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.

European climate goals to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celcius are unachievable in their current form because current green energy technologies needed for the energy transition rely too much on critical raw materials (CRMs). This thesis sought to design something that reduces the negative impact living has on the climate while making living less reliant on critical raw materials. Literature research showed that in the context of buildings, space heating and water heating are the biggest uses of energy in Europe. CRMs are found in many different products in homes, but primarily in electronics. This includes energy generation technologies such as solar panels, energy storage technologies such as batteries, entertainment technologies such as computers, but also other technologies such as boilers, pumps, ventilators and sensors. My research found that the link between human needs and current technologies in homes is a diverse and complicated one. To reduce our energy and CRM use in the built environment, a shift in the consumer’s mindset and a redesign of our technologies are needed. Tiny houses are a great inspiration and show that we can live comfortably with less energy and materials. This thesis looked at tiny houses as a springboard and example of how we can live more consciously and from a mindset of scarcity and balance instead of abundance. As a result, I designed and recorded a podcast that can discuss the complexity of the climate crisis while addressing the complicated human needs behind current CRM-dependent technologies. This podcast hopes to contribute to shifting the mindset and lifestyle of the listener to a more sustainable one.

Whether it is from the office-office or the home office, creating a physical work environment is essential for both improving work performance as well as for the physical and mental wellbeing of employees. But as jobs are becoming increasingly less active, and working adults are spending almost a third of their lives in the office, most of their time is now spent sitting behind a desk. This time spent in sedentary behavior is increasing rapidly on a global scale and has become a great area of concern, as research has proven that prolonged sedentary behavior is linked to an increase in all-cause mortality To reduce the sedentary nature of the workplace, many companies are now replacing the standard desk with sit-stand desks. Unfortunately, even as more companies implement these desks in the workspace, many studies show that there is a lack of utilization among working adults, with many only using the desk once a month or less. The goal of this thesis is to figure out why this lack of utilization occurs and to design a solution capable of altering the working adult's behavior.\ To design this solution, an agile design process was followed involving the user at almost every stage of the design process. By focusing on the differences between the non-active and active users, several design opportunities were formed (1) Increase awareness of the effect of sedentary behavior, (2) Promote social support among coworkers, and (3) Increase body and mind awareness so people are more conscious of how sitting affects their physical and mental status. Through ideation and concept development, the final concept was formed: The BMDesk Application and Controller. The BMDesk App and Controller combines a digital and non-digital product designed to aid working adults in reducing their sedentary behavior by becoming more aware of its effects on their bodies and mind. The product provides a simple solution that reminds users when it is time to do a self-check-in and see how their body and mind are feeling. Once the user has finished the self-scale, the app provides personalized tips on how to adjust their sit-stand desks to help them feel better and optimize their work experience. Users can also use the BMDesk Digital Application to check in on their progress, learn more about better workplace practices, and join social networks aimed at promoting physical wellbeing in the workplace. By joining the social networks, users can feel less alone and supported by a community of their coworkers who are all going through the same process.

