We all want to keep balance in our lives, however, we don’t live statically, changes in our daily environments are inevitable and the need to know how to restore balance when faced with external stimuli is a lifetime effort.

The long-term effects of stress, both physical and psychological, are of increasing concern with some even arguing that they constitute a health crisis. People often rely on their set of abilities and experience to solve this crisis, even so, there are many existing stress management techniques designed and tested to efficiently solve the most common sources of stress.

But if effective stress management solutions exist, why do we find more people with anxiety, depression, and other health conditions which are known to be associated with prolonged periods of stress?.

An intervention is proposed within this project, utilizing design methodologies and Self-Experimentation, that helps people enhance their stress abilities and Coping Behavior for their particular needs and life situations.

In our everyday activities, trackers and IoT devices are recording an increasing amount of data in the wild. It is believed that incorporating these data will contribute to more inclusive products and services as well as stimulate designers' creativity. As a result of the General Data Protection Regulation, users can now access their data and take the control of its usage. Under such circumstances, one can freely donate personal data for research purposes. Moreover, users have the opportunity to utilize their data more efficiently and to be aware of the importance of their privacy.
This project is about exploring how an effective public data visualization could be designed to encourage more people to donate personal data at the very beginning of the data collection process, with a limit on the amount of data that may be manipulated. Students who are not experts in data visualization are the target audience. And the brightspace platform is chosen since it is the simplest and most convenient way for students to receive faculty notifications. As data visualization outcomes and people's willingness to donate data vary depending on the type of data, according to the research insights, this project focuses exclusively on public photo visualizations. A series of two design iterations was conducted in order to leverage the intrinsic motivation of students to donate photos of their home working environment to be used for research purposes. This project explores motivation from the perspective of self-determination theory, and proposes criteria and design directions for designing photo visualizations for behavior change purpose.
In this study, the author identified five fundamental needs, including autonomy, competence, connectedness, purpose, and stimulation in order to evaluate data visualization's effects on the intimate data donation experience. Autonomy: Donors should feel free to choose the type of photos they want to donate. Their photos can also be used to express themselves creatively. Competence: Users should feel their photos are needed for the visualization. Relatedness: Users could feel connected with the visualization platform as they explored or interacted with it. Additionally, they believe they could build relationships by donating photos. Purpose: Users believe that donating their photos is meaningful to themselves or to researchers who require them. Stimulation: The way to ask for their donation is novel. And the entire experience with this visualization platform is enjoyable and interesting.
Through the study of three types of photo visualization, it was discovered that whether the visualization is explanation dominant or exploration dominant has an impact on users' willingness and results in varying types of photo donations. Further, design directions for effective self-determined public photo visualization in terms of information, function, and visual form were synthesized as a starting point for more future data visualization projects to motivate autonomous data donation behavior.

Loneliness is a large and growing problem among adolescents. Body image has a strong relationship with loneliness, especially among young people. Therefore, a promising way to increase social wellbeing among this group is by increasing body satisfaction. This report presents various aspects that should be taken into account when designing an intervention for this topic and demographic. Several designs are suggested, one of which is made into a prototype and validated. 
Cognitive models theorise loneliness as a consequence of bad coping behaviours for body dissatisfaction, among other things. Body dissatisfaction often results from internalising dominant cultural beliefs about appearance. An example of a dominant belief is that having a fit body can be interpreted as an achievement of discipline and perseverance that an individual has worked hard for. The reverse then also rings true: unfit people are lazier, less disciplined and more likely to give up. Many of these beliefs are so common that they seem unchangeable. However, history shows us that appearance ideals have changed dramatically in the past and that they result from the intricate way society is organised and how it develops within a period.
Changing these beliefs is difficult and slow, but a good place to start is by realising there is often more nuance and variety in beliefs about being healthy and fit than we assume. While one person values a low-fat sixpack for the hard work that goes into it, another values the freedom a healthy and able body provides. It seems these behaviours and beliefs are closely related to expressing identity and feeling connected with others. This leads us to the question: Are there no other, more socially healthy ways to create this connection? 
The intervention this report proposes offers a fun and light-hearted reason for adolescents to discuss their aspirations and the influence of dominant cultural beliefs and discover that there are more differences between people’s personal motivations and aspirations than they may know.

