The retail perfume industry often lacks the multi-sensory engagement needed to frame the perception of a fragrance and thus facilitate the fragrance selection process. Scent is very ambiguous and needs cues from other senses to better place a scent (Pierzchajlo et al., 2024). This project, conducted in collaboration with the Dutch perfume brand Fugazzi, explores how cross-modal sensory correspondences, combining scent with visual, auditory, and tactile cues—can create immersive and intuitive experiences. Through a series of exploration sprints, associations between fragrances and sensory modalities such as color, texture, shape, and sound were investigated. These findings were later applied to develop a concept in two deepening sprints. These sprints build on each other, and the concept is iterated through these sprints.

Findings revealed that multi-sensory integration can influence customer perception of fragrances and align their expectations with the olfactory experience. These insights were applied to the chosen design direction: d’Accord, a display enabling customers to select preferred fragrance accords and receive suggestions that correlate with the chosen accord. The user receives sensorial stimuli that frame the perception of a scent. The found associations between scent and color, shape and context are used in this concept.

Cross-modal correspondences between smell and vision can be used to frame the perception of a fragrance. Visual stimuli could make the perception of a fragrance less ambiguous. D’Accord had the highest effect on the pleasure scale, making the perception of fragrances with a less defined emotion profile less ambiguous.

This project explores the application of the ventriloquism effect in the context of the nightclub, to assess its potential for enhancing audience immersion. The ventriloquism effect is a cross-modal illusion in which a sound is perceived as originating from the location of a simultaneous visual stimulus rather than its actual source. This illusion was integrated into an audio-reactive electroluminescent wire installation that generates visual cues based on live audio produced by DJs during a nightclub event. The installation was evaluated through a controlled user test, supplemented by a questionnaire distributed among event attendees and interviews with user test participants. The user test revealed a statistically significant increase in self-reported immersion during audio-reactive light modes, compared to non-reactive light modes. Additionally, an increase in self-reported spatial specificity in the perceived localisation of auditory cues was observed during audio-reactive light modes, though this effect was not statistically significant. This increased spatial specificity would indicate ventriloquism, as the perceived location of auditory cues shifts to the spatially specific visual cues created by the installation. In addition to the user test, qualitative evaluation methods revealed that the light installation enhanced audience immersion. While statistical significance concerning the presence of ventriloquism was not achieved, findings indicate that cross-modal illusions hold potential for multisensory design in nightclubs, warranting further research.

In contemporary society, we are surrounded by not only physical materials, but also images of them. We are capable of judging materials and their properties with only visual information. For instance, if an object looks solid and glossy or soft and fluffy. This ability is called material perception. As for images, there are various ways of image making, such as photography, painting, computer rendering, etc. And a new method has emerged recently: generative AI. All these image generation methods can produce different appearances of the same object or material. In this thesis, we studied human visual perception of two types of appearances: appearance as material property, appearance as pictorial style and the interaction between them.

In Chapter 2, we investigated depiction style by zooming in on a single motif, an apple. By using the fragments instead of the whole painting, we were able to keep the subject matter relatively constant, and isolate style from composition as well as other contextual information. We first constructed a perceptual space of style using similarity judgements from online participants. Then we fitted perceived attributes to this space to understand its dimensions. The data resulted in a three-dimensional space. Dimension 1 is associated with smoothness and brushstroke coarseness. Dimensions 2 and 3 are related to hue and chroma. Surprisingly, we also found a rotational relation between creation year and the first two dimensions, revealing a certain cyclic, repetitive pattern of style. The results suggest style can already be perceived in fragments of paintings.

In Chapter 3, we studied the influence of medium on appearance. For example, imagine an oil-painted apple and a pencil-sketched apple: they can have different appearances. The comparison between different media has rarely been studied. One possible reason is the difficulty to isolate medium from its confounding factor, subject matter. We found a solution by comparing oil paintings and their engraved reproductions. The identical content gave us a perfect opportunity to compare material perception from two distinct media. We collected 15 pairs, consisting of 88 fragments depicting different materials like fabric, skin, wood and metal. We also created three manipulations to understand the effect of color (a grayscale version) and contrast (equalized histograms towards both painting and engraving). We collected ratings on five attributes: three-dimensionality, glossiness, convincingness, smoothness and softness. Paintings showed a broader perceived range than engravings, with contrast equalization having a greater impact on perception than color removal. Possibly engravers used local contrast to compensate the absence of color.

