This thesis was motivated by my own experiences growing up as a young Azerbaijani woman in a society where discussions around sexuality, reproductive health, and bodily autonomy are often surrounded by silence, discomfort, and stigma. Like many of my peers, I learned about these topics through fragments of conversation, media, and personal observation—rather than through any formal or comprehensive education. This personal history led to a central guiding question for the project:
Is it possible to talk about sexual health in Azerbaijan in a way that is not seen as an act of rebellion against the culture, but as essential knowledge for making informed decisions about one’s health, relationships, and wellbeing?
The project focuses on young Azerbaijani women aged 18–30, a group often navigating relationships, marriage, and early parenthood with little reliable guidance. The ambition is to create a culturally sensitive and approachable way for women to access accurate knowledge without forcing them into conflict with their values or communities.
An adapted Double Diamond process (Design Council, 2005) was used to structure the project, integrating Culture Sensitive Design (Van Boeijen & Zijlstra, 2020), the Cultura method (Hao, 2019), and the Vision in Product Design (ViP) approach (Hekkert & Van Dijk, 2011). Desk research examined global sex education models, cultural sensitivity strategies, adult learning approaches, and the historical, political, and social narratives shaping gender roles and views on sexuality and health in Azerbaijan.
Field research combined five expert interviews, with two gynaecologists, a menstrual cycle educator, a psychiatrist, and a gender equality consultant/lawyer, with a generative session involving five young Azerbaijani women from urban, highly educated backgrounds. Experts provided insight into medical practices, psychological barriers, education gaps, legal frameworks, and systemic challenges. The generative session used persona creation, influence mapping, and personal timelines to surface lived experiences, trusted and untrusted information sources, and cultural pressures shaping sexual health understanding of young women. The combination of professional expertise and personal narratives revealed both overlapping concerns and distinct priorities: while experts often emphasized factual knowledge and medical accuracy, young women highlighted the need for emotional safety, consent, and relational guidance.
Analysis of this material identified five recurring tensions:
The Ideal Woman vs. Perfectly Human – Cultural ideals of purity, modesty, and reproductive duty contrasted with lived realities.
Learning in the Absence of Formal Education – Fragmented, informal peer networks as primary learning sources.
The More We Hide It, The Louder It Gets – How silence magnifies fascination, stigma, and misinformation.
Navigating a Healthcare (Marketplace) – Accessibility shaped by commercialization, provider attitudes, and cultural barriers.
Tradition vs. Quiet Resistance – The ways young women negotiate autonomy and boundaries within entrenched norms.
These findings informed the design goal formulated at the start of the Define phase:
To empower young Azerbaijani women to navigate cultural narratives about Female Sexuality and Health with confidence, self-respect, and emotional safety — through a learning resource that supports self-awareness, communication, and boundary-setting.
The final concept, Yanımda (“By My Side”), combines a discreet, tactile physical invitation with a private, visually neutral website. The site begins with general topics, anatomy, menstrual health, and relationships, before gradually introducing more open discussions of consent, pleasure, and sexual wellbeing. The tone is empathetic, non-stigmatizing, and paced to let users explore at their own comfort level.
Evaluation with the target group indicated that Yanımda feels approachable, trustworthy, and safe. Experts endorsed its potential to fill critical knowledge gaps while aligning with cultural sensitivities. Recommendations include expanding multilingual access, deepening the content library, and building partnerships with trusted healthcare providers and community spaces.
This work demonstrates that culturally sensitive sexual education in Azerbaijan is both necessary and feasible when rooted in empathy, cultural awareness, and trust-building. By aligning accurate information with values already embedded in the culture, Yanımda offers a foundation for healthier, more confident, and informed decision-making, for both this generation and the next.

The overall graduation project aims to mitigate the misplacement of bulky waste around underground waste containers in The Hague. The project sees bulky waste disposal as a practice and investigates the entangled elements around it. Through field research methods, including interviews with photo elicitation, observations, and thematic analysis, the project uncovers how diverse factors shape bulky waste disposal habits. It reveals that the frequent movers with migration backgrounds need more support in disposal because of their transportation constraints, language barriers, and weak responsibility in the community.

Based on the research findings, the project defines its design goal as making frequent movers with a migration background feel confident in managing bulky waste and developing a sense of responsibility in the community during housing transitions in The Hague. Given that the end client is the municipality of The Hague, the project focuses on the design challenge of how the public sector provides public infrastructure/services to citizens. In response, the project proposes the "Oh Oh Pick-Up", a mobile bulky waste pick-up service provided by the municipality. The Hague citizens can dispose of bulky objects/ waste without an appointment, taking items to the designated collection spot and time. Community waste specialists will collect items by cargo bike and notify residents their coming with music.

The concept was evaluated by The Hague citizens and stakeholders, including policymakers and local coordinators. The results indicate the opportunity to create more social awareness and support people with transportation constraints. The project further proposes a service development as a suggestion for future work. Collectively, this project contributes to advancing inclusive waste disposal service design in public contexts by integrating perspectives from social practice theory and culture-sensitive design.

