Our relationship with money is a complicated one. Whatever your stance is, it is clear we all need money, whether we like it or not. It allows us to buy our basic necessities to survive. Food, heating, a roof over our heads. Next, it also allows us to thrive, by enabling us to buy things and experiences to help us develop as individuals. So, if we need money, why not try to get more than the minimum, so we can actually thrive? Take good care of ourselves and our loved ones? This thesis, set out to help achieve that. To help and enable more people to set themselves up for a life of less worries and more financial security and thus freedom.
Young adults reach a phase in life where they start earning a proper income, often quite a hike compared to living off their parents or as a student. The question that arrives en masse then, is what to do with that extra income. It is easy to also start spending more, but that’s not always the wisest decision. Many turn to their savings accounts, but with interest rates close to 0 and inflation devaluing your money’s
worth, parking it all at the bank is not the smartest move either.
After building up a safety net of cash, investing should be brought into the equation, to help young adults build wealth and take care of themselves, today and in the future. People seem to realize the necessity of investing more and more, as seen by the latest increase in the amount of retail investors, both here in The Netherlands (17% increase in 2020 as reported by Centraal Beheer, 2021) as internationally: 15% of the current investors started in 2020 said CNBC (Fitzgerald, 2021)
The problem here is that many retail investors invest in a risky way. 44% of new investors said they were trading short-term in 2020. 2021 then has seen the rise of many ‘meme-stocks’ such as Gamestop (GME), AMC, BB and many others, where retail investors just “yolo” into buying them, regardless of any fundamentals. Incentivized by the massive gains they see others post, as well as peer pressure, newbie investors massively pile into bets (it is called Wall Street Bets for a reason), treating the stock market like a casino.
On the other side, we see individuals who are scared away from investing even more, because the situation described above confirms their biased opinion that investing is very risky and dangerous. It is clear that both groups need to be taught how to invest the right way: long term, diversified and slowly. Investing a little bit each month (Dollar Cost Averaging). This method may be the most boring, but it also the most successful.
Furthermore, investing and finances in general have a lot to do with psychology. How can you resist the Fear Of Missing Out, the ups and downs of the stock market and stick to your plan? Research made clear that a mindset should be taught to young investors.
Many of the users surveyed stated they were ready to start investing, but didn’t because of a lack of knowledge (34%), not knowing how to start (21%), thinking it was too risky/scary (17%) or thinking it was too complex (15%). The existing solutions, such as YouTube videos, Podcasts and books didn’t take these issues away, as became clear in the user interviews and the context research.
After the research phase was done, a precise User Journey was created, pinpointing the issues people phase when trying to get started with investing. The following conclusion was drawn: users want to get more knowledge on the subject of investing, from a source they trust and offered to them in a gradual, guided manner, with their starting knowledge in mind. People often feel overwhelmed and lost.
After the phase ‘from research to design’, the report follows with the design solution: MoneyMinds. An online platform on financial education that is mindset-focused, gives fundamental knowledge and gives people the confidence to be independent. Through video courses, exercises, personal coaching and a helpful community, MoneyMinds aims to empower young adults to take control of their financial lives, to learn about and start investing the right way, with the right mindset.
The report finishes with a strategic part, that describes how MoneyMinds can be realized: the value proposition, the business model and a full brand manual, allowing for a consistent online presence and matching the audience.
All things considered, this Master thesis offers interesting insight into a relevant problem of today, with a clear path forward. I hope you enjoy reading it.