One of the critical questions in the current era is how to provide broadband internet for all and second how to realise the digitally connected city of the future. The Covid-19 pandemic painfully exposed a crisis of internet access in many low-income and rural areas in the world. While many people in the Western world could easily shift to teleworking and online education, still 3.7 billion people worldwide do not have access to reliable and high-speed internet (United Nations, 2021). Terragraph, an intellectual property technology that emerged from the Facebook Connectivity group, aims to bridge this digital divide and has a mission to bring more people online to a faster internet. This thesis is executed at BrightSites, a technology venture within Signify. It is the result of almost six months of work covering multiple domains in the intelligent street lighting industry. The main research question of this thesis was to analyse the role of Gbit luminaires in the digitally connected city of the future. Gbit luminaires are innovative fixtures that can enable wireless connectivity on the outdoor lighting grid. These fixtures can provide fibre-like speeds due to the incorporation of mmWave radios that utilise Terragraphs' technology. ​​One of the research outcomes is a theoretical framework that shows stakeholders value capture and value creation motivations. In this project context, value capture is defined as how a particular stakeholder wants to be rewarded for becoming part of the Gbit luminaire ecosystem. On the other hand, value creation is defined as how a specific stakeholder can deliver value and strengthen the Gbit luminaire ecosystem. The findings show that the Gbit luminaire is part of a conservative regulatory environment in an interdependent ecosystem. Furthermore, the framework sheds some new light on the gaps between BrightSites, market players and municipalities. In the Gbit luminaire ecosystem, the following gaps are perceived: 1. The value gap, 2. The knowledge gap, 3. The financial gap, and 4. The urgency gap. The opportunities for technology-driven organisations to solve gaps and prepare for the future lay in user-centred roadmaps. The type of roadmap developed in this project is a design roadmap, which is still limited in use but getting more attention in the literature and across industries. Design roadmaps differ from traditional technology or product roadmaps as it centres on end-user's values, rather than the technology portfolio and organisational goals. The design roadmap is developed from a European municipal decision-maker perspective while considering the shared desirability in the ecosystem. The main conclusion that can be drafted is that the product proposition should be perceived, developed and pitched from an ecosystem level. In addition, the author suggests that the (Gbit) luminaire should be positioned as a hosting solution rather than a wireless fibre extender. The main argument is that every stakeholder in the Gbit luminaire ecosystem should feel that a specific problem is solved since this is considered as the only way to succeed and achieve widespread deployment.

The Netherlands is dealing with a housing crisis, which originates from the financial crisis of 2008 (Obbink, 2020). After the financial crisis, the population grew whereas construction declined. The current shortage of houses is around 330.000 (Obbink, 2020), to counter this issue an estimated 1 million new houses need to be built in the coming 10 years (ABF Research, 2019). This graduation project focuses on an initiative to remedy this crisis: a Community Land Trust (CLT) association in the Bijlmer H-neighbourhood. A CLT association is a community-led not-for-profit organisation that creates and manages affordable housing for people with low or modest incomes and develops neighbourhood facilities that benefit the local community. CLT associations are open member organisations that use an alternative development model which includes the interests of residents and the neighbourhood. The ownership and management of the land, homes, and neighbourhood facilities are anchored in the CLT organisation by taking them in joint ownership, as well as establishing conditions that ensure sustainable and social use. The problem statement this thesis focuses on is: How can the CLT association facilitate successful collaboration within workgroups between its members and external experts? The corresponding design statement is the following: Design a platform for CLT members that stimulates a desirable way of working, and includes an approach towards making democratic decisions, in order to empower members and create a flourishing community. To realise this design statement a CLT members platform was designed. This platform focuses on being a communication channel for the association. The platform helps to clarify the structure and purpose of the association, and provides tools that support the community throughout their operation. To create a clear storyline of how this platform will be used in the association, a CLT blueprint was created, displayed in the figure on the right. This blueprint shows the journey of a member within the community, starting with the onboarding process, followed by being an active member, and ending with being part of an empowered community. For the three stages, activities that could occur are described by explaining the various entry points, the process, the outcome, and how this outcome might influence other processes happening in the community. Several tools are proposed that are useful during the before mentioned activities.