In Chapter 4, we analyzed an emerging medium from a non-human creator, generative AI. In two experiments, we explored human material perception using generative AI stimuli and compared the perceptual spaces of three generative AI models, as well as a computer-generated BRDF stimulus set, the MERL dataset. In Experiment 1, we used text descriptions of 32 materials from MERL (e.g. ‘green fabric’) as prompts for DALL-E 2 and Midjourney v2. Both AI models resulted in a 2D space while MERL resulted in a 1D one. The three spaces showed low similarity, suggesting the AI models generated unique and different images of materials from identical text prompts. In Experiment 2, we explored another text-to-image model Stable Diffusion v1.5 with an add-on, ControlNet. ControlNet allowed us to add additional graphical constraints besides text input. In this way we could inspect more complex shapes. We kept the same 32 descriptions and generated material blobs in three shapes, from simple to more complex geometry. The three perceptual spaces from the three shapes showed high similarity, indicating both robust structure and minor influence of object shape on material perception. Interestingly, the perceptual spaces from Experiment 2 also shared similar structure as perceptual spaces from other material studies using real-world photos, computer renderings and depictions. In sum, we investigated visual perception through the lens of art by examining appearances rendered by painters, engravers and generative AIs.

This thesis addresses the main research question: “How to help customers to communicate product properties accurately for a C2C secondhand clothing online platform?” Communicating product properties in C2C online marketplace is important because clothing is “high-touch” experience goods that need sensory evaluation to assess the product. The goal of the thesis is to provide design recommendations to improve engagement between sellers and buyers in C2C secondhand clothing online marketplaces by communicating secondhand product properties accurately.
 
To address the key research question, a comprehensive literature review was conducted, identifying a general research gap: there have been no specific studies on communicating product properties in C2C secondhand clothing online marketplaces. To bridge this gap, we conducted a Sequential Mixed Research method using qualitative research (in-depth interviews) for the first phase, with the key research question: “What are the key factors influencing customer satisfaction in selling and buying clothing in the online C2C platform?” These are the key findings from the in-depth interviews:
1. Customers often encounter measurement inaccuracies, as many of them struggle to determine how the clothing will fit without trying
2. There is often a lack of information about signs of use although customers expect some flaws in secondhand items, but often there's a lack of information about signs of use
3. Tactile experience is missing in online shopping, making it difficult to gauge the material of the secondhand clothing
4. Customers frequently feel disappointed when the actual color differs significantly from what they saw online.

In the second phase, we conducted quantitative research (online survey distributed across Europe), with the key research question: “What solutions are feasible to implement on the platform to enhance the engagement between seller and buyer in the C2C online platform?” We integrate the results of both phases of the research to answer the questions. These are the key findings from the online survey:
- Provide visual and textual information to cater to buyers' needs, which often hinders their experience when lacking in the platform
- Allow sellers to easily provide visual and textual information of their product in the product listing page without hassle (e.g feel encouraged to put detailed measurements, provide clear images, etc)

The insights revealed there is a necessity in providing detailed information about product properties such as detailed measurements, signs of wear, true color representation, and tactile descriptions. To address this need, a digital interactive prototype was developed that includes design features that enable sellers to offer accurate information about their items. The prototype was evaluated to measure its impact on seller and buyer engagement, which involved user testing to gather feedback on the usability of the prototype.

This study provides suggestions by examining solutions to encourage customers to effectively communicate product properties. On C2C platforms, individual sellers upload their own images and text for product information, resulting in varying levels of quality and clarity. The quality and clarity of these inputs are crucial for establishing trust, a driver of long-term success in C2C online platforms.

