Ecology as an equal user of the city
The city is designed to be human-centred. In the multispecies urban environment humans take on roles of management and ownership over flora and fauna. This leaves the richness and biodiversity of urban habitats in the hands of humans (Denters, 2020). Ecology is often treated as a second class citizen and given opportunities according to human preferences.

In collaboration with material-centred design agency Refunc, this project explores the way designers can work with the entanglements around local ecology and facilitate equal and just treatment of ecology as an added client of otherwise human-centred design.

More-than-human perspective
In the first stage of the project, practices from more-than-human-design theory, Refunc, nature-inclusive building and ecologists are collected and urban human-ecology relations are explored by noticing entanglements (Tsing, 2021) and multidisciplinary collaboration. To allow more opportunities for ecology to be revitalised in urban environments the main objectives are to create space and facilitate agency for ecology.

Decentring through experimentation
In the following stage of the project
designing, making and co-creation are used as knowledge generation tools. Through multiple design experiments the application of more-than-human design and Refunc’s practices is explored and more practices are collected and defined.

The main challenges of adopting the more-than-human perspective are:
The lack of knowledge and understanding of ecology and the complexity of entanglements.
Decentering the human in the design process.

Play and multidisciplinary collaboration can support the designer in finding new multispecies uses for objects.

Added to Refunc’s framework are lively materials, nonhuman functions and more-than-human clients. As well as a change in perspective from projects that are finished once they are produced to interventions that are ever changing.


A (never) complete journal of practices for designers of urban ecology
A journal is created to provide support to beginning more-than-human designers.
The design goal is to introduce them to MTHD practices and inspire them to experiment in a project with urban ecology.

The journal is filled with 29 practices, examples of interventions and activating questions. It is a collection of the work of this project and a starting point for another designer going on a similar journey. They are recommended to be applied and explored one by one in a reflective and iterative design process. After the designer has mastered its contents, the journal can be planted and create space for ecology by itself.

Lastly, the journal and this project are an invitation to every designer to experiment and explore how their projects can involve more-than-human ecology.
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The city of Rotterdam is globally recognized for its port and its international trading. The city is an important key player for the imports and exports of the European trading market. For this reason, many, small and large, companies have decided to establish their business in or just outside the city. These companies can not operate without having people working for them. All that people must be able to travel to work daily but also do fun things during their free time. For this, they need reliable transportation alternatives. This is where public transportation comes into play. Within the city, several types of transportation can be found like buses, trams, and metros. Everyday the RET makes sure these vehicles are available to get the people of Rotterdam and visitors to their preferred destination.

When providing public transport, it is important to have good services, which support the industry of public transport. Without these services, people will associate travelling by public transport with something negative. In Rotterdam there are three locations which are important in the infrastructure of public transport. Rotterdam CS, Beurs, and Zuidplein are the main stations where various forms of transportation can be used by customers. RET provides an extra service at these locations in the form of service points. Every day, employees of the RET help their customers to have a relaxed and pleasant journey. The problem is that the contemporary service points are getting outdated and do not fully fulfill the needs and wishes of RET’s customers and employees anymore.

The world of public transport is changing. For years buses, trams, and metros have been the main solution when travelling by public transport. However, times are changing, and so is public transport. Shared mobility is getting more popular by the day. In Rotterdam there are various forms of shared mobility like bicycles, e-scooters, and shared cars. More and more these kinds of companies are becoming new competitors in the world of public transportation.

To stay relevant in the rapidly changing world of public transportation, a new kind of SP is needed. The project ‘New generation service store for RET’ was conducted to find a solution for the outdated SP at Rotterdam CS. During the project, a literature review based on research was done. There was an active involvement of RET employees and RET customers for developing a new kind of Mobility store. By making drawings and turning them into a virtual reality environment, people were able to assess the designed environment and see if it fulfilled their needs and wishes.

This project concludes with recommendations for the design of a Mobility store, which could be established at the passage of the Rotterdam CS’s metro hall.
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This project investigates the role of the NOBIS collaborative murals in fostering social connections between the Buitenhof district in Delft (Netherlands) and the rest of the city. Furthermore, it aims to enhance their impact through a design intervention aimed at promoting empathy among city residents.

Utilizing qualitative methods, including interviews, workshops, and participation in local activities, this research engages both Buitenhof residents and Delft citizens to explore their perceptions of the district, the dynamics of social connections in the city, and the impact and limitations of the NOBIS murals. The findings highlight a strong disconnect between Buitenhof and the wider city, and suggest that, if their limitations are addressed, the murals hold potential to bridge this gap.

Building on a series of iterative design explorations and prototype testing with participants, a final design intervention called Voices of Buitenhof was developed. Voices of Buitenhof is an interactive experience that enables mural visitors to connect with residents’ personal stories. This intervention was then evaluated, with the results informing reflections on potential project evolution, implications for the field, and recommendations for future initiatives.

