This project investigates the role of the NOBIS collaborative murals in fostering social connections between the Buitenhof district in Delft (Netherlands) and the rest of the city. Furthermore, it aims to enhance their impact through a design intervention aimed at promoting empathy among city residents.

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

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

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

Due to an increase in remote working concerns around mental and physical health are increasing. Most people are aware of this problem, but find it hard to improve their health. Recharge is a company that wants to help these people by providing an app where users experience an one-week Bootcamp. In this week they are challenged to try out new healthy exercises to break old habits and kickstart new ones.

However, Recharge had the problem that users lost interest after interacting with the app. This sparked the opportunity for this project. To explore what caused users to lose motivation and how design can play a role to engage and motivate users to finish the Recharge week.

The project started with a literature research on Recharge and the integration of design on the topics motivation and engagement. As a result, a journey roadmap and a user scenario was developed to get an overview of the company and the service they provide. Furthermore, a framework was developed on what features can boost motivation in design, and engagement guidelines were formulated. It appeared that the app was lacking in providing community feelings, creating personalization and customization features and providing enough feedback.

To confirm these results, in-depth interviews were conducted with current Recharge users. The interviews confirmed the previous insights and showed the value of adding guidance throughout the app, smaller tasks and prioritizing and reflecting on health more regularly. With these final insights, a design direction and vision were formulated.

In the developing stage brainstorming, experimentation and user tests were performed to iteratively develop the final concept. The concept consists of a new onboarding experience where users experience more choice freedom in picking their goals and obstacles. Furthermore, well-being questionnaires were formulated to measure the success of the week and guides users to see what they want to achieve.

A new checkbox system was developed where users could customize their tasks, participate in smaller tasks and personal recommendations were displayed based on the onboarding data. At last, reflection activities were added where users could select statements to make it easier to reflect on their day and a final survey of the week was added.

During the last user test more feedback and reflection activities were added to the concept, for example adding a final summary at the end of the onboarding, day and week. In the daily overview users could reflect on the tasks by ranking them in a top 3 category. Furthermore, after every small task and at the end of the day/week users could check their progress.

Although the last recommendations were applied, there was still room for improvement. To push Recharge in the right direction a strategic roadmap was created for the coming 2 years. This roadmap consists of the future user focus, future features, feasibility and the METUX spheres. At last, an evaluation of the project was conducted with it’s main takeaways and limitations. Finally, the project ends with a personal reflection on my ambition and learning curve.