement. The seat part consists of a re-designed tray table and suggested seat headrest change. The tray table has privacy boards, drawers and other functions to support working and relaxing on the seat. The seat headrest helps passengers in Economy class to sleep better and connect or disconnect with others. Then the galley part is a concept to open the galley and redecorate it into a welcoming atmosphere, where passengers can gather together to serve themselves and socialise with others. The whole concept triggers passengers to see aircraft as a place for actively performing activities, instead of merely a means of transport. At the end of the report, suggestions of improvement of the design as well as implement were given for further steps.

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.

Everybody has a personal space. A zone that you naturally preserve free around you, so you feel at your most comfortable. That personal space varies quite a lot from person to person. It is also a fluid zone because it is very much dependent on the type of interaction you are having at that moment. 
This thesis was the development of a design tool for the exploration of proxemic zones. It focussed on using modern sensors and technology to be able to measure exact distances towards people. By user testing the different iterations in the development, it became more apparent how people set distances. 
The final design is called the Proximity vest. The tool is a vest that is easily deployable and can be used all day without interrupting the user or the people around them. It uses a stereoscopic camera in the front that has the same field of view as a person. It accurately detects people and measures the distance they are apart from you. The video is locally processed to distance data-points and sent to the cloud for easy data analysis.

CareTunes for Families is a product-service system that connects Intensive Care Unit (ICU) patients and their families through music. Families of ICU patients often experience distress and anxiety. They have the need for information, closeness, assurance, hope, control, and the need to support the patient. These emotional and social needs point to a need for stronger connection/connectedness, especially when the family is outside the hospital. In addition, the families experience many negative emotions such as uncertainty, worry, guilt, fear of loss, etc. Meanwhile, music is a powerful way to communicate emotions and meanings; it has the quality to fulfill the family’s social needs, emotional needs, and need for information at the same time. Therefore, the project aims to increase the connectedness for the families through music, and to bring them more positivity. A series of literature research and qualitative user research was carried out. The design also went through several iterations, inspired by insights gathered from user tests and interviews with experts. The final design of CareTunes for Families includes service design, user experience design, and music design. The design facilitates a meaningful connection between patients and families by transferring the patient’s mental activities and emotions through music streaming or music messages to the family. The music streaming enhances the sense of close presence of the patient, and the music messages enhance the feeling of intimacy and assurance, and reduces the sense of guilt. The product also enables the family to support the patient by sending back voice messages. The music in the design is automatically generated by the system. It comprises a theme melody of the patient, increasing intimacy and connectedness, and multiple other tracks which are connected to different data sources such as heart rate, brain waves and movements, creating variations in the music and a sense of realism. Moreover, the product gives the family the control in ending the music as an act of closure at the end of the service. The user evaluation of the design validates that the experience and the music together can indeed create connectedness and enhance positive emotions such as calmness, hope, and acceptance. The project leads to the following conclusions: (1) Music presents an advantage in building connectedness through an emotional experience and is unfitted to present technical information. (2) The experience is very personal. (3) Streaming and messaging can both cater to the families’ needs respectively. (4) A two-way connection that also supports the patient may be needed. (5) Positivity in music is important. (6) Multi-dimensional composition can bring more life to the music. (7) The music should be predictable. (8) The selected data source for the music should have (humanized) meanings.

Nurses working in the ICU of the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam are exposed to a vast amount of sounds from medical equipment. The amount of alarms nurses cope with causes alarms fatigue, which causes nurses to become desensitised to alarms. Not only is this a threat to patient safety, it also causes stress. Care Tunes is a product design that allows nurses to listen to music to monitor their patients. By wearing an earpiece that plays the music, nurses can constantly be aware of their patients health without having to listen to the cacophony that is caused by alarms. In an iterative design process several versions of this concept were designed, tested and evaluated. Simultaneously, research was conducted into the experiences nurses of the Erasmus MC have regarding sounds. This research into the ICU context reveals insights into the experience and underlying mechanisms of alarm fatigue. Among them are the low level of information that alarms carry and the range of personal preferences nurses have when it comes to setting boundaries for their alarms. Alarms also tend to be used as a reaffirmation by using narrow alarm limits, causing more alarms to sound. Care Tunes attempts to offer much more information in the sonification of patient data. This lets nurses listen to a pleasant musical stream to get all the information they need about their patient.