This research and design concept contributes to C2C secondhand online platforms by enhancing the communication of product properties. In C2C online platforms, sellers provide their own text and images for the product listings, which are reflected on the product detail page viewed by buyers. This information is crucial for buyers when making purchase decisions. We propose the following guidelines for sellers to improve product listings: 
1. Visual guidance to help users input detailed measurements 
2. Guidance for capturing and displaying the true color of products
3. Guidance for encouraging sellers to provide signs of wear 
4. Guidance for capturing the item’s dimension and tactile qualities through video 

There exist many ways to use an object outside of its designed function. Chairs were made for sitting; however, people routinely use them to reach things from high places. The invention of the micro-plane (a cooking appliance that is used to grate food) was discovered because of the unintended use of a Wood File. Products everywhere exist to service one function but can serve other purposes they were not designed for. This is not the result of bad design, but of the underlying communication that occurs between a user and a product every time they are interacting. This communication is due to a lot of factors, one of which being sensory communication. A user's interpretation of the sensory aspects of a product influence how they believe said product can and should be used. This misalignment is due to a lack of consideration for sensory experiences and the communication a user is having with a product. This graduation project attempts to develop a method that can be used to generate product ideas that have a more coherent and aligned form, experience, and function because they will lead to innovative designs with stronger emotional connections between the user and the product.

The method that ends up being developed uses the areas of multi-sensory design and prototyping to create a process that allows designers to capitalize on unintended use within products to discover new product directions. The Multi-sensory Unintended Object Method (MsUOM) focuses on user interviews to collect multi-sensory information surrounding two designed objects. This multi-sensory information will be used to combine those designed objects into one prototype. With this prototype, designers will see how users interpret its functionality based on the form and their interaction with it. This leaves the designer with the newly designed object with a form, multiple perceived functions, and a multi-sensory understanding of the user experience. The method gives designers the tools to enter the traditional design process equipped with the knowledge to develop a product with an intuitive experience inspired by the prototype developed through the Multi-sensory Unintended Object Method (MsUOM).

Through a user focused evaluation, the Multi-sensory Unintended Object Method is in a state where it is viable to use and will lead designers to discovering product spaces where their designed object exists with innovative functionality possibilities and strong sensory focuses that inform a consistent and unique form and experience.

The method bodes well for the future of designed objects, as it will generate product ideas that have form, function, and experience aligned and embedded in their development; while also relaying to designers the importance of the user relationship with a product without sacrificing innovation within design.

The National Library of the Netherlands boasts an extensive collection of Pop-up books. However, due to their age, some of these Pop-up books have deteriorated over time, making it impossible to display them to the public. Nonetheless, emerging VR/AR technologies offer a solution to this issue. By recreating these Pop-up books within the VR/AR realm, users can once again engage with these embodiments of human wisdom. Hence, the core of my graduation project lies in designing a VR/AR Pop-up book experience. With the aim of fostering a greater appreciation and understanding of Pop-up books, I envision my experience to meet the following criteria: 1. It should provide users with a profound sense of immersion. 2. It should be easy to navigate and operate. 3. It should offer users a novel perspective for appreciating Pop-up books.

Analysis
Through my research into the histories of "Pop-up books" and "VR/AR books," coupled with an analysis of their features, I have uncovered a shared core concept: the transformation of imagination into tangible form. This underlying principle resonates with people's desire for immersion. Furthermore, my investigation into the literature surrounding "immersion" has led me to identify seven factors that influence the sense of immersion in an experience: Sensory, Curiosity, Concentration, Comprehension, Control, Challenge, and Empathy. These factors exert varying degrees of influence on immersion at different stages of the experience.

Design
After careful consideration, I decided to utilize VR to present a Pop-up book titled "TIP+TOP Boven De Wolken." Building upon my previous conclusion of immersion and insights gained from user study, I particular emphasis on the environment and interactions part. I decided to craft the environment as a "Wizard's attic" and will introduce two pivotal interactions: "Scalable Pop-up book size" and "Exploration-triggered story-telling." These components collectively encompass all the factors influencing immersion. I believe that their synergistic integration will effectively enhance the sense of immersion within the experience.

Conclusion
Ultimately, upon completing the experience, I invited 24 participants to engage with it and provide feedback. Through the analysis of both ratings and feedback, I have concluded that my VR Pop-up book experience has successfully enhanced user immersion and introduced a novel perspective on Pop-up books for some users. However, it also revealed several areas that require further improvement.

