Citizen science, an approach where the general public collaborates with academic researchers to contribute to scientific research, offers significant benefits for both science and society. Despite its potential, the field faces significant challenges that limit its impact, particularly in maintaining participant motivation. Additionally, citizen science projects often struggle with issues related to cost, especially when they incorporate physical measuring instruments. Limited budgets typically result in instruments that lack robustness, usability, and scalability, further diminishing participant engagement, and in turn, the overall effectiveness of citizen science initiatives. These challenges formed the foundation of the project’s goal: design a measuring instrument for citizen science to enhance engagement.

Collaborating with design studio Dott Achilles, the project explored not only the technical and user-centred aspects of the design, but also the question whether commercialization could facilitate broader participation. The goal was to develop a product that could lower barriers to participation and increase incentives for both researchers and participants while adhering to the core principles of citizen science, such as transparency, ethical data use, and inclusivity.

To inform the design process, a comprehensive analysis of citizen science was conducted, combining a literature review with stakeholder interviews to identify key principles, challenges, and opportunities for improvement. This research led to the development of a vision for a modular, scalable and user-friendly product-service system that could engage a diverse range of participants across varying contexts, balancing the needs of citizen scientists, researchers, and local organizers.

Through an iterative process involving exploring, prototyping, testing, and refinement, a final product emerged centred around a physical measuring instrument. The instrument features customizable sensor modules and various mounting options, enabling deployment in numerous contexts, including outdoor residential and natural settings. Its plug-and-play design ensures accessibility for users, regardless of their technical expertise. The design adopts a stylized, friendly, and approachable aesthetic that aligns with citizen science principles and increases adaptability. Additionally, the design incorporates elements to inform non-participating, ambient users, stimulating trust and transparency. The robust, scalable, and repairable design allows the instrument to be reused across multiple projects, reducing environmental impact and enabling new financial models.

An integrated online platform complements the physical instrument. Features such as real-time data visualization, personalized feedback, and tools for data exploration and comparison were explored at a functional level, aiming to enhance participants’ motivation by acknowledging the critical role of their contributions. Particular attention was given to the interactive installation help that utilizes the instrument’s design cues to guide users during installation. This feature, alongside the instrument’s general usability, was validated through a usability study and expert reviews.

This thesis demonstrates how design can address the challenges of citizen science, particularly in relation to physical measuring instruments. By creating an impactful product that empowers citizens, enhances engagement, and supports local organizers, the project contributes to maximizing the scientific and societal impact of citizen science.

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.

Grief is a complex experience without a specific endpoint. It follows a unique path for each person. Many support sources are available, but finding support that fits is difficult. This inspired Verening Leven met Dood to develop the Rouw Wegwijzer, an online platform that provides personalised grief support. The focus of this thesis is to develop the platform from a user-centred perspective, specifically focusing on emerging adults who have lost a parent while not residing at home, a demographic for whom grief can wield a disruptive, life-altering impact.

The idea that grief has a set route and an end status of acceptance is a persistent, untrue belief in society. This shapes how bereaved think about their grief, how they are supported and what they expect from support. Contrary to this misconception, grief does not have a definitive end-point; rather, it involves a gradual and evolving understanding of the loss.

Effective grief support refrains from attempting to “fix” grief but rather acknowledges the bereaved and their experiences. Conversely, unhelpful support consists of offering unsolicited or paternalistic advice and attempting to solve the grief, approaches that contradict acknowledgement.

In this thesis, several research and design activities have been conducted to understand what grief is and what kind of support is considered supportive. Additionally, co-designing activities with the target group were conducted to find out what services are desirable for an online grief platform and how the interaction with the platform should be.

It was identified that grief support can have many forms, but usually is shaped as conversations or text. However, talking about grief can be difficult, due to the topic being taboo, making the bereaved untrained in expressing themselves and their needs. Generative sessions with the target group revealed “Recognition” as a promising design direction. Bereaved can expand their emotional vocabulary, by recognizing their emotions and experiences in the expressions of others, ultimately leading to a deeper comprehension of their grief. This led to the following design goal: “We want to offer bereaved emerging adults a place to explore their (understanding and expression of) grief, via recognition in others’ understanding and expressions.”

The final design is a platform that leverages recognition to uncover and identify grief experiences that might be difficult to put into words. It allows users to explore what is important for them while exploring and collecting varied content about grief, captured in texts, audio, images and videos. Based on the collected content, and the themes discussed in it, an overview is created of which themes seem relevant for the user. Then, per theme, the user can access information and support.