The final discussion covers key themes, including the influence of mural art on social connections, the power of authentic storytelling in evoking empathy, the unique challenges of the city as a context for design projects, what “collaboration” means in collaborative projects, and possible future directions and limitations for the project. ... Read more

This project aims to introduce engineering in a way that captures students' interest. In order to motivate studernts to try it out, instead of limited by their past experience. Therefore, expanding the original knowledge of engineering during the design ideation process becomes crucial. Beginning with the identification of factors contributing to the underrepresentation of female students in the field. Additionally, this study collaborates with Cities of Things Lab 010, which strives to incorporate citizens' opinions into the neighbourhood robot design process. Hosting the workshop and making robot development accessible to all citizens. For me, I narrowed down the scope to focus on students.

To address the research questions, I conducted a literature review and identified two gaps: limited research on gender learning in STEM for ages above 18 and a scarcity of studies on the male perspective. I conducted surveys to address these gaps. One focused on the educational robotics toolkit, utilizing experiences of female Industrial Design Engineering (IDE) bachelor students (aged 18 to 21).

The other survey aimed to understand the male perspective on the current situation in the engineering field. Involving both males and females in crafting the solution creates awareness of the responsibility that everyone plays a role in this situation. It is crucial to emphasize that this thesis does not aim to generate conflict between genders. Instead, its message has the ambition of shaping a world where everyone can choose what they want to do based on their interests, free from gender stereotypes. Furthermore, I defined the design goal of the toolkit based on this message.

The design goal of the toolkit is to make everyone feel involved and comfortable to share their opinion in the group discussion. Encouraging the incorporation of different viewpoints and getting inspired by other people’s ideas. Ultimately, broadens the existing original impression of robotics. To visualise the design goal and validate the final concept, I developed a prototype of an inspirational toolkit with fellow students mainly from the DP3 course in the IDE bachelor program. Since the group assignment of the DP3 course is to design a cleaning robot for the campus. Utilising this toolkit to inspire students in the early stages of robot design can have a positive impact on the design process. I conducted multiple user testings to improve the prototype, considering the interplay of aesthetics, form, user experience and assembly.

Final design HiveMind, I conducted user testing with a group of students to validate whether the after-use effect of the prototype aligns with the design goal. All participants agreed that they feel encouraged and comfortable expressing their ideas, and the toolkit helps them get on the same page. Furthermore, the toolkit improves group discussions in the early stages of the design process, especially when everyone in the group is not familiar with each other. The validation result shows that each participant has a more diverse impression of robots after using the toolkit. However, I observed that the shape of the robot they drew for the assignment still adheres to a traditional representation of how a robot should be. This suggests that future design recommendations could focus on the relationship between picture cognitive association, the impact of different game rules, and using the toolkit before or after hands-on activities.
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Purpose - In my Master Thesis titled "Shaping an innovative play space," I was inspired by the realm of playground design, particularly the concept of 'adventure playgrounds' and their profound influence on creativity. I embarked on this journey to harness the power of play and apply it to the office context of VONK, the innovation center of the city of Rotterdam.

Design/methodology/approach - I adopted a comprehensive approach that delved deep into the intertwined concepts of play and innovation. Through literature reviews, hands-on observations, and user interviews, I aimed to uncover the nuances of these concepts, especially focusing on the overlapping themes of making and creativity.

Findings - My research illuminated the indispensable role of play in fostering attributes like confidence, creativity, problem-solving skills, a sense of belonging, cultural growth, and overall well-being. These findings underscored the potential of integrating play into professional settings to spur innovation. The research resulted in a theoretical framework of the interaction between the creative process and the environment. On this framework the insights from user and expert interviews where plotted, which lead to multifaceted opportunity and threat zones for VONK within this context. Based on these zones a possible roadmap was developed for the coming 10 years, including 5 horizons and playful idea suggestions tailored to the team of VONK to act according to these horizons.

Research limitations/implications - While the research provides valuable insights into the role of play in fostering innovation in office contexts, it is primarily based on the specific context of VONK. The findings might need adaptation when applied to different organizational settings. Also I have struggled with my personal process, as described in the personal reflection, which led to a suboptimal documentation of my findings.

Practical Implications - My insights suggest significant implications for VONK, the innovation hub of Rotterdam. By integrating the principles unearthed in my research, VONK has the potential to transform its space into a vibrant ecosystem that champions learning, experimentation, and innovation. For VONK, the research suggests a focus on co-creation, connecting actors, and project management. Organizing events, such as festivals or business fairs, can also serve as an effective strategy for showcasing achievements and expanding the network.