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a serious hereditary muscle disease that almost only occurs in boys and men and causes the muscles to become weaker over time. Given scientific research thus far, they are encouraged to obtain and maintain an active lifestyle. This may help delay the symptoms of the disease and help preserve their upper and lower extremity functionalities for a longer period.

Yumen Bionics, a Medtech startup, has developed a passive (motorless) exoskeleton that supports the males’ arm movements and collects data regarding the exact positions of both arms over time. As the exoskeleton is designed to especially benefit males aged 12-18, they will be considered as the target user group for this project. Since the exoskeleton has embedded sensors, Yumen Bionics yearned to investigate how they can give feedback to users and what type of feedback would motivate them to keep moving.

This project aimed to apply Research through Design and co-creative approaches in order to explore ways in which a motivating data interaction scenario can be designed. These approaches foster iterative prototyping efforts and involve potential end-users in the design process. Throughout the entirety of the project, the Self-Determination Theory (SDT), a theory of human motivation, was used as inspiration during design development and as an evaluation tool.

Since little was known about a males’ true motivations and behaviors behind interactions with healthcare services, the first phase of the project included a thorough user research cycle. One of the most prominent findings was that there is a disconnect between a male’s extrinsic and intrinsic motivations towards movements that are necessary for their health and wellbeing. It was hypothesized that Serious Games (digital games that can help facilitate physical activity) and/or Digital Twins (a digital representation of the user’s health status in real-time) may be an appropriate way of visualizing the data. The second phase focused on iteratively prototyping and testing these visualizations. This helped gain knowledge regarding users’ motivations and on design functionality, aesthetics, and practicalities.

Given gathered insights, the last phase in the project aimed to bridge all the learnings and design a mobile application that can be seen as a valuable addition to the exoskeleton. This app, also known as “Exo-Pal”, provides meaningful feedback to the user regarding their everyday movement and is perceived to motivate them to move an optimal amount. Through the use of daily goals (moving thirty minutes per day), reward systems (receiving daily and ‘special’ badges), evolving visualization content and storylines, and Digital Twin technology (that takes the form of a ‘Pal’), it can be predicted that these main features can help maintain a user’s interest in using the product. All in all, Exo-Pal may help encourage males with DMD to reflect on their progress (or lack thereof), allow them to be more proactive about their health and well-being, and increase their feelings of autonomy.

The energy grid is transitioning from a centrally controlled demand response system to a decentralized supply response system. There are multiple reasons for this, but the main one is the need to transition to a low carbon energy system to tackle climate change and decrease our dependency on non-renewable energy sources. Next to this consumers become active consumers (prosumers) and increasingly take control over their local (energy) situation. As a result this transition creates a multitude of challenges and demands a re-design of the energy system. Stedin, the Netherlands 3rd largest Distribution System Operator (DSO), set out to find a solution to the challenges posed by the energy transition. The concept they came up with was a design for a Layered Energy System (LES). By running two pilots LES is fully developed and almost ready to be made available for the larger public in the form of a re-branding of LES to Lokaal Energy Flexibel (LEF). However, how LEF should be made available remains unknown. So in order for LEF to be launched to a larger public a new service needs to be designed. A service that sets out to communicate the information which is needed to start your own Local Energy Community (LEC) and collaboratively with Stedin and a service provider of choice set up a LEC. Designing this service is the task set out to solve in this project. One other task is determining what the role of Stedin should be in this process of setting up a LEC. The dilemma is Stedin wants to facilitate LECs and the market but on the other hand should not in turn take over responsibilities of the market. The methodology used to solve the aforementioned problem is service design. A concept service design is made that sets out to help communities explore how to set up a LEC. The design is centered around a community dashboard that shows the current energy situation within a community. All the data found in this dashboard can then also be used in a community configurator to create an ideal design for the local situation and community vision. This design is then communicated to Stedin in the form of a project sketch. Stedin can give feedback or a ‘go’ on the project sketch. This ends the explore phase, after which a LEC can turn to the market for materializing the design. The concept service is communicated with a future service scenario and a service blueprint. Out of this service blueprint the LEF landing page and the community configurator are prototyped and tested with potential users. After testing the solution and direction proved to be in the right direction. However a ‘dumb’ configurator as tested was found challenging for the typical community leader. This result vouches for a more data driven and automated configurator as proposed in the future service scenario. The thesis is concluded with a roadmap for implementation and advice on how to create an MVP as the first step towards implementing the service design.

