This graduation project investigates the opportunities for the design of a new floorplan concept for the Flying-V aircraft. The aircraft’s unique V-shaped layout brings about limitations for how seating and other interior elements such as lavatories and galleys can be placed in the floorplan. Meaning that a different approach needs to be taken regarding the placement of these elements. Regulations for example dictate that aircraft seating cannot be placed at an angle greater than 18° from the direction of flight (DOF), without the need for additional safety precautions such as airbags. Because the passenger cabin of the aircraft is angled at approximately 26°, seats cannot be placed in rows perpendicular to the cabin wall such as in conventional aircrafts. Additionally, with the design of a new floorplan, opportunities arise for the design of a differentiating passenger experience through improvements in passenger comfort. As described in this report, literature research and an online questionnaire resulted in the definition of five main passenger comfort aspects that are of interest to tackle with the design of a new floorplan: legroom, personal space, boredom, sleeping, and walking or being physically active. Research has shown that these five aspects are considered highly important for passenger comfort, but that they score low with regard to this. Indicating that, if these aspects are improved, overall passenger experience can be improved as well. Using these outcomes, along with research into the Flying-V’s cabin design and geometry, aircraft interior trends and developments, and approaches to aircraft floorplan design, four different design directions were developed. The floorplan concept that is further elaborated on in this report focusses on three of these passenger discomforts: legroom, personal space and the possibility for passengers to walk around the aircraft. Further development of this floorplan aimed to find an appropriate balance between improvements in these aspects and required passenger capacity. The resulting floorplan proposal contains three different seating configurations, with each seating section dedicated to different types of travel groups: individual travellers, couple travellers, and group travellers. Firstly, staggered seats facing the DOF are placed at the front of the aircraft and along the outer cabin wall. These seats are dedicated to individual travellers, as they have proven to increase a passengers’ sense of individual personal space and legroom. Secondly, seats dedicated to couple and group travellers are minimally staggered (similar to conventional seating), as this still allows the passenger to easily communicate with their travel partners, one of the drawbacks of seats that are staggered at larger distances. Keeping passenger capacity in mind, the extent to which seats are staggered affects the width of a seating row. So by using a combination of differently staggered seating configurations the width of the aircraft’s cabin can be used most optimally. In this floorplan, making the difference between a 9 or 10-abreast configuration. Additionally, a walking route around the front of the aircraft is created, allowing passengers to be more physically active on long-haul flights, while highlighting of one of the aircrafts unique design features.

The graduation project is commissioned by Bayck, a small E-bike start-up which focuses on designing affordable and simple e-bikes. The company is looking for new market opportunities and perceives the Corona outbreak as a potential trigger for behaviour change towards mobility and e-bikes. To find a relevant design direction for Bayck, information is gathered in four steps; First, the pre-pandemic mobility is discussed, then how it is affected by the pandemic. E-bike users are interviewed to understand the new use needs. Finally, future visions from different perspectives are discussed to find a relevant context in which Bayck can design a new product. From the analysis, it is concluded that the new Bayck product needs to be personal, enable multi-usage and invite the user to relax while going from A to B. The conclusions of the analysis are put together in a design brief. An ideation is performed to come up with a design direction fitting the design brief. To conclude the ideation phase, it is decided to design an e-bike that operates on a removable battery(-ies), also usable as a personal power-bank. A storyboard is drawn to depict the ideal use situation. The current Bayck model is taken apart to understand how an e-bike works and what should be integrated in the new design. The concept is toned down to a level of feasibility: Two batteries of 18V are required to enable the user to charge its devices, but also use the 36V e-bike motor. The challenge is made to simplify the e-bike as much as possible and separate the electronics as much as possible from the frame. The whole electronic system will be moved to the front of the bike to be as close as possible to the motor. This also enables the design to be mounted on the bike without modifying the frame. The concept is taken from idea to materialized product through a fish trap process. During the materialisation, a functional prototype is build to test the set up with two 18V batteries and the working of a new lock system. The fish trap process results in a material concept, in which the different components and their assembly are established.

This thesis is the documentation of a design proposal for a 2035 envisioned concept for Volkswagen Escapism mobility that responds to a rapidly changing mobility demand. The rapidly growing population is changing the urban landscape and how we move around in our cities. Technological developments are giving us more control over smart systems and create new interactions with our surroundings. In regulated urban systems, the desire for freedom that is deeply rooted in our human character is becoming increasingly more difficult to satisfy. Problem In 2015, the automotive industry witnessed the hard consequences of the Dieselgate. Nowadays, Volkswagen still suffers from the scandal, as it influences the brand image negatively. Although the brand is building a fully electric identity, Americans still relate to the Dieselgate when they talk about Volkswagen. The people’s opinion of Volkswagen used to be shaped by the iconic models of the past but is now overruled by negativity. In order to enlarge the American market share, Volkswagen should design an eye-catching mobility concept in order to re-establish the brand image. Vision The American Volkswagen driver is someone who irrationally chose to drive a Volkswagen in search for emotional connections with the product. These people will feel uncomfortable in the future which will be shaped through the strive for efficiency. They feel more related to the other side of the future, one that focuses on escaping the daily life and experience memorable moments. In order to re-attract the American Volkswagen driver, the portfolio should offer a product that bridges both worlds, a product that is pushing them to take the risk while feeling trusted going out of their comfort zone. Design The design proposal, named Volkswagen Valor, was developed in corporation with Volkswagen’s design studio in Wolfsburg. It is a 3-person vehicle that offers two configurations. Each configuration is tailored perfectly to the desired interaction, both in the future world of efficiency as in the world of escaping. Valor provides the smooth transition between both worlds and offers several features that give the passengers a memorable experience. Valor is a fresh looking concept with a silhouette that will become iconic in the future. The design language is showing the risk-taking character while breathing the confidence of trustworthiness, embodied by a future interpretation of Volkswagen’s American design language. Evaluation Valor was evaluated by professional car designers working in the Wolfsburg studio. The proposal was reviewed as provoking and interesting. The goal of creating something fresh and unique in order to become iconic in the future, responded perfectly to the evaluation of the proposal. It was evaluated that the vehicle responds logically to the problem and fits well in the envisioned future.