Value - This research offers a unique perspective on enhancing innovation in office contexts by leveraging the concept of play. It provides actionable insights for organizations like VONK, aiming to foster a more interconnected, innovative, and vibrant environment. The crux of my research lies in its potential to revolutionize the innovation landscape of VONK. By weaving in the principles of play, I believe we can usher in a new era of creativity and innovation, making VONK a beacon for innovators and pioneers.
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Understanding how the end users, ordinary citizens, experience designed public spaces is fundamental in the field of urban design. Virtual Reality (VR) technologies significantly enhance the ease of evaluating public space designs by creating virtual simulations. This allows users to immerse themselves more deeply in the space compared to traditional screen-based presentations. However, the true experience of space design only occurs once it is physically constructed. Designers still face challenges in effectively investigating how citizens might interact with the future space. In evaluating public space designs, one obstacle is that users can only provide feedback based on individual experiences, lacking knowledge of how others have perceived or used the space, which contrasts with the real world situations where people experience and perceive public spaces with the association with how others’ experiences.

Trace visualizations have been used to analyze user behaviors. Visualizing traces of previous users unlocks possibilities of enhancing curiosity and meaningful exploration of the space, which could inspire more association about use scenarios and a deeper understanding of the spatial properties, and eventually benefit the evaluation outcomes. 

This project explored the influences of visualizing human traces on users’ explorative behaviors in virtual reality space. We started with conducting interviews with urban designers to understand the utilization of traces in the processes of public space design and their perspectives regarding implementing trace visualizations to support public space design evaluation. Insights from the interview informed the selection of traces for the experiment including user pathways, gathering situation, full-body motion, and space atmosphere. Subsequently, we integrated trace visualizations into a VR shopping street and conducted the experiment with 20 participants to evaluate the impacts of each trace visualization on user exploration. The outcomes from interviews and operational activities undertaken by participants revealed exploration patterns associated with each type of the trace visualizations and related findings concerning user perceptions of the trace visualizations. The project concluded with the implications for implementing trace visualizations in VR environments and the limitations of the research. ... Read more

In the recent years, many older buildings are being transformed into more sustainable zero-energy housing. However, next to its advantages, there are many challenges that still have to be tackled. One of the main ones is the mismatch between residents’ expectations and systems’ functioning. This report analyses the specific case of a demo-apartment in Reigersbos, Amsterdam and applies an Inclusive design perspective with a focus on visually impaired residents. The main goal is to develop a solution that will decrease the gap between residents and systems. Through literature research, user interviews and field research of the demo apartment, the challenges of the case are defined from a human-centred design perspective. Then, the accessibility limitations are identified on the basis of the conducted accessibility research. Different Inclusive design tools and suitable approaches for designing together with visually impaired users are described. As a result, three design interventions are proposed. The first one is targeting the stakeholders, responsible for choosing the systems and products in a renovation. It is a Booklet that provides specific guidelines and recommendations for the decision-makers to follow. Its aim is to help them improve the outcomes of a renovation. While this tool still has to be evaluated in the projected use scenario, according to interviews with experts, it is a much needed product. The other two proposals are concepts called ‘Tactimap’ and ‘Breathing Walls’ which embody the main user needs identified during the research phase. Their target group are the end users, namely visually impaired and the wider public. The evaluation confirmed that the ‘Breathing Walls’ concept has promising potential for future development. ‘Tactimap’ on the other hand turned out to be less prospective at this moment. The exploration of the three concepts contributes knowledge to the field of zero-energy renovations and Inclusive design. In addition, the recommendations from the booklet can be applied immediately in the renovation of Reigersbos so that it becomes better fitting to users’ needs. ... Read more

Through bottom-up initiatives citizens have the ability to adapt their environment to their own desires and ideas. It is a way to take power and create a city that is truly based on what the residents want, rather than it being opposed on them.

Right now there is a growing movement in the Netherlands where municipalities want to embrace bottom-up initiatives and give the citizens the opportunity to contribute in shaping the city through participation. Citizens are invited to express their opinion or to receive support for their own ideas.

The citizens themselves have to take action to make bottom-up participation happen. However, many citizens are not familiar with the possibilities. As a result, only a small number of citizens participate. Most of the power of participation falls in their hands. This leads to outcomes that are non-inclusive and are often only beneficial for this select group of citizens.

There is, however, a growing group of people who are indeed interested in bottom-up participation but do not act on it as they experience too much resistance and too many obstacles. An opportunity can be found in enabling these interested but inactive citizens to get familiar with initiative information and take action towards durable bottom-up participation. The aim of this project is, therefore, to carefully navigate the present obstacles and explore how to address them with design.

The exploration consists of iterative design sprints combined with the research through design approach, which allows me to chart the citizens participation landscape in a practical and experimental way.

Research through design is the main approach of the thesis in order to get as close to the experienced obstacles as possible. On the basis of fast iterative design sprints several prototypes are tested that actively involve stakeholders. The prototypes are tools to navigate deeper into the context, gain insights and create a clear foundation for the final design.

