We humans have drastically changed the world in the last few centuries. We have upset the balance of nature. Humanity is forgetting that we are part of nature and dependent on the earth's resources. Our take-make-dispose mindset needs to change.

Biomimicry may be a solution. It is a relatively new movement, a philosophy, that looks to nature and recognises its value. It takes inspiration from biological strategies and translates them into sustainable design solutions. Respect for nature is central to this approach.

The focus of this project was to design a playful and interactive exhibit on biomimicry that could change the visitor's perspective. This was done for Museon-Omniversum, a science museum that wanted to explore such a transformative learning experience for a new exhibit in a biomimicry zone of their current exhibition One Planet NOW!
A transformative experience is a life-changing experience. They often occur after a sense of awareness that leads to a deeper understanding of one's beliefs. By exploring the subject through hands-on activities, the chance of changing one's perspective over time increases.

This project uses the double diamond method to explore these topics. Desk research, interviews, observations and exploration of museums all contributed to defining the project direction 'Solving relatable events through biomimicry'. Events refer to a relatable situation that visitors encounter (daily). This led to a more detailed design goal:

‘Design a playful and interactive exhibition suited for families with children (8 years and up) to explore biomimicry and let them understand the usefulness of biomimicry for future problem-solving for the coming ‘biomimicry zone’ at Museon-Omniversum.

This consists of four phases:
1. Make the visitor aware of what biomimicry is and can do.
2. Encourage dialogue between families to stimulate self-reflection and deeper understanding of biomimicry by presenting information invitingly.
3. Let the visitor interact with the concept of ‘biomimicry’ in a playful way by solving ‘events’ through simplified steps taken from Biomimicry Thinking.
4. Plant a seed for future problem-solving (to use biomimicry).'

Ideas were then generated through brainstorming sessions, leading to several physical prototypes. Evaluation testing of these prototypes provided insight into the experiences and effects of the designed prototypes. These insights all contributed to the final design concept of 'Superpowers of Nature'. A concept that allows the visitor to explore and reflect on biomimicry.

Visitors explore biomimicry through an interactive choosing system. They can explore specific organisms displayed on activation blocks. After placing one of the organisms, they can explore the superpowers (biological strategies) of the organism and its corresponding biomimetic innovations. The video clips guide the visitor through a simplified version of the biomimicry thinking method. During the video clips, visitors have the opportunity to reflect on the content through open-ended questions that stimulate discussion. Finally, they are shown real-life examples related to their chosen superpower.
Overall, the exhibit is successful in addressing biomimicry. However, further modifications are needed to improve the design and to test the impact in the long term (Phase 4).

Generative AI has had a profound impact on various sectors since mid-2022. The rapid adoption by students poses challenges for student assessment and raises concerns about student development. This thesis delves into the subject and proposes a positive implementation in education through play-based learning. The project uses a human-centred iterative design approach, consisting of co-design workshops with children, teachers and expert interviews. The research shows that teaching children about AI and generative AI can be done from a young age using play-based learning.

The study captures the diverse perceptions of elementary school children and teachers regarding generative AI. Key findings highlight children’s concerns and needs with regards to generative AI. Cooperatively formulated design criteria point towards children’s main interests for products or services with generative AI or AI to have a play-based nature, foster creativity and inspiration, safeguard their privacy and security and help them achieve their goals.

The research in this thesis also explores educators’ perceived challenges and interests in classroom integration of generative AI. Key findings include the perceived necessity for both teachers and students to learn about generative AI, the interest across different levels of education and that the age deemed appropriate for students to be introduced to generative AI is often considered to be at the end of primary school or at the start of secondary school.

From the research several design principles are proposed to create an engaging, ethical and human-centred AI learning experience. To facilitate this experience and to spearhead the integration of generative AI into education, a company named “PLAI” is conceptualised. The company aims to implement generative AI in education in a positive way by providing learning material which stimulates engagement, creativity and social learning while safeguarding privacy and security by offering play-based and scaffolded learning in workshops. Future recommendations and plans include the development of a multi-modal generative AI model which can run locally on school servers and is alignable with their curriculum.

Limitations of this study include a lack of direct interaction and research with high school students, a need to explore text based generative AI interactions with students, and a need to assess generative AI’s long-term effects on student well-being.

