This project aimed to transfer a mood-regulating experience by recreating its mood-regulating qualities artificially, seeking an answer to the question whether this is possible and, if so, how. In the early stages, The Attention Restoration Theory by Kaplan (1995) inspired what mood-regulating experiences to design for: the softly fascinating experiences in nature that support the restoration of mental fatigue. A design opportunity revealed itself in realizing that, unlike nature, our indoor environments show few softly fascinating stimuli. This resulted in a design direction aiming to enhance restorative potential indoors by bringing the softly fascinating qualities from the outside in. 

This led to a quest in search of the softly fascinating qualities of nature. It was found that it's the self-similar patterns in motion, like drifting clouds and leaves swaying in the breeze, that attract our attention. It's the quality of unity in variety in the self-similar patterns as well as the movement of the patterns that lures us in this moment of fascination, creating scenes that are "the same, but never the same."

In a process of experimentation and prototyping, three key elements of design were found to establish the fascinating effect of shimmering light patterns as sunbeams pass through dancing leaves: a light source, two patterns, and physical movement. The integration and refinement of these design elements ultimately resulted in a working prototype called Daze.

Results from the final user test show positive results in regards to Daze's potential for restoration. On a 5-point Likert scale, the average ratings of nine participants for the living room's restorative qualities significantly increased with Daze's presence compared to without. Additionally, the majority of participants mentioned feeling fascinated and relaxed by Daze. 

In conclusion, Daze was designed to enhance indoor spaces' restorative potential by introducing softly fascinating qualities from the outside in. The results have shown that Daze is capable of doing so, thereby providing proof of concept: it's possible to transfer restorative nature experiences by recreating its softly fascinating qualities. 

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.

The goal of this project was to create a new and meaningful product, using Vision in Product design, and Positive Design methods, that could give the Dutch network of financial support organizations directions for improving the financial well-being of adolescents in 2025. The project was hosted by Wijzer in Geldzaken and Geldfit, who both concern themselves with supporting individuals in navigating the complex and fragmented landscape of personal finances in the Netherlands, in order to further national financial well-being. Following the Vision in Product design method, research was conducted towards the driving forces that make up the future context, by collecting factors, discovering clusters, and finally structuring a worldview that can be used to reveal future experiences and behaviors of adolescents in the context of financial well-being. The key characteristics of this future context have been identified as being overwhelming, with a high likelihood of experiencing personal vulnerability, as well as developing financial vulnerability. Through adherence to the Positive Design Manifesto, further research into economics, and clarification of the designer’s opinions about the future context, the designer takes a position on a desired future society. This position is presented as an ambition for a society that supports the well-being of adolescents, illustrated by a number of transformational values and principles that outline how a focus on human flourishing instead of economic flourishing can be realized. Moreover, four visions, that flow from the ambition, are presented on how to improve the individual and social financial well-being of adolescents in 2025. An illustration of how these visions can be used to create transformative products is presented, by outlining the development of a conceptual product. The product facilitates resilience to financial shame experienced in social situations, through the integration of principles from scientific theory, and the stimulation of maintaining small amounts of debt. Finally, a brief letter of advice intends to help individuals and organizations interested in this work to understand how to apply it for themselves.

Happiness is something we, as humans, seek to attain yet we are not entirely familiar with what exactly it means. Typology of fundamental needs (Desmet & Fokkinga, 2020) explains comprehensively, yet detailed enough, the needs we must fulfil in order to be happy. An average person spends a third of their life at work (Pryce-Jones, 2010) and in that one-third of life, how those needs get fulfilled or harmed influences the happiness of an individual. Scholars of positive psychology argue that “positive states help people to thrive, mentally flourish and grow psychologically” (Frederickson, 2001). At the same time, happy people have been proven to be up to 20% more productive (Sgroi, 2015). Therefore, not only as a social responsibility should an organization put their focus on employee happiness but as an economic benefit as well. However, the vast science of happiness and the nature of the context (an organization) makes it an “open” or “wicked” challenge (Bijl-Brouwer et al., 2019). The challenge starts from analyzing happiness of employees within an organization, then introducing initiatives to improve happiness and finally, tracking the progress and effectiveness. However, the current scenario and limitations of happiness within organizations combined with the multi-faceted nature of happiness hints towards an even bigger challenge: achieving a happiness mindset.This project is an attempt to operationalize the typology of fundamental needs within the context of an organization in order to aid in achieving a happiness mindset. Borrowing knowledge from systems thinking and phenomenological hermeneutics, a theoretical framework is developed which is translated into a practical approach and tested on 4 different cases. The learnings and real life narratives obtained from this practical approach are utilized in developing the final outcome: “Ajar Process”. It is a 4 step process: Awareness, Alignment, Action and Acknowledgement. It starts with making the participants aware of the typology of fundamental needs, making them capable of sorting their real life experiences according to the need fulfillment. This awareness is then mutually aligned with all participating individuals, so that the perception of what happiness means in that context is similar for everyone. This prompts meaningful conversations leading everyone into a pro-active attitude, coming up with mutually decided initiatives to improve the happiness through need fulfillment. Eventually, the effectiveness of those initiatives is evaluated and a decision is made which step of the process to go to next. In this way, the process never ends and a repeated use results in a happiness mindset. Design concepts are proposed per step of the Ajar process which aid in executing that step effectively. Ajar process is presented as a service expansion for Emotion Studio (design agency) where they would offer to execute the first sprint of the process within the organization and hand it over to them for future executions.

