Performance-driven generative design has been commonly used in engineering applications. In addition to performance metrics, aesthetics play an important role in the acceptance of generatively designed forms. When generating these shapes using generative programs, it is not clear in advance what the outcome will be, and thereby what they will look like. However, the appearance of these shapes can currently almost always be described as quite novel and organic. This affects the acceptance of these shapes and the number of iterations or post-processing needed to end up with a shape that is aesthetically acceptable.

This graduation project aims at exploring, identifying and validating aspects of 3D generated designs that contribute to a more aesthetic appearance in order to increase aesthetic acceptance and move towards intentional aesthetics in 3D generative design.

A review of existing literature was done on the history of aesthetics, aesthetics in product design and aesthetics in generative design. This resulted in useful insights in aesthetic principles. These existing principles were then reviewed in relation to 3D generative designed forms. Through that analysis, hypotheses were synthesised on how the aesthetic appeal of these shapes could be increased.

A first user study was conducted to test these hypotheses and to gain valuable insights into what aspects of a 3D form are important for aesthetic appreciation. For this study, many 3D generated designs were created across different product groups. The products were placed in a virtual environment in order for the participants to view them in true 3D through a virtual reality headset. Via an open discussion with the participants during the viewing of the different designs, valuable insights were gathered on aspects that positively or negatively contributes to the aesthetic appreciation of these forms.

These insights resulted in guidelines to increase aesthetic appreciation for 3D generated designs. A second, quantitative user study was then set up to validate the desired effect of the new guidelines. Twenty new designs were created and selected to be put in pairs containing designs that did and did not display features from the new guidelines. Through an online survey, these pairs were judged by 90 respondents on the desired effects, resulting in an extensive data set. Data analysis was conducted, and Pearson correlations showed a positive effect between the effects from the guidelines and the aesthetic appreciation of the generated forms.

These guidelines can therefore be used as actionable recommendations for designers, engineers and architects seeking to optimize both the structural and aesthetic qualities of generatively designed product.

This research-by-design project provides designers with new strategies to design for sustained well-being.Positive activities have been proposed as the most promising starting point to improve well-being (Wiese et al., 2020). Currently, 14 activities have been identified (Lyubomirsky, 2007; Wiese et al., 2019). Avoiding overthinking and learning to forgive were chosen to design for in this project, as few existing products meaningfully support people in engaging in these activities. The Vision in Design approach (Hekkert & van Dijk, 2011) was applied to construct future world views of both activities, in order to create meaningful design goals. Two design strategies were developed for both activities and evaluated by PhD candidates and a design practitioner. This concluded that the strategies meet most of the requirements of a strategy (Wiese et. al., 2020), and could support designers. Recommendations to improve the strategies were composed and presented in the report. The conducted research and developed strategies contributed to existing knowledge by showing how designers can promote sustained well-being on an activity level. Further research should be conducted with more designers to evaluate the strategies’ usefulness in practice more extensively.