The knowledge gained through the explorative design sprints ultimately give shape to the following design goal: Design a tool that can enable interested but inactive citizens to get familiar with initiative information and take action towards a durable initiative.

The goal results in Growing the Movement, which is a new participatory tool that guides interested citizens through the biodiversity initiative landscape and its possibilities. Through the tool citizens will acquire a personalized set of cards. The cards will guide them step by step through the multitude of information and invites them to take action in form of biodiversity initiatives. By interacting with the cards the user will be introduced to the possibilities of bottom-up participation. They will be educated and supported in taking biodiversity action to influence their own local environment.  ... Read more

A physical work environment is essential for creating and supporting different activities in the workplace, not only for work performance but also for physical and mental wellbeing. Studies have been conducted on the influence of the working environment on work performance and people’s wellbeing since the 1950s. Most of these studies have been published in the domains of ergonomics and human factors or in historical papers on the office environment (Katja, 2019). In recent years, motivated by increasing demand for wellness-focused design, companies and organizations are putting more effort into investing in properties that improve employee’s performance while enhancing their wellbeing in the workplace (Zack, 2019), exploring opportunities of new emerging technologies. The same applies to universities where they always seek for new approaches. Students are more willing to adapt to changes and to participate in experimental setups. Delft Design Labs offers multiple opportunities for student participation and master thesis project is one of them. Working on a graduation project is a challenging time and a graduation lab workplace should be an environment that can help. This project is focused on designing for the future Delft Design Labs workplace, which is being used by students who are working on their graduation projects for Delft Design Labs. The final design is a product system called "Hexabond" which encourages meaningful interactions between students, without disturbing everyone. It gives the user an opportunity to connect and interact with others, which can be a start point for students to get to know each other. The Hexabond is simple to set up and does not require a precious time investment. The aesthetic of the products is simple and minimalistic and makes it fit into any workplace. For validation of the Hexabond, some prototypes were created for user tests. The results of the test showed that the final design met the design goals well. The resulting product fulfills the need for encouraging students to offer and ask for help in the workplace, creating connections between students and making students feel a sense of belonging. However, there is still room for improvement for maintaining the connections between students. The biggest limitation during the project is the unfortunate pandemic. Making it impossible to do user tests in the DDL workplace or in general. The current design is still rather hypothetical and is not fully validated with the right usage. The product is rather a user-centered design that needs input and feedback from the user group. If it was possible to actually test the product in a shared workplace with the students, it would have yielded insightful feedback for iterations.
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In the past few years, many companies have made the transition from an office with closed working spaces, towards open offices. The Dutch office of IKEA CBF made the transition to an open office in 2016, to support an activity-based way of working. This new way of working has to lead to an increase in complaints, about noise and distractions within the office. Co-workers commonly related this experience nuisance to auditory stimulation, however, visual or temporal stimuli could contribute to this as well. The experience of the office was researched from a co-worker centered perspective, through interviews and contextmapping session. This revealed that co-workers mainly experience nuisance, when they are being distracted during individual focused work activities. Co-workers identified that they experience nuisance caused by six main sources, both relating to the behavior of co-workers and office facilities. Where most co-workers experienced nuisance from co-workers conversation and movement/foot traffic. The amount of nuisance a co-workers experiences is mainly dependent on their role and the amount of individual work activities they perform. nuisance, than other co-workers. Next to this the individual experiences of co-workers are influenced by factors that influence the presence of specific sources and co-workers general ability to deal with nuisance. Co-workers here most frequently identified that individual needs and a low awareness about their own effect on their surroundings, to affect their general experience of nuisance. Finally co-workers all had an equal access to tools to protect themselves from nuisance. Consequently, co-workers’ general experience of nuisance could most effectively be decreased through a design intervention that improves co-workers’ ability to protect themselves from nuisance during individual work. Next to this Co-creation activities with the Com&In teamshowed that a physical design intervention, that could be applied as an individual solution to protect co-workers from nuisance, would most likely lead to valuable insights for the Com&In team. Following I developed Fridfold, a stimulation barrier aimed at decreasing the amount of nuisance that co-workers experience from auditory and visual stimulation, while working at their desks. This design aimed to make working at an individual deskspace feel ‘fridfull’ or serene, by having a calming effect on co-workers. To achieve this Fridfold was developed to both decrease the amount of stimulation and co-workers perception of stimulation. To achieve this, Fridfold aims to decrease co-workers perception of stimulation by increasing co-workers sense of control, through the interactivity of the design, and the perceived sound damping of materials, through the application of a three-dimensional textured screen. The evaluation of the design with students and co-workers showed that the Fridfold influenced the amount of visual stimulation and improved co-workers sense of control, through the interactivity of the design. Furthermore co-workers envisioned that Fridfold could decrease the nuisance experienced from interruptions. While three dimensional-texture of the screen could not influence the perceived sound damping due to other characteristics of the screen. Therefore, Fridfold should be evaluated within the context of the office to identify how the design can influence coworkers’ general experience of nuisance. ... Read more