Over the past few years, the topic of social safety within Dutch student associations has become increasingly relevant. Since Amnesty International published a report in 2021 revealing that one in ten female students is raped during their time at university, the conversation around sexually transgressive behavior has slowly shifted towards taking the issue more seriously (Driessen & Polet, 2021). Different student-driven initiatives have been launched, including the Studentpact in 2023, and associations started to realize they play a key role in addressing this topic internally (Mariëtte Hamer et al., 2023). However, despite all the growing attention, motivation and awareness, achieving the necessary cultural change remains incredibly complex and difficult.

This thesis explores how Dutch student associations can transition towards a socially safe environment, diving into the complexity of the issue. It considers the core elements that define student culture. Through interviews with students from various backgrounds and roles at two associations in Delft, the impact of social norms and language on social safety within these associations was explored. The results revealed the complexity and multifaceted aspects of the topic. This research did not aim to find a one-size-fits-all solution, because such a solution does not exist. Instead, the goal was to develop a concept that could support, guide, and empower students who are trying to make their association a safer place.

The interview results show that many students struggle with knowing where to begin. While they recognize the need for change, they feel overwhelmed by the complexity and sensitivity of the issue. A lack of understanding, reflection and structure creates a barrier. What is often seen as ‘normal’ behavior within association culture does not always align with what is safe, inclusive or wanted. Because these behaviors are often deeply rooted in traditions, rituals, subcultures, hierarchies and other cultural elements, they are difficult to question, let alone change.

The research revealed many interesting insights that make the complexity of the topic more easy to understand. It showed which factors, elements and conditions play a role in creating a socially safe environment within student culture, like hidden hierarchies and the influence of gender. These insights formed the basis for the final concept, ‘The Recipe for a Socially Safe Association.’ The concept consists of two main elements, a discussion board (‘praatplaat’) and a workbook, that aim to make the topic more accessible and encourage action. The concept is designed to support students in initiating open conversations, developing a shared understanding of social safety within their unique culture, and creating an action plan so they can take the first steps towards positive cultural change within their own association.

Rather than focusing on ready to use rules or policies, the concept centers on reflection and empowerment. It encourages students to work together and critically evaluate their own culture, speak up, and take responsibility for shaping the community they want to be a part of. After all, lasting change doesn't come from the outside; it happens when students feel empowered to take the lead.

Physical therapy has been around for a long time. Not only does it tackle the physical health of a human, it also takes into account the psychological and social factors that can influence our health. There is evidence that physical therapy can make a change in the healthcare system regarding preventative care. This preventative care however is a new concept for which the healthcare domain is not fully ready. This is however the approach ELEVEN has currently, redefining what health is and should be in the future. This way of thinking has led to the birth of ELEVEN, a company that houses physical therapists that are there to guide you in any way you want to improve, and this is possible because of the organisational culture that is present.

This project aims to identify, enhance and transfer the organisational culture that is present at ELEVEN, including the different components that influence and shape it. This is first done by diving into the context of physical therapy, its advantages and its approaches through literature research. This is followed by literature research on culture and organisational culture. With observations and interviews a current analysis is made of the organisational culture that is present at ELEVEN. Co-creation sessions were later held to shape a future vision, relevant for strategic decision making. These results come together in a guide book and a poster, which explains the complexity of the organisational culture and it’s components through a metaphor.

The metaphor is aimed at explaining the culture through the notion of building a house, where the different components of a house have different functions in a bigger complex structure. The metaphor consists of 9 layers:

1. The foundation – The 11 core values of ELEVEN
2. The framework – The employees
3. The isolation – The house rules
4. The bricks – The products and services
5. The cement – The community of ELEVEN
6. The doors – The mission
7. The windows – The (future) vision
8. The roof – The clan culture
9. The interior – The physical appearance

This metaphor combines different cultural aspects and explains them as an interconnected whole that needs to be nurtured and protected. The practical guidelines included in the book provide a way to strategically grow in a way that protects the culture and her people.

To make sure the solution is applicable and relevant, it was tested with the relevant stakeholders. The results of this validation resulted in a final design complete with implementation recommendations. The thesis concludes with a conlusion and a discussion on relevance and future research.

This project, Women in Transit: Considerations for Kitchen Design for Formal Settlements in Bangladesh, explores the challenges and key factors in designing kitchens for women in informal settlements. The focus is on women who have migrated from rural to urban areas, driven by rapid urbanization due to climate change and economic factors. As a result of this, informal settlements are increasing in Bangladesh.

The goal of this project is to enhance awareness among NGOs regarding key factors that need to be considered when designing homes for women who are currently residing in urban informal settlements. The central focus is food preparation and cooking, which play a vital role in the daily lives of these women.

Therefore, through interviews, field research, and a literature review, the report explores the cultural, social, economic, and practical aspects of kitchen design. It examines how women in rural areas often cook on open fires in private spaces, and how this changes when they move to urban areas, where kitchens are usually shared and gas stoves are used. The shift from rural to urban living brings both challenges and opportunities as women adapt to new cooking methods, environments, and social settings.

Furthermore, based on this research, design guidelines have been developed to help NGOs understand the needs of women transitioning from informal to formal housing more effectively. These guidelines focus on creating kitchens that support women’s social connections, maintain their cooking traditions, and address practical needs.