Accell Group is the European market leader in e-bikes and the European number two player in bicycle parts and accessories. Well- known bicycle brands in their portfolio include Babboe, Batavus, Ghost, Haibike, Koga, Lapierre, Raleigh, Sparta and Winora. Since Accell has decided to give sustainability a higher priority, there is a need to integrate sustainability in the product design process (also referred to as PDP). In the analysis phase of the project, the context, sustainable progression and product development process were analyzed. Insights from sustainable progression were that currently no strategy for sustainable progression exists, and biggest opportunities for lowering impact on the environment were in the use of recovered materials, and better end-of-use processing. Next, the product development process and its users were analyzed. Although designers are motivated to make design choices of influence to the sustainability of the bicycle and / or production process, the culture in Accell currently not actively encourages such choices in design as costs and speed of execution have a higher priority. To validate such choices in design, it should be quantified enabling it’s integration in bicycle requirement documents. These insights resulted in the choice of the circular economy as main approach in the project. It provides a clear vision (zero impact on the environment) and includes strategies that combine financial and sustainable demands. Furthermore, circular methodologies are being developed that enable to assess progression. In the circular exploration phase, the perspective of the circular economy is used to analyse the current bicycle lifecycle (from production to end-of-use) to spot opportunities for improvement. Various circular economy assessment methodologies are tested through application on Accell Group. Insights gathered from this phase were translated into requirements for the development of the circular tool. The methodologies, strategies and guidelines were discussed, validated and tested during the exploring phase on several project teams, and feasability also discussed with new business development and supply chain. Insights gained from these interactions were implemented in the development of the circular tool. In the development phase a circular tool was designed, using insights from the circular exploration. The tool functions a circular conversation facilitator, and simultaneously as a indicator for circular progression of a bicycle development project. Therefore, it can communicate the circular value of a project between project teams, I&T department and managements, enabling to set goals and work towards them. The score achieved in a project is linked to assessments created on a system, design and component level, using indicators such as (dis)assembly time, percentage of recovered materials, use of toxic materials and established recovery players in a project. Furthermore, it includes guidelines on these same levels to help thinking in circular loops, create circular business models, choose green materials and circular plastics, design for disassembly and finally select sustainable suppliers. Circular indicators were created to include in the documents used in the product development process, with the goal of gathering information about materials and components from suppliers. Finally, moments of using the tool were established for integration in the product development process. In the validation phase, the final Accell circular tool is tested on the a public transport tender. Finally, communication of the tool during the project is summarized, and recommendations for further activation within Accell are given

Smartphone companies sell around 1.4 billion phones every year all across the world (Gouwens, 2020). The phones that are being sold, often replace a phone that is still working fine and we only use our phones on average for 2.7 years. This creates an enormous amount of e-waste. Fairphone believes in a fairer electronics industry by making a change from the inside. They aim to make an impact by creating products that last, reducing e-waste, choosing fairer materials and putting people first. However, Fairphone is still a small player in the smartphone industry. The number of phones sold by Fairphone in 2019 is sold by Apple every 3 hours (Chau & Ryan, 2020). Fairphone wants to grow their market share and wants to appeal to light green consumers. Light green consumers try to find a balance between sustainability, quality and price while purchasing new products. Apparently these consumers live sustainably and consume consciously nowadays, but they do not purchase a Fairphone at the moment. The first part of this thesis aims to get a better understanding of the reasons of these consumers for not purchasing a Fairphone. Secondly, the insights gained from this part are used to develop a design solution that triggers these consumers to consider purchasing a Fairphone when they are in need of a new smartphone. Through a survey (n=255), semi-structured interviews (n=30) and an exploration of the literature, 73 reasons for not purchasing a Fairphone were identified. These reasons are clustered and summarised in fifteen barrier cards. By facilitating creative problem solving sessions with Fairphone employees, many ideas are developed which are summarised in a strategic roadmap. The most promising ideas are translated into con-cepts. These concepts are presented to potential customers and their feedback is used to select the most feasible, viable and desirable concept. A group of consumers appreciates the Fairphone concept, but they are not in need of a new smartphone at the moment. Through the Friends of Fairphone program, Fairphone encourages these consumers to keep their current phone in use for as long as possible. After all, the most sustainable phone is the one in your pocket. For every month they keep using their phone, Fairphone will reward them with a 1% discount on Fairphone products. Today, these consumers forget that buying a Fairphone is an option while looking for a new smartphone. Through monthly updates, the Friends of Fairphone program makes sure that they will consider a Fairphone while they are looking for a new smartphone. A working web application prototype is developed which is validated with the Fairphone user group. 86.1% of this group (n=417) would have signed up to become a Friend of Fairphone. An implementation plan is presented which contains the required next steps for launching the Friends of Fairphone program. The Friends of Fairphone program requires low investment costs, totally aligns with Fairphone’s mission and has much potential of attracting a new group of consumers.The most sustainable phone is the one in your pocket.  