Hepatopancreato-biliary (HPB) surgeons, when planning complex cases of pancreatic cancer, lose precious time because of difficulties in visualising the interaction between tumour and blood vessels and identifying patient-specific anatomy. To tackle this issue, the Integrated Imaging Workstation (IIW) was prototyped by e/MTIC and Philips. This prototype encompasses a conventional medical viewer and a holographic display to visualise the same medical data, providing a functional basis and showing promise. However, it lacks a human-centred interaction design, particularly in integrating it into a surgeon’s established interaction flows with conventional medical imaging, as a study with 13 expert surgeons highlights. The literature review and empirical research show that surgeons iteratively scroll through scans to build a mental 3D reconstruction of the anatomy, and have two personal approaches to finding anatomical landmarks and interactions, “vertical scan” and “zoom in and out”. Also, it unveils 3 key design opportunities: minimising workflow disruption, visualising both overview and detail and balancing speed and control in the interaction.

These findings were translated into multiple design concepts, such as one with different modes of visualisation depending on anatomical landmarks. The most desirable concepts were combined into a navigation system, which in turn went through one expert feedback iteration. The final design comprises a system for surgeons to easily select anatomical landmarks through 2D medical imaging. This enables reaching and controlling desired points of view, which then can be orbited around. A high-fidelity prototype was implemented with Unity3D and evaluated. The mixed-method evaluation study with 3 expert HPB surgeons shows promise towards the overall usability of the navigation system and its clinical application. However, some aspects of the interaction, such as the selection of minor vessel branches and missing visual feedback for point-of-view changes, need refinement. These results illustrate a solid human-centred design direction for supporting surgeons in finding crucial landmarks and vascular interactions, as well as an approach to integrate 3D medical visualisation into established workflow with 2D imaging of HPB surgeons.

This thesis hopes to be a starting point for future iterations of the IIW. For example, using metaphors to help the surgeons establish a mental model of the 3D camera system could be tested, or scoping the main user focus to novice surgeons could be helpful to refine the design. Furthermore, this project could be relevant for other research and design endeavours that aim to inject 3D medical visualisation technology into existing workflows in a surgeon-friendly manner.

This report outlines the key challenges faced by customers when purchasing smart lighting products through different online presentations. With the user-centered approach and the report serves as an initial step in exploring the design aspects of online retailing pages for light products. By focusing on the user and light experience, this report aims to provide valuable insights into enhancing the design of these pages to better meet the needs and expectations of customers.

This project is guided by the following research questions: (1) Which aspects and how affect the use online experience? (2) How do they influence? (3) How to better present smart light products online?

In a quest to answer the above questions, this project conducted different user tests and studies and ended with a guidance. Based on the difference between the online and offline lighting scene presentation, the researcher invited 10 participants and started the first user test in which the following questions were studied:

How does the experience with the hue online representation differ from the real-world experience (regarding lighting and overall user experience)?
Which aspects affect the user’s perception of online and offline experience? Images’ style, quality, interaction way or other aspects?

From the first user test, the researcher learned that the difference between offline and offline experience is that offline can show more light levels and provide users with a sense of more control. According to the results of the questionnaire and interviews, users also put forward their requirements in terms of content, interaction and light experience.

Based on the first user test, the researcher developed four hypotheses to explore how different factors affect the experience and how design can be used to enhance the online product exhibit experience. After receiving 20 valid results, in a second user study it was found that (a)higher interactivity of the prototype, better user and light experience, (b) abstraction stimulate the user's imagination of the product use scenario.

Based on user testing and analysis, the researcher summarized guidance that help designers have design direction when they start designing, or review existing designs. The guidance focuses on these three directions:Better visual content
Interactive, product display, Immersive light vibe

Art is the universal language of humanity. Art viewing not only evokes aesthetic pleasure but also inspires people to create their own art. In this digital age, more and more museums democratize their art by making their digital collections freely available online. However, these online sources are mainly targeted at researchers and visit planners who have specific search goals in mind. For inspiration-seekers who usually start with a vague idea, the current way of access to museum digital collections–searching through metadata–limits their exploration.

This graduation project explored how to help novice artists seek inspiration in museum online collections. Through literature review on the topics of inspiration and creativity and interviews with creators, an understanding of the context was gained. According to the user study, museum digital collections are more valued by beginner artists. The design goal and target group were narrowed down for the following ideation phase. Three interaction qualities, guiding, resonating and encouraging were used as guidance through the exploration.

Based on the insights gathered from the context exploration, four rapid prototypes were developed and tested with seven participants to define the final design direction. In addition, the interface of the chosen prototype was redesigned to enhance its usability.

