Events contribute significantly to plastic pollution, largely due to the use of single-use plastic meal packaging like plates and bowls. This results in major environmental issues, as these items are discarded after a single-use. With growing awareness of sustainability and increasing regulatory pressure, more events are transitioning to reusable alternatives. One promising solution is a return system, where visitors use reusable meal packaging and return them correctly. However, in practice, visitors do not always comply, which undermines the effectiveness of the circular system.

This study addresses the question: What are effective behavioural interventions to positively encourage event visitors to use and return reusable meal packaging responsibly? Responsible use and return means handling the meal packaging with care, preventing damage and minimising waste by returning it neatly.

To answer this question, the process began with a combination of literature research, desk research, observations and interviews with experts and event attendees. Key behavioural factors influencing the issue were identified and analysed using the COM-B model, which formed the basis for an iterative design process. This led to the development of five behavioural interventions and a framework.

The interventions were tested at three pilots and achieved an average return rate of 99%, confirming their effectiveness in small-scale open events.

The behavioural interventions and the framework have been compiled into a practical guide for event organisers looking to implement a reusable meal packaging system. It provides guidelines and recommendations to promote responsible visitor behaviour. While this research focuses on small-scale open events, further studies could explore the scalability of these interventions to larger events.
... Read more

This thesis explores how human-centered design can improve both patient and healthcare-worker experiences within the breast cancer surgical pathway at the Reinier de Graaf Gasthuis. Breast cancer care is multidisciplinary, complex and emotionally demanding process. Patients navigate a pathway of consultations, receive treatments and make important decisions, while professionals work within tight schedules, interdependent processes and a high workload. Through literature review, observations, walk-along sessions, semi-structured interviews, thematic analysis (using NVivo) and patient journey mapping, the project uncovers key challenges in communication, emotional support and organizational coordination.

Patients describe the RdGG as empathetic, accessible and medically highly skilled. They consistently feel seen, heard and genuinely supported by the hospital staff. At the same time, several areas for improvement emerged, including clearer preoperative information and the avoidance of emotionally charged language. Patients also expressed that there is potential for further digitalization of the care process, like an easy accessibale app. A recurring theme was the desire for opportunities to connect with former patients (“buddies”) who understand the emotional impact of a breast cancer diagnosis and treatment. However, both the ‘patient satisfaction survey’ and the interviews confirm a more than positive experience, with RdGG scoring a 9/10 and patients expressing strong satisfaction with their care.

Healthcare professionals highlight a very different set of challenges. The scheduling of combined oncological and reconstructive surgeries (IBR) appears as the most significant bottleneck. Variations in surgeon availability, unpredictable procedure durations, sudden changes in schedules because of treatment changes and limited digital integration make planning frustrating and time-consuming. Despite high performance metrics (patient satisfaction survery), caretakers indicate that current systems require substantial manual coordination “behind the scenes” to maintain quality and availability.

The design brief arising from these insights focuses on improving communication, strengthening coordination and making the surgical planning process more predictable and transparent. This thesis presents potential interventions, including predictive scheduling methods, data-driven forecasting of IBR demand, an online planning tool, a patient opt-in system for flexible scheduling and clearer distribution of planning responsibilities among departments. A strategic roadmap outlines how these interventions can be implemented between 2026 and 2030, ultimately enabling a more integrated and efficient planning ecosystem.

Overall, this project shows that design can play an important role in connecting organizational needs with human experiences. By enhancing communication, supporting emotional needs and improving logistical workflows, the RdGG can offer breast cancer patients a consistent and comforting care journey, while reducing workload and increasing efficiency for its healthcare professionals. ... Read more

This master thesis explores the design and implementation of a sustainable, centralised waste logistics system at Oslo Airport. The project aims to address the challenges of waste management in a high-traffic environment by creating a comprehensive product-service system. The focus is on enhancing waste disposal efficiency, ensuring proper waste separation, reducing waste and promoting circularity within the airport terminal.

The literature review, including qualitative research articles and other published texts, established a theoretical foundation for the project. Key themes from the literature include the importance of centralised waste management systems, the role of technology in waste logistics, barriers to keep in mind that could hinder the transition towards circularity, and the significance of stakeholder involvement in designing sustainable solutions. Semi-structured interviews and observations were conducted to gather insights from various stakeholders, such as food and beverage managers, waste collectors, and store employees at Oslo Airport. And also at other, similar locations. These findings underlined the critical need for a streamlined, efficient waste management system that can adapt to the operational complexities of a major international airport. The identified main problem area’s at Oslo Airport were sub-optimal information provision regarding waste management, a lack in motivation among the people to reduce waste and recycle properly and logistical constraints within the airport infrastructure.

The primary research question guiding this thesis is: "How can a comprehensive product-service system be designed to establish a sustainable and centralised internal waste logistics system at Oslo Airport terminal?"