Technology is running faster than ever and, to keep up with its speed, businesses have been adopting design practices to turn the wealth of technology into value for customers. Companies are, therefore, renewing their identities and creating new business divisions to offer design capabilities to clients. Likewise, IBM iX is a department within IBM Global Business Services, that uses design techniques to solve complex business challenges. However, expressing the value of design in a business context doesn’t come without challenges. This especially happens in large organizations, such as IBM BNLX, where the IBM iX department encounters difficulties in defining who they are and proving their value to stakeholders. Specifically, the empirical analysis carried out within the organization demonstrates a lack of a shared vision and a clear positioning of the business unit, which suggests an internal intervention. Therefore, the central aim of this thesis is to help IBM iX enhance and communicate its identity both internally to create shared understanding, and externally to create awareness. The exploration of corporate theory shows that identity transfer is a long process that requires employees involvement in co-creation activities to help them internalize the it. Next to that, the notions of vision and positioning are explored as important elements that describe the core purpose of a business. In particular, a shared vision appears to be an essential element to express the “what” of a business while having, at the same time, the power to motivate employees in their daily work. Analogously, positioning is, by nature, an integral part of corporate identity building, due to his capacity to differentiate the organization from the competition. Based on the above-mentioned observations, and the analysis of theoretical frameworks from the literature, a process for the transfer of the iX identity is outlined and partially executed in the course of this thesis. The process is characterized by 4 main steps: awareness, understanding, internalize, communicate. To implement the process, two workshops are facilitated with employees with the goal to co-create IBM iX BNLX vision and identify their positioning which allowed to initiate the procedure of internal identity enhancement. To support the department in the external communication of the identity, a series of co-creative ideations are performed in close collaboration with iX employees. The results of these sessions include an iX story pitch and infographic to convey the identity internally and a marketing campaign whose purpose is to spread awareness among other departments in IBM. Final evaluation with IBM led to recommendations regarding the continuation of the process for the transfer of the iX identity. This includes a communication roadmap for the iX department that suggests the realizations of workshops, events, and constant renovation of the iX story.

This thesis proposes an innovation strategy to leverage the potential of connected vehicles for the fleet of LeasePlan, the global leader in automobile leasing and fleet management. This strategy has been developed through an extensive analysis of the internal environment, customer trends, industry developments, and emerging technologies in combination with Design Thinking and Roadmapping activities. It provides a set of solutions where the connected vehicle is believed to create the biggest impact for LeasePlan’s business, it’s market position and in meeting its ambition to shift towards a zero emission fleet by 2030. The automotive industry is at the beginning of a transition in response to the Paris Agreement and with ever greater demands in society for cleaner mobility. At the same time, the Internet of Things is one of the leading trends that is expected to rapidly transform the automotive industry, by introducing the connected vehicle. With LeasePlan’s total fleet of 1.8 million vehicles and soon a comparable amount of private charge points, LeasePlan has a significant influence on the development of sustainable transport systems. LeasePlan sees the growing request from its clients for expertise and guidance within fleet electrification. Clients try to find solutions to meet the rapidly increasing demand for charge infrastructure and to reach cost and footprint optimisation, while drivers deal with the inconveniences around electric driving. This study has identified how LeasePlan can use the connected vehicle to provide clients support in the zero emission transition and to deliver a desirable electric vehicle driver experience. The resulting strategy consists of the following four main elements, recommending LeasePlan to: 1) Provide Parking Support and Priority Load Balancing in the near term to increase efficient chargepoint occupation, to enhance efficient usage of charge capacity and to accommodate tailored advice on infrastructure expansion based on the real fleet behaviour. With Parking Support, drivers will be supported in their charge and park plan to enable fair chargepoint sharing. With Priority Load Balancing, smart capacity division increases charge flexibility for the fleet. This all results in minimum infrastructure investment for clients. 2) Introduce ‘Smart Charging’ in the second term for further reduction of the carbon footprint and energy costs for both clients and drivers by: automatically altered charging sessions and guidance for the driver to charge during the moments when the most green electricity is available and when the energy prices are low. 3) Develop a car-sharing system for a Connected & Electric Shared Pool, in the third term to realise optimal fleet efficiency, to create cost optimisation and to contribute to livable and cleaner urban areas. 4) Utilise the lease fleet to store renewable energy in the longer term. This realises energy self-sufficient offices and this brings profit for the customer when he plays with the fluctuations in energy prices during energy storage, while he contributes to the broader zero emission transition of its neighbourhood, region or even country. The strategy is presented in the format of a roadmap and the short term solutions are further conceptualized. The next steps for LeasePlan within each element are: further identify the market potential and monetary value, establish a profitable revenue model, build the partnerships and start the test and pilot phase to improve the design interaction. With this innovation strategy, LeasePlan becomes the reliable zero emission fleet accelerator, who takes the responsibility to contribute to a healthier environment and cleaner cities, while occupying a unique market position with its own expertise in fleet electrification, with the focus on its clients’ fleets and with the connected vehicle as its asset.

