Forensic Psychiatric Centers (FPC’s) provide treatment for patients placed under the Dutch Entrustment Act, aiming to protect society and rehabilitate offenders (De Boer & Gerrits, 2007). Recent developments, such as the 2017 murder of Anne Faber, have increased pressure on FPC’s, with a steady rise in patient numbers and budget cuts of 10% over the past 5 years (Knoester & Boksem, 2020; DPG Media Privacy Gate, n.d.). This strain is exacerbated by staffing shortages and high turnover rates. Operating within the FPC system requires precision, given the severe consequences of errors, and involves navigating diverse stakeholder interests, each with their own risk and error considerations.

The policy-making process of the FPC has to address this complexity. The traditional, linear approach to policy making has been said to not always be well equipped for dealing with this complexity. With these given factors, the opportunity was observed to explore the potential added value of a Systems oriented Design approach in the process of policy making. This project has been initiated within that question:

“How can Systems oriented Design approach play a role in the process of policy-making in a Forensic Psychiatric Centre?”

Literature and empirical research findings reveal that the process of policy-making is hindered by different factors, both in the ‘hard’ systems, like the Document Administration Platform, and the ‘soft’ systems, which lies in the relationships between actors in the system. In the latter case, a Systems oriented Design approach can be beneficial. The design vision therefor focusses on these relationships:

“The FPC as a collective, that together strives towards an open and learning organization.”

The leverage point that was deemed most fruitful to bring this vision into the organization, is the moment of starting the process of policy implementation, when the transfer of responsibility from the Policy advisor to the workforce occurs.

The final concept includes a design intervention to promote this feeling of a collective within a large organization. The intervention aims to address the feelings of uncertainty and distrust that accompany the moment of transferring responsibility from one party to the next.

The intervention “The Implementation Kit” proposes the hosting of a Handover Ceremony to facilitate this transfer. It aims to clarify the roles and responsibilities in the implementation process that is to come, and offers moment to celebrate this new development. By including employees from different departments and disciplines, it can strengthen the connections between parties that don’t often meet in their usual daily activities.

Lastly, recommendations are made to the further development and implementation of the Implementation Kit, based on validation interviews with both internal and external parties. The feasibility of applying this concept outside the FPC’s context is also discussed.

This Master’s thesis investigates strategies for Yonderland, Europe's largest premium outdoor retailer, to attract and retain Generation Z, a demographic not previously targeted by the company. Through extensive research, including qualitative and quantitative methods, a literature review, interviews with stakeholders, and multiple creative sessions, a comprehensive strategy was formulated for Yonderland and the focus subsidiaries — Bever, A.S Adventure, and Cotswold Outdoor — to appeal to Generation Z's unique preferences and behaviors. Key findings reveals Generation Z, born between 1995 and 2010, as digital natives who value social consciousness, authenticity, and transparency in their brand interactions. This demographic heavily relies on social commerce and peer recommendations, incorporating digital seamlessly into their lifestyles, which influences their loyalty and purchasing decisions. Despite an interest in premium outdoor products, Yonderland initially overlooked the potential of engaging with this demographic, missing significant sale opportunities. The research suggests a strategic pivot towards building authentic connections with Generation Z by emphasizing environmental and social values, and utilizing digital platforms like TikTok for effective engagement. Highlighting the role of over a million Gen Z creators on social media, the strategy focuses on leveraging these influencers to foster genuine interactions and product discovery, emphasizing the importance of authenticity and relatability in marketing efforts. The research critiques Yonderland's existing loyalty programs for their transactional focus, which fails to resonate with Generation Z's values of self-expression, inclusivity, and personalization. It further identifies issues such as a one-size-fitsall approach, lack of meaningful customer journey integration, and underutilization of customer data for personalized experiences. This misalignment underscores the need for a strategic overhaul of Yonderland’s loyalty programs to resonate with Generation Z’s values of self-expression, inclusivity, and personalization. To address these challenges, the thesis suggests an overhaul of these programs to better align with Generation Z's expectations, needs and values. It proposes a shift towards a premium paid membership propositions that emphasizes customer engagement, community building, and personalization through the introduction of a Customer Data Platform, Atelier Café, and Membership App. The new strategy aims to enhance customer engagement, loyalty, and community building, positioning Yonderland to better meet Generation Z’s sophisticated needs while redefining retail customer experiences through connectivity and a focus on sustainability. The Customer Data Platform is designed to enable Yonderland to play a more relevant role in their customers’ digital lives, transitioning from fragmented customer insights to a comprehensive understanding of customer needs and behaviors. This marks a shift towards more relevant digital engagement. The Atelier Café is introduced as a community hub for member events, circularity, and craftsmanship, serving as a focal point for community engagement, workshops, and events that resonate with Generation Z’s values focused on sustainability and craftsmanship. Meanwhile, the Membership App enhances discovery, community, and personalized experiences across its Discovery, Shop, Service, and Community Pages, revolutionizing Yonderland’s engagement and diverging from conventional retail practices towards embracing sustainability and community. This integrated approach signifies a move away from traditional retail models, fostering a more connected and personalized customer experience. This approach, along with leveraging TikTok as the primary marketing channel and launching the Member Days, aligns closely with Generation Z’s preferences, aiming to boost brand visibility, loyalty, and growth by fostering authentic connections. To seamlessly integrate this new paid membership proposition into Yonderland’s offerings, a futurestate service blueprint has been developed alongside a strategic roadmap. The thesis concludes that Yonderland can successfully attract and retain Generation Z by aligning its strategies with the demographic's preferences for authenticity, community-building, and environmental and societal values.