The final result of this project is a booklet that tells the story of Sadia, a woman who moves from a rural area to an urban informal settlement and eventually to formal housing. Sadia’s journey highlights the challenges women face in cooking, adjusting to new social dynamics, and adapting to new living conditions, as well as the opportunities that open up for her.

The aim of the booklet is to help NGOs thoroughly understand and empathize with women like Sadia when designing formal housing. The booklet provides design ideas for kitchens that are culturally appropriate and support women in their roles of cooking and caregiving. This is achieved by offering design options for both low- and high-density housing, as well as different living environments that can influence how women cook and manage their daily tasks.

This report provides a concept for the Dutch national police, in the form of a card game to reflect on humor within police base teams.

The graduation project was a collaboration with the Dutch national police, specifically the ‘Politie Voor Iedereen’ team, which focuses on improving diversity and inclusivity within the police force.
There is a recognized need for a diverse and inclusive police force, which requires effort as it is not naturally achieved. This project started with the specific focus on gender equity within the police culture; The current work culture within the police force does not fully support women. The primary objective of this project is to transform the work culture to promote diversity and inclusivity.

Two design lenses were utilized for this project. Cultural sensitive design was applied to research and to instigate change in the organization’s culture. The feminist lens was used to examine the existing power dynamics within the organization and to ensure fair outcomes.

Literature research was conducted to understand the experiences of policewomen, which was then compared to research conducted within two police base teams.
The presence of working women in the Netherlands, including within the police force, is a relatively recent development since the mid-20th century. Addressing disparities and achieving equal treatment for women within the police force required time and effort.
Police culture is undeniably masculine. The research highlights various themes indicating that individuals who do not conform to the prevailing masculine norm face exclusion and must adapt.

Eight interviews were conducted with police employees, and the insights, along with observation notes, were used for thematic data analysis.
The research findings revealed subtle difficulties related to gender equity, which were evident in the thematic analysis. Four themes were identified that could improve inclusivity and diversity, thereby providing better support for women within the organization.

The theme of humor was chosen as the focus. Although humor is an integral part of police work culture, it had not been extensively explored. Humor serves to discharge and process heavy incidents, as well as foster bonding between colleagues. However, humor can cross boundaries, as it is often dark and rough. Speaking up about humor that is experienced as offensive is not common. While workplace humor extends beyond gender inclusion, this theme presented opportunities for meaningful contributions.

The relationship between humor, gender, and the police was investigated through literature. Additionally, police humor was explored through a ‘probe cards’ test conducted at base teams. This activity revealed that there is little common ground when it comes to jokes and funny situations. What is considered offensive or funny is not determined by a norm within either of these base teams; humor is subjective and reactions vary greatly.

This led to the development of the ‘Politie humor kwartet’, a game for groups of police officers to reflect on humor within the police work environment. The concept has the potential to bring about structural change in the work culture surrounding humor, particularly in terms of behavior and speaking up about jokes that are experienced as offensive.

This thesis presents a VR Transgender Inclusion Experience that informs, immerses, and improves the cisgender user to become more inclusive towards transgender peers. By showing them uncomfortable scenarios from the perspective of transgender and non-binary people they become more aware of how their behaviour, and that of their peers, may come across. With hands-on tips, the cisgender user is motivated to go beyond their phase of acceptance into the role of being an active ally. In doing so, these allies not only improve their own behaviour but become spokespersons for the trans community within Delft University of Technology, affecting others in the process.
The report highlights the polarizing effect that linking gender identity to gender expression can have on cisgender and heterosexual individuals due to fear of the unfamiliar. This phenomenon is also observed at Delft University of Technology, where trans and non-binary employees feel less comfortable and less connected to the university community compared to their colleagues. A recent survey by the D&I office identified these issues, but the root causes and solutions remain unclear, with investigations into student experiences ongoing.
The project's objective is to create a more inclusive and supportive environment for transgender people at Delft University of Technology. The emphasis is on fostering comfortable conversations between cis and transgender people and providing appropriate language for discussing this sensitive topic. By achieving a more informed perspective, healthier interactions between cisgender-heterosexual and trans/non-binary individuals can be promoted, creating a secure environment where everyone can express themselves without causing offence.
This research signifies a deliberate choice to concentrate on the cultural aspects of queer inclusion rather than the systemic aspects. This is because the TU is actively working on enhancing policies but is lacking initiatives to change the institute's culture. People at the TU often express a desire for inclusivity due to their cognitive empathy, understanding the challenges faced by minorities. However, this sentiment doesn't always translate into action. To bridge this gap, it's important to trigger emotional empathy by enabling individuals to feel from the perspective of a minority.
The heart of the VR experience is being immersed in scenario’s that transgender people run into. Even though the user experiences the scenarios through the point of view of a transgender person, it does not try to replicate how it is to be trans. Such an experiences cannot be replicated in a matter of minutes. The goal is to activate allies to stand up for transgender people when they cannot do that themselves.

Gender stereotypical beliefs play a role in everyone’s life, whether people impose personal and subjective norms on themselves, or judge others based on these existing beliefs. Gender stereotypes present a limited and inaccurate representation of reality’s complexity and have the ability to evoke pain and backlash. The goal of this master’s graduation project was to increase awareness about gender stereotypes and the thereof deriving effects on people. This project is part of a double degree program, in which the masters ‘Design for Interaction’ and ‘Communication Design for Innovation’ are combined. This meant that the objective was applied in two contexts with both a specific target group, namely Dutch high school students (aged 15 to 18) and academic professionals working within the TU Delft.