The design outcome of this project is a conceptual service design tailored for Oslo Airport. The proposed service includes a centralised waste disposal intervention in the form of container hubs placed throughout the terminal, a feedback system for improper waste separation, and a weighing solution for waste measurement, supplemented with a financial disincentive mechanism to stimulate waste reduction. The design leverages advanced technologies such as QR codes for traceability of the waste, cloud data storage, and Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs) to enhance operational efficiency. The developed service provides a detailed visualisation of the service and its touchpoints, although further physical development and elaboration of certain components are required.

In conclusion, this thesis presents a strategic and innovative solution for waste management at Oslo Airport, emphasizing sustainability and efficiency. The findings highlight the need for further research to generalise the results across different contexts. Future work should focus on the scalability of the proposed system and addressing the technological dependencies to ensure robust and continuous operations. The project demonstrates the potential of a holistic, centralised waste logistics system to transform waste management practices in the aviation industry.
... Read more

This thesis project in integrated product design focuses on developing a musical instrument to complement the standard inventory at social jam sessions, facilitating music novices' participation. Social jam sessions are defined as informal, unrehearsed music gatherings accommodating musicians of varying skill levels, emphasizing social interaction rather than performance. Research indicates that such activities positively impact mental wellbeing and social development, offering potential to address issues of declining happiness and increasing loneliness among young adults in the Netherlands.

Observations and a poll conducted with young adults at TU Delft revealed that beginners seldom participate in or return to social jam sessions, primarily due to challenges related to musical instruments. Consequently, the project targeted instrument design as a key area for innovation. Employing a user-centered, iterative research through design methodology, the project involved multiple design cycles of prototype development, user testing, and refinement based on feedback.

The project was structured into three design sprints: understanding the problem, defining a design direction, and developing a functional prototype. Through this process, one experimental setup and five prototypes were created, supplemented by desk research on relevant design artifacts.

The resulting instrument, the "Bass Box," is a one-string acoustic bass with a moveable bridge, designed to resemble a cajón in size and playing position. The instrument allows dynamic pitch changes by adjusting the bridge, with note markers and an integrated tuner providing orientation for novices. The Bass Box bridges the gap between simple percussive instruments and complex melodic instruments, enabling harmonic improvisation and enriching acoustic jam sessions with audible bass notes. ... Read more

This thesis explores the potential of speculative design and art to raise awareness about pet preparedness, influence climate adaptation, and shape public perception of disaster risk in the Netherlands. Through speculative prototyping, the project aims to create an artifact that provokes curiosity and emotional engagement, encouraging action towards better preparedness for pet owners during disasters. The research identifies significant gaps in current pet evacuation and care practices, particularly within traditional risk communication systems. These gaps often result in unpreparedness, which can lead to pet fatalities, increased strain on emergency services, traumatic evacuation, and public health risks such as zoonotic disease outbreaks.
The project investigates for the Netherlands Institute for Public Safety and Dieren in Rampen existing pet preparedness practices at various levels. This includes governmental, organizational, and community preparedness efforts, and uncovers misconceptions and barriers that prevent proactive measures. Through a mixed-methods research approach, the project highlights key challenges in risk communication, such as the lack of clear governmental support, the misperception of government assistance, and the emotional barriers pet owners face when making evacuation decisions.
The design process centers around the creation of the Verlaatpaal, a speculative artifact that aims to immerse pet owners in evacuation scenarios, raising awareness of preparedness gaps and encouraging behavior change. The design integrates the human-animal bond, aiming to provoke emotional responses and dialogue about pet preparedness, strengthening self-reliance, co-reliance and population resilience. The final prototype tests the ability of the artifact to stimulate conversation, raise awareness, and spark interest in pet evacuation planning.
This thesis ultimately demonstrates how speculative design can be used as a tool to address complex societal challenges, particularly in the context of disaster preparedness, by engaging stakeholders, stimulating debate, and promoting collaboration among pet owners, rescue organizations, and emergency response teams.
... Read more

Local energy cooperatives are pivotal in decentralizing and democratizing the energy system. This research aims to provide a roadmap for creating energy cooperatives that address energy poverty in the Netherlands, emphasizing the potential for a just energy transition.

This project bridges the realms of theory and empirical research in energy justice, business model innovation, and cooperative design. It unveils the inherent injustices that reside within traditional energy cooperative business models by utilizing a novel business model analysis tool. Furthermore, it integrates the principles of energy justice with the methodologies of business model innovation to facilitate the development of a just business model. To enable practical action, it provides a comprehensive handbook tailored for energy cooperatives, serving as a versatile guide for igniting changes. In the end, it proposes a conceptual pathway that serves as a guide for embarking on the journey of business model redesign. ... Read more

The objective of this project is to design a product or product-service combination to encourage agricultural entrepreneurs to make sustainable decisions based on their decision-making process. This assignment was set up in collaboration with LTO Noord and the DAW to find what is withholding farmers from implementing sustainable agricultural practices to improve their support for agricultural entrepreneurs.