The island of Lamu is a part of an archipelago in Kenya’s southeast. In comparison to other parts of Kenya and the rest of the globe, it is a remote and rural area where residents do not have the same access to contemporary educational materials. The Kenya Red Cross Society’s IOMe005 Innovation Hub attempts to combat these disparities by providing STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) toolkits to the Lamu children. Generally speaking, STEM fields are frequently associated with stigmas and preconceptions that steer girls away from these disciplines. This phenomena also exists in Lamu, which may make it difficult for girls to respond to STEM toolkits provided in schools.

The design goal of this project was therefore defined to design a serious board game which sparks the interest of the young girls of Lamu and help them feel confident when engaging in STEM education. The intervention should create positive interactions on which girls can fall back when facing stereotypes or other alike incidents.

The report first presents the IOMe as the client of this project and Lamu as the area of study. The assignment of developing both the game and the method to design this game is then clarified, along with the approach adopted to carry out this project.

The information needed to comprehend the design choices is provided by a review of the pertinent literature combined with observations and insights gathered from the research and design activities during the field trip. These insights concern the context of Lamu, the current situation regarding STEM education, the potential of playful learning, and especially serious games, for the solution space and finally existing methods for designing games.

These methods inspired the development of a canvas which consists of two tools that guide the designers at the IOMe in generating concepts for serious games and evaluating them, respectively. This canvas is regarded as the method which supported the elaboration of the final game concept for this project.

The findings of the field research also allowed to understand the needs and wishes of the end-users of the game, depict the current interactions they have with STEM and illustrate the desired situation to be achieved by this design intervention. Besides, they indicated the important requirements to be met by the final design.

Next, the chosen concept for this project is then revealed. It is a board game which mirrors the environment of Lamu. Players start “at home” and must arrive “at school”, by moving their pawn on a path on the board, but encounter challenges on their way. These challenges are embedded in cards with questions that the players must answer to win points. The game encourages the girls to observe their surroundings critically and from a scientific point of view.

A final prototype was tested with ten girls at a school of Lamu. The insights collected from the test enabled to make a preliminary evaluation of how well the final design performs with regards to the specified requirements. Furthermore, the design iterations which led to developing this final prototype are introduced.

To conclude, the outcomes of this project have shown that CHANUA is well designed to not only meet the end user’s needs but also contribute to amplifying the client’s exposure to the community and empower secondary stakeholders. The game fits well in the context as it brings innovation with a new energy to a low-resource setting. Besides, the canvas serves as the first example of brainstorming tool specifically developed for the IOMe to keep on developing serious games. Finally, recommendations for future work, such as involving the outer social circles of the end users in such a project, are listed.

This thesis describes the design process of the ideal daycare for Sophia Kinderziekenhuis as part of Erasmus MC. The hospital finds itself at the start of a renovation process that will possibly give Sophia an entirely new space. This new building will only be ready in 7 years, which is why the result of this project is twofold; a design proposal for an ideal situation in a new building and a shortlist of recommendations to improve the current situation in the short term.
The report is structured according to the double diamond process. The discovery will elaborate on the interior design process itself, the current situation at WKZ and SKZ, brainstorm sessions with the staff and interviews with the parents and children. It shows the daycare is extremely noisy, insensitive to privacy, inconveniently arranged, boring, outdated and not stress relieving for any of the users involved.


The insights of the discovery are condensed into 6 persona’s and 3 design drivers, which combined form the design vision of the ideal daycare. There are 2 parent-persona’s: Matt and Julie, with a distinction in time spent at the daycare. There are 3 children-persona’s: Ethan, Olivia and Jackie, with a distinction in tolerance for external stimuli. Finally there is a single staff-persona: Sarah, because there are no clear distinctions in value sets between different staff members. The 3 design drivers are defined as privacy, routine and atmosphere, and each of the three user groups has a different view on each of these drivers. These views combined will form a definition of what the ideal daycare means to them.
The development describes three iterations, each one pushing the design forwards in a different way and concluded by a simulation with one of the stakeholders. The first one was about creating maximum improvement with minimal change, which invoked a pivot in the project after the simulation with the architect. The second iteration revolved around ideating on the ideal arrangement of all the spaces, which was simulated with managing partners of the department. The third round focussed on developing different design solutions for each of the area’s, so that they could be combined into concept arrangements for the ideal daycare. These concepts were used for simulation with the daycare staff, who gave feedback on the designs and then made an ideal version of their own.
The delivery focuses on the visualisation of a final design proposal. It shows several impressions from an eye-level perspective of what the modern future of Sophia could look like. It applies a nature theme with a large tree that anchors the space, symbolizes health, growth and serenity, and is functional as sound isolation, table and play area. There is a central coffeecounter for the parents, secluded beds for enough rest and a separated staff area.The project is concluded with a set of recommendations for short term improvement. The hospital should invest in - amongst other things - a daily food service, freeing up spaces for an extra treatment room, better chairs, a proper break room with comfortable couches, and sound absorbing furniture.

