Intending to implement a data-enabled design approach to use this data in their creative design process, Ford established a research collaboration with the faculty of Industrial Design Engineering at the Delft University of Technology. As part of the collaboration, several lines of research were carried out, like data strategy, data visualisation, and early prototyping in the form of graduation projects. In one such work, Mellado Cruz (2021) identified that exploratory inquiring as a means to derive insights from data visualisations has great potential in supporting the creative design process. With her empirical studies, she could generate theoretical knowledge about this process; however, bridging work was needed to convert this knowledge into a practical and actionable outcome.
In this project, I address the research question, "How can exploratory inquiring on data visualisation be operationalised in the Ford design team to support their creative design process? ". I begin the process with a phase of immersion into theory and context- using published literature about exploratory data analysis,
data visualisation, creativity, and design theory to obtain theoretical understanding and the thesis reports of past graduation projects. At the end of this phase, I identify three potential opportunities that can aid in implementing exploratory inquiring in Ford design teams. One of the opportunities- to conceptualise exploratory inquiring as a collaborative design method- was identified as the most feasible in terms of the scope of the project, practical and desirable for the Ford design teams. A preliminary concept method was developed based on the learnings from the literature in line with this direction. This was iteratively prototyped, tested and refined for three cycles in the design iterations phase. The version at the end of the third cycle was used to create the final deliverable- a toolkit consisting of an information booklet that helps in circulating the procedural knowledge of the method within the team to create awareness and canvasses that support the execution of the method. In the last parts of this report, I provide recommendations for future studies to tackle the limitations I faced in this project and possibly inspire new works in the area of data-enabled design.

Autonomous driving technologies are expected to revolutionize the way people will
experience travel time and interact with new means of transportation. Simultaneously, the consumer mind-set is found shifting from the desire to own towards gathering meaningful experiences and having access to services and goods on demand. Thus, it its proposed that the Ford Motor Company - famous for being the first car company making the car affordable and accessible for everyone – should include the creation of novel user experiences to further distinguish the company’s position in a competitive and changing mobility landscape.
The analysis of public transport behaviour
and the current use of travel time by business commuters has revealed the potential for autonomous mobility to improve the everyday urban commuting experience. Thereby, the proposed concept introduces a radical approach for innovating the meaning of urban mobility and travel time. It envisions to transform the everyday business commute into a well-being ritual, that empowers urban citizens to dedicate their travel time to sustaining their personal well-being. The latter was found increasingly challenging due to the pressure caused by high-performance-driven societies and their fast pace lifestyle
in western cities. Hereby, the concept of mobility for well-being is further rooted in growing trends of consumers seeking for methods and activities helping them to sustainably foster what it
takes to live a happy life.
The proposed concept provides commuters with a progressive well-being experience that includes the positive effects of personal engagement
and the daily commuting routine. The proposed concept is a combination of both product and service design, that can be accessed while booking and traveling on-board an autonomous vehicle. Empathy, customizability and proactivity were given high priority during the development of the design system. Hence, an open service platform was generated that provides the customer with variable and progressive
content. In addition, affective computing and
the potential of involving machine learning was investigated with the aim to offer a more natural human-machine interaction.
The design process followed an agile approach that allowed the designer to analyse, synthesise and elaborate on genuine design solutions that would do the context justice. Hereby, the project started with a user-centred and generative research phase which was then, concluded with the identification of several opportunity spaces. From this, a clear design vison was formulated, that guided the designer in generating a pool of apt ideas. The following conceptualization phase focused on the elaboration of one design direction that revealed to become a holistic system solution. The latter was influenced by the application of various design fields, including design activities in product, service
and interaction design. In close collaboration with strategic experts, working in the field of autonomous mobility and design experts from the TU Delft, specialized in design for innovation and well-being, the designer was eager to create based on both facts and imaginative power. Subsequently, a user-centred, meaningful, radical and complex design innovation resulted. The proposed concept highlights the added value daily mobility could have for urban well-being.