To accomplish this objective, first, literature on farmers’ decision-making, entrepreneurship and design anthropology is reviewed. Next, qualitative research was conducted, where a focus group, probes, participatory observation and a semi-structured interview were used to examine the decision-making of young farmers. Results of the qualitative research, note the characteristics of the young agricultural entrepreneurs, their stance towards choices, their decision-making process of a conscious decision, and the experiences of being a young farmer in a partnership. The most striking results where found considering the experiences of a young farmer in a partnership with older generations. The young and older generations have to run the farm together, having different beliefs and standards. This difference is especially experienced when the younger generation proposes a change; they feel they need practical proof to convince the older generation about this change. The results were used to set criteria for the design and develop a design brief: The to-be-designed product or product-service combination should support young farmers to convince the older generation in the partnership to make a step towards implementing a sustainable practice.

During the project, a preliminary design is realised: SoilMate. SoilMate is a tool whereby farmers can experiment with new (sustainable) measures on their (digital) farm. SoilMate embodies itself as an interactive screen in the canteen or kitchen. It simulates the farmer’s farm and the possible results of changes.
... Read more

Dutch national policy states a goal to rid 7 million homes of natural gas by 2050. Municipalities, along with inhabitants, will determine what is the best alternative technology for gas heating.

There are many challenges to this as municipalities must adapt to a relatively new role and subject matter, coordinate with the inhabitants within their jurisdiction, and ensure that it is economically feasible. This transition towards a sustainable future requires reimagining a whole industry, as well as, the relationship between municipality and inhabitants. This is something that cannot be addressed as an individual, but with the collaboration of numerous stakeholders. Design co-creation is emerging as necessary in complex issues. Using co-creation means considering how to connect different stakeholders, and facilitate collaboration and expression of deeper emotional needs of the participants of co-creation. This project explores how co-creation can support municipalities in achieving their goal of transitioning homes away from gas.

Frame Innovation provides the main structure for this project. First, there is an analysis of the problem situation. Various methods are used for this, for example, interviews were held with important stakeholders in the energy transition and experts in co-creation — civil servants at the municipality level, homeowners, and designers. Second, a frame is presented that explores solutions through a metaphor. The frame was crafted by exploring stakeholders and their underlying values, needs, and motivation. Finally, the frame is used towards designing new solutions. The third section of the project presents the final design concept.

The proposed design concept presented here is a mentorship program called ‘Plan-It Together’. This program is designed for municipalities to support homeowners in adapting their homes so that they are well insulated and are heated using sustainable options. The program connects homeowners who have not made their homes gas-free ready yet, but would like to (mentees), with those in the community who already have (mentor). The program consists of a series of workshops with a complementary toolkit. An implementation roadmap that outlines a plan for a pilot and ways to evaluate it was created. The design concept and roadmap were tested with civil servants and homeowners. ... Read more

The Protestantse Kerk in Nederland (PKN) is facing a challenge due to a decline in membership, with more people in the Netherlands not believing in God than those who do. This decrease affects the PKN, losing 3% of its 1.6 million members annually, especially among the younger generation. My research aims to explore how the PKN can adapt to the needs of young religious wanderers and its existing members. This perspective comes from a designer's viewpoint, which is relatively unexplored in church reorganization compared to theological approaches.

To reimagine church organization, I adopted a methodological approach combining Value-Sensitive Design (VSD) and Research through Design (RtD). VSD focuses on incorporating human values into design, while RtD uses design as a research tool. The research comprised three cycles. In the first cycle, I assessed the current state of the church and tested research methods, finding that sketches by interviewees were effective in exploring values and ideas. The second cycle involved collaboration with experts working with youth and church innovations. We prototyped through sketches, revealing a value tension between individual needs and the desire for community among young people. This led to the design of an infrastructure that facilitates the exploration of various religious communities, symbolized as a "community garden." The final cycle centered on engaging with religious wanderers at the Graceland Festival. Discussions using a toolkit revealed that each wanderer seeks something unique in a community. They appreciated the idea of exploring different "gardens."

The result of this research is a roadmap for building an exploration infrastructure, emphasizing the importance of relationships between organizations, trust-building, and value exploration for religious wanderers. This roadmap serves as a guide for city-based religious communities, encouraging them to establish similar infrastructures. This research contributes in two ways: first, by offering a design-based solution to reorganize the church to meet the values of its members and religious wanderers. It highlights the need for networked relationships between various organizations, though the practical implications may vary by location. Secondly, it demonstrates how design principles aid in the redesign of church organizations. The use of sketches, design materials, and toolkits facilitated the exploration of complex ideas, making participants consider their values more explicitly. Visual design allowed for better feedback on concepts.