Social well-being in the workplace is linked to the quality of relationships between co-workers. This project began by examining the affects of the flexible office (flex-office) at Delft municipality focusing on the relationships between co-workers and their feeling of relatedness, and continued with designing to enhance this feeling of relatedness. Appreciation is a key factor in the need for relatedness. Recognition from peers can build a sense of teamwork and of being part of a bigger purpose, especially for employees who work remotely or are not physically in the office regularly (Vacqua, 2019). Knowing and then using someone’s name can be considered a subtle and very effective compliment (Carnegie, 1936) and can be a form of recognition. This is because our brains need us to be liked by others. People with a ‘best friend’ at work are seven times more likely to be fully engaged in their work. However, these close and intimate relationships are challenged by flex-offices, which are being introduced more and more. People form less friendships in flex-office settings, because they feel like everyone is listening in; flex offices seem ‘too open for transparency’. Trying to counteract this by creating acoustic privacy is a big operation and does not immediately create enhanced relatedness. My design goal was to enhance the social well-being of employees in flex-offices by satisfying and supporting their need for relatedness. The first step towards relatedness is knowing each others’ names. This is a form of recognition, a subtle compliment and thus enhances the feeling of relatedness. Knowing your colleagues’ names can cause a sense of control over your environment and can give you enhanced freedom. Think about if you forgot a colleague’s name, this can cause very awkward situations and even make you avoid that colleague. But knowing your colleagues’ names is only the first step. The main reason for people to connect is proximity and if there is a functional need to connect. This proximity is thwarted by flex working and the Corona measures so people will only connect if there is a functional need to do so. Providing people with information on what they can use other people for might cause people to connect. People do not want to spend a lot of time on learning their colleagues’ names so timing is important. Through an iterative approach several design interventions led to a design where people receive a link once the meeting is made and 15 minutes prior to a meeting, with a name-learning tool and information on what you can approach these people for. After a meeting, all participants are encouraged to express appreciation to each other. Testing shows that it indeed leads to enhanced social well-being. ... Read more

Nowadays, people are using more and more technology to measure their body performances like smart watches, heart rate sensors etc. These are all separate devices. What if it were possible to integrate these into something we wear daily. Textiles are something everyone wears daily. It is a promising medium to integrate electronics in. Especially through knitting new possibilities arise. Different conductive and non-conductive yarns are explored with a focus on off-the-shelf available materials. The main yarn needing to be elastic to get the fabric back to its normal position after stretching. Knitted fabrics have a unique structure which is perfectly suited to create sensors with. A knitted fabric is stretchable without the yarn needing to be stretchable. This makes searching for good working conductive yarns easier, as non-stretchable conductive yarns are a lot more common. Previous research shows that creating sensors through knitting is possible and can be achieved with simple yarns. The structure of knitted fabrics is mainly useful for creating strain sensors. Using elastic yarn with silver conductive plated yarns, different sensor test samples are created. Optimization is done to improve the sensors' signal output. Two directions for knitting a sensor were tested. The optimized sensors are used in two prototypes that are able to measure the movement of the arm and the breathing pattern of the wearer. The arm movement prototype is tested with two sensors knitted in the vertical (wale) direction and the breathing sensor was made with a long strip of a sensor knitted in the horizontal (course) direction. Both arm and breathing sensors are integrated into a full garment prototype. This prototype is tested by doing different movements and seeing how movements affect the sensor behaviour. Possible designs of a shirt with integrated arm and breathing sensors are briefly discussed to show how the look of the shirt and the integrated sensors could complement each other. The final prototype's sensor data is evaluated and recommendations are made for follow up projects based on this research. This research sets a new and fruitful step in the direction of producing commercially viable body measurement clothing for the near future. ... Read more