Voice user interfaces (VUI) have arrived. Worldwide, this technology is in the lift and enabling the exchange of information through voice interactions. As a result of the growing popularity of this technology, companies fanatically started with the designing of their own skills and/or actions. But although, this over-enthusiasm, leaves the ‘why-question’ unanswered. This is the result of a technology push: the technology is leading, putting human needs in its shade
What is actually the problem that a VUI is solving? And is this really better compared to existing solutions? How do we make sure the integration of voice technology simplifies and enriches our lives? How do we design voice interactions that matter? Human-centered voice design is the answer.
Therefore, the central aim of this research is to enhance designers in the creation of meaningful voice interactions. The research has been divided into a theoretical background part and an exploratory research part, with methods including case studies, interviews and observations. The insights gathered through this research are boiled down into a condensed framework showing how designers could incorporate human-centered VUI design in their processes. The argument put forth in this research is that context factors and human-centered values determine to what extent a use case is meaningful, in relation to one’s job to be done. The proposed human-centered values are enlarging accessibility, enhancing convenience and/or enhancing experience. Building on this argument, a toolkit has been developed, turning the theory into a hands-on product to incorporate in every VUI design project. The toolkit includes a canvas to discover and validate human-centered VUI use cases and a card deck which both clarifies the canvas’ elements as well as triggers the designer’s VUI imagination with inspiring examples. With the canvas, you decide step-by-step if voice technology provides the right solution for the fulfillment of a job to be done, putting the needs of the human central to the modal. In chronological order these steps include: Framing the Job to be done, checking the context factors, ensure human-centered value and ranking the use case’s feasibility. The card deck with examples of contexts, target groups and specific types of interaction in which a VUI could be of extra value stimulates the creative process and hereby enhances the creation of meaningful voice use cases. Finally, the design approach and toolkit have been evaluated during a cooperative creative session with Valsplat and KPN online. Recommendatory insights gathered during this session create a revised version in the shape of a workshop. This set-up enables Valsplat to help organizations in creating voice solutions based on customer needs. With the results followed from this project, they want to initiate a new movement: putting humans in the center of the voice revolution, towards a world with voice interactions that are worthy of humans’ precious time!

This thesis explores how strategic and communication design can have an influence on the adoption process of blockchain or distributed ledger technology. It does so through dividing the thesis into four parts: Discover, Define, Develop and Deliver. In short: Discover: What is found is that distributed ledger development is a technology push development. Companies only explore the technical possibilities and the viability and desirability of the technology are underexposed. This has caused for a chasm to appear between the enthusiasts and the rest of business and society. Define: Through a set of interviews it is discovered distributed ledger technology can grow the fastest if it is developed in a collaborative setting. For this to happen, more people need to join in the movement. It is determined that a new mindset needs to be created. A mindset that is daring, bold and experiment friendly. Failure should be seen as a learning moment. Develop: To make sure companies can engage in mindset development, a tool is created. This tool is based upon the realisation that an immersive and playful experience is the best way to reach an audience. Thus, a workshop is developed, based on a set of canvasses. Define: As this thesis follows a lean development cycle, a simple prototype is developed. This prototype is then iterated upon through testing, reflecting and redesigning. In the end, a design of four canvasses and a booklet is created that help companies to on-board new partners. What was found, is that strategic and communication design are two fields that compliment each other in just right way to influence the adoption of DLT. Through the iterative and user focused process of strategic design, tools were created that help people to understand the complexity of DLT through a simple and smooth experience. At the same time, communication design provided the exact approach needed in guiding a group of people through the multiple layers of complexity of DLT-ecosystems. By understanding the abstraction of their own context in contrast to the technological possibilities, new understanding and appreciation of networked-collaboration was created. This new-found appreciation should ultimately result in a foundation of common ground and understanding, upon which the adoption of DLT can be built and spread.