In conclusion, this research project underscores the potential for designers to play a pivotal role in church innovation. Collaboration between designers and theologians can further the cause of church renewal on a systemic level, utilizing expertise from diverse scientific fields.
... Read more

Butterfly Works (BW) is a social design studio based in Amsterdam, working mainly in international development for over 20 years. This project aimed to equip the team at Butterfly Works with a design methodology that allows them to navigate and work with complex problems and position them as practitioners and facilitators of systemic change. The process started by analysing their current practice with a systemic design perspective to identify how they are tacitly adopting this approach and find ways to complement it with new approaches. A framework was synthesised based on the systemic design principles from the literature and used as a lens to investigate their approach to an ongoing project that served as a case study. Practices that followed the principles and challenges related to them were identified. Understanding relationships, navigating systems, experimental prototyping and long-term strategies were the challenges from that case that inspired the creation of strategies based on the systemic design principles to address them. The strategies were validated in a hypothetical future project to see how the team envisioned their use. The validated strategies were synthesised and integrated into BW’s current design methodology. The result was an eight-phase methodology, previously five-phase, with several activities and recommendations for using new tools and methods. ... Read more

In 2015, due to decentralisations in the social domain, municipalities became the key public authorities for youth participation in the Netherlands (RAND Europe, 2021). One year later 66% had made youth participation a policy goal, while 18% was planning to. At that time most municipalities involved young people to some extend in their policy-making, but were dissatisfied with the results and expressed a need for tools (Mak, Gilsing & Wróblewska, 2016). In 2020, despite considerable effort, the dissatisfaction had not changed (Movisie, 2020).

This thesis aims to design a new approach that allows youngsters aged 14-17 to structurally participate in municipal policy- and decision-making, in the context of the energy transition. The energy transition, which refers to the transfer from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources with the aim of reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the Netherlands with 95-100% in 2050 (RIVM, n.d.), is seen as the largest strategic challenge for municipalities and one of the main societal challenge of our time (Ebskamp & Verbraak, 2019). Municipalities ask Citisens, an organisation specialised in reaching and involving (adult) citizens and this project’s client, ever more frequently if they can support them in involving young people in shaping this transition. This project is their first step in exploring this new market.

Three methods characterize the project approach. Frame creation, a method well-suited for the open, networked, complex and dynamic problems of today, provides the main structure to the project (Dorst, 2015, p. 73). Within the structure of Frame creation, the project adopts a participatory approach, involving 163 stakeholders and experts in 15 co-creation sessions throughout the project. Besides bringing in new perspectives, giving stakeholders a voice in the design and building stakeholder support (Boeijen et al., 2020, p. 61), these co-creation sessions all generate insights on collaborating with the stakeholders in a Research through Design approach. While most co-creation sessions use prototypes or artefacts to generate new knowledge, the sessions themselves can also be seen as prototypes for collaboration (Stappers & Giaccardi, 2017).

Following an in-depth analysis of the challenge, this thesis creates an overview of frontrunners that have a new and promising approach to (youth) participation and/or involving people in climate issues. Looking at common factors of these frontrunners, four themes emerge: equity, ownership, collaboration and action. Based on these themes, several new frames to approach youth participation are developed. The final design, Design your dream places, is based on the frame Holacracy.

Design your dream places involves all youngsters through guest lessons at schools and facilitates them to create their own, sustainable dream places in the municipality. It allows everyone in the municipality to vote on their favourite place, and encourages the municipality and youngsters to collaborate on next steps. The final design was tested and evaluated during a pilot session with key stakeholders, yielding encouraging results while showing the importance of testing it in a real-life setting with actual follow-up. Finally, an implementation and integration plan was created to envision next steps for the project.
... Read more