The ongoing pandemic raises questions on how the current situation paints the future context of doing work. Although a lot is still uncertain, we can say with confidence that the home workplace will preserve a prominent role. Young professionals, who are limited by space, require extra attention on the long haul. The assignment is to design a viable product/service system that enhances the young professional’s homeworking experience. An iterative design approach, enriched by other methods in design and entrepreneurship, helped me in solving this project. Working from home accelerated in almost every sector. The near future of office work is hybrid; we will work from home several days a week and several days from the office. Mostly young professionals encounter challenges. Their limited space makes maintaining a healthy work-life balance a vital challenge. Working at home, and working in the same room in particular, makes work-life boundaries dissolve and transitions disappear. If we ignore this growing problem, the Dutch workforce will go down on mental illness. “The home office facilitates a healthy work-life balance by creating smooth transitions between daily activities.” The physical office is an example of clear boundaries; the office is for work and home is not (or at least less). The time people spent in between these physical places helps them to transition mentally from work to private life. Based on principles and my own experiences, a combination of good time management (principle) and the change of scenery can recreate these boundaries and transitions when working from home. Therefore, I developed Sceny. Sceny can assist young professionals in time management and create new transitions while limited by space. A combination of smart LED bulbs, an app and a controller helps users in improving time management by notifying on transitions, giving quantified insights, timeboxing activities and establishing goals for different life quadrants,. Users feed the system with data by arranging scenes that support them in what they are doing. Different light settings prove to enhance user experiences, such as for focus work, creativity and relaxation. After work, the scene changes and indicates a transition to private life. A Proof of Concept aimed at validating the desirability and viability of the riskiest minimum concept features. This first iteration of Sceny was a service that offered pre-programmed smart lighting for “switching between work and private life with the push of a button”. Interviews verified the desirability but denied its viability. The Minimum Viable Product (MVP) required better-argued features. The new version emphasises the work-life balance more using time management. Users set their boundaries (in time and scene), plan transitions, timebox activities and reflect with quantified insights. Continued validation of Sceny’s MVP on its problem-solution fit is a next step into building a viable business. This validation, together with the product-market fit, will take at least one year to complete. We aim at launching Sceny halfway of next year with young professionals in the IT service sector. This market shows the most viable opportunities for entry. Partnerships with business psychologists and coaches should increase these opportunities. Year two will be about growing and validating the business model fit. After that, we will expand and replicate markets. ... Read more

This project deals with the creation of mechanisms for self-assessment in work-from-home (WFH) environments to enhance people's satisfaction. The core of the project lies in increasing WFH satisfaction by incorporating self-experimenting into work and family activities. This relies on the determinants of satisfaction and how homeworkers relate to personal satisfaction during these days of forced working-from-home. Based on the challenges of work-from-home satisfaction, the project explains the idea of a shift ritual, and how a design intervention can enable, stimulate, guide, and support homeworkers to use the ritual to achieve satisfaction. This concept is facilitated using a physical design for day to day use in the home-work environments, thereby providing homeworkers the option to easily switch between work and private activities and also feel accomplished for their daily tasks. ... Read more

With the rise of remote working opportunities, the definition of office is changing and this is also affecting the way that we shape our offices. Nowadays, more
and more companies are switching to the flexible workspace. This shift is redefining the relationships and the communication motives colleagues have with each other. The project explores how the hindered aspect of communication can be revived with triggers in order to help the employees form deeper relationships. This is done via an iterative design process. The end results are guidelines for designing triggers and a digital product that houses the communication triggers. ... Read more

Smart homes have existed for decades, with Bill Gate's home built in 1997 being a notable example. The rapid developments in technology have made all electronics cheaper and made the Internet of Things possible. The Internet of Things has brought many new products and services to the market and revived the dream of a "smart home" for the average person. There seem to be two main types of smart home systems. The first type of smart homes are built using proprietary, subscription-based services and “black box” hardware devices that work exclusively with these services (e.g. Nest and Sonos). This type takes less time to set up, but offers little ability to customize, adapt and control the system. This type also has limited possibilities of combining hardware and services from different vendors, while raising questions about data transparency and privacy. The second type are smart home systems based on open source software (e.g. OpenHAB and Home Assistant), which are typically used by enthusiasts. This type requires a lot of time and specialized knowledge to set up and use, but gives the enthusiasts a lot of control, transparency and full ownership of the system and collected data. While these days enthusiasts have access to a lot more products to build their smart home, they are rarely the sole inhabitants and their co-habitants are not likely to share the same level of enthusiasm for new technologies. Instead of a home making their lives easier, they encounter automated systems that are not tailored to their behavior and that don't react the way they would expect, causing confusion and exclusion.
Neither of the two types of smart home systems offer sufficient support for being used and adapted by multiple users with varying needs and skills (such as different family members or roommates). This project investigates how a smart home may combine the control and flexibility of an open source platform with the convenience of a proprietary service-based system, while inclusively catering to a diverse group of inhabitants. See an interactive summary here: graduation.emilflach.com ... Read more

This graduation project aims to explore the possibilities and the pitfalls when designing a pedestrian tunnel with mirrors. The research topic was derived from an assignment given by Studio Roosegaarde, a social design lab based in Rotterdam. The major problems this project aims to solve is that a designer has no systematic guidelines to follow when designing a pedestrian tunnel with mirrors. The context this work selects is Maastunnel in Rotterdam for the reason of simplicity, accessibility and its history between Studio Roosegaarde.