This master thesis report is a deliverable of a six months long graduation project at the master specific track Design for Interaction, at TU Delft. The primary domain researched in this project is the domain of sexual exploration. Initially, the research started by exploring the uneasiness of sexual exploration. Firstly, the aim was to understand what sexual exploration is and how people sexually explore in the current world. A combination of different DFI specific methods was used. In the first phase, the ViP method was used to understand the context of the domain, the influencing factors, and to, later on, create a coherent story. Underlying mechanisms of human sexuality and additional topics were necessary to understand in this phase as well, on which later design criteria were developed. The project was done with an external client, Ink - a design studio based in Amsterdam, whose previous research in the domain was resourceful as well. Besides the mentioned methods, a continuous process of user interviews, creative sessions and discussions were held as well. The chosen method provided valuable knowledge and necessary factors in order to create an overview of the current world in the context of the researched domain. Moreover, it supported the additional conclusions of how to approach the found issue and what is required for future world creation. Following the methodological steps in this research, three design iteration cycles were performed as well. Each design concept in those cycles focused on different aspects of uneasy sexual exploration. After their detailed evaluation, the created concepts served as a learning moment to better understand what exactly the final concept should be. After marking down the potential directions and evaluating design opportunities, it was decided the focus of the final concept should be on sexual scripts - societally created guidelines on sexual behaviour and their influence on people’s sexual exploration. Based on the findings and evaluation, a suitable vision statement was proposed as an essential part of the ViP method - encouraging people to be freer in their sexual exploration, by showing them the ridiculousness of sexual scripts. The mechanism and the intended effect of the statement were tested on several occasions, based on which final concept was then created. This thesis, therefore, aims to propose a suitable design solution in the domain of sexual exploration. Specifically, the focus of the created concept is on the people who currently feel limited by the sexual scripts they encounter and require additional support in sexually exploring beyond them. The final concept of this research project is an Instagram profile which aims to raise awareness of sexual scripts in the society by ridiculing them, in order to support people to be freer in their sexual exploration. By using a combination of satirical illustrations and text, the profile serves as a type of an online catalogue of sexual scripts where users have a clear overview, but also as a safe space where alternative ideas can be found. The name of this concept and consequently, the Instagram profile, is The Script Bible, where additional ridicule is present as well, to mock how blindly people sometimes follow mentioned sexual scripts. The final concept was validated with five potential users, which were selected based on the intended target group - people who sometimes experience a limitation in their sex lives caused by sexual scripts. Furthermore, the validation of the concept focused on a few parts - the directness and understanding, confrontation with personal attitudes, the overall moment of first interaction and the visual language of the concept. Additionally, a comparison with the created product qualities was also validated. Illustrations were tested separately and then with the overall Instagram profile as well. In conclusion, while this concept only focuses on the first layer of defeating the sexual scripts - the awareness, the validation and reflection both indicate the chosen direction is a suitable one. Moreover, the created concept shows the chosen mechanism is also fitting for this approach and can result in a more open discussion about sexual exploration, breaking the uncomfortableness of the topic and spark further interest in the topic itself.

The goal of this project is to find a way to get people to consume less, by changing what they do to improve their subjective well-being. It was found that the main issue that needed tackling is the fact that, currently, people are addicted to consumption - they depend on consumption for their happiness. The best way to remedy this would be to teach them how to make themselves happy; this can be done by getting them to derive their happiness from Eudaimonia. Eudaimonia can be defined as happiness or contentment derived from your life and the things that you do having meaning, and from good relationships with people you care about. Design intervention testing was used to explore how people would best be taught how to make themselves happy. After some initial explorations of the subject matter, three more effective designs were developed to be tested more thoroughly. Fifteen people tested the designs; they were interviewed before and after using the design to see if any changes occurred. The interviews tried to establish if the designs had any influence on what people’s life goals were, on whether the actions they took were in line with eudaimonia, and on if they would buy items that they did not need for these eudaimonic actions. This testing process yielded three main design principles. In order to help people get better at making themselves happy, a design should:
● Help you reflect on which eudaimonic activities they already partake in
● Get you to connect these actions to the items necessary for them
● Urge you to avoid non-eudaimonic actions and items
Aside from these three principles, some insights on how to best implement each of the principles were found as well. To illustrate how these principles and insights are best put to use, some design examples were developed. Firstly, a time capsule was designed which people can put items they are not sure they need into; during the month that the items are locked away in the capsule, it gets people to reflect upon whether they need the items. Afterwards, people are urged to give away any of the unneeded items. This helps people gain an understanding of what they do and do not need. Aside from this, redesigns to eBay, Bol.com and Climate Activist websites were developed to give some examples of how the findings could be used by other designers.

The mobility industry is facing a disruptive transformation. A large number of social, economic and technological trends are shaping the way we will move in the future. In this fast-changing environment, mytaxi becomes FREE NOW due to the joint venture in 2019 between its mother company Daimler together with BMW. While joining forces to become a stronger mobility player, FREE NOW’s product portfolio is undergoing a major change. Moving from offering only taxi rides to becoming a multi-modal mobility provider. This holistic approach to mobility brings lots of new challenges for the company.