The final concept, ArtMind, is an online tool that allows users to make textual associations to diverge their ideas while also recommending them similar artworks to converge ideas. The final design consists of three core functions: associating search, recommending artworks with similar visual characteristics and making personal collections.

Finally, ​​user testing allowed me to evaluate whether my design solution achieves the design goal. Participants claimed that ArtMind offers a unique inspirational path. By broadening their thinking pathways, users were able to generate more original ideas.

A design was developed to introduce and invite visitors to take ownership of the collection stored in Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen. The Double Diamond process formed the basis of the design methodology. This iterative process resulted into the design of an interactive guided experience.

Extensive research resulted in the selection of four overarching themes defining the needs of visitors, staff and scientists: perspectives, belonging, recognition and relevance. The final design is based on these overarching themes. It was first prototyped and tested online and after on site in the depot.
The results of the tests were positive, the design made visitors aware of the function of the depot: the storing, preserving and collecting activities. It also personalized the visitors’ journey. Once interaction was established, it was found that visitors are also willing to add personal information to the collection. It is suggested that this system can be applied in other museum depots in general, but for that more needs to be done.

Social VR is the application of virtual reality that supports remote social interaction in virtual spaces. Users communicate and interact with others in the social VR environment through avatars, which are virtual anthropomorphic characters that aim to represent humans in virtual worlds. In addition, the development of the HMD and commercially available motion capture systems enable the avatars in the virtual environment to detect and reflect the real-time motions, even facial expressions of people. However, the avatars still lack an indication of biofeedback - e.g., body temperature, breathing, heart rate, muscle contraction -, which serves as social cues for communication in reality. While some features, for example, emojis, supports users to express their feeling or emotions for richer communication, the missing information often results in miscommunication in the virtual space. It remains a barrier to a fully immersed experience in the social VR space. This project proposes a concept of visualizing biosignals of the avatars in the social virtual reality space for a richer-level interaction in virtual reality. With the technologies available to capture and reflect accurate biofeedback in real-time, we would like to explore ways and possibilities to map the bio states of the users in reality to avatars in the virtual world. The project starts with conducting user researches to understand the current user behaviors in the social VR spaces and their perspectives on sharing biosignals. Based on the requirements gathered from the user study, the scope of the project is narrowed down to a ‘watching entertainment’ scenario, and the ways to visualize biosignals on avatars were explored through a co-design session with designers. After that, four biosignal visualization techniques in two biosignals - heart rate and breathing rate - are prototyped under the VR jazz bar setting. Finally, the user study is conducted with 16 pairs (32 participants in total) to test and compare the effects of each biosignal visualization technique in watching entertainment scenarios with a companion. As a result, the embodied visualizations are the most understandable and least distracting visualization method among the four methods. Furthermore, the limitations of the research, recommendations on biosignal visualizations, and recommendations on conducting design research are provided.

Collaborations are often transdisciplinary whereby people with different backgrounds need to be able to work together and therefore share knowledge. This means people have to cross knowledge boundaries. Crossing these boundaries can be done with boundary objects that help to transfer knowledge across these boundaries (Carlile, 2002, 2004). Touch can expand the vocabulary that people have at their disposal and therefore contribute to making transferring experiential knowledge and crossing boundaries easier.

To make the research of how touch can be applied to enhance transdisciplinary learning more concrete, a specific context has been chosen, namely the organization ‘Centre of Expertise Societal Innovation’. Within this organization, they want to create learning communities whereby knowledge is shared and preserved between students and others stakeholders in consecutive projects. This has led to the following research questions:

“How to improve the transition between graduation projects within the Urban Innovation program of EMI with a haptic language design to preserve knowledge within the different communities of practice.”

The knowledge that the organization wants to preserve is so-called tacit knowledge. Tacit knowledge is hard to express in words. Therefore, guidance is needed to help people express their tacit knowledge. From the theory of transdisciplinary learning, it is retrieved that the 7 habits of the mind are important to foster transdisciplinary learning. These habits also include using the senses of the human body. Therefore, it is interesting to combine transdisciplinary learning by expressing tacit knowledge with the senses of the human body. Especially the sense of touch is interesting to use because touch can deepen communication and is one of the most versatile senses.

