Designing with data helps the service providers to monitor and gain deeper insights from users. However, there are not many design methods of data-enabled design for most design teams to rely on. This research focuses on the early exploratory phase of the design process. The goal was to find a solution that could assist in contextualizing the big-thin data by using experiencing prototyping approach for exploratory purposes. A design tool, data-contextualizing canvas, was designed and iterated by three studies (including seven sessions with eight participants in total) in this project. It assisted designers to prototyping the simulated user scenario in a structured way. And designers could extract insights and relevant data points by using it. The tool was a representation of the new data-exploration process proposed in the end of this research. The design process of data-value-data described a sequence of creative data exploration for establishing the design hypothesis in early design phase. The data-contextualizing canvas was considered to have benefit in 1.offering a constructive way to explore the data and help in inner communication, 2.proposing a different perspectinve in using the big-thin data as design materials, and 3.raising the awareness of user value. ... Read more

This report describes the development of the Ford Concreate, a data immersion toolkit designed for the Innovation Management for Smart Vehicle Concepts team (design team) of Ford’s Research and Innovation Centre Aachen. The collaborative data physicalisation toolkit consists of three elements: an instruction process, the physicalisation tool and a set of reflection cards. Together, these elements lead the target group to collect inspiring insights from quantitative data by stimulating reflection and creative thinking through physical interaction with data. By consciously engaging with data while creating a physical representation of a dataset, users better understand the data and reveal patterns that lead to new insights. The toolkit is designed for use during creative sessions, led by a session facilitator. With recent advances in data-based technologies like AI, machine learning and IoT, designing with data is becoming impossible to avoid. Within Ford, the amount of collected data is growing, forcing the design team to look for new ways to integrate its data to improve continuous product and service innovation. This led to the initial goal of ‘using data as creative material’, as quantitative data is currently solely being used for testing and validation rather than to inspire the entire design process. To specify and achieve this goal, the fields of creativity and data representation were identified and studied, focusing on answering the following research question: How can data be represented in a way that stimulated creativity during the design process at Ford? It was concluded that data physicalisation could stimulate creativity and lead to better insights as it encourages reflection and creates deepened understanding through active interaction with the data, which led to the development of the toolkit: the Ford Concreate. ... Read more

This report describes the development of an implementation strategy for using data in the design process of a design team at the RIC of Ford in Aachen. The implementation strategy consists of a card set and a poster to show contemporary developments in using data in the design process, a service concept, a practical tool kit to start using the data and an organizational implementation roadmap. Throughout the project, a co-creation approach was used by working on one of the commercial vehicle concept projects. This resulted in barriers, enablers and drivers of different approaches for the team. First, I consulted literature on design and data to create an overview of the approaches in this field. I concluded that contemporary approaches use open data such as social platforms to find users expressed thoughts and feelings, or (owned) sensor data to find users functional needs in measurable behaviour. In a case study the insights from literature are visualized in the form of cards to create a tangible artefact for evaluating the different approaches and also act as later reference. This was the first deliverable of this project. The case study resulted in a set of preliminary set of drivers, enablers and barriers for using data. Next, a design intervention was done in the team’s service design project. Together the qualitative insights gathered and analysed. Then I chose parameters for “a behavioural data profile” and designed a service concept based on these parameters. In this service concept behavioural data of the user is used as input for personalized service functionalities. This allows the team to research behaviour and create the foundation for more advanced research. From this step I translated the learned lessons into a final set of barriers, enablers and drivers. This set allows the team to use this specific approach in future projects as well. The main barriers are now defined as: (1) Designers and researchers having different perspectives when setting up research projects resulting in an inability to create the described design concept. (2) There is no clear indication for the design team where and how to use data in the design process. To overcome these barriers a practical tool-kit was designed to allow the team to bridge the gap between the qualitatively gathered data and defining a product-service concept based on a data profile. The value of this practical tool-kit is supported by literature showing the trend towards in-situ research approaches and an evaluation process. The roadmap, the final deliverable of this project, presents directions for applying this approach and presents steps for further organizational implementation. For future research I recommend developing an accessible persona dashboard of the implemented services for Ford to perform easier and more focussed research in the relations between the different sub-functionalities of the vehicle. The practical tool-kit, set of cards and the roadmap help the team in answering their question: “how to use data to better understand our users and their behaviour” by indicating an appropriate approach, an example project and a practical tool-kit. ... Read more