This report showcases the design process of an air purifier that is based on the technology ‘active botanical biofiltration’, is designed specifically for a target group and it serves as an exploration of solar power applied to the mentioned technology. Indoor air contamination is a big problem for our urbanized societies, as it causes chronic diseases and SBS symptoms (headache, dizziness, irritation, etc…) to the buildings occupants. Active botanical biofiltration has been proved in the last decades as a valuable option to reduce indoor air contamination. It can target a big range of pollutants, increase the thermal comfort and improve the indoors spatial quality, in a low maintenance and low energy requiring way. Currently, several portable active botanical biofilters can be found in the market. All the products follow the main principle of the technology: plant combined with an airflow; and differ from each other with other features such as air monitoring, water tank or app interface. Given the described situation, a research process is carried out about the active botanical biofiltration (literature research), the functionalities and aesthetics desired by the user (questionnaires and interviews) and the possibilities around powering the device with solar energy (literature research). After synthesizing this research, the design requirements that the product should follow are: Product targeted to Western Europeans, living in big cities and older than 30 years old; Product to include the functionalities: airflow generated by one fan; solar powered; water tank with water level indicator; upgradeable system and not including monitoring functionalities; Product to look like a normal potted plant but doing something extra; minimalistic, subtle, neutral, timeless, functional and natural; Product to use white ceramic and wood as main materials. After showing the process of research and synthesis, the final result of the product is shown in detail (digital design and functional prototype) together with the steps that lead to that final shape (prototyping, iterations, user testing, etc…). As a last step in the process, the prototype is used to carry out a design evaluation regarding the user experience and product’s performance in improving air quality (for CO2, VOCs, T and %H). With respect to the results performed, it seems that the device is able to increase the relative humidity (from 50% to 55% in the tests), but no big effects were noticed in contaminants removal. However, a big part of the obtained results are inconsistent, which points to the need of repeating the tests in a more controllable environment. On the other hand, the user experience test results are positive, as the users felt a positive effect in their perception over the space the product was being used, and the aesthetic style is appropriate according to the user’s opinions. Besides, two areas were recommended to be improved: making the integration of the solar panels in a more subtle way, and accompanying the device with clear and reliable performance results about the product in real life scenarios.

Energy saving is becoming a topic that has been widely discussed. By 2050 all office buildings according to EU plans should be energy neutral. This implies a large potential for more efficient solutions, such as occupancy-aware local heating. Based on this idea, OfficeVitae developed a vertical heating panel for use in offices using carbon infrared heating film. This thesis collaboration between Office Vitae explored the possibilities of implementing person detection technology into the local heating system. Implementation of the smartness and the control unit interaction are main problems. To develop the standalone concept, extensive user tests were conducted to collect sufficient data for further development. There are 4 design lean cycles conducted in total after chose the design direction. The final heating strategy, overall ergonomics preference, and the interaction method were defined and elaborated. The project is finished with a standalone conceptual product that could sense occupancy presence with one PIR motion sensor and provide heating accordingly to avoid unnecessary heating in winter. The product is controlled by a reachable, simple, and direct control unit that allows workers to personalise temperature around the working area to have higher control of the workplace while saving energy by lowering the ambient temperature. Although a working prototype is not built in this project, extensive evaluations and tests with low fidelity prototypes validated the feasibility of the final design. To conclude the research, a list of generic findings, limitations of this project, and recommendations for further development are provided.

Office work is becoming increasingly dynamic, requiring office workers to perform distinct activities rapidly. These activities range from meetings to individual work. Open plan offices (OPO) facilitate workplaces for office workers in a single hall. This causes office workers who perform distinct activities to share the same workspace. These different activities come into conflict with each other, since they produce different sound levels. Furthermore, the open hall of the OPO causes more co-worker interruptions in comparison with offices which are adjusted to occupants performing distinct activities. This thesis collaboration between Advanced Metropolitan Solutions (AMS) and the Living Office Design Lab (LODL) of the faculty of Industrial Design Engineering TU Delft, explores how to facilitate OPO occupants with distinct activities in achieving focus. Through 5 design interventions, a design guideline for achieving office focus is discovered, consisting of 3 elements. 1) Clustering office occupants based on their workstyle preference, decreases co-worker interruptions. 2) For workstyle-based clustering, office occupants need to communicate one of three workstyle preferences: “focus work”, “team work” or “social work”. “Focus work” workstyle communicates that the users don’t want co-worker interruption. “Team work” workstyle communicates that the occupant allows co-worker interruption, as long as the interruption is work related. “Social work” workstyle communicates that the user allows all interruptions, including non-work-related interruptions. 3) Workstyle preferences need to be communicated to the rest of the office by using indicators. Individual indicators are used for desk-to-desk workstyle preference communication. Zone indicators might enable occupants to find workstyle zones within the office. A set of tools that enables OPO occupants to communicate their workstyle preference, through personal and zone indicators, enables workplace selection based on workstyle preference. By enabling occupants to cluster through workstyle-based workplace selection, conflicting activities and co-worker interruptions are reduced.