Through a non-systematic literature research further understanding of gender stereotypes and the resulting impact on people was achieved. In modern western society, gender is generally viewed from a binary perspective. But gender isn’t a category with only two variables. The interpretation of gender is socially constructed, and can differ per culture and can change overtime. Gender stereotypes are learned from a young age, children as old as 18 months will start to comprehend them. This goes to show that gender stereotypes play an influential role during a large part of people’s lives. It also indicated that gender stereotypical beliefs are deeply rooted and unconscious, which makes challenging them harder.

Additional to literature research, empirical research activities were performed. These existed of a mini experiment in which eight participants were asked about concepts related to gender, three interviews with academic professionals and an exploration of currently available informative media for teenagers. The conclusions drawn from these empirical research efforts are as follows. When aiming to increase awareness, it does help to encounter multiple perspectives on gender and gender stereotypes. Additionally, it is beneficial to be able to communicate with others about the matter. The created design concepts aim to do just that and should provide the target groups with guidance in the process of increasing awareness about gender stereotypes.

In the context of high school students, the design concept created is a teaching method. In five classroom sessions teenagers are brought in contact with different perspectives on gender, can have conversations about the topic with peers and are guided in reflection. Between the lessons the students work on an individual assignment. To support the teenagers in their learning efforts, different teaching materials were created. These are for example games, a quiz, worksheets and subject inspiration-cards. For the academic professionals a dialogue intervention was designed. During a ten step process these professionals are guided in sharing a personal experience related to gender stereotypes. The aim is to establish conversation amongst each other about these stories. The steps of the process were based on a conversation with a dialogue expert, the method of appreciative inquiry and a three-step model from awareness to action. Based on initial evaluation both design concepts seem to be promising in achieving their objectives. Further testing could help to get an even better understanding of the usefulness of both concepts and could lead to design iterations.

This report explores the role of culture in branding and the potential for brands to contribute to integration within diverse societies. By examining the cultural dynamics in the fast-food sector of Den Haag, the study identifies the prominence of conservative Islamic Turkish subculture and its impact on branding strategies. The research reveals that while many Turkish fast-food restaurants emphasize their conservative Muslim identities, they often neglect marketing and overall restaurant conditions, potentially undermining their brand equity. In addition, market research highlights the expectations of international Dutch culture, including concerns about health aspects and a preference for greater variety and healthier choices. Based on contextual research, demand research, and an examination of traditional Turkish gastronomy, the report suggests that branding the Turkish dish 'Midye Dolma' could effectively target international Dutch culture and foster better integration while highlighting the brand's traditional Turkish roots to impact conservative Islamic Turkish subculture. The brand's purpose is defined as promoting better integration, with a brand personality characterized as delicious, sustainable, and wholesome. To launch the brand, a campaign is planned around the key message of 'come whoever you are,' addressing integration, inclusion, diversity, and showcasing the brand's versatility. The report emphasizes the extensive cultural work invested in the brand's development, positioning it to become an iconic representation with significant potential for successful integration in a diverse society.

The Netherlands has been facing a crisis in its asylum trajectory, with the overloaded application center in Ter Apel drawing attention to the country’s migration system. While a limited capacity in Ter Apel is one of the first hurdles asylum seekers face, it is only the start of a long trajectory that can take years to navigate. Although recent changes in the Civic Integration Act are seen as a step in the right direction - with a greater focus on personalized integration and municipal responsibility for guidance - critics argue that the process still lacks support for newcomers to build a social network and participate in society, leaving them struggling to fully participate in Dutch society (Frissen, 2021).It has been stated that the existing Dutch asylum procedure can frequently obstruct the formation of a sense of belonging in the new environment, thus impeding the process of integration. (Afdeling Buitengewone Zaken & OpenEmbassy, n.d.)
This project systemically researches the current Dutch asylum procedure of newcomers in the Netherlands through a social lens with the aim to explore and improve their integration process in the neighborhood by focussing on the sense of feeling at home (NL: thuisgevoel).
The research is conducted into two parts: the journey towards a new home and its conflicts and the neighborhood as a new home and its opportunities.
As the asylum chain is a trajectory with many steps, layers and stakeholders; it is a complex system and will be approached as such. A method designed to take on complex problems is the Transition Design Method (van Ael et al., n.d.) which will be used as a framework for the first part of the project. Part one includes numerous interviews with stakeholders and literature research. As an outcome, it defines ten important factors of feeling at home (referred to as building blocks) and reveals the things that happen in the asylum procedure that hinder this feeling. Seven conflicting areas (referred to as tension fields) are defined that occur during this process.The second part explores the neighborhood as a new home and investigates opportunities to enhance newcomers’ sense of feeling at home. The neighborhood Bospolder-Tussendijken (BoTu in short) is chosen as case-study due to the clients presence in this area. The client of this project is the Field Academy (NL: Veldacademie); a Rotterdam-based research platform for socio-spatial urban development. It has gathered a broad amount of knowledge on this specific neighborhood as an outcome of monitoring its activities as part of Resilient BoTu 2028, a programme that aims to drive significant improvements in the area and transform it into Rotterdam’s first resilient community within ten years. Context-specific information was gathered through a field study in the neighborhood and a participatory session with newcomers themselves. By addressing the conflicts that were found in the housing process and translating those to opportunities for newcomers in BoTu, these findings have been used as starting points to propose three design directions.
The outcome of this project is the development of Een kijk in de wijk (ENG: the Neighborhood Navigator): an interactive maquette of the neighborhood that gives newcomers insight into the offer of community centers, activities, key figures and developments of Bospolder- Tussendijken through audio stories. Leveraging existing networks of locals and initiatives, the intervention aims to promote inclusion and encourage participation among newcomers. By involving newcomers in local initiatives, it seeks to facilitate connections, collaborations, and a greater sense of community.
This research project is intended to contribute to a deeper understanding of the integration trajectory of newcomers in the Netherlands and offer practical insights and interventions to enhance their sense of feeling at home in their new neighborhoods.