“It’s a given that parenting is hard work. But when you’re raising a child with special needs, the level of care and stress is not just higher, it shifts the foundations of families and adds unimaginable complexities for everyone involved.” (Pinhorn, 2018, www.gottman.com)This project is developed in collaboration with The Ontzorghuis, a Dutch organisation founded to support parents of children with special needs. This assignment aims to enhance the capabilities of the CSN parents’ community to fulfill their basic psychological needs, which are essential for psychological health and well-being (Decy & Ryan, 2008).Inspired by the Capability approach (Alkire & Deneulin, 2009; Sen, 2004; Nussbaum, 2001) a qualitative study was conducted to evaluate the common capabilities that characterise the CSN parents’ community, as well as the individual practices or paths of success that parents come up with to deal with their challenging circumstances. The study consisted of initial desk research based on the social media expression of CSN parents and remote field research that involved 6 CSN parents who participated in a series of generative research exercises and interviews. An innovative approach for remote user research is presented. It is based on metaphorical visualization exercises that are able to engage a sensitive community with little time available into a conversation about intimate and relevant topics that are often difficult to share.The findings collected from this research narrowed down the scope of this project into the topic of future thinking. Many parents experience fear and anxiety when facing the big unknown that supposes having a life-long dependent child. Their capability to think about the future appears as a decisive factor in their wellbeing. The proposed solution, Future Journeys tool, integrates the concept of Resourcefulness (Giaccardi & Nicenboim, 2018) into the context of future thinking. While the capabilities of this community are significantly reduced, the opposite may happen with their resourcefulness (ability to creatively adapt to challenges for which no commonly agreed solution was available). Future Journeys leverages the creative ways of approaching future thinking of some individuals to expand the perspective of relatable others who, although in similar circumstances, experience a negative relationship with the unknown future. The proposed tool is presented with the shape of a mobile phone application that aims to provide CSN parents with a common language to reflect and share their perspectives about future thinking. The solution promotes self-reflection through an exercise of guided metaphorical thinking and completes the experience with social interactions where the users share their perspectives to inspire others. This solution enhances the basic psychological needs of CSN parents. The impact of the tool on its users’ wellbeing was evaluated taking into account Self Determination Theory’s three fundamental needs. Furthermore, the results provided valuable insight into the potential of the tool to expand the capabilities of the CSN parents’ community and helped to draw further recommendations for the future development of the tool.

The term ‘polarization’ has become well-known in the public debate. In January 2019, the SCP (Netherlands Institute for Social Research) reported that 77% of the Dutch citizens think disagreements on social issues increase. As we mostly hear and see the more extreme and opposing sides in the media, it seems like society is divided about many issues. Polarization can be defined as ‘sharpening of opposites between groups in society that can result in tensions between these groups and increased segregation’. In a polarized society, one is either positive or negative, with little space for more nuanced emotional awareness. Yet, all of our thoughts, motivations and behaviours are influenced by our emotions. Emotion Studio, a research and innovation agency, developed an instrument to measure nuanced emotion profiles on products: PrEmo. This thesis aims for a new application of PrEmo on social issues, in which the method leads to a better emotional understanding in the public debate and acts as the key to unlock people’s concerns that are hidden behind viewpoints. PrEmo is a non-verbal self-report tool that measures seven positive and negative emotions, expressed as 14 cartoons. The project focuses on news media organisations, that can serve as the first communicators of society’s perspectives. The influence of media on polarization was analysed through desk research, a literature study and interviews with media, experts and news consumers. Four key problems were defined, addressing potential fields for change: 1) an unnoticed majority of perspectives, 2) little emotional awareness 3) nuance is lost as news must be clear and attractive to be read and sold, 4) diverging interpretations of reality. Subsequently, a design vision was created: "Design to reduce the perception of polarization by enabling Dutch citizens to explore and contribute to the variety of society’s perspectives on social themes, using emotional awareness." The final design proposal, Perspective News, is an online platform on which Dutch citizens can explore society’s perspectives. Perspective News consists of an emotion measurement survey based on PrEmo, that captures people’s emotions and concerns after reading a news article, and a platform, integrated into existing news media website, that displays the captured perspectives. The design realizes 1) an accessible possibility for participation and 2) an inclusive image of society’s perspectives. Perspective News provides a stage to everyone, not just the extremes. The platform of Perspective News helps to get a sense of what a significant amount of society thinks and feels. Perspective News also enables users to compare their perspective to others and supports personal reflection. A communication strategy and implementation roadmap complement the design proposal. The concept was positively evaluated by end-users, media editors and experts. For further development of the concept, recommendations are suggested. Perspective News can be a first step towards reducing the perception of polarization, by amplifying the variety of perspectives that exist in society, which opens the way to the ultimate goal: supporting mutual understanding and empathy as foundation for a solidary society.