It is expected that the automotive industry will be facing a radical shift, going from human driven cars to cars that are driving autonomously. In this project I started out with performing an in depth literature research to get a good understanding on what is expected to change. My expectations that the design and solutions for a self-driving car can be motivated by other factors than human controlled cars is confirmed by this research. These incentives of autonomous transportation and the implications are used as input for the development of a vision for a shared autonomous car for the city in ten years. Scenarios that show different possible types of vehicle with different function were created and a twoseater urban commuter vehicle was chosen to develop further. The different functions of the interior, such as doing work or relaxing instead of driving, but also the wish to sit facing forward and looking outside and the need for a sense of dependability and trust because you are not in charge of the car's movement are integrated in the final design. Considering the small footprint combined with a desired seating layout and ergonomic seating position, affects the exterior and makes for challenging design boundaries in terms of volume. This project is a collaboration with raw material supplier SABIC and therefore another consideration is how this changing system affects the plastic material business and how SABIC can influence this change in the future automotive development. The car is being used for the daily commute, but during off-peak hours it can be hailed by other users with similar needs (urban travel with one or two persons and some room for storage). The shared character of the car makes that it is going to be used more intensively than a privately owned car and therefore the material requirements are different. I decided upon a car that uses polycarbonate for the greenhouse and different grades of polypropylene compounds for panels and glass fiber reinforced polypropylene for structural parts. Additionally, the car operates in a system where the fleetowner that deploys the cars and brings the car in for service, can repair worn out or damaged parts by replacing them with new components. With plastics this is more convenient than with metal panels and the replaced parts are recycled and brought back into the system as building blocks for newly manufactured parts. The opportunities and challenges of designing with thermoplastics are identified and accounted for in both the design of the interior and the exterior. Places where different parts meet in the exterior design are showing deliberate transitions, masking the thermal expansion of the plastic components and hiding misalignments when parts are replaced over time. Also the potential of the integration of visual sensors needed for autonomous handling in polycarbonate greenhouse parts is highlighted. In the interior the working and relaxing functions are implemented by showing a clear division between the working side and relaxing side of the car.

While touch Interfaces have greatly improved the user friendliness and functional possibilities of devices, haptic feedback has been lacking in user interface design. Good Haptic feedback not only gives confirmation of a key press, but also enriches the user interaction and improves the usability of interfaces.
This absence of haptic feedback is is generally not an issue when the users field of view is oriënted at the touch interface (as is the case with Smartphones and tablets), problems arise when features in the interface have to be controlled blindly, as is the case in automotive applications, where distraction of the driver results in safety risks. In terms of HMI design, the unique properties of Aito’s HapticTouch system has shown it can potentially solve these issues and even could enrich the user experience of automotive interiors. In reality however, when clients integrate Haptic Touch in their products, its application is generally limited to replacing traditional buttons, reducing its competitiveness when compared to other technologies. Broadly speaking, there two problems: The first one is that Aito has no demonstrators that show haptic feedback integrated with innovative UI designs. The second problem is that at this time, Aito has little experience in combining audio-visual cues with Haptic Feedback. This graduation thesis explores the possibilities in designing an affordable demonstrator that showcases the unique selling points of AITO®HapticTouch technology for automotive applications. To provide a sound foundation for the design process, internal- and external company analyses were done to identify the sustainable competitive advantages of Aito, trends and developments in the Automotive industry (until 2030) and companies/technologies that compete with Aito. Based on insights from the analysis, the following Design Vision has been formulated: Future automotive HMI’s should adapt themselves to the personal preferences of the user(s), taking into account the context the car is used in and the state of mind of the user(s) in relation to their physical and digital lives. With this vision, Aito’s Haptic Touch is central in making the UI contextual and personal to the user, while also being used as an additional channel of communication with the user in e.g. automated driving modes. The demonstrator presented in this thesis embodies this design vision: A light-weight structure with a wide range of personalised features, a minimalistic projection mapped GUI design, contextual to the driving situation and controls that communicate with the user through Haptic Feedback. To validate the design, a prototype version of the gear shifter panel was built to evaluate the use of projection mapping and the quality of the stack designs. The initial validation brought to light there is room for improvement in terms of HapticTouch integration. The estimated building costs were higher than the target price, but for a demonstrator of this complexity still acceptable.
If Aito would decide to continue developing this demonstrator, would therefore be to start small with the individual panels before integrating them into a fu a demonstrator on the scale of the one discussed in this thesis.