Prosthetic limbs are devices that change users’ lives in every aspect. They allow the wearer to live and be independent again. Nevertheless, despite the numerous benefits, they carry cultural stigmas, as well as physical and mental discomfort, along with various daily challenges. While the functionality and physical comfort of these devices can be objectively evaluated using instruments with differing levels of sophistication, assessing psychological well-being is highly subjective and challenging.

It is known that the aesthetic of prosthetic limbs can have a significant impact on the users’ wellbeing. Research demonstrated that an aesthetically appealing prosthesis can improve user confidence and overall quality of life (Össur® systematic Review, 2022). It can promote a positive self-image and a more active involvement in society (Bekrater-Bodman, 2020), reduce the risk of anxiety, depression, and psychological distress and increase the frequency of use of the device (Lee at al., 2022). In this scenario customization emerges as a viable approach empowering prosthetic users to improve their life and the embodiment with their prosthetic limb.

This thesis has been conducted in collaboration with the prosthetic company Össur®. The project revolves around NAVii®, a new protective cover designed for the knee component of transfemoral prosthesis. For the first time, NAVii®’s users will be able to customize their prosthetic limb by choosing between five different colors and three available sizes. Össur® is now looking into the modalities by which these customization options can be presented to the market. The focus is on the main stakeholders: the prosthetic Users and the specialists Certified Prosthetist/Orthotist (CPOs). The project takes a user-centered design approach that aims to a deep understanding of the users, the context and the current system’s dynamics. By applying qualitative research methods such as interviews, focus group and observation the goal is to improve the whole user experience during the selection of the NAVii® cover.

This research highlighted the impact of the different CPOs on the journey of each patient. Even though every user goes through a subjective amputation experience, it is possible to identify common touch points throughout the prosthetic acquisition process. The final design is the result of an iterative process of concepts’ prototyping and testing. The findings obtained from the testing lead to the development of a system of tools that aim to support the CPOs and the users in the selection of the NAVii® protective cover. This new design system, is able to suit diverse user’s needs. The design outcome yielded positive impacts on the user’s psychological empowerment, consequently enhancing the CPO-User relationship.

This project aimed to develop a biodegradable material that communicates its sustainability to consumers through its aesthetic attributes and to apply this material to shoe design.

In the current market, most biodegradable shoes do not express their natural origin through their appearance (tactile and visual properties). For instance, leather-like bioplastic material made from fruit waste, used by some shoe brands, mimics conventional leather with embossed texture, providing no indication to consumers that it is sustainable. While this approach of mimicking conventional materials might be effective for societal acceptance due to its familiar look, I strived to find an alternative approach.

Thus, this project starts with a simple question: What if a pair of biodegradable shoes looked "natural"? Would they communicate their sustainability through their appearance? Would they seem too wild?

To explore these questions, I embarked on the journey of developing biodegradable materials from scratch and constructing shoes with them. Through the research process, a Material Experience Vision was formulated, guiding me through the development of the material and the shoe design: I want people to recognise the material to be biodegradable as well as compostable through visual and tactile properties that people commonly associate with "naturalness" while maintaining their perception of quality. Additionally, I also want people to find the material to be interesting or unique to wear as a shoes with the propeties of natualness.

The research concluded with the evaluation of the proof of concept—a final prototype consisting of a pair of biodegradable shoes made from orange peels and mandarins. This evaluation focused on participants' perceptions of quality and naturalness, involving eight participants in the assessment.

Each year, over 50 million tonnes of electronic waste is generated globally, with the Netherlands averaging more than 20 kg per capita (Compendium voor de Leefomgeving, 2023). The shift from a linear to a circular economy is crucial in addressing this issue, emphasizing the importance of durability and repairability in product design. Additionally, the forthcoming legislation from the European Commission (2023) regarding the “right to repair” highlights the need for designers to create products that are both durable and repairable. This project delves into a product’s durability, considering not only its physical repairability, but also how it can retain aesthetic value over time. Central to this exploration is the question: “How can appliances be re-designed for retainment, considering repairability and aesthetic durability?” Drawing upon literature research, a design space is formulated, guiding the several re-designs of the same appliance, in this case a sandwich maker, with each re-design focusing on a specific aspects of repairability and aesthetic durability theory. Evaluation of these re-designs by visitors at Dutch Design Week informed challenges, guiding the further development of one of the re-designs into a functional prototype. The literature review addresses repairability through the challenge of fault diagnosis, particularly as products are often perceived as ‘black boxes’. Practical design implications for improving ease of disassembly and part replacement, alongside the value of awareness of components in having a product repaired, are discussed. Aesthetic durability is explored from the perspectives of ‘living with things’ and the ‘life of things’. The former examines aesthetic pleasure from a multisensory point of view, and the role of familiarity and novelty in design. The latter discusses the dimension of temporality in product design throughout a product’s lifetime, and the concept of products becoming ‘things’ when they break down. The construction of a design space with three axes based on this theory—’the possibility to repair’, ‘our pleasure as users’, and ‘the life of the thing itself’—provides a framework for creating eight diverse prototypes reflecting various perspectives from the theory. Evaluation by 3010 Dutch Design Week visitors identifies one prototype, featuring an ‘oven mitt’-like top, as standing out for its emotional qualities such as ‘connection’ and ‘beauty.’ This re-design is selected for further development into a functional prototype, highlighting repairability improvements and offering the opportunity for ergonomic testing.