Light can be a wonderful thing. It allows one to see in the dark. Since the development of lamps, the intention has been to eliminate darkness from the night, as darkness is associated with danger, demons, the unknown, and all sorts of ‘scary’ things that lurk in the dark. Although light is helpful, dark nights are also needed. Not only did humankind use the position of stars to navigate or measure time, but it also inspired the artistic and philosophical aspects of wonder and awe at night. This thesis project started with a personal fascination for the night sky. The research focuses on the consequences of using artificial light at night. Light not only prohibits sight of the stars but also negatively impacts both flora and fauna. Moreover, that is not the only effect of artificial light at night. The natural human experience of the night also changes due to excessive light use. Darkness is being pushed out of the nocturnal experience under the belief that light leads to safety, while research shows no significant correlation between light and actual safety. Light use at night is continuing. As recent studies show, artificial light at night is increasing by 6% a year on a global scale, causing an increase in light pollution issues. Therefore, this report argues that we are losing the night. It describes the harmful effects of light on nocturnal ecology, human health, and the nocturnal landscape experience. This subject is gaining more interest in recent years but is still underrated and not (yet) put on the agenda of governments and municipalities as much as this report argues that it should. This report aims to contribute to a raising awareness for the topic and as an example of possible explorations of how to treat the experience of the night and nocturnal ecology in design by creating dark connections, transitions in the landscape, and new spatial lighting guidelines for the urban context. The goal is not to switch off light but to examine different possibilities of using light in a night-friendly way. Ultimately, this report could be a sound principle for nocturnal urban design and how to deal with the far-stretching consequences lurking in the light.

This report is the final deliverable for the master track ‘Design for Interaction’ of the faculty of Industrial Design Engineering at the Technical University of Delft. It describes the process and results of the graduation project ‘Assuring the occurrence of intended learning situations in a nautical simulator’ that is executed in cooperation with VSTEP, a Dutch company that develops simulators and visual training software. VSTEP learned from its customers that Nautis is suffering from usability issues. It is initially not described where these issues are located. The project therefore starts with desk research, analysing Nautis’ current system. Additional expert interviews are conducted and literature research is executed. Observations and semi-structured interviews were conducted with instructors, the endusers, at five organisations that use Nautis. This has demonstrated that instructors are have a relatively small fraction of time available to develop scenarios. A scenario implies a virtual environment in which target vessels are following pre-specified routes, in order to mimic nautical traffic and thereupon form learning situations for the trainee. A significant amount of the little available time goes into testing and subsequently modifying. Testing usually occurs by the instructor entering one of the bridges connected to the simulator and sailing through his created scenario. Testing suggests verifying the behaviour of target vessels along their respective routes in order to prevent collisions with others, while at the same time checking if learning situations are encountered by a trainee vessel as intended. Modifications are made to the scenario when it does not come out as desired, and extra learning situations are added to accommodate different trainee performances, i.e., their pace through the scenario. This would allow for a better comparison of trainee performances. After modifying a scenario, it is again tested. Nautis offers an inefficient way of developing scenarios, which leaves instructors doubting if a trainee will reach the training goals properly. Therefore it is decided to focus on creating a solution for instructors which them to efficiently design learning situations in scenarios that allow for comparing trainee performance in order to assure that learning goals are reached. A design is proposal consisting of three components; an event creator, a trigger system, and a route generating algorithm. Each component supports the user in efficiently creating learning situations as intended. The first two components have been designed through an iterative process, suggesting sketching, prototyping, and user testing. Seven prototypes were made to validate concepts and test interactions with 13 unique participants. Some participants have tested multiple prototypes. Three instructors have taken part in the user tests. The algorithm is evaluated on its feasibility with an AI expert and desirability with an instructor. The route creator enables the user to efficiently draw out learning situations. A timeline is used to give the instructor quick access to any given timeframe in his scenario. When drawing a route for a target vessel, the currently displayed timeframe moves forward concordantly to the time it takes the particular vessel to travel the distance between the previous and the new waypoint. All target vessels in the scenario are displayed at their respective locations associated to the current timeframe. This offers the instructors direct insight whether a collision occurs, and can as such be immediately avoided. The trigger system allows the instructor to connect specific locations for target vessels in a learning situation to a manually drawn trigger area. The system assures that the target vessels sail their routes following the specified locations when the trainee enters the area with his vessel. This way the learning situation happens as intended by the instructor, independent of the trainee’s performance up until the trigger area. The route generating algorithm is used to save time on scenario development. Instructors are enabled to focus on drawing relevant parts of routes for target vessels that form learning situations. Parts that are deemed irrelevant, i.e., prior to or after a learning situation, are generated to lead the target vessels out of the trainees view. It is calculated that through the design proposal instructors can save more than 80% of their time on the development of a single scenario, ergo more time can be spend on the quality and the variety of the scenarios. Furthermore provides the assurance of the occurrence of learning situations them more guidance during the actual training sessions, and offers better comparison of trainee performances. To conclude, it can thus be stated that the design proposal would support an improvement in educational use of Nautis.