It is our human nature to create, and we must continue to create what we need in a constantly changing world. This project was also started by a world that turned because of Covid-19. Due to the Coronavirus, the online environment's importance is increasing, and a digital transformation is happening worldwide. Under these circumstances, when we involve users in the design process as a designer, we need an online tool to facilitate fluent communication. With this increasing needs, both ID Studio Lab at Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, Delft University of Technology and Ford Research and Innovation Center need a proper online collaboration tool for involving users in a design process. Involving users in a design process has many benefits, to improving the quality of the products or services, and it helps to avoid waste of cost in organizations. The main opportunity is to develop a new online possibility of user engagement in a design process for Ford and ID Studio Lab. The challenge is to create a fluent tool for both users and designers in a user-centric research project. Therefore, this project aims to develop a guideline which allows proceeding fluent participatory design process in online for Ford's Smart Vehicle Concepts team. This project started with one main challenge was that"To create a fluent tool for users and designers in a user-centric design project in a digital environment." The final concept-Sketcho-is an online meeting web application that enhances a sense of togetherness and evokes positive emotions such as fun and joy in online collaborative works. The app is an example of the various potentials of an online environment. Sketcho strengthens a sense of togetherness with the main features of sharing space together, which ultimately boost people who participate in online collaborative sessions full engagement to their activities. ... Read more

Ford aims to implement a data-enabled design approach, using data to inspire and inform the whole creative process. In this context, in 2020, they took a step to reach this goal by setting up a University Research Project with the Industrial Design Faculty at Technology University of Delft, proposing data visualisation as one of the research lines. In this master thesis project, the role of Data Visualization in Data-Enabled Design projects is investigated, specifically how to use Data Visualization more efficiently to generate insights and inform the creative process of Ford design.
The initial stages of the project were focused on understanding how Ford is using data in the design process and reviewing the published literature about creativity, data, data-enabled design, data visualisation, and exploratory data analysis. Then, through a critical reflection about the intersections of the theoretical research, eight possible design directions were identified in which data visualisation can support the creative process, termed “crossing bridges”.
Afterwards, in collaboration with the company, the one with higher potential, “Exploratory inquiring”, was selected to investigate further. Hence, three empirical studies were developed: personal explorations, a design students workshop and one workshop with Ford employees.
The last steps included the analysis and discussion of these sessions individually and comparatively, considering the limits of this research and the proposal of different aspects to consider in future research. Finally, I present a guide to support Ford in performing Exploratory Inquiring. ... Read more

Ford is facing new competitors and changes in their market. To stay relevant, they have to deal with collaboration to solve complex problems, new technologies that enable new value propositions and a shift from products to services. Service design seemed like a promising approach to deal with those challenges and to come up with new services in a multi-stakeholder context. However, it was found that the service design process of the involved innovation team at Ford Research & Advanced Engineering has no clear structure and mainly focuses on gaining customer insights and coming up with a great value propositions for them. How value propositions could be delivered with and to multiple stakeholders to co-create value, while also capturing value from that for Ford, is not so much explored. Besides, it is not easy for the team to make the value of a new service explicit and clear for others. To be able to explore opportunities for co-creating value for multiple stakeholders with new services in the service design process, value co-creation building blocks and a value co-creation network are presented. In addition, an improved service design process model was developed for Ford, to serve as a more structured foundation for using the building blocks and network. Through the use of the value co-creation building blocks and network the Ford team members are able to explore ideas for services in a multi-stakeholder context in practice. It gives room to multiple types of value, fitting with a multi-stakeholder context, and it balances value proposition, value co-creation and value capture from the exploratory phase onwards. Furthermore, the value co-creation network makes both the value proposition, value co-creation and value capture explicit. It thereby also provides a shared language and helps the team members to discuss the value that the new service concept co-creates and what Ford specifically could derive from that, to align with others. ... Read more