The Protein Transition is a societal transition that resolves around shifting society towards consuming more plant-based proteins instead of animal proteins. There are numerous drivers for this transition, the most well-known and considerable ones being climate change, animal welfare, public health and unfair agricultural economics.

To accelerate the Protein Transition, we need to understand the role and impact of food cultures in this transition. Culture is recognised as a promising strategic lever for accelerating societal transitions, but literature and methodology on the subject are limited. The intersection of transition design and culture has never been explicitly studied up until now. This thesis aims to fill the knowledge gap on how culture can impact societal transitions and what design methodology is needed to address this.

The thesis focuses on Dutch food culture. Animal proteins play a significant role in Dutch food culture. They are part of many rituals, traditions and behaviours. This is the result of a collection of socio- behavioural and cultural factors, including, but not limited to, meat and dairy being part of the Dutch identity, the government undertaking conscious efforts to increase meat and dairy consumption, a feeling of entitlement to meat and dairy, and meat and dairy being regarded as symbols of wealth and prosperity.

After gaining an understanding of Dutch food culture, it was decided to continue by studying a specific food culture. The borrel is a uniquely Dutch eating practice that can be considered its own food culture because of the many symbols and rituals linked to it. The methods used were a historical analysis,
interviews, observations and culture sensitive design models. By studying Dutch food culture and borrel culture, knowledge has been accumulated on how to study a food culture effectively.

This comes down to the seven principles for culture sensitive design for the Protein Transition:
1. History: How did we get here?
2. Consider the whole system (macro - meso – micro).
3. Scoping: Food cultures are huge; you cannot study them all.
4. Embrace diversity: Acknowledge different perspectives and conflicts.
5. Be aware of your own biases and experiences.
6. Keep your goal in mind.
7. Developing cultural sensitivity for transition design is a lifelong process.

All the accumulated knowledge has been compiled into a field guide for designers: the Food Culture Field Guide, which consists of an A6-sized guidebook and a card deck with 35 cards. The field guide contains information on studying (Dutch) food cultures and guides designers in their design process. This will help them create more culturally sensitive design interventions to accelerate the Protein Transition.

This thesis explores the challenges faced by students with vision impairment in accessing visual educational content, with the goal of designing an inclusive tool to enhance their learning experience. Adopting a human-centered design approach backed with value-sensitive design, the research methodology combined qualitative and quantitative techniques including interviews, surveys, and design ethnography. These methods provided insights into the lived experiences of visually impaired students, revealing difficulties in comprehending complex visual data and feelings of exclusion from the academic community.

The design process was structured around four key phases – Exploration, Ideation, Iteration, and Implementation. The Exploration phase involved in-depth user research to identify needs and values. Ideation generated numerous concepts, with a focus on converting visual content into accessible multisensory formats. Iteration prototyped and tested these concepts to refine the designs based on user feedback. Finally, Implementation delivered the high-fidelity prototype – an AI-powered platform called “InsightSpace” that integrates with the Brightspace LMS.

Key features of InsightSpace include the “InsightOut” tool which leverages AI to interpret and narrate visualizations, and the Envision Ally community portal that facilitates collaborative learning. The concept aligns with design values like accessibility, inclusiveness, personalization, and community identified through the research. Evaluation metrics focus on usability, user satisfaction, and platform effectiveness in conveying visual information.

The thesis concludes that InsightSpace demonstrates the potential of inclusive design and assistive technology in transforming educational experiences. It underscores the importance of multifaceted research and continuous user involvement in developing empathetic solutions.
The platform marks progress in the mission to create learning environments where students with vision impairment can thrive alongside their sighted peers.

In the Dutch republic of the 17th century, there were a lot of developments. The economy flourished, science made enormous progress and art and culture bloomed. But as many people don’t know, during this time, a food revolution was born that reached far beyond the Dutch dining tables. Healthy, seasonal and sustainable food products are central to this Dutch food culture. De Tuin van Holland (The Garden of Holland) is a program commissioned by the Provincie Zuid-Holland, where projects are carried out that aim to inspire both home cooks and chefs with the rich history of the Dutch food culture.