The platform’s unique approach, transitioning from “exploring based on feelings” to a “structured and supportive” overview of relevant information and support, received positive feedback, with participants of the us-er test describing it as inspiring, clarifying and enlightening. However, usability issues hindered the user experience. Recommendations on how to improve the usability of the platform are made. Additionally, recommendations for further development of the Rouw Wegwijzer are given.

With increasing populations, the need for transportation is increasing as well. This creates societal issues putting pressure on the affordability of transport, the liveability of cities and sustainability of mobility infrastructure. The radical innovation that could potentially reform the entire transport system in order to tackle these societal challenges is Mobility as a Service. But for MaaS to become a succes, the current way the Dutch mobility system functions has to change, and travellers need to adopt the use of the system in a way that societal issues will actually be solved. Whereas current developments regarding MaaS in the Netherlands are mainly focussed on creating a base on technical and policy level, this graduation project puts the individual traveller central. In collaboration with RET, 9292 and the Seamless Personal Mobility lab, the project evolved around the process of designing of a mobile MaaS journey plan application that supports travellers with tailormade travel advice to fulfil trip-dependent needs, when preparing a door-to-door travel plan. As a case study, the target group entailed travellers that travel to incidental leisure activities and live in an urban area with a large mobility offer (like Rotterdam). Along the line of a user-centred double diamond process, a variety of research activities and multiple design iterations are conducted with extensive user involvement to unravel true user needs and creating desirable and usable experiences. Based on the insights gained, a design of a mobile journey planner MaaS application is envisioned, prototyped and evaluated with travellers, mobility, design and technology experts. For MaaS to become a success, the service should provide added value for travellers to adopt the service and stimulate a positive travel behaviour change. Currently the way people travel is very much rooted in existing habits and routines. Cross-checking multiple application is carried out in search of finding the best travel plan fulfilling travellers’ specific travel needs. To improve the current process of planning a trip, the final design is focussed around supporting travellers in their information search on travel possibilities and evaluation of these alternatives. Design criteria for creating a personally relevant travel plan The process of creating a door-to-door travel plan should provide travellers with freedom of control and choice, speed and ease. Besides to create a window of opportunity for positive travel behaviour change, the design should provide personally relevant inspiration on a diversity of travel modes and allow for a clear comparison on different modes on each leg of the trip as well as for travels plans as a whole. Get inspired – a MaaS journey planner The final design is a journey planner sparking travellers with endless personalised travel possibilities. In the form of a white-label app, this design is envisioned being part of a MaaS application that supports travellers in their search for information and evaluation of possible travel modes and routes. The app provides travellers with two methods to create a door-to-door travel plan. The Reismodus method provides a few complete travel plans filtered by a personally chosen travel mode. On the other hand, travellers are provided with full control by the ability to compose the entire travel plan from scratch. On top of that, creating a profile and adding personal transport modes, subscriptions and/or discount cards, allows for evaluating the data that are truly apply to oneself. Evaluating on desirability, viability, feasibility and integrity The final design is evaluated with travellers, and design, technology and mobility experts on desirability, feasibility, viability and integrity. Conducting different guerrilla tests provided insights in the desire for an ‘advanced profile’ to support receive personally relevant travel suggestions and information, and a clear division of ‘Reismodus advocates’ and ‘Stel samen advocates’. Besides the different functionalities of the final design are provided an initial estimation on the level of complexity, and are reviewed by design experts on usability and UX patterns. Eventually a variety of evaluation sessions with mobility experts generated insights in the design’s strengths and weaknesses, as well as potential opportunities and threats.