Intelligent and connected services have become essential in the manufacturing industry. The surge of these services has even started a new phase of industry; industry 4.0. The COALA consortium aims to develop a service to assist operators within this new industry. The COALA consortium is an European Union Programme and aims to develop a Digital Intelligent Assistant (DIA). The DIA supports operators in situations characterised by cognitive load, time pressure, and little or zero tolerance for quality issues with trustworthy AI components. Diversey is one of the consortium’s partners and perceives COALA’s DIA as a viable solution to their stoppage challenge on their production lines in the factory. These stoppages can be caused by various bottlenecks, which are hard to determine due to the production lines’ complexity and processes. Therefore, this thesis explores how to prepare for AI service adoption within the factory of Diversey. However, management from the Diversey factory has attempted to identify the bottlenecks by collecting production information through operator data entries. Unfortunately, the operators did not provide the tool with quality data entries. Therefore, replacing this tool with the DIA most likely not succeed, especially when the new tool utilises AI technology that requires learning data to generate insights. In order to explore this resistance toward new tools within the factory, I used the frame creation method of Dorst. This method excels at finding innovative solutions for problem definitions with previously unsuccessful attempts. The method explores underlying themes within the context to reframe the problem definition and find new solution spaces. The themes are formulated from interviews with management, eight support staff employees across four departments, a team lead, and six operators. Four themes are generated by analysing the values, interactions, and ‘currency’ exchanged between stakeholders. These themes regarding new tools describe the unclear contributions to operators’ work, the lack of acknowledgement regarding operators’ role and expertise towards production improvements. These themes result in a lack of trust between operators and management, which diminish the willingness to adopt new tools. Additionally, management expresses concerns about the themes expertise and consistency, which are essential to the manufacturing industry. In order to address these themes, COALA’s DIA is reframed as a stage for expertise and exploration. Instead of simply requesting data entries, operators are put in the spotlight where they can showcase their knowledge and expertise. Additionally, this stage provides a space for operators to explore production improvements through collaboration with COALA’s DIA. The framing of the problem definition addresses the data collection aspect of COALA’s DIA. However, AI systems change over time as the systems adapt to the data input. Additionally, the thesis did not assess the users’ perception of the current DIA interface. Therefore, I recommend further research into human-AI interaction with regards to the system’s evolution over time and the interface. Lastly, the themes are generated from one production line’s operators who are experiencing the most stoppages. The themes cannot directly be generalised to other production lines as the number of stoppages, or other contextual factors can influence the themes. ... Read more

Over the past ten years Heineken measured a decrease in brand power, especially among younger consumers. Furthermore, Heineken lacks an experiential culture that fosters innovation due to daily workloads, mindset on global impact and scalability, immediate successful deliverables and business cases, and strict brand approval and brand mitigation. To increase the brand power among younger consumers and overcome the barriers this project is initiated, a project to create a place to open-mindedly explore the future of beer and beyond. The motive of this thesis was to advice Heineken in building an innovation lab.

A future oriented approach is chosen to create this place, called DIVE (Design, Innovation, Vision, Exploration). This approach is combined with the Vision in Product Design method, the dynamic capabilities framework, and the Design Driven Innovation method. Since the combination is new, there will be a reflection after every step. The steps are: 1. Understanding the present, 2. Approaching the future, 3. Imagining the future, and 4. Establishing final boundary object.

Understanding the present is achieved through analysing Heineken and the target group. Findings are that the world of beer is under pressure, that Heineken has not their fair share among the Gen Y and Z and that gen Z will bring disruption. For further research the domain is delimited to quality socializing among Gen Z.

Approaching the future results in a list of factors and together with knowledge from the previous step form a future worldview. This worldview is used to create a narrative about the place which indicates characteristics of the Heineken LAB. The place should be in an upcoming urban area where Heineken revamps an old building, look for combining nature, facilitating outstanding experiences, and repurposing old stuff. The place will have an amazing bar at its core to explore new drinking rituals, new production techniques, new beers and drinks and use new technologies.

The final boundary object, which is the result of this thesis, is a strategy including the aim, objectives, KPI’s, characteristics and a roadmap of four steps including planning, approach, allocation of resources, and accompanying themes for creating the Heineken LAB. The defined steps for developing the Heineken LAB are the brewery, the bar, the lounge, and the program. Through a workshop with both internal and external stakeholders the previous research and strategy is validated. Although the number of participants is low, the participants confirmed the research and agreed with the roadmap. After graduating, the strategy will still be in place.

The created framework in the beginning of the project needs more validation before concluding whether it works as an approach to create an innovation lab. Even though it worked for this project, there are limitations. Next to the approach, the ability to envision, inspire, simplify, structure, align, translate, embrace, and educate are needed. ... Read more

This thesis explored the company Trompenaars Hampden-Turner (THT), its offerings, activities and the context it works in. THT is a company originally founded in 1989 as the Centre for International Business Studies. Trompenaars Hampden-Turner is a relatively small niche consulting company which is renowned in the area of Culture for Business. It is specialised in cultural dilemmas in the business context. Its employees work to improve the integration between people (values, attitudes) and organisations (structures, systems and processes). THT is a founder-centric organisation, and this poses certain risks and limitations which influence the growth and resilience of an organisation. For THT this means that in order to continue spreading their theories and practise consulting, the founder-centric configuration of the company needs to change. Therefore, the main research question was established as: How can a small founder-centric consultancy become less founder-centric and sustain growth in the coming ten years? In the first part, information was gathered to create a deeper understanding of the client, domain and the market. First, the company history, business model, products and competitors were analysed. To gather the information needed, various interviews were held with people working at THT. Secondly, literature was reviewed, looking into managing growth in organisations, founder-led companies and how organisations and consultancies are structured. These research activities resulted in a collection of insights which were used for the strategy creation. The insights yielded from the research were used to create a story which was written to design a future vision and communicate the vision. Storytelling was chosen to explore the benefits of this method, instead of sketching which is more common in industrial design. The created future vision called for a strategy in which THT’s portfolio consists of digital products such as an e-learning course. Using this future vision, a roadmap was created to strategize this pivot in company activity from consulting to content development. The roadmap is divided into three horizons. The goal of the first horizon is to focus on scaling down the current portfolio and focus on creating a base of e-learning courses. The goal of the second horizon is to expand the portfolio whilst learning service partners are attracted to partially outsource marketing and personal parts of the hybrid learning solutions. The goal of the third horizon is to be the best expert in the field when it comes to developing content. The proposed strategy for THT was supplemented with a design of the new organisational blueprint and some advice on the corporate communication including the name of the company. For the organisational blueprint, a circular model was chosen to easily scale with the organisation’s size or the range of the product portfolio. It was advised for the company name to make it refer to culture rather than the name of specific individuals. The strategy based on this take on a future vision for THT, combined with trends which were relevant to THT’s industry and knowledge on organisational design, resulted in a plan to become less founder-centric and sustain growth in the coming ten years. ... Read more