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 risks. This project aims to propose a repertoire of meaningful voice interactions that mitigate those impacts and foster well-being instead. To achieve this, a categorisation of seven dangers of voice interactions was created based on literature review: impoliteness, aggressiveness, gender stereotyping, exposure, shallow mindedness, emotional dependency and social detachment. Each danger was analysed to define which of the fundamental human needs of the Self-Determination Theory they harm: autonomy, competence and relatedness. This theory proposes that people experience well-being when these three needs are satisfied. Also, a phase of exploratory research was conducted, combining established research methods such as user interviews with emerging More-Than-Human design approaches in the form of Thing Ethnography. The findings inspired the ideation phase, where more than 70 ideas were created to prevent the dangers of smart speakers. These ideas were clustered, filtered and remotely tested with participants who expressed their perceptions and examined the potential impact on the fundamental human needs. The resulting data revealed the interaction concepts perceived as most meaningful, which served as the basis for the final repertoire of voice interactions. The repertoire includes design guidelines, traps to avoid, in-depth analysis and reflective questions to guide ideation. Its goal is to serve as a tool for designers and researchers involved in voice-related projects to foster well-being by designing more humane voice interactions. It was designed to be shared as an online platform and a booklet, but its content could take various forms beyond those.

This project aims to design an opportunity for helping Catholic LGBT+ members to merge their faith with their sexuality harmoniously. To tackle this complex issue, a detailed research phase was necessary. The desk research analyzed the current situation of Catholic LGBT+ members in Italy. In particular, the research focused on the current position of the Roman Catholic Church, and how this influences the target group’s wellbeing. It has been analyzed the concept of spiritual abuse, how it influences Catholic LGBT+ members’ internalized homophobia and the consequences of these behaviors on the target group’s faith. Furthermore, this chapter determined how faith is connected with spirituality and religion. All these data created the base for the research in Italy.
The primary research investigated the experiences of Catholics LGBT+ members in the context. Its analysis created different persona profiles within the target group and summarized different dilemmas they experience or have experienced. These were used to decide a more specific direction for the following stages. At the end of the analysis phase, the project had a specific direction: Switch perspective of SMALL SIBLINGS from a God that condemns homosexuality to a loving and accepting One by nurturing A feeling of guidance by building up
a trustworthy connection with BIG SIBLINGS A feeling of belonging by associating them with people alike A feeling of hope by inspiring them by the experiences of BIG SIBLINGS A feeling of protection by providing them a safe space to relate with BIG SIBLINGS To help the designer achieve this, an interaction vision has been created, both to inspire the idea generation phase and to produce a method to test the final solution. During this stage, the outcomes form two different ideation session has been used to create possible design directions to match the design goal. Eventually, it has been decided to develop a digital service combined with a ritual: “La Corrente”. The solution boosts reflections of Small Siblings by providing them a space to interact with Big Siblings and to question negative believes they have towards their sexuality and faith. In the designed scenario, “La Corrente” can be downloaded “La Tenda di Gionata”, the main websites that Catholic Homosexuals use as a reference. After that, they get assigned to a Big Sibling based on personal information. When the time for the conversation comes, the Small Sibling starts the conversation by sending an audio message to answers to the question “Why do I think God loves me less as an LGBT+ member?”. Big Siblings will reply with video messages in which they share a similar experience related to that topic. After this conversation, Big Siblings provides material to Small Siblings for reinforcing personal reflections. Small Siblings will perform the ritual of “La Corrente” every time a negative thought has been changed. The solution was tested. The experience with “La Corrente” was positive. The feedbacks were analyzed to understand how to develop the project further.