The aim of this graduation project was to design a play-based exhibit piece for the Green Kids' Museum in Kenya with the objective to raise awareness of biodiversity and ecosystems in a playful manner.

Global climate is changing at rapid speed, resulting in a loss of biodiversity and the breakdown of ecosystems (Damiens, 2021). It is important that people are made aware of the dramatic consequences if these ecosystems would be lost forever. Yet, children in Kenya are not fully aware of the richness of the ecosystems within their own country, hence there is a clear need for inspiring education. The Green Kids’ Museum will be built with the objective to raise children’s awareness of the different aspects of sustainability, with one room dedicated to biodiversity and ecosystems in Kenya.

This research project has explored different ways to transfer knowledge in a playful way about biodiversity and ecosystems fitting children in the 9 to 11 year old age range. The outcome of this exploration resulted in a game that serves as an interactive exhibit piece helping children recognize the different ecosystems in Kenya.

In the initial phase of this project research was done in three different Dutch museums to understand what type of museum installation attracts children. This showed that children are mostly attracted to large striking installations that are interactive and require little to no instructions and installations where they can build something or win a prize. These aspects were taken into account during the ideation phase; each design needed to have at least one of the previously mentioned aspects to make it attract to children. The chosen design had the first three aspects incorporated and resulted in a first iteration that was tested with the target group. The evaluation with the target group was split into a physical test and an online test. The results of this test showed that the children enjoyed the game, but expressed the wish to play the game for a longer amount of time and at an increased level of complexity. A number of unfamiliar animals were added to the game increasing the complexity and duration of the game. The design was evaluated with manufacturers in Kenya to validate that the product could be fully manufactured in Kenya. Based on their feedback some alterations were applied to the design making it ready for manufacturing. Manufacturers were selected based on their efforts to produce sustainably. This selection was done based on the manufacturing techniques catalogue, created by the researcher for this project, providing a comparison of different manufacturers in Kenya that execute that same technique. Based on these results a final design has been created.

The final concept, “The Great Kenya Eco Challenge”, is an interactive exhibit piece teaching Kenyan children how to recognize the different ecosystems in Kenya. This is done by matching different animals to the ecosystem they live in using a button system. The exhibit piece enables children to learn about ecosystems in a playful and fun way.

In Turkey, roughly 3000 children and adolescents are diagnosed with cancer every year (Kebudi, 2012). Although there are different types of pediatric cancers, their trajectory is similar and filled with various physical and psychosocial challenges for the patients and their families. Moreover, cancer usually causes a drastic life change for the whole family. To adjust to the changes and cope better with the challenges, it is crucial that children understand cancer, its course, and the treatment (Eiser & Havermans, 1992; Scott, Prictor & Watt, 2003 as cited in Mant et al., 2018). However, in Turkey, parents often avoid sharing cancer-related information with their children, which hinders children’s understanding, adjustment, and coping (Dr. N. Yıldız Silahlı (MD), personal communication, 2022). Therefore, this thesis aims to improve children’s understanding, adjustment, and coping by nudging parents into changing their attitudes and encouraging children to express themselves. To do so, the project utilises the power of play.

The project starts by exploring the context of pediatric cancers, the factors that affect children’s understanding, adjustment, and coping, and the strategies to utilise play in the pediatric cancer context through a literature review. Then, the project analyses families’ current experiences, needs and wishes, and the barriers and opportunities in the context through generative interviews with the families and interviews with healthcare professionals, which reveal the reasons behind parents’ attitudes and another key problem: limited emotional sharing between children and parents. Based on the interview results, the project visualises the users’ experiences, needs, and challenges through personas and a user journey map, which shows the need of focusing on the hospitalisation stage.