The literature study in combination with exploratory research on how touch can be used in communication, has resulted in 6 haptic design principles for transdisciplinary learning. These principles can be used by designers that want to create physical haptic designs for transdisciplinary learning. The 6 haptic principles are:

1. Haptic design triggers people to touch it
2. Haptic design makes people conscious of touch
3. Haptic design enables different touch experiences
4. Haptic design translates and adjusts between different disciplines by providing the same meaning for everyone
5. Haptic design evokes interaction between users
6. Haptic design gives people the tools to make their thoughts and ideas tangible

With the principles, a final concept design has been created, called MIMIC. MIMIC is a haptic language design that helps users to express their internal thoughts, ideas, and feelings by providing tools to make these internal thoughts, ideas, and feelings tangible. Translating to external forms will make it easier for others to understand. MIMIC consists out of two sets of cubes, the basic set made of wooden cubes with different weights, and the haptic set of cubes with different materials from 10 categories on each side cubes. Furthermore, a guide, an instruction sheet, and warming-up exercises are created to give guidance to users for sharing relevant knowledge and the use of the haptic language in general.

The main goal of this thesis is answering the question: “How can immersion be achieved in an outdoor experience, using synergy between narrative, puzzles and location?”

From literature research the following definition of immersion is formed: Immersion is a state where the interactor feels as if they were located in a different reality or world with an overarching specific theme. A narrative, interactions and location each contributes to this.

To find out what the players experience during an escape room, two indoor games and two outdoor games are played and evaluated to see what does and does not work for their immersion. The main takeaway is that the narrative, and the interaction play a major part in immersion.

After finding out what is considered immersive, an outdoor escape experience is built to function as a case study. Here, designs are tested and iterated upon to find out what improves players immersion even more.

Two final tests are held to find out if the entire experience is as immersive as can be. From these tests conclusions will be drawn to see how each individual aspect of the experience influences the total experience.

The conclusion of this thesis is that there is a synergy between narrative, puzzles and location. As having a location that fits the story, or the other way around, works great for storytelling and immersion levels. Also if the puzzles have a matching theme, Players experience more immersion, fun and excitement.

The world around us is filled with materials. Our ability of visual material perception informs us how to navigate and interact with our environment. It tells us, for example, whether food is fresh, if a chair is strong enough to sit on, how much force to use to pick up a glass, etc. Painters have studied how to depict the world and the materials therein for thousands of years. We believe that the material depictions within paintings can be leveraged into insights for the scientific understanding of material perception. In this thesis, we studied the perception of painterly depictions of materials and aimed to make the study thereof accessible to other researchers with the release of the Materials In Paintings dataset. We collected a large set of paintings from museums and galleries. Then, we used an online crowd-sourcing approach to annotate material identity (fabrics, stone, etc.,) and gather spatial material segmentations (i.e., “cutting out” piece of the painting that depict the material). In the first study, we measured the perception of material attributes (soft, rough, fragile, etc.,) across a range of materials and found that painterly materials trigger distinct distributions of perceived attributes and we furthermore compared these distributions to those for photographic materials. In the second study, we continued crowd-sourcing annotations on material identity and material segmentations and combined these into the Materials In Paintings dataset. In a number of cross-disciplinary demonstrations we presented novel findings across art history, human perception, and computer vision. While these demonstrations are useful in their own right, the main focus here was the release of the dataset. Next, we used the dataset as a source of stimuli for two studies into specific materials. First, for fabrics, we studied the perception of satin and velvet and the effect of presenting only local or, both local and global information, and found that the perceptual distinction between these two fabrics becomes more ambiguous when removing global information. Furthermore, we showed that local image cues can affect perceptual responses for shininess but not for softness. Lastly, we studied the perception and depiction of pearls by identifying three image features that might trigger the perception of pearliness. In a series of experiments, we confirm the role of these image features but find that the presence of only one of these image features, highlights, is already sufficient for naive participants to trigger the perception of pearliness. Conversely, expert participants (art historians or pearl experts) perceive depictions with all three features as more pearly, which implies the existence of visual expertise for pearl perception. All in all, in this thesis we show the benefits of studying material perception through painterly depictions of materials and enable further study with the release of the MIP dataset.