In collaboration with De Tuin van Holland, this master’s thesis uses the inspiring stories of the Dutch food culture that existed in the 17th century in order to contribute to increasing the appreciation for local and seasonal products in the present day-to-day life. The aim is to enrich the consumer's restaurant experience by telling stories of the history of the Dutch food culture in restaurants.

When looking at the local food industry, three parties are most important: food producers, chefs and consumers (i.e. guests in the restaurants). Participants within these groups are involved in all phases of this project.

Currently, chefs are looking for a way to apply storytelling about the local seasonal food ingredients they use in their restaurants. Food producers see a leak in consumer appreciation for their sustainable products. They want to share stories about their products; that is their passion. However, according to the food producers, stories get lost in the translation through intervention of many parties. While all food producers and chefs have different interpretations of sustainability, they have one thing in common: the need to share stories about local sustainable food products.

To discover whether consumers are open to storytelling in restaurants, in-depth research is conducted among eight participants. Exploration of a restaurant experience from the customers point of view, provides insights in how to enrich this experience.

All of the knowledge and insights are brought together in the Food for Thought toolbox. This toolbox contains multiple components that help chefs to create a storytelling concept for their restaurant. The Storytelling Guide gives chefs tips and examples to develop a storytelling concept. Next, the Restaurant Experience gives a deeper understanding of how guests experience a restaurant visit. With the Storytelling Template, chefs can get started themselves.

As icing on the cake, the toolbox includes an example of an end product that may result from using the toolbox. It is a card that can be given to guests when they leave the restaurant. The card should be accompanied by the ingredient of interest; in this example a pumpkin. When turning the card, the backstory is shown which involves a connection to the history of the Dutch food culture and De Tuin van Holland.

Religious transition includes a spectrum of experiences that harbours a myriad of challenges. Though it is a non-linear process, every religious transition starts with a critical questioning of religious norms that one has been exposed to.

Reasons for questioning vary from traumatic experiences with religious others to cognitive and moral dissonance and contradictions in the sacred scriptures. Questioning brings the urge to discuss the contested aspects of one’s religion with others in the religious spheres. However, people questioning some aspects of their religion are usually discouraged in their inquiry because being critical of one’s religion is seen as heresy and a transgressive action to be avoided.

The lack of space to discuss critical questions with religious others can result in a feeling of loneliness and loss of relatedness. In the meantime, religious doubts can culminate while one suffers from uncertainties about their religion. Not being able to find answers to resolve their religious doubts makes some fear that they might lose their religious faith and get astray.

Still, one’s critical stance and positive feelings toward their religion can co-exist even after disavowing religion. Leaving one’s religion doesn’t always cause complete abandonment. Instead, people may be eager to learn from other believers to take a different angle on their former religion.

The goal of the project is to assist people in their religious transition process. More specifically, the aim is to support people critical of their religion in exploring whether to be at peace with their faith by providing them with a safe space to create their own unique understanding of their religion. To conclude, the Explore Your Perspective app encourages people to go beyond the binary perspectives dominating their religious transition experiences.

The monthly number of non-western immigrants that applied for a status in the Netherlands has been constantly rising from 955 in May 2021 to 3590 in November 2021 (CBS, 2021). During the first period in the AZC, “newcomers” are purposely distanced from Dutch society. This has as an effect that when they finally get an official refugee status, they have a hard time finding a fitting job. They lack the social network (social bonds, social links and social bridges) that are needed to obtain certain goals or wishes. As previous waves of refugees have struggled to find their role in society, many people consider that the core objectives of integration policies have failed, leaving in their place unfulfilled promises of equal treatment, and polarized or fragmented societies, which strengthens the biases towards newcomers even more (Orton 2012).

As social capital is seen as one of the pillars for successful integration (Ager & Strang (2019), the goal of the graduation project at first was to train locals to be active connectors in linking newcomers to their network in order to help them achieve their goals and ambitions.

Through conducting desk research, interviews, analyzing existing buddy networks and the mapping of newcomer needs, 10 design principles were distilled that helped to define the final design goal. The research and concept ‘Shadow of the Future’ by Besnick (2000) showed that when referring to or when referred to people need to understand past actions to portray this understanding of the future. This resulted in the finding, that there is not such a thing as training locals to be active connectors but locals should get acquainted with newcomers to a level that they feel comfortable to refer them to their network.

Next to this insight, the clustered data gathered through interviews revealed that newcomers experience challenges in paving a new path and setting goals. As newcomers have been raised in a more collectivist culture, they have always acted upon the collective interest. However, with the disappearance of the value of previously obtained degrees and their collective society, awareness of the self and its corresponding goals is crucial, to be alte to function within the dutch individualistic society.

The developed concept, namely a personal growth workshop has been designed in a way to facilitate both the creation of a network and the shaping of goals based on ‘the self’. The workshop creates a space in which newcomers and locals meet to partake in a personal growth workshop. Through a mutual goal, a social script and through offering a way to build ‘the shadow of the future’, the outline of a personal development workshop supports the acquaintance process between local and newcomer.

This workshop has been prototyped, piloted and evaluated iteratively three times. These pilot’s had been used to evaluate the effects on acquainting and personal growth, but also provided insights to develop the concept further. The findings of these pilots showed that the workshop has had a positive effect on the attitude of locals towards newcomers and that the workshop created more awareness of the self. The pilot has great potential in opening up a network through acquainting, but more research has to be conducted to facilitate the right micro interactions.

