Design for happiness-enhancing activities

Development of design strategies for the activities of learning to forgive and avoiding overthinking

Master thesis (2021)

Authors

M.S. Speek Industrial Design Engineering

Contributors

P.P.M. Hekkert Design Aesthetics - IDE (graduation committee member)
L. Wiese Design Aesthetics - IDE (coach)
A.E. Pohlmeyer Design Aesthetics - IDE (mentor)
Faculty
Industrial Design Engineering, Industrial Design Engineering
Copyright: © 2021 Michael Speek
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Published Date

25-06-2021

Language

English

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Faculty

Industrial Design Engineering

Abstract

This research-by-design project
provides designers with new strategies to design for sustained
well-being.Positive activities have been proposed as the most promising
starting point to improve well-being (Wiese et al., 2020). Currently, 14
activities have been identified (Lyubomirsky, 2007; Wiese et al., 2019). Avoiding
overthinking and learning to forgive were chosen to design for in this project,
as few existing products meaningfully support people in engaging in these
activities. The Vision in Design approach (Hekkert & van Dijk, 2011) was
applied to construct future world views of both activities, in order to create
meaningful design goals. Two design strategies were developed for both
activities and evaluated by PhD candidates and a design practitioner. This
concluded that the strategies meet most of the requirements of a strategy
(Wiese et. al., 2020), and could support designers. Recommendations to improve
the strategies were composed and presented in the report. The conducted
research and developed strategies contributed to existing knowledge by showing
how designers can promote sustained well-being on an activity level. Further
research should be conducted with more designers to evaluate the strategies’
usefulness in practice more extensively.