Inspiration for this project are the climate strikes world-wide, in which students strike for climate justice. The children participating in these strikes indicate that they do not feel heard. While striking is relevant to communicate their opinions, change can also be initiated by changing the perspective of for example parents/guardians. This led to the initial design brief to ‘help minors of the age 12 to 14 to take agency in developing strategies to decrease environmental impact in their home environment’. The first phase of the project was the research phase. Agency in sustainability consists of a combination of the readiness to change behaviour and the feeling of self-efficacy one has. One does not only have to believe in their own ability to become more sustainable, but also must believe that those efforts make a difference. The research showed that an additional motivation to be more sustainable (saving money, being healthier) was the reason people stayed motivated in their efforts to be more sustainable. This study provided an overview of factors that influence the self-efficacy and the readiness to change their behaviour, which together determine whether there is the possibility to take agency over a situation. A lack of intrinsic motivation and existing beliefs regarding sustainable habits or the value of current habits limit the readiness to change behaviour. A lack of information or highly complex information, a lack of constructive reflection, and unclear intention setting limit a feeling of self-efficacy. The following design goal was formulated: I want children of the age 12 to 14 to feel an appreciation for food when deciding what to eat together with their parents. My goal is not only to help them eat more sustainably, but also to help the family reflect on the value of current food habits in open. I determined the following desired characteristics: surprising, appreciative, connecting and in control. Food for Thought helps families to pick meals based on what their limitations or values are on certain days of the week instead of what type of meals they want to eat. This responds to the limitation of not making concrete plans to realize intentions. It is a card set with a mobile application. The cards have on one side different categories of values, ('quick', or 'a treat'), On the back of the cards there are recipes that fit with the value they chose. Giving the family a sustainable meal idea ensures they have all the information necessary to prepare a sustainable meal, thus making it easier for them to fulfil their sustainability goal. In this way the design bridges between intention setting and self-reactiveness and helps them discuss sustainability with the family. This method of bridging between intention setting and self-reactiveness was useful to let the families look at their food habits differently and proved to be both educative and easy to implement. Using values to provide users with a fitting approach to behavioural change could be used in other situations where a change of behaviour is fitting.

This project deals with the creation of mechanisms for self-assessment in work-from-home (WFH) environments to enhance people's satisfaction. The core of the project lies in increasing WFH satisfaction by incorporating self-experimenting into work and family activities. This relies on the determinants of satisfaction and how homeworkers relate to personal satisfaction during these days of forced working-from-home. Based on the challenges of work-from-home satisfaction, the project explains the idea of a shift ritual, and how a design intervention can enable, stimulate, guide, and support homeworkers to use the ritual to achieve satisfaction. This concept is facilitated using a physical design for day to day use in the home-work environments, thereby providing homeworkers the option to easily switch between work and private activities and also feel accomplished for their daily tasks.