This thesis explored the company Trompenaars Hampden-Turner (THT), its offerings, activities and the context it works in. THT is a company originally founded in 1989 as the Centre for International Business Studies. Trompenaars Hampden-Turner is a relatively small niche consulting company which is renowned in the area of Culture for Business. It is specialised in cultural dilemmas in the business context. Its employees work to improve the integration between people (values, attitudes) and organisations (structures, systems and processes). THT is a founder-centric organisation, and this poses certain risks and limitations which influence the growth and resilience of an organisation. For THT this means that in order to continue spreading their theories and practise consulting, the founder-centric configuration of the company needs to change. Therefore, the main research question was established as: How can a small founder-centric consultancy become less founder-centric and sustain growth in the coming ten years? In the first part, information was gathered to create a deeper understanding of the client, domain and the market. First, the company history, business model, products and competitors were analysed. To gather the information needed, various interviews were held with people working at THT. Secondly, literature was reviewed, looking into managing growth in organisations, founder-led companies and how organisations and consultancies are structured. These research activities resulted in a collection of insights which were used for the strategy creation. The insights yielded from the research were used to create a story which was written to design a future vision and communicate the vision. Storytelling was chosen to explore the benefits of this method, instead of sketching which is more common in industrial design. The created future vision called for a strategy in which THT’s portfolio consists of digital products such as an e-learning course. Using this future vision, a roadmap was created to strategize this pivot in company activity from consulting to content development. The roadmap is divided into three horizons. The goal of the first horizon is to focus on scaling down the current portfolio and focus on creating a base of e-learning courses. The goal of the second horizon is to expand the portfolio whilst learning service partners are attracted to partially outsource marketing and personal parts of the hybrid learning solutions. The goal of the third horizon is to be the best expert in the field when it comes to developing content. The proposed strategy for THT was supplemented with a design of the new organisational blueprint and some advice on the corporate communication including the name of the company. For the organisational blueprint, a circular model was chosen to easily scale with the organisation’s size or the range of the product portfolio. It was advised for the company name to make it refer to culture rather than the name of specific individuals. The strategy based on this take on a future vision for THT, combined with trends which were relevant to THT’s industry and knowledge on organisational design, resulted in a plan to become less founder-centric and sustain growth in the coming ten years.

The ACES is a strategy designed for international students who study in the Netherlands to better cope with sexual harassment. The research reveals three striking data: 1)While study abroad, students are five times riskier than those studying in their home country; 2) the highly educated women have more severe problems in the workplace than previous known; and 3) The women who fit three things are riskier and more afraid of sexual violence - in their young age, encountering financial issues and with an immigrant background. Therefore, the information implies an invisible danger to the target user. In the research domain & context, sexual harassment is one of the most severe sexual violence problems on campus. Literature reviews and semi-constructed interviews with experts in the Delft area unveiled the absence of specific support to this problem at TU Delft. On the other hand, many universities have their particular organization to cope with relevant issues. Thus, their service and support were roughly divided into general knowledge education, support for victims and supporters, and some included the relevant problem such as anti-racism helpline. To better understand the weakness and desires in terms of tackling sexual harassment. Ten international students and one dutch student participated in generative research. The analysis unveiled these aspects are their weakness: 1) racism alongside sexual harassment makes them doubting their existence; 2) they are afraid of feeling incorrect without validation in advance; 3) self-blaming tendency such as considering they misunderstand or it is their fault; 4) unclear the intention of harasser; 5) sex is a taboo topic to talk; 6) the perpetrators share same cultural background, so they know the pitfall of victims; 7) the perpetrator reject the rejection; 8) men are silent victims. They also have expectations with regard to the design: 1) someone can talk through the unclear situation with them will help, 2) the awareness-raising builds a stronger mindset. Therefore, the researcher formed the design goal based on the above information: To enhance overseas students’ awareness of bodily autonomy and provide a strategy to cope with sexual harassment through a knowledgeable and amusing interactive workshop at the beginning of their study in the Netherlands. Through guiding by three characteristics of interaction vision (knowledgeable, amusing, and open-ended), appropriate timing, and design form. The design outcome is an interactive workshop design alongside conveying the strategy. The workshop was divided into two main sections: 1) raising the awareness of bodily autonomy and 2) learning the strategy of coping with sexual harassment. The design cycle included rapid-prototyping, user test, filming, and ACES strategy formation. The final design includes an interactive workshop, facilitators’ guidelines, and a strategic plan. It contains five main activities and designed objects. It includes 1) slides, 2) brochures with ACES strategy, 3) films presenting an ambiguous sexual harassment situation, and 4) teaching aids used in warm-up activities. The strategy was formed while considering the other university’s strategy and service. The evaluation took place twice at TU Delft. Ten international participants joined the user test. The results gained overall positive feedback and conformed to the three characteristics in the design goal. 