All museum visitors should be able to go to any museum they like and observe the artworks they prefer. For
visually impaired people this is often not the case, even though museums have a social responsibility to make 
their collections accessible for everyone. Especially since the United Nations agreed on the rights of persons with disabilities to live independently and participate fully in
all aspects of life (2006). The process of creating a more inclusive cultural sector is well underway, but people with a visual impairment are often excluded from truly experiencing the art world. In my thesis I explored opportunities for Dutch museums to bridge this gap. The Netherlands counts 320.000 people with a visual impairment (in different forms). Having a visual impairment affects many aspects of life, ranging from practical to psychological and social problems. Being dependent on others is experienced as a key disadvantage. Visually impaired people want equal chances in what society provides to the public, including art. They like to be free in choosing when to go to a museum and what artworks to explore rather than depend on special museum tours and selected art to experience with multiple senses. They also like to explore art together with a companion; a sighted friend, family member or partner. They want a playful social interaction; they dislike experiencing art only through the eyes of their companion. The question is how to create an equal, balanced experience with a sighted person. In order to explore the value and richness of an artwork, visually impaired people put a strong emphasis on the use of multiple senses. Unlike visually impaired people, sighted people can explore artworks, as they prefer. I found inspiration for my design in two principles on how sighted people explore visual art: Visual Thinking Strategy (VTS, 2020) and a principle by Panofsky. VTS is a learning method to observe, listen and build on each other without judgment when looking at art. The Panofsky principle consists of 3 layers: 1. Gather visual information; 2. Apply meaning to what is observed; 3. Think about what is observed and seek to broaden the meaning. (Messham-Muir, 2014). Visually impaired people can receive pure visual information through observational techniques. Sighted people can learn from using other senses than just sight. Both get a deeper understanding by talking to each other, seeking the underlying meaning and building knowledge together. After my analysis, I designed and prototyped ideas. The most promising idea turned out to be a toolkit with guidelines and tools for multi-sensory experiences: describing, (tactile) drawing, enacting, talking and touching. I developed this idea into a concept design and tested it with the target audience. The playful and interactive tools create an equal museum experience for visually impaired people (different levels) and their sighted companion. The toolkit is designed in such a way that interaction leaves room for own imagination and interpretation about the artwork. Visually impaired and sighted visitors will discover equally interesting information. It helps them to interact socially, start dialogue and exchange thoughts about artworks. The toolkit can be used independently at any time, at any museum and for any type of artwork.

This thesis report describes the process and the result of a graduation project for the master programme Integrated Product Design at the Delft University of Technology. The project is carried out in collaboration with Marktplaats, a classified advertising service. This project aims to improve amateur product presentation on Marktplaats.

Marktplaats is an online resale service that allows consumers to buy and sell second-hand products. Marktplaats connects buyers and sellers for stimulating a sustainable use of products. However, the way in which users can present their products on Marktplaats’ often generates low quality product presentation and fosters miscommunications of the presented product.

Therefore the goal of this thesis is: Improving the online product presentation of users on Marktplaats: to design for improved visual communication of product aesthetics (appearance), semantics (function) and symbolics (meaning).
Online shopping is linked to high levels of perceived risk because of its intangible nature. Shopping on Marktplaats can be considered even more ‘risky’, since information on these products is often incomplete, and the presentation is usually less salient compared to professional webshops. Consumers respond to a high perceived risk by developing a purchase strategy which is is dependent on the perception and liability of presented product information. .

Due to the absence of a framework in literature, a framework has been created to design for- and measure product understanding. In this model six instruments are presented that help in designing for improved product understanding either through helping the consumer create a better mental model of the product, or by increasing its vividness (medium).

Depending on the nature of the product, a high quality product presentation is one that accurately represents the product at semantic, aesthetic and symbolic level (measure).

With the help of this framework, ideas have been developed and a final concepts have been presented. Validated by qualitative testing, a final concept is presented that more concretely presents semantic, symbolic and aesthetic information, thus increasing the overall quality of product presentations on Marktplaats. The final concept also assists consumers in deciding what valuable information is missing from the listing.

A quantitative study has shown that providing a list of information that is provided and left out by the seller, makes consumers more aware of missing information in a listing. This knowledge influences consumers perception and liability of a listing, aiding them in forming a risk assessment and developing a purchase strategy. This will likely decrease miscommunictions amongst users and lower negative outcomes of Marktplaats service interaction.