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 incorporating modern technologies the relationship between citizens and governmental bodies are not improving. To date, service optimizations focusses on improving efficiency, accessibility and transparency. A problem-driven approach might achieve in a state of neutrality. However, the goal of the thesis is concerned with enhancing well-being of citizens in the municipal service center. Reducing or preventing inconveniences does not promises increased well-being. Moving into the positive zone requires a different strategy: a positive design approach. Activities make up 40% of our happiness level and are vital to our well-being. By investigating what people experience during these activities, possibilities will arise to enhance well-being. Analyzing people’s micro-emotions yielded 144 emotional events that elucidate that people experience one positive on two negative emotions. Dissatisfaction, confusion and unpleasant surprise make up for 23% of negative emotions while satisfaction makes up for 47% of positive emotions. Emotional events are either beneficiary or harmful to our needs. The universal need for Acknowledgement and Ease are carrying the majority of negative emotions in the current situation. However, an opportunity is found in contributing to a sense of belonging when framing interactions in a municipal service center of well-being. It aims to bring municipality and citizens closer, shape trusting relationships and aims to provide citizens a feeling that they are accepted and part of a bigger whole. Creating a sense of belonging is put at its core to design a positive and meaningful moment that contributes to people’s well-being. With many concerns in the context, a dilemma driven approach was applied that juxtapositions people’s concerns to inspire ideation. A concept was created that introduces a positive moment in the waiting room. The concept keeps track of people’s appointments, and meanwhile people can listen to stories that stimulate a sense of connectedness in citizens. An iterative process resulted in a final concept that was tested with 12 people. User test concluded that the prototype evoked only positive emotions, one rich experience and it contributed slightly to a sense of connectedness. Altogether, the concept positively created a moment that elevates people, making them feel connected to others and shed a fresh perspective that broadened people’s horizon.

This report is the result of a self-initiated design graduation project that regarded positive design in a strategic design context. The goal of the project was to design and develop a tool or method that integrates positive design knowledge into strategic design processes. To get to the bottom of this, desk research and user research into the domains of strategic and positive design were conducted. Research presented opportunities to apply happiness interventions on multiple strategic levels of a product-service system. These opportunities were developed into an overview, the positive strategic design (PSD) framework. Research also presented several strategically viable implications to communicate the happiness interventions. The chosen strategy was one that was directed at design students. The students are the bridge between theory and practice and can potentially improve engagement with positive design in both areas. The strategy was to create a solution that included principles from both strategic design and positive design and incorporated the PSD framework. The final design included a tool in the form of website and a printable card set and were developed to give users the same value independent of the format that they use. Moreover, people can download the card set through the website, making it easier to use and discuss the happiness interventions in a group. The website can be accessed via https://positivestrategicdesign.com

Smartphones have become an inseparable gadget and beneficial tool in our lives. Imagining a future without them would truly be impossible. When a new technology arrives, society needs time to adjust and become aware of the impact products have on people and our ways of behaving.. This always takes time. In the case of smartphones, the last few years have shown a growing amount of literature, media, researchers and most successful people in the world give attention to the negative effects and developments smartphones and social media has had on many people around the world. This thesis did even so, but has as final goal to create awareness, stir debate and provoke reflection within the audience about the subject. To do so we used design as tool. This particular movement is called Critical Design. Through an extensive literature research the present effects and developments in different areas of expertise were identified, such as the cognitive area, psychological, physiological, and social. From a user study empirical data related to the matter was collected, the way people feel, think and experience their own relationships to their phones. Combined, these scientific findings led to five interesting themes that we transformed into a smartphone manifesto, which could then be used as basis for the idea generation. The Social Paradox, The Loss of Solitude, Your Internal Friction, Your Divided Attention, The Addiction. For each theme, one design has been made. The final outcome of this thesis is a collection of five critical designs, from which three have been developed into prototypes. As part of these designs, narratives have been created in the form of commercial like videos, setting the context and adding to the completeness of the design concepts. By combining personal perceptions towards society with scientific evidence and empirical data, a translation from a very scientific background towards a more artistic way of designing was made. There was no prior process similar to the one taken in this thesis, which allowed a very open, new and free way of going through the design process. In a qualitative final evaluation, 8 people were interviewed in order to find out if the critical designs provoked them and created critical reflections towards our own behaviors and relations to smartphones within society.

