In our densely-populated cities, living together in harmony between different groups of people becomes an increasingly difficult art, and one in which design can provide positive contributions. This paper describes a design project which aimed to decrease tensions between youth and residents in a city neighbourhood through an empathy-building process. Individuals from both groups were guided through the process of stepping into each others’ worlds through Virtual Reality and developing solutions together to address points of tension. Their individual transformative processes were researched through a content analysis procedure in order to make the implicit outcomes of such design processes explicit. Throughout this process new dynamics and connections emerged, revealing grounds for structurally decreasing tensions and promoting participatory approaches for social innovation. This paper describes the project and presents our learnings regarding (1) the transformative impact on the involved individuals from the neighbourhood and (2) reflections on the contributing roles of the designers in social innovation projects.

@en

This project concerns a consortium for knowledge sharing/research between TU Delft (IDE Faculty) and the Netherlands Red Cross for the purpose of developing a co-creation approach to resolving complex humanitarian problems. We focus on design for adaption and community resilience to the phenomena of urban heatwaves—prolonged periods of excessive heat in city environments.
A heatwave can be defined as a three-day mean temperature that is significantly above average temperatures of a region for the time of year1. There is a clear correlation between urban heatwaves, periods of excessive heat and high humidity, and national mortality rates (See Figure 2). Yet because urban heatwaves do not leave a trail of visible destruction like earthquakes, tsunamis and pandemics, these crises are often termed ‘silent-killers’.
Urbanisation, climate change, wealth disparity and an aging population mean that the veracity to which heatwaves effect society will increase leading to increased humanitarian risks and needs. There is now acknowledgment amongst the medical, climatic and humanitarian community that novel approaches to the development of strategies to mitigate the devastating effects of urban heatwaves are required2. The Netherlands Red Cross in collaboration the International Red Cross are increasingly focused on urban heatwaves as an identified humanitarian problem3.
@en

In co-design, solutions are generated to serve people’s needs, short term and/or long term, through their involvement in parts of the design process. Methods like contextmapping and explorative prototyping serve these participatory processes. They help designers to step into the users’ shoes, to explore design solutions from and with their perspectives. In circumstances where contact with users is restricted, such as the recent lockdowns, user involvement is hindered and we need to find alternative ways to proceed with involving users in design processes. Instead of focussing on what is impossible because of the restrictions, we focussed on the opportunities it can bring. This paper shows that co-design is possible in times of a lockdown by deploying users in the role of co-explorer, creating ownership among users, using digital means, and obtaining an opportunity-oriented mindset.

@en

Data and artificial intelligence (AI) are revolutionising the way customers interfacewith organisations and vice versa. However, there is limited knowledge regarding howdata and AI are used as material during the design process. It is to this practice-research gap that this paper responds, by providing practical insight into a projectbetween a Dutch airline, named AirlineX for the purpose of this paper, and auniversity-based design team. The project let to the development of a principle forpersonality-driven design that deeply personalises digital touchpoints within AirlineX’s operations. This principle is informed by ‘big five’ personality theory from the field of psychology. Further, a framework for incorporating AI and data asmeaningful subject matter into the design process is presented. This frameworkassists organisations to develop dialogue with customers beyond the purchase pointthrough personal data, representing a democratisation of the traditional business tocustomer (B2C) perspective. The paper concludes with directions for future researchthat point toward the growing need for ethical discourse regarding technology, designand society.
@en

Digital innovations in-store are often unnecessary, unintuitive and uncomfortable and mostly make use of personal data for one-way messaging instead of meaningful interpersonal interactions. Digital initiatives are also more focused on enhancing the shopping experience (even unsuccessfully) instead of building consumer-brand relationship through an emotional brand experience. This paper introduces a new design framework which envisions a way of using personal consumer data for the design and development of in-store digital brand touch points. The aim of the framework is to improve consumers’ in -store digital experience and their emotional connections with the brand. The foundational model for our framework is the Design for Emotion model developed by Pieter Desmet (2002). The model is used in a retail and branding context, and adapted to leverage the opportunities of personal consumer data in personalization strategies. @en