The ACES is a strategy designed for international students who study in the Netherlands to better cope with sexual harassment. The research reveals three striking data: 1)While study abroad, students are five times riskier than those studying in their home country; 2) the highly educated women have more severe problems in the workplace than previous known; and 3) The women who fit three things are riskier and more afraid of sexual violence - in their young age, encountering financial issues and with an immigrant background. Therefore, the information implies an invisible danger to the target user. In the research domain & context, sexual harassment is one of the most severe sexual violence problems on campus. Literature reviews and semi-constructed interviews with experts in the Delft area unveiled the absence of specific support to this problem at TU Delft. On the other hand, many universities have their particular organization to cope with relevant issues. Thus, their service and support were roughly divided into general knowledge education, support for victims and supporters, and some included the relevant problem such as anti-racism helpline. To better understand the weakness and desires in terms of tackling sexual harassment. Ten international students and one dutch student participated in generative research. The analysis unveiled these aspects are their weakness: 1) racism alongside sexual harassment makes them doubting their existence; 2) they are afraid of feeling incorrect without validation in advance; 3) self-blaming tendency such as considering they misunderstand or it is their fault; 4) unclear the intention of harasser; 5) sex is a taboo topic to talk; 6) the perpetrators share same cultural background, so they know the pitfall of victims; 7) the perpetrator reject the rejection; 8) men are silent victims. They also have expectations with regard to the design: 1) someone can talk through the unclear situation with them will help, 2) the awareness-raising builds a stronger mindset. Therefore, the researcher formed the design goal based on the above information: To enhance overseas students’ awareness of bodily autonomy and provide a strategy to cope with sexual harassment through a knowledgeable and amusing interactive workshop at the beginning of their study in the Netherlands. Through guiding by three characteristics of interaction vision (knowledgeable, amusing, and open-ended), appropriate timing, and design form. The design outcome is an interactive workshop design alongside conveying the strategy. The workshop was divided into two main sections: 1) raising the awareness of bodily autonomy and 2) learning the strategy of coping with sexual harassment. The design cycle included rapid-prototyping, user test, filming, and ACES strategy formation. The final design includes an interactive workshop, facilitators’ guidelines, and a strategic plan. It contains five main activities and designed objects. It includes 1) slides, 2) brochures with ACES strategy, 3) films presenting an ambiguous sexual harassment situation, and 4) teaching aids used in warm-up activities. The strategy was formed while considering the other university’s strategy and service. The evaluation took place twice at TU Delft. Ten international participants joined the user test. The results gained overall positive feedback and conformed to the three characteristics in the design goal. 

The goal of this report is to study the way in which female university students (aged 18 to 25) deal with their moods during their menstruation, and to use this information to design a product to help them deal with their negative moods in a healthy way, by using resilience-focused mood-regulation strategies. Literature research and the field study conducted in this project show that menstruation is very negatively experienced by women, regardless of how heavy their menstruation is experienced. Their moods are mostly influenced by pain and the inconvenience of bleeding, while the study also showed that the biggest obstacle in daily life is the fluctuating moods caused by hormones. These fluctuations exist in personal patterns, but no literature nor this project’s field study shows universal patterns in mood fluctuations. The most practised mood strategies are rest, withdraw and repress. The study shows that female students do not want to show weakness, they want to work as well as they normally do at university and take painkillers to do so. They ignore all other struggles which tends to exhaust them, resulting in a lack of energy when they arrive home. This is when they finally rest and withdraw, as desired. This project presents the product ‘Mood Booth’ as a solution to these problems. The Mood Booth is a room, centrally placed in every university, for menstruating students to withdraw in. The room is designed for these students to perform a ritual in. This ritual is based on the two resilience-focused mood-regulation strategies most valuable to most menstruating women: embrace (embracing and accepting moods) and detach (distinguish between self and mood and engagement in mindfulness). The design of the Mood Booth’s interior stimulates the practise of these two mood regulation strategies in a twenty-minute ritual, which is guided by light changes. A visit to the Mood Booth should result into a more positive mood, a calmer state of mind and more strength on the long-term to benefit both the academic performance and the quality of personal time during menstruation. The outside of the Mood Booth is a statement, through both location and through the message on the front of the Mood Booth, against the stigma attached to menstruation. The Mood Booth aims to improve moods and does so by stimulating resilience-focused mood-regulation strategies, which answers closely to the design brief. The Mood Booth is also created to answer to the issues found in the research, while also tackling the stigma around menstruation.

Food, not only exist as a source of energy and nutrition to human beings, but also gives emotional comfort and carries cultural values in people’s daily life. Thus, the consumption of food is no longer related to fulfilling the need of hunger, but also as a way to deal with human emotions, facilitate social bondings, celebrate cultural events and etc. Improper way of consuming food can result in negative consequences in people’s health condition, such as getting overweight and obese, as well as many other types of diseases. To help people manage their own eating behavior, food-tracking tools were designed to keep a record of people’s food intake, as a reference to access their eating and for themselves to make changes accordingly. How do we design a food tracking tool that can support people to collect meaningful data around their eating behavior and reflect on them in an engaging way? From the literature research and user research great insights were drawn on the current experience of using food-tracking tools. Based on that, through iterative developing, an mobile application design was detailed and evaluated. The project aims to provide a new perspective on how people can manage their eating behavior by self-tracking food they eat and the related influencing factors. The idea behind it is to empower them in discovering how the implicit reasons are repeatedly affecting the way they eat, environmentally and psychologically, rather than to regulate people to follow specific diet rules.