The Dutch Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND) has been finding it increasingly difficult to carry out its task in recent years. Increasingly, they have been in the news negatively with reports such as poor conditions in Ter Apel, hopeless waiting times for applicants and having to pay penalty payments. Besides the media attention, it is also a point of discussion in politics at national and European level. The complex policy that will follow from this makes for a situation of tension for the IND. In order to respond appropriately to both politics and applicants, it is important for the IND to be agile and responsive as an organisation. To achieve this, the IND wants to become more innovative, which partly means retrieving ideas from the organisation and then experimenting with them with the aim of improving processes, also known as bottom-up innovation. Currently, one team within the IND, the Einsteinbrigade, is responsible for facilitating this bottom-up innovation. Although this team is very effective in identifying which innovations are of value to the organisation, they do not always manage to convey this value to those responsible for implementation.

This thesis project explores what exactly underlies this phenomenon, and how design can address it. Through qualitative research methods, the following research question is dissected and explored:

Why are some of the Einsteinbrigades completed experiments not followed up with an implementation project?

The insights obtained revealed the root cause of this problem, but more importantly which bottlenecks lie below. These bottlenecks were translated into design goals from which a direction was chosen for the continuation of the project. It reads as follows:

With my to be designed intervention, I want to achieve that Clients within the IND respond to the needs of the Business by making the Einsteinbrigade capable of effectively conveying the value of an experiment to the Client.

Within this design goal, 6 principles were identified that have been proven to help implementation; (1)The expected benefit; (2)The compatibility; (3)Sensing surprise; (4)Perceiving multiples, (5)Embodying alternatives, and (6)Verbal Mastery. From testing these principles, strengths emerged that were incorporated into the final design.

The design took the form of a framework in which the insights gained from the experiment can be compiled from which an interaction can be designed appropriate to the Client and the experiment. The interaction creates a unique experience for the Client, but above all makes it tangible and recognisable what impact the innovation is having.

During the evaluation, it emerged that the interactions provide a unique moment within IND’s current meeting culture, and strongly contribute to conveying the value of the results. In addition, In addition, placing the insights in the framework allows new insights and connections to emerge, contributing to the narrative, and ultimately interaction. In addition, designing the interaction stimulates creativity, which was recognised as a necessary replacement instead of the current way of presenting results.

In conclusion, it must be acknowledged that this design is not conclusive for the Einsteinbrigade problem. It is a first step in the right direction of making the IND a mature organisation where bottom-up innovation is central to improving processes. Ultimately, it is recommended that to execute successful bottom-up innovation, there must be an organisation-wide leadership with corresponding clear agreements.

