The Port of Rotterdam operates within a fragmented innovation ecosystem in which strategic decisions are often made at a global level, while social legitimacy and public support are obtained locally. Although social value is often formulated as a strategic priority, it is rarely operationalised in the daily practice of innovation teams. This results in a structural gap between port-driven innovation and the daily reality of the surrounding neighbourhoods. This thesis addresses this gap by designing a strategic orchestration approach that makes social value explicit, readable and traceable at the neighbourhood level. Using a phase-based design research approach that combines Frame Creation and an iterative Triple Diamond logic, the research integrates ecosystem analysis, neighbourhood grounding through qualitative research and co-creation with stakeholders. The result is the Impact Map Port of Rotterdam system: a hybrid physical-digital boundary object that facilitates dialogue about how innovations relate to neighbourhood needs in four dimensions: living, working, experience and safety.

The Impact Map works through a recurring process of structured input collection, facilitated mapping sessions and digital consolidation. It is explicitly positioned as a conversation and interpretation tool rather than a KPI or evaluation tool. Validation with district managers, innovators and the innovation team PoR demonstrates a high degree of desirability, as the system supports shared understanding, early risk reflection and more informed communication about social impacts. Feasibility is ensured by a lightweight governance structure that requires limited organisational capacity, while viability is supported by complementary positioning alongside existing strategic and technical frameworks.

The thesis contributes to design practice in complex stakeholder environments by introducing societal legibility as a design goal. It shows how design can support coordination, not through optimisation or measurement, but through shared interpretation and structured dialogue, keeping industrial innovation credible and responsive at the scale of everyday urban life. ... Read more

Research shows family caregivers involved in palliative care are not yet supported to the desired extent. Therefore, the Leiden University Medical Centre (LUMC) started the Oog voor Naasten en Nabestaanden (ON2) project, a Palliantieproject financed by ZonMw. The ON2 project helps healthcare organizations with improving the care for family caregivers in their organization. Currently, the LUMC supports organizations in setting up and carrying out their projects. From 2024 onwards, organizations need to independently use the ON2 toolkit 3.0 to set up their own projects. However, the current ON2 toolkit 2.0 is not guiding and supporting enough for organizations to use it without any external support.

The aim of this graduation project is to create a redesign of the ON2 toolkit 2.0 that supports and guides users throughout the new ON2 trajectory 3.0. Qualitative research is conducted with six healthcare organizations, to map the current ON2 trajectory 2.0, the available support and experiences of participants.

The qualitative research indicates that project teams of different healthcare settings express a preference for compact and visual information, support when orientating and setting up their projects, and a well-structured ON2 toolkit 3.0. Moreover, the willingness of healthcare professionals to provide care to family caregivers plays a crucial role in the successful implementation of ON2.

A desired vision was formulated and used as starting point for the ideation and conceptualization phase. The vision aims at increasing the awareness of healthcare professionals on the added values of ON2 for themselves and making the redesign more accessible, guiding, supportive, inspiring and user-friendly.

The final concept of the ON2 toolkit 3.0 has four main features. Firstly, informing users about the ON2 trajectory 3.0. Secondly, providing the ON2 materials. Thirdly, inspiring users about the ON2 trajectory 3.0 by sharing experiences of participants. Lastly, creating a profile to independently perform the ON2 trajectory 3.0 and set up your own project.

The final concept was tested on the basis of two qualitative interviews and a questionnaire (n=8). The target group was very positive about the concept and experienced the new toolkit as structured, intuitive, clear, user-friendly, visually pleasing, calm and inviting. A roadmap was created for the LUMC to further develop and realize the ON2 toolkit 3.0.

Some limitations in this graduation project are the amount of users that were interviewed and involved in the test sessions, the concept is not tested with all healthcare settings and it was not feasible to test the concept in practice. Therefore, the concept cannot be guaranteed to be effective in every context and for independent use.