The aim of this graduation project is to increase physical exercise of employees with low socio economic status (SES) by engaging them in a health intervention. Individuals with low SES often negatively influence their health by having an unhealthy lifestyle. This lifestyle causes the individual problems and non-communicable diseases (NCD), which causes a shorter life expectancy and being ill makes it harder to participate in work activity. The client for this project is DZB Leiden, a re-integration company of the municipality of Leiden. DZB is there for everyone who wants to work but has difficulty keeping up with the current work practice. The people turning to DZB often experience a work disability and have a low socio-economic status. DZB also recognizes an unhealthy lifestyle among their employees. A healthier life will contribute to the well-being of the employee and will decrease employee absenteeism. Thus, not only looking from an employment perspective, but considering improvement of quality of life of their employees, DZB is determined to give a contribution to their employees’ health. To increase the physical activity of the employees, a persuasive game was designed to be played at DZB. Persuasive game design is a tool to motivate people to perform certain behaviours in a game experienced world, which can be beneficial to them in the real world. The physical activity experienced during the game can motivate people to perform the desired behaviour in the real life. In order to design a game based health intervention that will be accepted by the employees, an extensive field study was conducted. By taking a human-centered approach and co-designing with the employees a deeper understanding of the target group was created, including their view on health, motivations, barriers and needs. The findings from the field study were translated to 10 points of attention to be considered for creating the health intervention. Also, a framework for design was developed, including three motivational elements: humour, fellowship and discovery. By applying the 10 attention points and design framework, the final game ‘Sailors in Motion’ was developed. Sailors in Motion is a game where boats are hidden and searched for throughout the building of DZB in a scavenger hunt with treasure maps. Making and following these maps stimulates the player to walk around at DZB. The game is all about discovering new places in the building, which is done together with colleagues. Additionally, the game includes joyful elements. During the journey, health messages can be found, meant to educate the player about the benefits of physical activity. Finally the game was evaluated with the employees. The aim of this evaluation was to figure out whether the game stimulated to walk and triggered to increase physical activity in the employees’ daily life. The evaluation showed that the game does put people in motion and creates a immersive experience for the player. However, since the game was evaluated in a short time, the effect of the game on someone’s health awareness was difficult to measure. It is recommended to play the game more often and spread the activities over multiple weeks to provoke behaviour change. Also, the game could be part of a larger health program where employees set goals and get support to reach them. The game serves as a starting point where people can easily engage in to experience the benefits of physical activity on their mood and body. This experience can motivate them with setting personal health goals and eventually changing their behaviour. The deliverable of this project is not only the tangible game, but also a variety of insights about the employees of DZB. The company could use the framework for design as well as the 10 point of attention during future development of health related initiatives at DZB.

This project presents the design process of an innovative eHealth solution targeted to improve medication adherence for asthma patients with low health literacy. The symptoms of asthma, such as shortness of breath, can lead to a severe reduction in the quality of life. To reduce the severity of these symptoms, it is important that a patient is adherent to their medication. However, people with a low health literacy experience certain barriers, such as lack of capabilities to understand and limited awareness about the effect of the medication. These barriers result in poor medication adherence. The Turbuscope is an intervention that aims at improving the awareness about the effect of the maintenance medication. The awareness is created by providing a reflective self-monitoring experience in which data is interpreted about the adherence and the asthma state. The end product is a finalized concept that embodies design guidelines and recommendations for future designs within the field of improving medication adherence for asthma patients with low health literacy.

The aim of this master thesis is to create a product that can increase awareness about the influence of air quality and noise on well-being. About 6% of the total burden of disease can be accounted to influences of the natural environment on well-being. Part of the problem is the unawareness of people about these influences. In order to improve well-being, people first have to reflect on the current situation and therefore become aware. Therefore, the goal of the product is to increase awareness and give people the knowledge to make different or better decisions. Studio Überdutch for who the project was conducted saw potential in measuring, interpreting, processing and adjusting the quality of the living environment. As a result, this project was initiated.
It was found that the variables that have most impact on human health are air pollution and noise. Based on the outcomes of the influence of the different variables, a look was taken at the influence of stress on well-being. Being able to cope with environmental stressors can only be done when being aware of the interpretation of the stressor. This led to the need to measure the subjective experience of these variables as well. It was decided to measure air pollution and noise for the rest of the project, both objectively and subjectively. During the project scope phase, a concept direction was chosen, being a product connected inside and outside the home environment to measure air quality and noise and comparing the outcomes. This means the products will consist of two parts, Part A for indoor and Part B for outdoor. The final concept consists of two parts attached on opposite sides of the window. Feedback will be given by indicators in a transparent ring and input will be collected by touch. This concept was validated by a user test. From the user test it was concluded that the product can increase awareness on the level of air quality and noise, but that the experienced need for providing input is missing.