The issue of labour exploitation in the Netherlands has been gaining more attention lately. Regularly stories appear in the news in which employees are treated inhumanely by their employer, work in unsafe conditions, or live in unhealthy accommodations. The issue has also been gaining attention in politics. The advice of Aanjaagteam Bescherming Arbeidsmigranten, which was presented in 2020, marks an important milestone. Partially inspired by this advice, multiple major developments have been taking place recently. For example, the modification of the definition of labour exploitation in criminal law (Rijksoverheid, 2023), the compulsory certification of employment agencies as of 2025 (Rijksoverheid, 2022), and the separation of working- and housing contracts (ABU, 2023).

While these developments are a step forward, they will not completely tackle labour exploitation. Due to the complex nature of the phenomenon, multiple solutions are required to bring about systemic change. This project explores what systemic design could offer to the issue of labour exploitation in the Westland area.

Through different research methods, an understanding of the system surrounding labour migration and labour exploitation was created. Insights were yielded on the nature of the phenomenon, different response strategies and involved stakeholders, and the Westland context. Based on these insights, three search areas were identified and explored more in-depth. Next, the final focus for the design phase was determined and formulated into a design goal: empowering labour migrants through an intervention that gives them a sense of control over their own lives.

Finally, an online buddy platform that facilitates the exchange of experiences among migrants was designed. The interaction aims to build awareness about healthy (in)direct working conditions in the Netherlands and potential helplines. With this knowledge, migrants can prevent risks proactively, identify problematic situations quicker, and have the tools to deal with them. Evaluation of the concept with the target group and relevant experts indicated that it provides a valuable intervention to empower labour migrants. However, further development and evaluation as discussed in the recommendations are necessary. In addition, this intervention should be seen as one of many necessary to systematically improve the situation of labour migrants.

Bluebird, a Dutch airline company, was founded over 100 years ago. To this day, they aim to provide memorable experiences to their customers. To do so, Bluebird must service their customers well at every brand touchpoint. Even though digital self-service is becoming the norm, knowledgeable contact centre agents are important to ensure a seamless transition between the online and offline touchpoints. Hence, the customer service agents behind the phone, i.e. the front-line staff, play a crucial role in providing the right support and offers for the customer, and consequently in delivering the Bluebird brand experience.

To provide the customer service, the agents rely on information that comes from Bluebird. This thesis specifically focuses on the information about ancillaries. The ancillaries refer to all additional options that a customer can buy to enrich the flight experience. By offering ancillaries, the airline responds to the upcoming customer demand for personalised travel experiences. However, Bluebird’s provision of timely and complete ancillary information currently falls short. Therefore, this thesis aims to investigate how the ancillary information flow to the contact centres can be improved.

This thesis makes use of a design approach. By means of qualitative methods, it is investigated how the information currently travels from the source to the agent, and how the involved people experience this information flow. The research reveals that the information passes through a four-step chain: it travels from the Ancillary Team and their colleagues (i.e. ancillary stakeholders), via Bluebird Customer Services and the contact centre Knowledge Management, to the agent. This current flow does not make use of a structured process and highly depends on individual proactivity. As a result, the information flow is found to be unorganised and inefficient.

Furthermore, the research shows that for the ancillary stakeholders it is not clear who, when, what and how they should inform. This results in confusion, misalignment, inconsistent output, and low levels of awareness and engagement in the process of communicating information. Hence, the goal of this thesis is to create an engaging approach to guide the ancillary stakeholders in an adequate information transfer process.

During the design phase, co-creative sessions are used to explore solutions to meet the design goal. This phase results in the Information Journey concept, which consists of a process proposal, a corresponding template, and an explanatory manual. The process consists of clear steps and dedicated meeting moments to ensure early involvement of relevant stakeholders and creates the opportunity to exchange feedback between those stakeholders. The template corresponds to the proposed process steps. It specifies which information is required at which moment, and motivates users to complete the document. The manual contains detailed explanations of the process and its background, as well as tips for the stakeholders to apply during the proposed meeting moments.

The Information Journey provides Bluebird with a set of tools that ensure a well-structured and consistent ancillary information flow towards the contact centre. The approach is flexible, reusable, and open for future iterations to make it worthwhile for the organisation.