In the light of new findings, the project analyses and reframes the initial design problem and envisions the solution space by defining the design goal, vision and requirements. After generating various solutions that fit within the envisioned space through ideation and conceptualisation, the project introduces the final design: AstroMission, a space-themed role-playing game that aims to facilitate the emotional connection between children and parents.

AstroMission consists of several elements with different functions:
1. Storyline: It is a metaphorical representation of cancer, treatments, and psychosocial challenges. Parents can use this storyline to give children cancer-related information.
2. Missions: They are play opportunities that require the collaboration of children and parents. Their content nudges families into talking about cancer and sharing their emotions with each other in a fun way.
3. Emotion puppets: They are a set of toys that represent four basic emotions of joy, anger, sadness, and fear. They help children to express their feelings. Also, some missions require the family to play with them.
4. Hospital room decorations and objects: They reframe the hospital room into a less scary, even fun environment for children. Also, some missions require the family use the objects in the room.
5. Mobile app: It presents the missions and the story of the game to the family. Also, it has a social function of connecting the families going through the same experience.

Due to the project duration, the project iterates on and validates only the first three elements of the game with the users. However, user evaluations show that AstroMission is desirable and holds great potential to facilitate cancer-related conversations and emotional sharing between parents and children throughout the cancer trajectory.

Lastly, the project shows how to put AstroMission into practice by proposing a material and production method and estimating implementation costs. Also, the project presents the recommendations for further development of AstroMission.

To conclude, the outcome of this project creates value for the users by improving children’s understanding, adjustment, and coping, and alleviating parents’ psycho-emotional burden. It also creates value for the hospitals by improving the user experience.

Since 1975, obesity has nearly tripled globally, indicating a clear trend that threatens public health. Besides changing one’s diet, the illness can be prevented by performing sufficient physical activity. In the Netherlands however, currently only 20% of the children of 11 years old meet the World Health Organisation guidelines for physical activity (Volksgezondheidenzorg.info, 2020). This is worrisome, since habits of sedentary behaviour often stick with a person from youth to adulthood (Hirvensalo & Lintunen, 2018). (World Health Organisation, 2021)

The section Child and Adolescent Public Health Research & Innovation (CAPHRI) of the Amsterdam University Medical Centre commissioned this project to address the lack of physical activity of children in Amsterdam. This project specifically targets the Dapperplein, as the section identified an interesting opportunity space here: During the day it is occupied by its daily market, but in the evening, when the market is cleared, an open space is revealed. This project aims to find ways to use that open space, and design something that stimulates children’s physical activity at the Dapperplein, after market hours.

In order to do so, children living near the Dapperplein were engaged in co-creation. Co-creation with children has the potential to create a design that fits the users’ (children’s) needs, because it creates understanding of their context for the designer (me), via close involvement and collaboration of the user and designer in the design process. The children act as co-designers. During workshops with these children, as well as expert interviews, observations and a literature study the context of the Dapperplein was explored and problems were revealed. As the project discovered, the children (and their parents) do not consider the Dapperplein to be safe during the evening. This is due to people hanging out and drinking at the square, as well as traffic that crosses at speed. Additionally, a lack of hygiene because of market leftovers is identified. Lastly, there are few stimuli present for children to play.

To address these problems, the design of “De Klimkramen’’ was created. It proposes to place playing equipment at the Dapperplein that during the day, with addition of an awning and board, functions as market stalls. This creates a safe playing area, as it forms a physical barrier for traffic, and since it is inviting towards residents, more people will be there to keep an eye out. A sense of community is fostered as it is used in harmony with the market and forms an iconic view for the Dapperplein.

During an evaluation, the design was well received by representatives of the market, police and fire brigade, although adjustments are needed to ensure a better fit with the needs of the market vendors, and to avoid creating a new spot for people to hang out and consume alcohol.

Besides contributing to the section CAPHRI and to involved stakeholders with the design of “De Klimkramen”, this project contributes to the design field with a reflection on the application of co-creation with children, and practical tips for those who (will) apply the method.