Ford democratised mobility in the early 1900s by providing the freedom to move for a broad audience. We are on the verge of a mobility revolution that could once again change the way we spend our time, allocate urban areas and shape communities. Cities evolved around the car and people started to realize this might not be the cities they want to live in. A European wide trend could be recognized of cities that are aiming to decrease the number of cars in cities to reclaim streets for people. The proposal aims to enable Ford to ‘democratise streets’ by transitioning to off-street parking to improve liveability. The project explored opportunities in the servitization of Ford’s future business around autonomous drive, connectivity and electrification. The proposal delivers a product service around the parking ecosystem and a dialogue tool to collaboratively design interventions. ... Read more

Changing mobility Mobility is one of the fundamentals of our society and for the first time since the introduction of the automobile in the 1900s, we face a disruptive change in our mobility ecosystem. The rise of autonomous technology will allow us to get from a to b while being able to do other activities on the go. Challenges in change Although autonomous mobility will go hand in hand with many benefits, we still have challenges to overcome if we want to implement autonomous vehicles to their fullest potential. If we want to get rid of all the mobility problems we have today, such as congestion, traffic accidents, air pollution and parking limitations, autonomous vehicle rides should be shared. Ride-sharing will allow a larger part of our population to join the autonomous revolution, contributing to Ford’s goal to democratize mobility and increase the ease and speed of implementation in society. Ride-sharing For this to succeed, it is essential to understand peoples motivations to share (or not share) rides. Today’s mobility landscape in San Francisco allowed me to research current ride-sharing concepts. Here I experienced ride-sharing myself and interviewed relevant actors in the servicescape, to find that interpersonal contact is a substantial differentiator in the ride experience. Another main finding revolves around the drivers, whom we are trying to eliminate as we are moving towards an autonomous future. The roles the drivers take on besides enabling transport, bring essential values to the user experience. Scope After gathering extensive user insights during field research in San Francisco and learning about the potential positive effects of AV ride-sharing, I scoped the project to the daily commute in the Netherlands. This use case holds excellent potential for business, but more importantly, has the duration and frequency to make it worth to invest in the interpersonal relations amongst users. As well as diminishing the negative effects of human-driven vehciles (HDVs) on the daily commute in society. Acting-out By co-creating and acting-out shared concepts for the daily commute, I further explored the values and desires of future users. This has led to many insights, design qualities and a lot of funny moments. The raw insights are assembled in the additional deliverable: Session Booklet. The central findings are taken to the synthesis phase. Synthesis To bring all these insights together and make them communicable to Ford, this thesis holds multiple deliverables. Starting with the following vision statement: Autonomous Vehicle rides should be shared to maximally utilise the potential AVs have to offer to society. To successfully design shared AV rides for the daily commute, the service provider should gain individual insights to facilitate a common understanding amongst co-riders & provide a sense of control for each user. This vision is visualized in a communicative drawing, showing a little bit, about a lot information. Since the user insights go much deeper than what can be shown in the drawing, a set of criteria for designing shared AV rides for the daily commute, is created too, showing a lot about a little bit. The criteria are accompanied with a user narrative. This narrative shows how users will experience their daily commute in an AV ride-sharing service, that is designed accordingly. ... Read more