Extensive waiting times for youth Mental Healthcare have a significantly negative effect on youngsters well-being. The Ministry of Public Health, Welfare and Sport (Ministry of VWS) therefore commissioned Shoshin to research the cause of waiting times in order to address them. Shoshin is a social design agency that believes waiting times are not only the result of a shortage of staff, but also of inefficiencies and ineffective elements in the youth care system. They aim to make strategic interventions to create true system change (Haarlemmer et al.).

This thesis aims to support Shoshin in their mission to reduce waiting times for youngsters. Youngsters are defined as 16 till 23 year people in this report.

Specifically, the aim of this graduation project is to come up with a design that helps youngsters get more appropriate care. According to Van der Bijl-Brouwer (2021) systemic problems (such as problems in the mental youth care sytem) are interrelated and can therefore not be solved independently. Therefore reseach was conducted in various contexts regarding the youth Mental Healthcare system:

1) The organisation involved with decisions regarding the youth care system. (Macro context)


2) The process of getting into care. (Meso context)

3) The interaction between youngsters and their therapists. (Micro context)

These analyses showed that youngsters often feel unheard and are not included in decision making. Therapists rely too much on their own vision and focus too little on background/individual factors of the youngsters. This leads to missing the core of the youngsters mental problems, which contributes greatly to ineffective and inefficient care. The analyses also showed that youth Mental Healthcare (j-GGZ) therapists are the most promising target audience to design for. In fact, other therapists - such as district members or therapists of the child and family centre (CJG) - often do not have the skills to find the core of the youngsters’ mental problems as they are often not specialized enough.

Following these analyses, the design goal has been to empower youngsters in decision making during GGZ therapy. A “Mijn Hulplijn” app was developed that helps youngsters to actually give feedback and incorporate it into therapy. The app allows youngsters to think of their own needs and wants in therapy, and helps to actually incorporate this as well. Moreover, it provides background information that is relevant for the therapist in question. Furthermore, the app offers suggestions for alternative therapies and gives an overview of the youngsters’ healthcare history. This way, the app can improve the success of the therapy and the youngster-therapist interaction. To actually make and measure this impact, this study also provided a plan for implementation of the app.

This graduation project aimed to support Digital Lions, a digital design agency in rural Kenya, in improving their working process on client projects. Digital Lions is a Fair Trade agency that delivers digital products in the areas of graphic design and web development to international clientele. The agency is a sister organization of an NGO that provides IT education in rural areas. Digital Lions serves as a stepping stone for some of the graduates from this IT education program. The mission of Digital Lions is to create jobs and skills development opportunities to these talents through real client projects.

Digital Lions’ context and working process were researched through interviews, observations, and informal interactions with key stakeholders, during a 7-week field research phase. This research consisted of living and working on the campus where Digital LIons is hosted in Loropio, Turkana, Kenya. The main findings from this field research were that Digital Lions’ founder desired to have a team that is self-managing. However, the employees of Digital LIons still lacked knowledge and experience in teamwork within an agency. Moreover, due to remote working arrangements and colliding activities outside of the agency, it was difficult for the team to align their schedules and collaborate synchronously. Consequently, there was little responsibility and ownership to address important matters that could improve the agency.

Thus, the design goal for this project was to enhance collaboration within the Digital Lions team, in order to initiate their transition from a collective of freelancers to a self-managing agency.

A list of design requirements was generated from an exploratory prototyping phase. This consisted of rapidly creating prototypes of possible interventions and testing them with subjects in close proximity. This provided quick insights into what could and could not work, as well as new design requirements.

The final design solution was three-fold.

1. The team of 7 employees are divided into two subteams, called the Think&Do Teams. This makes aligning schedules to communicate and collaborate synchronously significantly easier.

2. The Think&Do Teams are provided with Action Sheets that guide them through a series of outlined activities or tasks within a given strategy to address an important agency matter. An example of such matter is to collaboratively create a coherent Instagram content strategy for the agency. The Action Sheets provide high level instructions and links to useful resources, serving as a catalyst for effective teamwork on real tasks.

3. The Think&Do teams are facilitated by the agency leader and foreign volunteers that support the agency. They are provided with an Action Sheets template and a filled in example, as well as a handbook on how to prepare the Action Sheets, so that the team is enabled to address important agency matters effectively.