This thesis is concluded with and aesthetic representation of the final design, and a roadmap suggesting further improvements on the short- and long term.

The current thesis explores the impact that the use of visual contracts has from the fairness perspective. The project developed in collaboration with the company Visual Contracts, a start-up specialized in Legal Design Thinking, aims to provide an added value and evidence that supports the relevance of their activity. A design process that combined research with a practical approach was the chosen approach for the development of the project. The project focused on the context of employment contracts due to its big social relevance and its potential for business opportunities. Several conflicts which seriously compromise the well-being of the parties, the employer and the employee, arise as a consequence of misunderstandings in the employment contracts. To prevent these conflicts and to offer and added value to the company Visual Contracts, the exploration of the impact of visual contracts is addressed from the fairness perspective. Three design cycles were pursued during this thesis. The first cycle, had as a goal to create an in-depth understanding of the project scope (contracts, understandability, and fairness) and to design the first visual contract. The second cycle was focused on improving the user experience and the implementability in the real context. Finally, the third cycle aimed to detail the visual contract and validate it in the real context. Along this process, a combination of desk and empirical research with the stakeholders of contracts, was conducted to gain more understanding of the scope of the project. It was also developed a framework which aimed to ease the creation of fair employment contracts and set the basis for a good relationship between the parties. Finally, one contract was designed on each cycle and afterwards tested to generate knowledge and insights for improvement. The final result iterated from an initial interactive document to a platform where the user can perform all the tasks related to their hiring and onboarding process, from reading the contract to uploading the necessary documents for the formalities. The results of the project provided the company Visual Contracts with a business opportunity in the context of employment contracts, along with evidence and tools for the further development of this project. As an overall conclusion, it was stated that the use of visual contracts contributes to fairness and generates a positive impact by improving understandability and fostering evaluation. The impact is demonstrated in the following way: visual contracts support and empower the stakeholders during the decision making process and negotiation of the agreement, they improve the relationship between the parties, by fostering trust and open communication, and finally, they prevent conflicts and set realistic expectations.

This graduation project is related to macular degeneration. Macular degeneration affects the macula, a central pit on the retina which is responsible for the highest visual acuity due to the densely packed cone photoreceptors. Symptoms of macular degeneration can vary in the early stage from blurred vision to abnormal dark adaptation (Jager et al., 2008) however in late stage macular degeneration symptoms can be much more invasive including partial and complete loss of the central vision. In order to cope with the loss of central vision patients could prescribe to what is called eccentric viewing. Eccentric viewing is a technique where the peripheral vision is used to see. Using eccentric viewing as a method to cope with macular degeneration requires, for optimal results, practice. This can be done through training. This project was originally aimed at designing a training method for eccentric viewing with the use of motivating game elements. By speaking to experts from Visio and Bartimeus as well as patients throughout the research phase it became apparent that eccentric viewing was not deemed necessary. Instead other problems were addressed which had a higher priority in solving. These problems include the lack of provided information after the official diagnosis, the attitude of the ophthalmologist during the diagnosis and the perceived gap between the diagnosis and the Low-Vision clinics. By creating a patient journey and examining the different problems that occur during that journey a choice was made to focus on a combination of the lack of information after the diagnosis and the gap between the diagnosis and the Low-Vision clinics. Six different topics of information were defined which play part in the lack of information. These six topics are: information about the condition, information about aids, make it easier, information about peer support, training / revalidation support and information about involved instances. Together these six topics cover most of the aspects surrounding macular degeneration. To convey this information to the target group a web-based medium is used. Due to the special target group guidelines have been defined which help in designing a website for visually impaired people. This has resulted in a framework where the necessary information can be placed in. Because of time restrictions one of the six topics which was defined was further developed. That topic is ‘Make it easier’. It resulted in a collection of tips from “experienced” macular degeneration patients on making Activities of Daily Living (ADL) easier to perform. In total 20 different tips were gathered through a brainstorm session, an online survey and telephone contact with Bartimeus. These tips were spread over three different themes: cooking, grocery shopping and public transport. Each tip was accompanied by an image, a descriptive text and a spoken quote. Finally an evaluation test has been conducted with two participants to verify whether the proposed design succeeded. The results from the evaluation show the potential success of the design but are not conclusive. Therefore further testing needs to be done with more participants over a longer period of time.