In 2015 a new child act was implemented in the Netherlands. This meant that municipalities became responsible for the organisation of all youth care. First evaluations of the youth act show that a lack of collaboration and coherence in the youth care has resulted in complaints from youth and parents concerning long waiting times, complexity in finding their way in the care, and issues in the continuity of the care (ZonMw, 2018). This project is executed in collaboration with the municipality of Renkum. Like most municipalities in the country, the municipality of Renkum has been struggling with the transitions enforced by the decentralisation. A lack of overview of, and a lack of collaboration and coherence between, the network partners in the system, prohibits the deployment of light and fitting care and instead has lead to an increased amount of referrals into expensive and heavy specialized care. In this thesis, I address the lack of collaboration and coherency between the network partners within the jeugdhulp system in Renkum and design a strategy to support the transition of the system to become more collaborative and able to offer fitting and coherent care. To embrace the complexity of the jeugdhulp and find how stakeholders- as well as the factors hindering them from collaborating- are connected, during this research I have adopted a systemic design approach. Building on insights gained through interviews with the network partners, I created a map visualizing the network partners in the jeugdhulp in Renkum and the connections between them. Drawing on living networks theory and the frame innovation method I concluded that the jeugdhulp in Renkum is currently in a state of isolation- a lot of parties are working towards the same goal, but only do so from their own island. This isolation has resulted in fragmentation of knowledge and a culture of endless referrals for the families. Although most parties in the jeugdhulp system see the value of collaboration, they seem to miss an overview of their network partners and structures for connection and collaboration lack. Currently, the municipality is working to connect the network partners, but there seems to be a lack of trust in their leadership which leads to hesitance of the network partners to commit to the collaboration. Using the frame innovation method I have explored interventions that would support the jeugdhulp transition out of a state of isolation, to a future where the network partners actively work together, share knowledge, create novelty and have the ability to grow together. The final result is a framework for the organisation of a series of events. These events- to be organised by the social team in collaboration with their network partners- are designed to support the transition towards a collaborative system by creating change on three levels: Supporting the municipality to take a facilitating leadership role Supporting network partners take ownership of the relations in the system Creating room for experimentation and innovation ... Read more

To innovate requires people. People that know how to innovate. For engineers, it is not always easy to do that. They know a lot about technology (feasibility) but could lack knowledge about the business (viability) and the market (desirability). This report aims to help engineers create a more innovative mindset and thereby boost the innovation output of their organization.A case study into Croonwolter&dros (CWD) explores the problems they encounter with innovation. CWD is a system integrator specializing in engineering and installing technical systems. They have over 140 years of experience in this field and aim to launch three new product-market combinations (PMC’s) a year. Currently, they are working hard to achieve this but have not managed to do so.From several interviews with stakeholders, I learned that knowledge sharing between divisions and colleagues is one of CWD’s issues. CWD is divided into three divisions: Infrastructure, Utility, and Industry. All these divisions have to develop their own business. This causes them to form silos where there is little to no cross-departmental collaboration. Therefore this case study focuses on addressing the lack of knowledge sharing to boost the innovation output of CWD.To understand what knowledge is needed in the organization, I analyzed innovations that are under development at CWD. This analysis showed that CWD employees mainly focus on the feasibility of their innovations and do not pay as much attention to the viability and desirability of their innovations. Because of that, they fail to fully convince essential stakeholders of their innovations’ potential.To tackle this problem, I organized three ideation sessions with innovators to brainstorm ideas that could create a more complete story around their innovations. Three different concepts resulted from these brainstorms. All with the potential to boost the innovation output of CWD. I needed a clear reference frame to compare and decide between the three concepts. The initial plan was to see which concept fitted best to the innovation strategy of CWD, but the innovation strategy was, at that point, too vague andambiguous to decide between the concepts. Therefore I chose to set a clear starting point for innovation at CWD. This resulted in the six principles for innovation at CWD. Based on these principles, I decided to combine two concepts. These concepts are the foundations of IVI.IVI (Iedereen Voor Innovatie) is an approach to boost the innovation output of CWD by improving the innovative mindset of CWD’s innovators. IVI consist of a business development team that helps the innovators. Everyone at CWD with an idea can go to the development team and ask for help. Together they will make a smoke test. This smoke shows the idea to a broad audience via a web page. Everyone can leave comments, questions, or suggestions on this web page. The innovator can use this data to improve his or her innovation. The development team also collects this data for further analysis. From the data, the best performing innovations are invited to the innovation fair. All fair visitors can invest a number of hours into innovations they see potential in. The innovators can use these hours to progress their innovations. If the innovators fail to get enough engagement on their smoke test or to convince enough investors, they know they have to improve their innovation’s viability, desirability, and feasibility. The development team can help them with that.IVI was received positively in an early validation session, both by several stakeholders as well as by the CWD board. Further testing is needed to validate additional assumptions around IVI, but there are no major game stoppers at this time. IVI could be implemented by first putting together the development team. They can become the product owners of IVI and continue implementing IVI. The team should start by actively approaching CWD employees that have an idea to get the ball rolling and create the first smoke tests. From there, they can move on the organizing the first innovation fair. After a significant period, they can organize training and coaching sessions to further boost the innovative mindset of CWD’s innovators and engineers. This completes the implementation of IVI and should, in theory, help CWD to reach its goal of launching three new product- market combinations a year. IVI partly democratizes innovation, and future research might even find applications for this concept in a broader context. ... Read more