By implementing this solution, the team slowly transitions from working like a collective of freelancers to a collaborative team. Over time the employees gain ownership of important agency matters and experience in truly working as a team. This solution accelerates the team in becoming a self-managing agency.

Background:
Climate change is affecting Uganda through the worsening floods that happen on a yearly basis. These disasters are claiming the lives and livelihoods of local communities, which lead to more challenges such as economic consequences and forced migration. Immediately after hazards like floods strike, local communities are always the first ones to respond before external aid arrives. Their deep understanding of their own context enable them to tap into local resources and tackle specific challenges which are often neglected by official organizations. This thesis sought out to explore possibilities on how local communities like those in Eastern Uganda can be empowered to anticipate and mitigate the risks of floods.

Context:
Fieldwork was done in the Bugisu sub-region, Eastern Uganda. This region is heavily affected by flash floods from Mount Elgon and riverine floods every year.

Themes:
This report revolves around the subjects of disaster risk reduction and anticipatory action. Themes surrounding top-down governance and domestic response on floods were explored to investigate current and preferred future states.

Process:
The process started with literature study and the exploration of the state of floods in the Bugisu sub-region. Then, a prototype of an early warning and early action strategy was designed for a specific flood challenge. Finally, a toolkit was developed to achieve scalability of impact.

Challenge:
The challenge that was chosen for the development of the prototype is how to get women to safety in emergency flood situations. The location of choice is Namabasa sub-county in Mbale city, Eastern Uganda.

Results:
A community-led early warning and early action strategy that is low cost, involves the active participation of local stakeholders and maximises the use of local resources.
A toolkit that consists of manuals, documents and templates to replicate the strategy in another location in Uganda.

Impact:
Fields Data, the main client of this project, has published the toolkit on their website for organizations to freely download it and replicate the early warning and early action strategy in Uganda.

The Netherlands Red Cross and 510 (initiative of the Netherlands Red Cross) have shown interests to develop the strategy and the toolkit. They are interested to review them to establish more community-led approaches and see if the workings complement the current tools and methods being used by them.

People are reluctant to talk about death. However, death is going to happen, so it is important to discuss the topic while people still can. Discussing death on a more regular basis is beneficial for all people involved. End-of-life conversations can be held to discuss wishes and decisions concerning death and dying. However young adults do not feel the urgency. They can discuss subjects in relation to the end of life. These conversations can help to reflect on life, help to learn to support each other when needed and are meaningful for all people involved. In short, it can improve the quality of life and the end of life. Therefore, it can as well be beneficial for young adults to talk about death.

The goal of this project is to discover what can be designed in the context of Museum Tot Zover, in order to stimulate young adults to talk about death more often. The following design goal is formulated for this project: “I want young adults to feel stimulated to engage in conversations with friends about death, by fantasizing about afterlife, learning that talking and thinking about death can be enjoyable.”

Literature reviews and a field study have been conducted to gain background knowledge on the topic, explore the context and understand the young adults, in order to design a concept that reaches the design goal. The field study consisted of a survey filled in by young adults. In addition, interviews were conducted in order to find deeper understanding behind the results from the survey. From the field study could be concluded that young adults associate death with negative emotions as sadness, loss, insecurity and fear. They fear the impact their death has on loved ones, are worried to suffer from mental illness or experience physical pain at the end of life. Moreover, they are not ready to die just yet. They are still young and therefore do not feel the urgency to talk about death in this stage of their lives. Conversations about death are perceived as difficult and uncomfortable.

On the base of the study an Immersive Experience is designed which aims to create a positive association with death in order to stimulate young adult friends to talk about death. The installation is called: The Space To All Places. When entering The Space To All Places, visitors make the transition from life to death, entering the surrealistic world of the dead, where they rise above the clouds and are stimulated to fantasize and talk about their vision on an afterlife. The concept is tested with young adults, who all reacted positive on the experience. It is a positive experience that sparks interest in the topic ‘death’ and in each other.

This concept is designed for Death ceremonial museum Tot Zover and hopefully and incentive for other researchers and designers to help change people’s attitude towards death.