This project is born from the knowledge gap identified within the company, regarding the city dweller’s behaviours and attitudes. With an open and explorative approach, this project focuses on providing the company with a human-centred upgrade to mobility.

Based on a user and trend research, this project identifies how the essence of mobility – of covering a physical distance – will evolve towards a multi-purpose-driven activity: shifting from a compromising experience towards a fulfilling experience.

The project, ’When the journey becomes the destination’, identifies four mindsets that describe the interactions city dwellers will have while travelling in the future context. For FREE NOW, the identified potential is to enable people to act according to their state of mind and facilitating them to recognise the mindset they are at that moment. This will allow providing a fulfilling service experience by matching them with the right mobility service.

This mindset-based approach proposed aims to help FREE NOW rethink and create multi-modal mobility solutions. While leaving apart the purely functional connotations of mobility, the designed mindsets focus on the meaningful nuances of mobility. From the service experience resulting from the human interactions with the space, four design directions are created to stimulate the designers from FREE NOW to question the status quo, as well as the future context.

The problem of linear resource flow is addressed, in this thesis, parallel to the problem of human behaviour with respect to resource use. There is sufficient research being done with the aim of reducing the environmental impact of urban water systems, but not enough to reduce resistance towards such ideas. This resistance is a result of growing comfort and convenience in the developed world which most societies are motivated towards. The objective of this thesis is to define technical and behavioural strategies for water circularity in urban residential neighbourhoods. It addresses both parts of the problem statement, that is, the system of linear resource use and the role of users in the system. Results of research are incorporated into a digital tool that takes context-related inputs and provides options for circular water and pro-environmental behaviour strategies to incorporate in the design of a residential neighbourhood.

This MSc Design for Interaction graduation project aims to explore how design may enhance policymaking. In light of this, an extensive study was conducted at the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science. This study entailed an ethnographic study of nine months during which six policymaking cases were studied as well as a four month experimental study was conducted. The six policymaking cases served to identify an opportunity to enhance policymaking with design, whereas the experimental study served to further investigate this opportunity. Based on these endeavours, and in light of the identified opportunity a design intervention was developed and evaluated.
The six policymaking cases were studied from the perspective of balancing exploration and exploitation through methodological congruence; policymaking practices need to appropriately balance between utilizing existing knowledge and means - exploitation - and generating new knowledge and means - exploration - according to the determinacy of the problem at hand. However, it was found that policymaking predominantly possesses exploitative traits and, more specifically, is remarkably non-experimental. As such, it was argued that current policymaking practices may best be enhanced with experimentation throughout the policymaking process. In light of this, it was found that the systematic, deliberate way designers experiment may be helpful in policymaking as well. As opposed to policymaking, in which an experiment is typically the final piece of the problemsolving process, in design, several ‘safe to fail’ experiments serve as points of departure, initiating a progressive iterative process of working towards a solution. As such, it was found worthwhile to find a way to apply this particular way of experimenting in policymaking as well. However, this particular way of experimenting does necessitate a particular disposition that is not found in policymaking in which ideas are nipped in the bud, taking decisions is postponed, intended solutions and measures are kept abstract, there is hardly any room for intuition and making mistakes, and learning and having to change course are seen as politically risky. Hence, it was argued that the context and dynamics required for this way of experimenting may only be found outside of the political system; ‘safe to fail’ experiments may be conducted most effectively and efficiently by policy implementers themselves - that are given sufficient discretion - rather than policymakers. In order to see how this can be done, the abovementioned experimental study was conducted. This study clearly showed that these ‘safe to fail’ experiments cannot simply be delegated; it requires taking into account the commitment, capacity and capability of policy implementers to conduct ‘safe to fail’ experiments and responding accordingly.
In order to enable policymakers to do so, guidelines were developed and tested. Although the guidelines do not directly help in making policies in a more experimental manner, they do help minimize the risk associated with experiments, increase the chances of successful execution and contribute to the process of having policy implementers conduct ‘safe to fail’ experiments As such, they may help smooth the way towards making policies in a more experimental manner.