The River Intellectuals network is an organization that wants to connect academic students to Balkan river conservation. In July 2019 the first Student for River Camp is organized. Students from the Balkan, and the rest of Europe, applied for a week of lectures and activities at the Soča river in Slovenia. It is identified that these students, in varying degree, lack the knowledge of the cultural and political system that drives corruption in hydropower development. To transfer this knowledge, the medium of serious game is chosen, due to its effective, engaging and reusable nature. The aim of this project is therefore to: Design a serious game that engages the students participating in the Students for Rivers Camp, educate them in the complex system of hydropower development, And Inspire them in using their expertise and ambition for Balkan river conservation. To achieve this, the problem is investigated first. The culture of corruption is the result of the Balkan’s turbulent past, and manifests itself in a combination of bribing, threatening, rule bending and nepotism. The story to tell is that of Government officials and Hydropower companies enriching each other, over the backs of the local communities. The banks who invest in the hydropower projects don’t know, or don’t want to know about this. Activists try to stop hydropower development by activating the local community. The corruption game uses a combination of game mechanics to simulate this story. There are several characters to play, each with different and confliction goals and rules. Some want to develop hydropower dams, others try to prevent that. A stack of event cards guide the players through the game. The game is finished with a group evaluation, and individual assignment. The corruption game has been successfully tested at the Students for River Camp. 42 students and lectures played it as part of the program. It has been evaluated positively in achieving its goal. The game have been referenced multiple times throughout the week by lecturers, students and organization alike. Plans have been made to develop the project further, doing a final iteration. The ambition is to spread the Corruption Game to NGO’s worldwide.

In a world with an ever-increasing overflow of information, what are we supposed to believe? Even credible sources are distrusted or no attention is paid to their communications at all. The RIVM (National Institute for Public Health and the Environment) is looking for new ways to communicate their findings in such a way that people do not only believe it, but also that they take it into account in their behaviour. A new approach is proposed to find new compelling ways to communicate through design. In doing so, a new way to design for behavioural change in general is composed. The idea behind this approach is the following: People understand their world in a certain way. They have models in their mind about how all kinds of phenomena in this world work. These mental models help people to interpret and predict, which is fundamental to making choices on how to act. Therefore, if we could influence those mental models, we get a new handle on guiding behaviour. This project has explored exactly that handle as it investigates the questions: How can we influence people’s mental models through design? And how can those mental models influence behaviour optimally? Many examples of mental models and designs that embody them were analysed thoroughly. This resulted in a wide range of types and dimensions of mental models and designs, which were collected in a framework. The framework offers strategies to compose, evaluate and refine mental models and designs that embody them. The framework, translated into a toolkit format, was tested with students. Although still lacking validation, the framework seems to be a good basis for further steps: -The framework and the initial toolkit as drafted in this project are a good start for developing a more usable toolkit. The initial test results suggest that the many handles that the framework offers for designing mental models and their embodiments are mostly useful. -The framework offers future research a comprehensive palette for analysing mental models and designs that carry them. The mental model approach as explored in this project is relevant not only for the design of specialized behavioural interventions, but also for design in general. It uncovers, and provides handles on, an element of design that is widely applicable since many designs and communications explain (or could explain) a mental model.

