Theories regarding the implementation of more structured and frequent approaches to reflection in professional settings, is a topic that has received little attention in research. Therefore, the aim of this thesis was to gain a better understanding about design practitioners’ daily reflection patterns, with a focus on supporting a balanced integration of such activity in their work.

What if drones could be a tool for enhancing or enabling (new) sports and how could Sony play a role?
As odd as this question might sound at first, future technological advancement will likely make it possible. Drones are fast, agile flying robots, that are increasingly learning to understand their environment and interact autonomously with it, including other drones, humans and objects. These factors would allow for potential new use cases in the realm of sport, health and fitness.
SONY as the collaborating company of this project is driven by entertainment enabled through electronics and is in a process of re-inventing itself - looking beyond its normal business areas and models for new opportunities in all areas where technology is an enabler, specifically in artificial intelligence, robotics and Internet of things - all being fields related to drone technology.

The initial assignment of this project was to develop a feasible (within 2-7 years), profitable drone for Sony that enables its user(s) to experience a new sports activity or enhance/alter existing sports with it.

The design process was divided into three phases.
The first research phase elaborates on the proposed connection between Sports and the company Sony, next to exploring the status quo of drone technology and estimated developments, followed by suitable sports that would benefit from the integration of drone technology.

The second phase comprises the ideation phase that shows the creation and selecting process of different ideas around connecting drones to sport.

The third phase is about further detailing of one chosen concept including a business model for a profitable solution.

The project outcome is “Amari”, a multi-purpose, intelligent and autonomous drone enabling new sports and supporting existing ones. It can be a play partner, in existing sports, when no one else has time or support and enhance training sessions of professional sports e.g. long pass training in football or act as a team player in entirely new sports to be created. This project wasn’t primarily about envisioning new use-cases for Amari , but rather about designing the tool in form of a drone that could enable them.
The drone comes with its own App, that connects the owner to all services and controls. In the activity tab for example, the sport to be played with Amari can be chosen, new sports can be downloaded, settings can be changed and related information, such as progress and high scores can be viewed.
On the Amari website, new use cases and sports can be co-created together with SONY and people from all over the world. The play section connects people in a neighbourhood to play chosen sports with Amari.
Throughout the project it was shown that the idea of Amari is appealing to people and might be worthwhile for Sony to test and explore further.

The faculty of IDE hosts a lot of students, from which many participate in various group projects. There is a lack of suitable group work spaces. This project investigates how newly designed spaces could accommodate group work in the coming years. A literature study is done to determine what the new learning culture consists of and what it means for the design of future learning spaces. Then iterative user studies are performed to identify key elements in group work dynamics and the influence of space on group work effectiveness. These studies provide a series of insights and demands that are then incorporated into the design process.

REALM, the final concept, addresses these insights by being a flexible and adaptable setup. With a round design it puts every member of the group at the same level. REALM has a passive state which it blends in with the main hall of IDE, in form and multi-functionality. It also has an active state: a facilitator function that mimics a human facilitator in providing the group with timemanagement and directions during specific phases of the project. These programs can be selected and created via an application accessible through smart device or computer.

REALM not only provides the faculty of IDE with additional group work spaces, but it also fills the gap of a lot of group projects and the absence of an (experienced) human facilitator within the group. Future development could go a step further and implement a greater immersive experience by adjusting the dimensions of the space, the lighting intensity and noise level. The final user study suggests that spacial proporties does influence the effectiveness of certain tasks performed by a group. Also direct sunlight and fresh air contribute to longevity of group effectiveness.
This project aims to provide the reader with additional insights on the importance of learning space design and what is can actively do for the effectiveness of group projects within design education.