It is recommended that the LUMC conducts test pilots with current and new organizations before launching the ON2 toolkit 3.0, and after the launch collects feedback from users to further optimize the toolkit. In addition, the LUMC should make clear agreements with stakeholders about the management and maintenance of the toolkit. Lastly, it is recommended to add content incrementally, starting with the most essential content and adding more content over time to make the toolkit more guiding and supportive.
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The pharmaceutical industry is responsible for 52 megatons of CO2 eq. per year (Belkhir & Elmeligy, 2019). The autoinjector, a device that aids in the self-administration of medication, is a product that belongs to this specific sector and emits 164 gr CO2 eq. per device originating from the use of raw materials in its production. In order to decrease the carbon footprint of this device a more circular approach is needed. One specific circular strategy is discussed namely, recycling. According to Plastic Recyclers Europe (2019), recycling plastic parts reduces the environmental footprint. Recycling knows two different methods namely, mechanical and chemical recycling.
Mechanical recycling of a single material stream is an established form of recycling, that has the best ability to reduce emissions, and has the preference of experts
In contrast, chemical recycling of which the most desirable sub-process called depolymerisation, only has the ability to recycle three plastics that reside within the product. Therefore, chemical recycling cannot be used as the sole process to recycle the materials of the autoinjector.
From four scenarios that were presented to Alliance to Zero was confirmed that mechanical recycling of single material streams had the preference. In addition, the single material streams should be obtained through the disassembly of the product and the early separation of its components.
These conclusions were used to construct a value chain that further explained which routes materials had to follow in order to get them to a recycler. Developing the value chain requires resources such as machinery and a physical space. However, due to the expected growth in production and therefore collection numbers of the autoinjector, some machines were suggested to switch towards a more industrialised process later on in the strategy.
In addition, the amount of value captured through this process was optimized by looking at the recyclability of the materials. During this exploration, the polymers PA and POM were defined as plastics that are difficult to recycle. As a result, based on polymer specific properties, it was suggested that the PA component (5) could also be made with the polymer PBT, and the components made from POM (4, 7, 9, 10) with PC.
Additionally, the plastic supplier and recycler Sabic was highlighted as an important partner in both returning plastic components to be entered into mechanical recycling, and helping increase the use of mechanically recycled plastic in the production of new devices. As a result, a partially closed loop was obtained.

To aid in the realization of the value chain, a strategic and material specific roadmap and a sustainable business model that communicate the strategic and entrepreneurial decisions were provided.
Realizing the value chain resulted in 76,9 to 100 % of the autoinjectors materials being recycled and 39,03 to 51,17 % of its materials being circular.
Consequently, value was created through a decrease in emissions of 32,21 to 46,17 g CO2 during the production of each autoinjector and the reuse of its valuable materials.

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This report describes the graduation project for the MSc program Strategic Product Design. The client in this project is Etro Vastgoedzorg, a real estate maintenance company. Etro has a need for having and providing overview on client satisfaction, with the clients being several large housing corporations. To create this overview, the initial research was conducted on which factors were essential for the client satisfaction by performing interviews with several clients. These interviews and further research led to the conclusion that the relationship of both actors can be improved by a different way of working, but first there is a need for making steps in terms of building trust. This led to further research on building trust in inter-organizational relationships and concluded in a measurement model on relational succes factors. To master these factors, a handbook has been made for implementing co-creation in the way of collaborating of the relationship. Both the measurement model and the implementation of co-creation have become building blocks for creating long term relationships, based on mutual goals and mutual trust. The conclusion of this research is that by using the two objects of measuring and co-creating, both actors (Etro and Client) can build actively and cooperatively towards improving their relation. ... Read more

The aim of this thesis was to design an ‘Episode Builder’ toolkit which facilitates filmmakers to easily create a wide variety of episodes that all contain at least one educational response moment for 1.5-3-years-olds while meeting parents’ concerns. Additionally, four different response moments were designed which trigger the child to actively engage with the content. These response moments were integrated within the toolkit’s concept.