Worldwide, the concept of vitality has been trending and it stands for a positive status of human aliveness and energy correlated with physical and psychological well-being (Ryan & Frederick, 1997). However, vitality in the context of work does not attract much attention and the majority of existing workplace products are productivity-driven for employers’ benefit; this project and its partner OfficeVitae, aim to develop a Vitality Platform to fill in this gap.The project focuses on the millennial employees’ vitality at work as they are becoming the dominant workforce in the near future (Haworth, 2015). Through a series of literature and qualitative user-centric research (contextmapping), a holistic vitality model was formulated including intrapersonal, organizational, contextual and somatic factors. Millennial employees’ vitality at work is fluid and significantly affected by the intrapersonal (e.g. challenge, social interaction, flexibility) and organizational factors (e.g. work-life balance). Work-life balance (harmony) was further identified as the ultimate goal on account of the long-term influence and salient impact on millennial employees. They are seeking the harmony in the fulfillment of work and life achievement (work-life harmony). Then, three vitality directions were formulated accordingly: Pressure Tracker, Macro Management and Life Enrichment. The research phase was concluded with the selected vitality direction “Life Enrichment through drawing new inspirations from colleagues” on account of its positive approach (Social interaction) and the promotion of user agency and mindful person-product interaction (Active participation), which are successful long-term implementing criteria identified from digital health and existing workplace products.In the design phase, four concepts were tested in a Dutch startup company (PHYSEE). The results were accessed by the predefined vitality criteria (e.g. flexibility, social interaction, challenge, relaxation and growth), person-product interaction (Active participation) and the simplicity (Fog, 2009). In addition, the curiosity about colleagues was discovered as a strong intrinsic motivator during the test. Thus, Colleague Observation, answering a non-work-related random question about colleague, was selected for further refinement. Optimized person-product interactions and sustainable motivators (feedback) were explored through iterative research through design. At the end, The Spin Wheel was chosen for optimized interaction and better leveraging motivators (e.g. different difficulty levels of questions). Next, the design goal was reframed -- “A digital platform encouraging millennial employees to explore non-work-related aspects of colleagues with the aim of taking a mental switch from work.”; the interaction should be engaging, curious and relaxed like finding “Where is Waldo?”. The final concept “SpInsight” has three main functions: requesting and answering a random question, proposing a customized question and checking personal record. All the default questions are divided into six categories with different difficulty levels: appearance, belongings, character, experience and customized questions (time-bounded/ non-time-bounded). An interactive prototype was evaluated in four companies. The concept worked in the group of TOPdesk interns and it potentially triggered more face-to-face non-work-related interaction with colleagues, which in turn enhances vitality at work. However, employee participants showed less motivation because of less motivating questions, lack of feedback and trigger. Thus, two focus groups were conducted to clarify the critical long-term motivators. The curiosity about how colleagues perceive oneself was the most powerful spark (Fog, 2009) to enhance the retention (e.g. push notification like “You are mentioned in an answer.”). In general, SpInsight is feasible in a workplace and considered fun and engaging. There are some opportunities could also benefit from its advantage of getting to know people quickly, such as an introduction program in the educational setting. However, how to attract group participation and sustain millennial employees’ interest and motivations over time requires further research and evaluation on different working context (e.g. company scale, department, the stage of group development).

A user experience and design system are developed from scratch for a small tech start-up, this report describes the steps and methods that are used as well as the end result.

This project was performed for a Dutch creative agency with the general objective to demonstrate a new application of personalization in service design. Specifically, the goal was set to stimulate a personalized experience of a future energy dashboard by making the communication of information to users more effective. To that end principles of adaptive user interface (AUI) theory, practice-oriented design (POD) and a mindset framework from the creative industry were combined. Through the concept of ‘Adpt’ this project proposes an AI-based context-aware personalization system that supports the differences in interests and capabilities between different users. Due to the technical expertise required for its effect on the personalized experience of the user was not confirmed. Yet, the results of the qualitative user test performed in the project confirm (1) the dynamic and sometimes predictable nature of users’ interests and capabilities when interacting with an energy dashboard and (2) the diversity of display preferences. These results confirm the relevance of the combination of AUI theory, POD and the mindset framework. It leads to the recommendation for future research to test and build a first AI for the purpose suggested in this project.