If brands that operate in the digital context do not start building their own front-end AI enabled channels, they risk falling behind on competition (White, Addison & Fritz, 2018). But as these (often traditional) organisations implement AI-systems in customer-facing practices, it slowly becomes the new front-office brand ambassadors of the brand (Wilson, Daugherty & Bianzino, 2017). But even though many organisations are starting to invest and implement AI-solutions they do not seem to fully comprehend its impact on their brand and business (Capgemini Digital Transformation Institute, 2017. And, in a similar way that people can be annoyed or pleased by an interaction with a customer service representative, customer-facing AI also has the potential to shape the brand experience of users. This is due to the fact that people tend to judge and anthropomorphise interactions with such AI-systems, which will ultimately affect their perception of the brand and its performance. Therefore, in order for customer-facing AI to add value to the business as well as the consumer, AI-systems should be designed in such a way that they fit with the brand, and benefit the brand experience of the customer. Based on this, the following research question has been formulated: How to augment the brand experience of users in service-driven brands through customer-facing Artificial Intelligence? Furthermore, as this project has been performed in the context of Deloitte Digital, the aim is twofold. First, this thesis will explore how to design for AI-augmented brand experiences by defining brand experience, and the potential of Artificial Intelligence in it. Secondly, these insights should be presented in such a way that they are applicable for Deloitte Digital designers and strategists, so it can be implemented within their existing design processes. Hereby, the insights from each chapter are made actionable,and are translated into concrete add-on design tools and methods that can be used within the context of the client. These tools are illustrated and validated with a concrete client usecase (Volksbank).

Festivals are a growing trend, and although being a temporary event, most festivals have vast material flows with a large negative impact on the environment. The Dutch festival Lowlands, a three-day event, for example uses 300.000 kwh of electricity generated by diesel-fuelled generators, 10.000 m3 water and 500.000 kg of solid waste (Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions, 2017). As a result, the attention is growing to find ways how to organize more sustainable events. Initiatives like Green Events support this development, by seeing the festivals as an ideal testing ground for new sustainable innovations.
One festival taking the green developments at heart to become a more sustainable event is DGTL revolution.Throughout the year DGTL Revolution is searching for new technologies and innovations, they can introduce at the festival to reduce their waste, lower their emissions but moreover create awareness and stimulate sustainable action amongst their visitors (DGTL Revolution, 2017). A project Revolution has focused on this year, is their plastic material stream.
Despite of the hard cup and deposit system which is in place at the festival, the festival still has a large amount of single use plastic water bottles. The need for a change in our current wasteful plastic economy has been a subject which is being discussed more and more. The single use plastic bottles form an opportunity for DGTL festival to discover circular ways of processing PET bottles, minimizing their plastic footprint and taking the visitors along in this vision.
This graduation project has started with an extensive research to the current sustainable efforts of festivals, the view of visitors on those efforts and the current challenges in plastic recycling outside the festival context. This is done through desktop research and several interviews with festival visitors and experts. A key finding of the research were the several barriers visitors experience, stopping them from behaving pro-environmental, like collecting and separating plastic at a festival or in their home environment. DGTL should facilitate a deposit system which overcomes those barriers of individuality, responsibility and practicality.
The following design brief was formulated from all the insights of the research; ‘How can DGTL positively change visitors attitude towards plastic recycling, using the deposit system at DGTL as a vehicle, illustrating its aim and result increasing people’s feel of responsibility.’
During the exploration phase new innovations in plastic recycling have been approached to collaborate with DGTL festival, aiming to process the plastic bottles into valuable resources again. Next to those innovations, the focus was on getting the visitors more involved in the goal of the deposit system. Overcoming the barriers by increasing the practicality of the system and showing them the aim and result of the system. This could have an effect on their perspective towards plastic recycling, and stimulate them to copy this behavior outside of the festival context.
The final concept which was implemented at the festival consisted of several elements. The central point was called the resource street. Here all the materials of the festival came together at the recycle hub were they were checked and separated (Figure 2). Furthermore the visitors were able to see the chemical recycling innovation pyrolysis, turning bottle caps into oil, a plastic container where all the plastic bottles were collected, showing it massive amount to the visitor as well as explaining how the bottles will be recycled into high quality rPET.
This concept is further supported by several decentralised designs namely transparent collection behind the bars, signing with information about the system and last mobile collection vehicles. All those elements have been implemented at the festival and evaluated, through interviews, a questionnaire and some data analysis about the collection.
This master thesis describes the first steps a festival can take, to move towards a more transparent resource handling, through which valuable resources can be regained from plastic bottles. At the same time, the visitor is involved in this system, leading to a larger effect by improving their perspective and behavior towards plastic recycling.