Healthcare is starting to change fundamentally. One of the disruptive technologies that can be seen as an enabler for this change is the technology of a Digital Twin (DT). A DT is widely adopted in the field of engineering for predictive maintenance and testing of parameters of physical objectives such as engines to increase the effectiveness and optimize processes. A DT consists of three major factors: a physical object, its virtual representation and a continuous data stream between the two. In the healthcare sector this could mean to represent not an engine but a whole human with the potential goal for predicting a disease, taking necessary actions for prevention or identifying optimal treatments. This could shift the current underlying paradigm in medicine of curing a disease towards preventing a disease. The extent of representing a whole human body with this technology is still only a vision, but first steps towards this concept have been taken. This development may come with a lot of responsibility so that a user-centered perspective needs greater attention. This thesis aimed at unraveling users’ values for a meaningful DT as innovative technology. By using the concept of Responsible Research in Innovation (RRI), I addressed the importance of grasping, anticipating, and evaluating the potential impact of a DT on the individual interview partners. In a first step, I identified the field of diagnosis as a central research topic with high importance for the user. The semi-structured interviews were conducted with a focus on the context of diagnosis and followed a practice-based approach of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). This allowed me to explore underlying values from the past into the future of diagnosis with and without DTs. A six-step analysis approach proposed by IPA led to the discovery of values embedded in the (anticipated) experience of diagnosis of the interviewees. Finally, the findings led to the development of different forms or concepts a DT could take. These are meant to start a reflection. The findings showed that the meaningfulness of a DT may change significantly by age, life situation, preferences or also individual personality. In contrast to current company visions which visualize a DT as dashboard overview of the human, I assumed that this may lead to an objectification of the body and might rather support the development of an alienate feeling. Furthermore, it might be that the possibility of constant confrontation of one’s own objective status of the body might rather have negative effects on the individual. Additionally, time, place and frequency an individual interacts with a DT seemed to play an important role and should be reflected upon. In order to complement the development of a more user-centered and meaningful DT, I concluded this work with nine guidelines that can be a starting point for further reflection on responsible innovation of a DT. Taken together, I showed that meaningfulness of a DT is highly variable and would need a dynamic, personalized approach to create and implement a meaningful and responsible innovation for the user. ... Read more

Pyropower is a startup active in the field of biochar systems. Pyropower is active in the country of Malawi (Africa) and Indonesia where Pyropower is proposing new technology to farmers to solve their problems. In June 2020, Pyropower launched Europe project, and in European context as well, Pyropower wants to implement the biochar system. This thesis focusses on introduction of Pyropower in the European market. This project develops a near future plan as well as far future plan for Pyropower to establish the business in European context. Accordingly, a near future business plan, a far future business plan, service design, future user interaction and roadmap is provided which covers the assignment questions.

The method of vision in product design is used along with blue ocean strategy to make sure the position of Pyropower is distinctive, futuristic, connected to Pyropower's mission as well as socially responsible. The value modelling blueprint, business model canvas, strategic roadmapping tools are used to generate revenue models, business models and roadmap for Pyropower. The future context created using ViP method can be used for other designing projects as well, with suitable domain definition.