During the analysis phase, extensive literature studies and an interview with a pedagogue resulted in an overview of context-dependent design opportunities and threats that would affect the educational value of watching television, spread over the six core elements of the framework. Context mapping research with Dutch families found that it was most common that parents let their toddler watch TV when the parent requires his full attention on another activity during the day. However, parents are bothered that their child wasn’t actively thinking about the presented content on television. Therefore, a design goal, an interaction vision and 18 design guidelines were formulated for creating educational and actively engaging episodes, which resulted in the design of four different response moments which a toddler can safely perform without the parent’s supervision.

When evaluating Pixifox Animation’s first storyboards, it was found that filmmakers integrated too many features within their storyboards which are too complicated for the viewer. Two design principles were formulated in which the toolkit should 1) facilitate filmmakers to explore essential features around a central theme, and integrate these features within their storyboard, and 2) fit the filmmaker’s creative process. These design guidelines, and the integration of the response moments, resulted in the toolkit’s final concept, consisting of five templates.

A validation study with 6 participants was set up to clarify whether the toolkit is able to facilitate filmmakers to create a great variety of educational storyboards around different central themes. In pairs of two, participants worked with five laminated paper templates to create an educational storyboard containing one response moment around a chosen theme.

The Episode Builder found to be able to facilitate filmmakers to create various educational storyboards which all include one response moment around different central themes. Participants had a clear idea about what the story’s essence and learning goal should be, which a toddler can comprehend. However, some educational value was lost, since the toolkit failed to facilitate the participants to translate these features into visual shots which aren’t overwhelming for the viewer. The activity was reviewed as insightful, probably easy to use after the first use, and somewhat repetitive.
Future tests should involve participants who are willing to the toolkit several times for four hours to validate if a 3-5 minute storyboard can be created within this timeframe and gain insight which types of themes can be explored with the toolkit.

Design explorations are recommended about how the toolkit can be introduced more efficiently, be more efficient in use when creativity isn’t required, and how parent and child could reflect on the episode’s content in other activities to elevate the educational value. ... Read more

To achieve the ambition of providing a 9+ experience for every passenger, the Passenger Experience Platform develops concepts that improve on impactful touchpoints of the passenger journey. Increasing the passenger satisfaction contributes to the ambition of Schiphol to become Europe’s preferred airport. The departure gates are impactful touchpoints that currently receive relatively low satisfaction scores. Therefore, this project focuses on creating a memorable waiting experience at the gates by reducing the perceived length of waiting time. Research shows that emotions dominate while waiting and that positive emotions at the end of an experience can improve overall satisfaction. This indicates the importance of enhancing the emotional state of the passengers to improve their perception of waiting time and contribute to a 9+ experience.

Research shows that distraction possibilities and exhilarating ambient conditions seem to lack at the G-gates, while these play an important role in improving the passengers’ emotional state. Distractions can make the waiting experience of the passengers more memorable; for example, entertainment and beautiful and eye-catching objects can distract from feelings of discomfort and boredom. Certain design qualities of the am¬biance can also impact the passengers’ emotional state. This project aims to design a distraction that improves the ambiance. The focus will be on evoking positive and desired product-human interactions, because these have shown to be very important in stimulating positive emotions. An airport terminal is designed to reduce stress. However, most passengers experience the current G-gates as being plain functional, impersonal and boring, and, regardless of the intended purpose of the current terminal design, still feel restless. Studies show that adding some complexity and unique colors to a coherent environment increases its liking and stimulates positivity. Passenger analyses show the need for more exciting, warm, relaxed and personal interactions. At the same time, it is also identified that the distraction should only be moderate as passengers should not be withheld from activities they want and need to perform. Research shows that the identified design qualities and types of interactions may lead to the following positive emotions: feeling enchanted, amused, relaxed, dreamy, at ease and connected. During the project, some design interventions were tested, having the potential of creating the desired interactions and emotions. More insights were gathered on how to create the desired interactions, but also on what type of distraction passengers want to engage in. The results of these experiments have led to the creation of a concept proposal that is tested with the passengers at the G-gates by means of an experiential prototype. ‘FLIP’ offers a moderate distraction for passengers waiting at the G-gates of Schiphol. Stimulus seekers can modify the ambiance around them by flipping colored window filters to another color, thereby leaving a personal pattern. The eye-catching and unique appearance improves the ambiance of the G-gates because it adds some complexity to the coherent and boring environment. Passengers will feel enchanted and amused because they are able to create special effects with bright colors. The warm light in a fluent dynamic design enhances relaxation. FLIP allows passengers to connect with the environment. Their perception of waiting time is improved; for a moment, passengers forget that they are waiting at an airport. ... Read more