The first fully autonomous vehicles of Ford will be launched in 2021, and the revolution has been carried out not only self-driving technologies but also new business models. I.e., the establishment of Ford Smart Mobility LLC has demonstrated its ambition to seek new mobility business models rather than a focus on manufacturing vehicles itself. Hereby, Ford has partnered with Lyft and Domino's to seize opportunities of self-driving cars with regard to ride-hailing and on-demand delivery services. Meanwhile, Ford evinced a burning interest of applying autonomous vehicles in logistics field in the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show. As a result, the design direction of logistics/delivery was decided. Future-oriented products such as autonomous cars, are ideal to plan and develop by a top-down approach. However, the approach is lacking of the voices from small and medium-sized companies, local organizations, and regional communities. Therefore, it is an opportunity for Ford to build up an autonomous mobility service by a bottom-up approach which empowers SMEs and local residents to customize the transits according to their needs. And so, the challenge of this project is "sensing logistics opportunities from SMEs to form a service model as a local initiative by means of autonomous vehicles of Ford". The double diamond design process was adopted to guide through this project. It started from a research phase to seize design insights, and then come up with design concepts based on the findings. In order to response to the challenge, the design methods of in-depth interview and future workshop were adopted to come up with design concepts via a bottom-up mindset. Ultimately, twelve interviewees had participated, they are business owners, delivery drivers, logistics stuffs, and logistics and transportation professors. The findings of the interviews were summarized as four case studies and twelve design directions. The cases cover from delivery types of business-to-business, business-to-consumer, and a small delivery company. In addition, the twelve design directions demonstrated the need and the want regarding to logistics in SMEs. Namely, information, companies, social value & network, best planning, delivery, interaction, and supply chain. The design directions illustrated the current needs of SMEs, and the future workshop supplemented the expectations of autonomous vehicles from a perspective of community. Totally twenty-four expectations were generated from the future workshop. In the end, initial design concepts were come up with the integration of the twelve design directions and the twenty-four expectations. Collective Mobility Assistant, the final design concept, is a burden free autonomous mobility platform for SMEs/local residents. It offers four types of mobility: Delivery, Transit, Tour, and Event, which enables SMEs/local residents to transport goods or people according to their needs. Alternatively, the platform can be used as open space for people to contribute their personal skills for the communities. The autonomous mobility service offered by Ford invites more people to join the platform without worrying about the moving issue. The value of Collective Mobility Assistant matches the brand values of Ford "people serving people" and "commitments to the community". ... Read more

Transformation of the mobility industry
With increasing globalization and urbanization, space in urban areas is very limited and air quality is decreasing because of fossil fuelled engines. Since the invention of the automobile in the early 1900’s, the automotive industry currently faces their biggest disruption so far. With automation, digitization and electrification, the automotive industry can offer Mobility as a Service in collaboration with other mobility providers.

Transformation of Ford
Currently, Ford’s value to the ecosystem is the product (vehicle). In order to offer Mobility as a Service, Ford needs to work together with other stakeholders in the mobility ecosystem. Only then, users can experience the efficiency of shared mobility from A to B. Moreover, if Ford is able to collaborate with other mobility providers and stakeholders of the ecosystem, space in urban environments can be regained, giving the streets back to the community. This fits with Ford’s vision of democratizing mobility.

Design approach
In order to achieve this, I have emerged myself in the complex ecosystem of mobility and found different variables that are of influence when designing for urban mobility. I interviewed experts in the field of new mobility solutions and visited multiple stakeholders of the mobility ecosystem in order to formulate a founded vision on urban mobility (see one of the figures in the attachment bellow). From this vision, I subtracted new strategic mobility solutions for Ford in order to anticipate for the future ecosystem of urban mobility.

Scope
The scope for the assignment is Eindhoven in the Netherlands. Eindhoven has a car friendly infrastructure and is relatively small enough for quick iterative testing of new technologies with the automotive campus nearby. Also, stakeholder position possitive towards mobility initiatives. Finally, Eindhoven is also far ahead compared to other European cities in Smart Mobility initiatives.

Envisioning the future of urban mobility
The method of ‘Visual Thinking’ is used in order to communicate my vision for future urban mobility. This vision is iterated with stakeholders and validated with Ford. The visualization of the vision has several layers of information (see vision in attachment).
1. Car metaphor (rear-view mirror is the past, inside the car is the present, in the window in the future)
2. Urban zones (zone A: Downtown, zone B: Pre-war, zone C: Suburbs)
3. Dominant transportation modes (zone A: walking, zone B: biking, zone C: driving)
4. Mobility users (people transport, goods & services, construction & maintenance)

Strategic mobility solutions for Ford
From this vision I created multiple mobility solutions. Finally, I recommend the three most viable, desirable and feasible solutions:
1. First and last mile transportation in collaboration with busses;
2. Dedicated autonomous areas;
3. Autonomous goods delivery.
These solutions perfectly t Ford’s vision of democratizing mobility and enable Ford to implement emerging mobility technologies correctly and prepare itself for the transformation of the mobility industry. ... Read more