The deconstruction phase identifies problems associated with introduction of biochar systems and looks at Pyropower and context. The insights are used to identify capabilities of Pyropower as well as competitors. The ERRC(Eliminate- Raise-Reduce-Create) framework from blue ocean strategy is used to identify the blue ocean. Accordingly, Community Supported Agricultures (CSAs) are identified as the possible blue ocean. Later on, through ViP construction phase, A future practice is identified and a service is designed (digital platform) which connects to the future practice. With the use of value modelling blueprint and business model canvas, related revenue model and business models are designed. A feasibility study shows reasons for Pyropower to enter the market of CSAs. The feasibility study involves reasoning based on economical, organisational, operational as well as technical criteria. A connection between CSA and Pyropower is explained, to provide sufficient reasoning for entering a new domain.

In the end, the concepts are presented to Pyropower and documented in the report. A discussion, reflection and conclusion part discusses the overall process, results, recommendations. Overall, the idea is accepted by Pyropower and are willing to kickstart the project. ... Read more

The executive summary provides a brief overview of the findings and the solution based on the problem statement. The initial brief from the client side was an interest in the hearing aid market and how Cambridge Audio can enter this industry. The project follows the double diamond approach, starting with an extensive research surrounding the initial brief. The context research revealed certain opportunities in the market and ways for Cambridge Audio to take advantage of these opportunities.The time taken by an average consumer to start using hearing aid from the first moment of hearing loss is more than 4 years and there are a number of reasons behind this delay. The access to hearing aids is traditionally difficult in major markets - barriers being time, money and stigma. Consumer research revealed some major themes of friction in their interaction with the hearing care industry:1. Hearing aids were not up to the mark in noisy environments2. Consumers were not empowered with shared decision making and learning to control the aid.3. Hearing care is designed for the elderly population with outdated design & medical approach.The research also revealed the true cost of hearing aids vs the inflated retail price charged by audiologists. These findings coupled with other trends redefined the problem statement to “Develop an easily accessible hearing care solution for the modern, technology oriented and price conscious netizens experiencing mild to moderately high hearing loss, which guarantees high consumer satisfaction at an affordable price and gives consumers the joy of enjoying their life to the full again.”The design is a reimagined hearing care service with an online presence at an affordable price point where accompanying hearing aids are designed to be ‘consumer electronics’ of the 21st century with modern features. This is one of the first ever internet based hearing care provider in the UK. In the US, the differentiating factor from other ‘online’ hearing aid companies is the focus on ‘personalized care’ instead of generic hearing aid along with cost advantage. It brings the quality of hearing aids in the consumer electronics segment and brings the feature set of true wireless earphones to the hearing care realm.The brand is also designed with a focus on three main qualities: High Consumer Satisfaction, Low access barrier (time, information, cost) and positioning CA Assist closer to consumer electronics as a brand and product. A quick and early validation with consumers verify strong interest in this service and has helped iron out the rough edges of the service. The report also includes examples of mar- keting material and an early website / landing page manifestation. ... Read more

Sea ports are undergoing a digital transformation, which can offer benefits for many involved stakeholders in the logistic chain. In order to stay relevant, Port of Rotterdam (PoR) should invest in developing new port infrastructure; digital connections that facilitate data exchange between logistic chain stakeholders. A strategic digital opportunity was found for PoR, design a platform that is focused on container data, which contributes to the competitive position of the port of Rotterdam and the business model of PoR. The thesis explores the design of the platform Cadex, a data platform that facilitates cargo data exchange between data suppliers, e.g. terminals and data demanders, shippers. Cadex offers shippers real-time data about their containers that enables shippers to act upon containers that deviate from the planned schedule. By making cargo data easy accessible it could save shippers significant costs that come with transport, the deprecation of their goods, the management of their logistics and their inventory. Especially in time sensitive trade, like fresh goods or factory parts this data is valuable. In addition, it could also contribute to a lower carbon footprint of shipments. The platform enables users to get data directly from the data owners (data supplies) like sea-port terminals and hinterland terminals and can therefore be labeled as reliable data. The data suppliers benefit from the revenue model the platform offers for their data and they are allowed to set their own asking price for this data, furthermore they benefit from the data they receive about their clients. PoR would directly benefit from the data exchange by charging a percentage of the price. In addition, PoR receives historical data about its clients, which improves their knowledge about the clients they serve and could be input for improvements in the port of Rotterdam. Moreover, a better customer service is offered to shippers that make use of the port of Rotterdam. The new port infrastructure Cadex offers, could improve the score of the port Rotterdam on the selection criteria and therefore, contribute to a higher competitive position. Developing this new port infrastructure is a long-term investment since the connections hold value. Once built, the infrastructure can be reused by other parties or other digital purposes with some adjustments. This makes PoR a relevant party in the digital transition. Without this new port infrastructure, PoR is more likely to be bypassed by other competing players who will reap the benefits of the digital transformation in sea-ports. ... Read more