This project is about digitalising the boarding process in the future context for KLM. This project has four phases: Research by explore the context and understand the stakeholders, Define the future vision and roadmap, Design a digital interface for the first horizon in the roadmap and lastly evaluation of the digital prototype. In the research phase, multiple research methods were conducted. The research phase has two parts, understanding the process and understanding the user. To get a thorough understanding of the process, internal documents reading, observation and expert interviews were conducted. After these research activities, the first list of problems was made, based on my personal perceiving. Afterwards, to understand how the stakeholders think about current process and tools, and also what is their desired future, more research was done with the three stakeholders: gate agents, managers and passengers. According to the results, the list of problems was revised adding the problems agents perceived. Besides the list of problems, a main problem was redefined for later design phase. In the second phase, a vision in five years were come up with, with three horizons step by step. The vision was designed considering all the different visions from different stakeholders and aiming at solving the main problem from research phase. Based on the vision and trends analysis, a cocreation session was conducted with four students, to generate ideas in this scope. Later, the ideas were mapped and divided into three horizons according to the importance and feasibility. The third phase started from looking deep into the first horizon in the roadmap. A design brief and a list of requirements were designed, under the context of the first horizon. Ideas were generated and finally two concepts were designed. After validating the two concepts with experts (two gate agents and a shiftleader), one concept was chosen for iteration. And iteration was made based on experts’ feedback. Later on, a high-fidelity interactive prototype was made to describe the functions and to prepare the final user test. The last phase is user test and evaluation. Five gate agents as well as two service agents were recruited randomly to the test. Due to technical limitation, participants were asked to pretend to work using the prototype and give feedback about the design. Based on the interviews and questionnaires, the data analysis was conducted. The result shows that agents rate a high score for the user experience of the new prototype. The prototype is regarded as supportive, proactive and in control in general. Based on the feedback from the user test, improvements were made to finalize the design. Moreover, the conclusions were drawn for the whole project and recommendations were provided for the company. ... Read more

A graduation opportunity was given by the start-up Buyproxy who are developing a financial app. The assignment was formulated as designing a user centered solution for the application, focussing on user engagement, to trigger the desired behavior change.

Based on user research within the analysis phase, it was concluded that there are four kinds of origins for financial problems: Lack of financial education, abrupt change, living in the now and yearn to belong. It was decided to focus on only one origin for the this project which resulted in millennials who are living in the now as the target group. Among other things, this group is characterized by yearning for instant gratification.

A small research on their spending behaviour showed that feeling overconfident and misinterpretation of one’s balance leads to various ways of overspending. Therefore a design goal was formulated which would serve as the foundation for the creative process:

“I want people to feel self-conscious and composed while spending money and/or making financial decisions”.

As a result from several design and research activities, it was decided to revolve the design concept around strengthening delayed gratification as opposed to instant gratification.

The challenge was in doing this without trying to change the users’ lifestyle completely. The new design guides the user to shortly engage with creating future visions and reminds him/her of them while using the app (Flashforwards), in order to convey financially effective decisions. The main functionality of Buyproxy’s app namely, budgeting is now served as a tool instead of the main focus of the app. Throughout the entire experience of using the app, it aims to influence the decisions of the user without imposing limitations or rules. In addition, the concept contains usability adjustments mostly for using budgets and doing payments, which are more tailored to the behavior of the target group.

In more detail, the solution entails a budgeting system that is optimized for millennials living in the now. Particular in-app and automated actions trigger a Flashforward to appear. Besides the visual reminder of the future self, they also show financial feedback to encourage the user to make the right financial decisions.

Based on the results from an evaluation test it can be concluded that the main functions and interactions of the new design, concerning budgeting, are an improvement of the current app and relevant for the targeted user.



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