For hemophilia patients, a simple fall or injury can cause excessive bleeding, which if not handled properly can cause major disabilities and in extreme situations even death. Due to the insufficient blood coagulation factors in their system, a fun day can easily end in the emergency room. Children, by nature, are still learning how to move and navigate the world. Where an adult may know the consequences of their actions, a child may not be able to see that, and therefore are an especially vulnerable group. With many challenges in their daily life, children with hemophilia have a complex experience with the disease. In collaboration with Partitura and the Sophia Childrens Hospital, the goal of the project is to analyze the experience of severe hemophilia patients aged 0 to 8, visualize this in the form of a patient journey built from their perspective and find opportunities and patterns in the experience to eventually create a proposal for an intervention to improve quality of life.

A patient journey was created, in order to visualize this complex experience. The journey showed that there were definitely opportunities for improvement, giving an overview of the different touchpoints the patient goes through in the 3 main phases, (1) diagnosis, (2) treatment and (3) living with hemophilia.

The patient journey, as well as various methods of research including a literature review, observations in the outpatient clinic and interviews with healthcare professionals, parents and patients showed that children want to feel more in control of their disease, and have more structure/predicability in their experience with hemophilia. Especially the 3 main contact areas of the patient, (1) home, (2) the outpatient clinic and (3) the emergency room, provided room for these needs to be met.

Based on the research outcomes, a design goal was formulated for the creation of an intervention: To design an intervention for children with severe hemophilia aged within the range of 0-8 years, that helps empower them and help them better comprehend their journey with the disease, by providing structure, consistency and control. 3 concepts were created, all serving the different contact areas of the patient, with the overarching purpose of helping the child be more involved and active in his healthcare. The concepts were designed as seperate interventions, which can be combined and used together to strengthen each other by improving the patient experience in the different areas of the child’s life. The evaluation sessions, carried out with parents and healthcare professionals showed that the concepts had a lot of potential, and was met with great enthousiasm. This project concludes with recommendations for the next steps, for the implementation of the interventions and also further research opportunities in the experience of children with hemophilia. The next steps for the project will be to prepare for implementation, with interest to implement nationally, and eventually to aid in improving the patient experience of children with severe hemophilia, not only in the context of the Sophia Children’s Hospital but all patients of the Netherlands.

This graduation project has been carried out in the context of the research project ‘Co-Design with Kids: Early acquisition of 21st century skills’ at the TU Delft.
To prepare families with kids for the open-ended challenges of the 21st century, essential skills such as creative thinking, communication, and empathy should be mastered early on. Due to the growing interest in acquainting children with these creative problem-solving skills at a young age, research has been being carried out on design toolkits specifically aimed at children.
The central aim of this graduation project has been to explore the potential of a family-friendly design game—with a fun-factor—that engages kids to learn and practice essential 21st century skills through an open and creative mindset. The examination of literature in the interest of this topic outlined the foundation for a set of design criteria.
In the conceptualisation phase, a selection of game mechanisms has been used to generate a variety of ideas. These ideas were then clustered using a morphological map, resulting in three design directions. Through iterative design cycles, these design directions have been developed to a concept level. Using predefined design criteria, the most promising concept has been selected through a weighted scoring method. This concept has been developed into a paper prototype to evaluate with the target group.
A practice-based research methodology has been employed, through 5 playtesting sessions with families with kids ages 8 and up. Qualitative data has been gathered through several sources, such as interviews, observations, generated ideas, and film footage. In total, 3 prototypes have been evaluated and developed through the ‘Build, Measure, Learn’ loop. The key insights gained through the playtesting sessions with families show a positive relationship between the embedded game elements and a fun-factor. Overall, through a safe game environment with mild competition, a fun gaming experience is evoked through an open and creative attitude.
The insights coming forth from this practice-based study have led to a family-friendly design game for the consumer market. The final design has taken the first steps in making children acquainted with the 21st century skills in a safe and competitive game environment. The findings may be of great interest for other game designers and design education in general. The argument put forth here is that if a game has a fun-factor, players would feel more inclined to play and replay a game. Further research should investigate if repeatedly playing this game increases learning efficiency of the 21st century skills.