The media landscape is changing rapidly as technological developments and shifting audience behaviours reshape how news is produced, accessed, and consumed. While these shifts are widely recognised, it remains unclear how these developments may manifest for audiences of digital news platforms.

This graduation project is conducted in collaboration with NU.nl, a Dutch digital news platform. To define a meaningful strategic design direction for NU.nl within the changing landscape, the project is positioned as a foresight project that explores how the relationship between people and digital news may change. Therefore, the project explored the following research question: what kind of relationship between people and digital news could be meaningful for NU.nl in an AI-driven media landscape five years from now, and how can conceptual design help realise it?

The Vision in Product (ViP) method provided the main structure. First, NU.nl’s current product, interaction, organisation, and historical context were deconstructed to understand the qualities and constraints embedded in the existing platform. The future-oriented designing phase then investigated the domain of the daily digital news experience in an increasingly AI-driven Dutch media landscape, five years from now. Through seven expert interviews, interviews with current NU.nl users and Gen Z news consumers, literature and media research, and a knowledge event, 135 context factors were collected and synthesised into fifteen clusters.

Two dimensions emerged from these clusters: the logic through which news reaches people (answer logic, platform logic, and editor-led logic) and the different ways in which people orient themselves towards news (immersed, need-driven, deliberate). Combining these dimensions resulted in a framework of nine possible future relationships between people and digital news. Based on the designer’s perspective, NU.nl’s competencies, and its existing strategic direction, a deliberate, editor-led relationship was selected as the preferred direction. This was captured in the vision statement: NU.nl and I want people to deliberately choose a news relationship, day after day: a relationship where editorial responsibility is demonstrated and people feel genuinely heard.

The vision statement was translated into five interaction qualities (Sustained, Chosen, Focused, Mutual, Human) and five corresponding product qualities (Remembering, Adjustable, Guiding, Consequential, Embodied). These guided a portfolio of five concepts within NU.nl’s existing platform: NU.nl Collega’s Profielen, Mijn NU Archief, DeelNUkennis, Mijn Relatie-instellingen, and the Impact-filter.

High-fidelity prototypes were evaluated through ten validation sessions with NU.nl users. The sessions indicated perceived value across the concepts, while also revealing tensions around AI, privacy, personalisation, and changes to familiar news behaviour. These findings informed a set of design principles that guided the final concepts and can continue to support future design decisions. Combining the perceived user value of the concepts with their indicative organisational effort resulted in a three-horizon roadmap that sequences their development towards the guiding vision.

Overall, the project provides NU.nl with a way to navigate an uncertain news future. The framework functions as a strategic map that NU.nl can use to recognise changing relationships over time. The vision, concepts, design principles, and roadmap provide tangible starting points for gradually moving towards this strategic direction over the coming five years. ... Read more

The Port of Santa Fe was once a major hub for both domestic and international trade, but changing river dynamics have reduced its accessibility and economic importance. As a result, the port now faces the challenge of redefining its role and exploring new functions that reconnect the port with the public. The Dyke 2 waterfront in the Port of Santa Fe, is currently in a deteriorated and underdeveloped state, lacking essential public facilities, accessible green spaces, and safe access to the river. Most importantly, the site faces severe riverbank instability, confirmed by a calculated Safety Factor (SF) of 0.67.

This report presents an integrated vision and technical design for the sustainable redevelopment of the project site area, commissioned as an advisory document for the Ente Administrador del Puerto de Santa Fe (EAPSF). The project employed a strategic track, guided by four pillars, and a slope protection track, using a Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) to select a solution, resulting in a design containing both technical stability and a public urban concept.

The resulting urban concept, The Santa Fe Riverside Park, serves as a project embodying the strategic vision. The design integrates adaptive infrastructure, including stepped terraces and docking places, engineered to accommodate significant seasonal river fluctuations. This concept is supported by the delivery of a 15-year long-term roadmap. The unstable slope is protected using an ecosystem-friendly Articulated Concrete Block mattress system, improving the calculated sliding SF from 0.67 to 1.9, and achieving an erosion SF of 2.10.
Finally, the report provides the Port Authority with a strategic foundation of recommendations to realise the project.
... Read more