The keystone to the problem raised is reckoned to be the understanding of the space perception in a pedestrian tunnel and how the mirrors can alter the perceived space. A dozen of visual elements in space perception are identified through the literature survey. With the understanding to mirror perception, a handful of visual cues are selected for further step evaluation. The evaluation includes a questionnaire showing 24 photos of pedestrian tunnels to be rated. Through the survey, the correlation between the perceived visual cues and the sense of spaciousness is analysed. The visual cues correlate with the sense of spaciousness from strong to weak are the width, the height, the cleanness, the brightness of the tunnel and the reflectivity of the wall.

Thanks to the lighting simulation software Dialux, several attempts of using mirrors to alter the visual cues were made readily. The exploration reveals two most promising ways of using mirrors in a pedestrian tunnel: mirrors as the Space Doubler and mirrors as the Light Splasher. These two ways of mirror usage are put to test in scale models. Regarding the Space Doubler, it is firstly found that putting mirrors on the ceiling, referred as catoptric-heightening, may significantly enlarge the perceived space, resulting in a more open and spacious tunnel. A similar but less potent effect is also found when putting mirrors on the lower part of the walls (referred as catoptric-widening) to extend the perceived width. The observers reported feelings of disturbing and dirtiness when perceiving the catoptric-widening mirrors in a pedestrian tunnel. Regarding the Light Splasher, the experiment reveals that the mirror-induced brilliance, or reflected-brilliance, can effectively increase the brightness of the space. Contastly, the complex lighting pattern created by reflection ( reflected-deflection) is not beneficial. However, it is found that the associability plays a more significant role in the perception to a space with brilliance. The observers are likely to associate the reflected-brilliance with the starry sky henceforth they perceive a higher ceiling.

According to the above findings, a list of design guidelines is formulated. The design guidelines lists almost 19 dos and don’ts, corresponds to a dozen different aspects such as openness, spaciousness, aesthetics, privacy, security, etc. This project has made a self-evaluation to the design guidelines by making a design according to which. The prototype of the design has shown the strength of the guidelines meanwhile revealing the inadequacy of the current version. The guidelines are considered useful in the early stages of design process while it lacks of guides related to the size and variation of mirrors. To further develop the guidelines into a more comprehensive version, a dynamic or fully-immersive environment is suggested as the necessary future works.
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Many cities are embracing ICT and other technological innovations as a development strategy. Governments gather and distribute open data as they see sharing data as a responsibility of a transparent government. However, the representation of this data is typically hard to understand and difficult to use. The main problem that open data systems pose to municipalities is that citizens do not see and use the open data that is gathered and provided. This project aims to tackle this problem by making citizens aware of aspects of their environment that are invisible to them and does so by communicating open data using connected bikes.
Public bikes are viewed as a design opportunity for use as data providers to citizens for several reasons. They are located throughout the city, so will be viewed in the entire city. Because of their movement, the bikes serve as an interesting communicator of location-based data. The bike can show data about the environment of the location in which it is currently situated. Public bikes have become more visible in the Dutch urban landscape and are increasingly present in, especially, Amsterdam and Rotterdam. This project is based in the city Rotterdam, more specifically the district Delfshaven.
The design space for this subject was explored through three sections:
data, bike interface and social perception. Each of the three sections was explored individually. The sections were explored through literature research, benchmarking on other projects, quick prototyping and small user tests. Based on this research, several parameters were presented for consideration in a final design.
Through design explorations, interdependencies between the presented parameters were determined. A creative session with design students was held where the use of the design space and the interdependencies between the sections as a design tool was tested. Based on the feedback of the creative session, a design tool for designing city-wide open data displays with connected bikes was created. The design tool was evaluated by the creation of three design examples.
Together, the design space and tool form a design framework that will provide guidance to designers that will tackle this subject in the future. The created design examples give an impression of the possibilities when designing for this subject.
From here, the design framework should be completed further by mapping and describing financial and technical feasibility. Furthermore, the design tool should be further evaluated by other designers. Lastly, as this project was conceived of as an exploratory one, the goal was not the thorough testing and subsequent realisation of one concept. Therefore, the actual effects that such a design could have in a neighbourhood are still unknown and should be explored further. ... Read more

Many cities in the Netherlands have poor areas that have to deal with a lot of social problems. One of the approaches that policymakers use to improve these areas is the so- called gentrification approach. In this approach policy makers renovate and rebuild parts of the neighborhoods in order to attract more ‘better educated’ citizens to these neighborhoods. Although it seems this approach enables a mix of different social capitals, research show the opposite. A lot of research is conducted on how these negative effects of gentrification can be reduced.

According to Van der Graaf (2009) the solution is not to understand how to solve the social cohesion, but to research the actual causes of this lack of social cohesion. The changes in spatial elements and social structure that gentrification implies, lead to a decreased or even a disappeared attachment to the neighborhood. The aim of this master thesis is to investigate how the feeling home of residents in neighborhoods that are being transformed could be improved. A research through design approach has been used to perform this research. This research provides a new perspective on how policymakers can deal with the negative effects of gentrification.