Recognising their environmental impact despite ongoing circular-economy practices, Philips seeks ways to extend the lifespan of their products to reduce such loss of value at the end life of their products. This project explores the concept of Emotional Durability as a user-centred approach to sustainable product design, specifically within the context of Philips Personal Care's grooming devices. Emotional Durability refers to the ability of a product to create a long-lasting bond with its owner, fostering a desire to keep and use it for longer.
Grooming devices provide an ideal testing ground for this concept of Emotional Durability due to their context of use. Their highly frequent and recurrent use, the intimate relationship to their owners’ inner self, and their long lifespan make these devices particularly suitable to form a durable emotional connection with their users. The research aims to bridge this gap between long-lasting products and consumer behaviour through interaction and product experience design.
The project employs a participatory design approach, engaging users in the research, ideation, and evaluation stages to inform the development of design interventions aimed at fostering emotional connections between users and their grooming devices. The final intervention, All-about-One, employs engaging, personal, non-transferable, and functional interactions, found to be essential qualities for instilling Emotional Durability.
This thesis offers valuable insights and practical guidelines for the effective implementation of Emotional Durability in grooming devices, underpinned by a robust research-through-design approach.
The research findings hold potential for broader applications of Emotional Durability across other durable product categories, contributing to the growing relevance of Emotional Durability and providing actionable insights for design practitioners, researchers, and the consumer durables industry.

The central question for this thesis project was how you can design outfits and garments that deliberately influence or induce moods. The focus of this project was on both a cheerful mood, as well as on a relaxed mood. It became apparent that the relation between moods and fashion is constructed of many facets. There are materialistic properties of garments that are specific to a mood, such as the use of materials or fit of an outfit. Next to that, moods have an influence on how one feels the need to interact with the people around them, in which clothes can support that need: using an outfit as a shield to hide a mood from the people around them. Lastly, personal meaning towards an outfit has an influence on how it affects one’s mood. When, for example, one wore an outfit in a period in which they felt most cheerful, that outfit carries these memories and meaning with it, transferring it to one’s current affective state.

Intertwined, all of these facets play a role in the way clothes can influence and induce moods. As a designer, it was the task to unravel these aspects and find a way to translate them into design principles for the Fashion Design process. To do so, meaning and experiences that are associated with either a relaxed or cheerful mood were gathered and translated into design principles

What was found is that clothes provide hints of impact on the wearer’s moods. Small changes in their perception, energy level or focus hint towards an indication that a change in their mood had occurred. These changes can include a more productive attitude due to an active sitting posture triggered by an outfit, an optimistic feeling when seeing yellow patches the moment the wearer let his head hang, or a relaxed feeling when you feel hugged by the touch of fabric on your skin. Whilst moods are often longer lasting drivers of behaviour and perceptions, these hints of impact relate to relatively short periods of time in which the outfit is actually worn.

When designing outfits that induce a cheerful mood, it is important to pay attention to increasing the level of confidence of the wearer, making them feel confident and empowered. This results in the implementation of high quality fabrics and finishing of the garments, as well as an outfit that flatters and highlights areas of the body the wearer wants. When inducing a relaxed mood, it is important that the wearer is not conscious about their outfit. Resulting in simple, and neutral outfits that do not give much stimulus to the wearer. What connects these moods with consciousness and confidence is the personal style of the wearer, which is crucial in the process to achieve the wanted effect. When the outfit is not in-line with the personal style of the wearer, they feel conscious about this difference, and feel less confident whilst wearing it since it does not reflect their personality.

This graduation report explains the process of the creation of a new reusable product to apply and extract the Beppy menstrual cup, to make the user experience less intimidating and more convenient. The results are two seperate products: the applicator made from medical grade silicone via injection moulding and the extractor made from a hard plastic core with a medical grade silicone outer layer via 2K injection moulding. The applicator helps the user fold the cup and keeps the cup tightly folded while inserting. When inserting, the cup is pushed out by pressing the bottom upwards, pushing a stick against the cup.
The extractor is used to take the menstrual cup out of the vagina canal. This is done by inserting the extractor next to the cup until it passes the rim of the cup. This will release the vacuum that is created by the cup and enable the user to pull it out. The cup is grabbed by the loop, before it is completely out of the vagina canal, so it does not fall.



To come to these final solutions, an analysis, ideation, integration and evaluation were conducted. The analysis provides knowledge about the company Beppy, their customers, related products, inspirational products and designs and general knowledge about the menstrual cycle and anatomy. By conducting a questionnaire and gaining insights from client support, a user journey is made to visualize the troubles experienced during the use of a cup. The insights from the analysis are concluded in the requirements.



To come to concepts, explorative ideation started during the analysis, followed by a brainstorm ideation via a structured micro user step scenario. This was divided into three parts: folding, inserting and extracting. Some of the mirco steps were ideated on and were combined to create ideas to 3D print prototypes with TPU.



The concepts were integrated until they worked properly when tested on vagina dummies and were ready to create silicone prototypes with by the manufacturer of Beppy. The extractor was not as thoroughly integrated as the applicator, because the applicator was more important for the company to develop. The design of the extractor is not yet up to the standard of Beppy, so they would want to continue with developing the design before proceeding with the creation of samples to test. The sample production of the extractor was also more expensive and would take too long to produce for this graduation project.



To test the applicator with users, a 3D printed mold was made and used to create silicone prototypes by the manufacturer. Six participants tested the applicator and gave feedback via a feedback form, first impression video and interview. The feedback was analysed, so a redesign could be made with which Beppy can continue its development.



The final design of the extractor is functional yet not fully shaped in a coherent design. The final design of the applicator is a promising product, that improves the experience of menstrual cup users by making is less intimidating and more convenient.