One of the most enriching relationships of human beings is the relationship between owner and companion-animal, including more specifically the relationship between owner and cat. Cats are the third-most important source for social support and security for human-beings. Cats are relatively easy to take care of and make people feel needed. Owners often see them as a friend, child or partner in the relationship.
Cats have similar emotions as humans, which lays a foundation for the relationship; they express emotions, however, quite differently. Therefore, owner and cat don’t always understand each other, which often results in confusion, frustration, annoyance and uncertainty in the owner.
The relationship between owner and cat is an emotional one, full with positive and negative interactions. Too many negative interactions could, in fact, eventually lead to an abrupt termination of the relationship.
This project is about the development of the owner-cat relationship and what leads up to the unexpected termination of it: when an owner decides to give up the relationship and surrender the cat to the shelter.
The decision to owner-surrender is often grounded in several reasons of the owner. What are some of the reasons that owners decide to surrender their cat? What problems may arise in the relationship? How does the relationship work? And what emotions play a role in the relationship?
To answer these questions, this project maps the emotional of journey of owners with their cats and explores the interactions and behavior of owner and cat during this journey. With these findings as a guide, a design is created, Telltail, which is a product meant to help new owners understand their cat’s behavior and personality to increase the bond between owner and cat.

Empathy is an essential part of a collaboration and is often referred to in the design field. Not only it helps designers to step into their users’ shoes, but it also smoothens the communication between the designer and their stakeholder, client and, team members. If empathy is so important for collaboration in design and establishing human-centered working alliances, how come, then the focus is mainly on the user research and how come designers are not taught of the related skills, attitudes and behaviors? The gap in the design education field about empathy training for professional contexts creates an opportunity for design. In this project based on knowledge from multidisciplinary literature review, the following design goal has been formulated: designing a training material which can be used in the educational setting by design educators & coaches to help design students increase their awareness of the six key attention points of empathy as a design skill.’’To create the basis of the training material, a long list of skills, attitudes and behaviors related to empathy is structured from fields of healthcare, human-centered therapy, business, social and positive psychology and design. Then, in collaboration with the design educators and design students from the Delft University of Technology, the long list has been scaled down to six key attention points; willingness, active listening & attending, open-mindedness, embracing differences, sensitivity and holistic view.With the inspiration of training methods used in above-mentioned fields, these six attention points are used in the ideation rounds as the basis of the training concept. After several iterations, the concept is refined and tested with design students. ‘‘Empathy as A Design Skill : Practicing Six Key Attention Points’’ is a training material set consisting of printable materials which are designed to be used during the five steps; describe, internalize, sensitize, apply and evaluate. Each attention point is described with examples, internalized with exercises and the students are sensitized with homework each week. After six of the attention points are introduced, a real-life interview is arranged as a means of applying the six attention points. This interview is asked to be video recorded which is used for the final step; evaluate in which the design students are asked to reflect on their performance. The final test for user evaluation with design students reveals that this self-reflective training material helps design students to be more conscious of the attention points then, recognize these points both in their professional life and their daily lives.

This project was initiated with the support of the Design for Animal Lab in TU Delft. By concerning the well-being of both animals and human being, this project focused on the inputs from the human side to contribute to an excellent dog-human relationship.
The goal of this project was to facilitate adopters in adopting a shelter dog, to enhance the new human-animal bond which would benefit to the shelter dogs' welfare and enrich the owner-pet relationship. To support the adopters in their adoption process of facing the challenges and enjoying the rewards in rehoming shelter dogs. This project focuses on the adoption experience of the adopters who adopted dogs from the shelters, and how to optimize the experience to improve both the adopters’ commitment in taking care of the adopted shelter dogs and the shelter dogs’ wellbeing.

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 after receiving the gift. Inspired by the value of gift exchanging and the findings of Positive Design (the study of how design can contribute to human flourishing), Emotion/Studio started some explorative work to study qualities of meaningful gifts, which refers to the gifts that contribute to the well-being of recipient. The objective of this graduation project was to develop a practical online gift-selecting tool that can help people find “meaningful gifts” for their recipients.

The final concept is Meaningful Gift website. It is a platform that offers users with diverse gift-planning
toolkits. It targets on giving inspirations, escorting explorations instead of suggesting or marketing
goods. Users can use the tools by starting a “gift project”, this function is also designed to allow them tracking their previous works. Two of the most essential tools of this website is “Get gift ideas” and “Weave a gift story”, which focus on finding gifts and creating gift accessories respectively. Both tools are consist of multiple explorative steps, users will complete these tasks with the help of visual and textual stimuli.