A conceptual framework of the feeling home is developed to understand how to research the feeling home in neighborhoods. Spangen is characterized as a gentrified neighborhood with a diversity of people and high involvement. Although it seems that the high involvement solves the problems with gentrification in Spangen, it reinforces the gap between strong (close friend) and weak ties (acquaintance) in Spangen. This high involvement is often the result of the effort of particular groups (strong ties) that are not representative for the neighborhood. There are also residents that do not even have weak ties in the neighborhood. This gap explains also why public spaces in Spangen are often (partly) appropriated by one group. A group with strong ties that excludes others from using the place.

This gap is visible when a citizen’s initiative is requested for this public space. The groups that initiate the initiative usually operate individual and that often results in social exclusion and conflict. Other residents are not satisfied with their share in the process or even not aware of the possibilities to be involved. Therefore, the design aims to make the development process of a citizen’s initiative in public space accessible for interested residents to create representative public support for the initiative.

The BuurThuis concept shows that by making participating more accessible, people are able to appropriate the place and to explain their needs towards the place and the place. Since both aspects are needed to feel home, BuurThuis presents a participation tool that stimulates the feeling home. BuurThuis shows that is not always needed to foster real-life interaction between people in contrary what most policymakers strive for. The insights of this research support the research of Van der Graaf (2009) that advices governments to focus on supporting neighborhoods to live together instead of directly connecting people.
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Work-life balance is becoming increasingly important in today’s job market. Young professionals actively search for jobs that promote their well-being. The concept of well- being encompasses not just physical health. Psychological health, such as social connectedness and engagement, is just as important. Katz (1964) stated in his research that specifically extra-role actions intended to benefit people other than oneself, extra-role prosocial behaviors, are essential for successfully functioning organizations and well-being among employees. This project focuses on how office environments can foster these extra-role prosocial behaviors. Three themes were studied to answer this question.

Firstly, a literature study, two brain writing sessions and a focus group on prosocial behavior at work were executed to define various ways of- and incentives for these behaviors. These studies have shown that, in order for extra-role prosocial behaviors to occur more frequently, the most substantiated strategy is to invest in the improvement of collegial relationships across disciplines.

This leads to the second theme, interdisciplinary bonding at work. Interdisciplinary bonding encounters challenges due to differences in interests and practices. These differences are rooted within the organization’s culture. A literature- and generative study is performed, consisting of a questionnaire, interviews and observations, on cultural differences in organizations. These studies have shown that a common ritual can function as a way to enhance interdisciplinary bonding. A creative co-design session with an interdisciplinary group of participants resulted in the definition of four design strategies to strengthen interdisciplinary bonding in office environments.

The aim of fostering prosocial behaviors in office environments requires a sustainable change in routines and behaviors from the people in that environment. Research on the third theme, behavior change at work, has shown that for certain target behavior to happen, a person must have sufficient motivation, sufficient ability, and an effective trigger. Furthermore, the involvement of employees, for instance by allowing environment personalization, can have a positive effect on positive attitudes towards change. In addition, one can not neglect people’s different characters and their naturally different responses towards change. Three behavioral personas were defined in order to take these differences into account. Thereafter, the four defined design strategies are analyzed based on the above mentioned essentials for a sustainable change in behavior. As a result, the most viable design strategy is finding common ground in personal interests through environment personalization. The desired interaction consists of a ‘sharing’ and a ‘caring’ part. The design should facilitate employees to share personal interests, and for other employees to care for these interests. Three intervention iterations in context were performed based on the desired interaction. These interventions have shown that the development of genuine interest in one another is most important for sustainable change towards prosocial behavior. This led to the design goal: motivating knowledge workers to develop genuine interest in interdisciplinary colleagues. A benchmark analysis of existing interactions was performed to define the unique perspective of this desired interaction.

The conclusion from this benchmark analysis resulted in a definition of a product-service-system for Ahrend: the Ahrend Portrait. The Ahrend Portrait allows employees to visually portray their interest on the walls of their organization to personalize their work environment. Furthermore, it allows employees to develop interest in the portrayed interests on the wall by interacting with them. The concept combines the benefits of digital interactions (bridging distance) with benefits of the physical interactions (explicit and passive). Different use case scenarios of the concept describe the opportunities for interdisciplinary bonding and prosocial initiatives. In order to find backing for the effect of this concept, two validation tests were performed at two different offices. The results of these validation tests suggest that the concept is capable of fostering interdisciplinary bonding and attentive, prosocial, behaviors. Furthermore, the concept inherits the potential to lower communication thresholds and increase mutual understanding and tolerance in organizations.

From here, multiple validation tests are required, for a longer period of time, to prove its positive effect on prosocial behaviors in offices. Furthermore, further research has to show how misuse of the concept can be prevented, whether the incentive to interact with the concept is self sustaining and what the most effective way is to introduce the concept in offices. ... Read more