As a part of JMP at TU Delft, we had the opportunity to design for implementation of sex education in Indonesia. We were unable to explore the culture of Bali together as a design team because of which we had our own assumptions, perceptions of what the culture is or could be. And most importantly in the project we had reduced a whole culture to a set of constraints we needed to design for. This was deeply troubling. So in order to tackle this issue of culture clash and the need to be sensitive to other cultures, this project was born. The cultural element of Japan and their design philosophy were an inspiration. Their design philosophy and culture are weaved together to form one coherent Japanese Design Philosophy. To address the cultural dilemma for designers, it was decided to bring design philosophies into this project so that one could frame design philosophies based on the culture they design for. The target group for this project was the Master’s design students of TU Delft from the Industrial Design Engineering department. The research began with understanding of existing design philosophies such as Japanese Design Philosophies, Bauhaus and De-Stijl movements, Buen-Vivir centric design model. These formed the basis on how the design philosophies manifested and how it was culturally connected with their respective cultures. Interviewing two design studios viz. Butterflyworks, Netherlands and Whitenoise Design, India gave an opportunity to understand the workings, the tools they used for designing and gave an in-depth understanding of their design philosophy. These case studies provided a strong basic understanding of design philosophy and when should one consider a design philosophy a design philosophy. Keeping this in mind, the next step was to see how one can frame design philosophies depending on a certain context and culture. This was executed by having design students from TU Delft undergoing co-developing sessions using sensitising material and insights from Cultura tool. Students from the sessions developed the design philosophies which were rooted to the context and the culture. These sessions were analysed to extract the process of developing design philosophies along with the content that required to develop the design philosophies. These inputs were further translated to toolkit requirements and interventions. This way a toolkit could aid the designers in developing culture and context driven design philosophies. The ideation for the toolkit began with ‘The Card Set’ which was tested with designers. Though it had some flaws, the participants were able to successfully develop design philosophies. A new concept ‘The Board Set’ was born which was much more refined. In order to make the interactions much more fun and meaningful, a third concept ‘The Block Set’ was developed. This involved exploration cards, blocks, response sheets. The designers would undergo initial exploration of self, culture and later develop the design philosophy as a team. This was surveyed with designers, who mentioned that the toolkit definitely provides moments of reflection and brings teams and cultures together without compromising on either of them.

This graduation thesis report describes the research activities investigating the education on filter bubbles in Dutch secondary schools towards teenagers between 14-16 years old, and the design to improve this through including critical thinking techniques.
During this research the context and two main target groups were explored through literature research, observations, generative sessions and interviews. Insights from this research led to the design brief containing the design goal, interaction vision, design criteria, and learning objectives.
The design brief was formulated after exploring the context, media literacy, and stakeholders and target group. From this research, it was found that Dutch secondary schools are still at the beginning stages of implementing media literacy in itself in their curriculums, which means that filter bubbles are even less discussed in schools. Teenagers are confident about their media literacy and often confuse this with tech-savviness. This results in that they often think they learn more through Social Media. But even though teenagers nowadays in 2021 are raised alongside Social Media, teenagers are not necessarily media literate. Especially when it comes to critical thinking about the media consumed. To stimulate critical thinking in education, pupils have to be encouraged to come up with their own ideas and opinions and be able to discuss the different ideas with other people. Pupils also have to be able to connect subjects to their daily lives. For this to happen, a safe space needs to be created for pupils to be able to share perspectives with each other.
Following these insights, the design goal was to design an intervention that can be used as an addition to the “social studies” course in secondary schools in The Netherlands. This intervention should teach teenagers to critically think about the content they consume within their filter bubbles, through meaningful conversations with other teenagers about the content.
Ideation involved creative sessions and individual brainstorming and soon went into testing and iterating concepts. The final concept was evaluated with Social Studies teachers and teenagers. In conclusion, the Pop your Bubble: Lesson plan has created an opportunity in class for pupils to explore their own filter bubbles and discuss them with each other. Though further testing in context and research on the long-term effects of this lesson plan is required, teachers and participants agreed that this is a useful way to teach pupils that filter bubbles can have an influence on opinions and that it helps teenagers discuss them.

Past and current product design practices have not been and are not skin tone inclusive. People with darker skin tones are regularly excluded from the design process and the final product. Examples of this are the simple adhesive bandage and the more advanced facial recognition software. This project aimed to change this through an exploration of this type of exclusion, generally caused by designer bias. 
Products that are not skin tone inclusive can be clustered into four different categories; Inadequate Color Selection, Failing Technology & Software, Undereducated Service Providers, and Unequal Communication & Representation. The products in these four categories have recurring issues, i.e., things that are consistently faulty. These issues led to thirteen Skin Tone Inclusive Design Guidelines to aid the designer in the design process. 
The current Industrial Design Engineering curriculum does not pay any attention to the issue of skin tone inclusivity. The first-year bachelor course Understanding Humans is the ideal place to introduce this topic with the Skin Tone Inclusivity Lesson Plan, to be used during the Wonder Assignment. With four sub-goals; Raise Awareness, Trigger Self-Reflection, Trigger Self-Awareness, and finally, Trigger Inclusive Design Behavior, the students are led through a session that leads to an understanding of the skin tone inclusive design guidelines. This is done incrementally, with the guidelines being introduced during the last activity of the Assignment. Using the three designed components, the Beige by Default website, the Card Set, and the Skin Tone Inclusive Design Guidelines, the students complete different activities to ultimately reach a more inclusive design behavior.