This project responds to the increasing challenges in Dutch elderly care amid an undeniable ageing demographic. Between now and 2040, the number of individuals aged 80 and over will nearly double, and one in four people will need to work in the healthcare sector to satisfy the increasing demands.

The current system of elderly care is very much solution-focused, where professional caregivers often provide the answers and lead the discussions. Organisations like Surplus, a care and welfare organisation in West Brabant, struggle to continue to meet the expectations of (new) clients and their relatives, placing an additional burden on professional caregivers.

The increasing pressure highlights a need for greater autonomy and shared responsibility in elderly care. The urgent and multifaceted nature of the current challenges calls for a ‘new way’ of caring, with a greater reliance on answers from society. This project envisions a shift towards a caring society that focuses on what is still possible rather than on limitations, aiming for a meaningful life. Where self-reliance is a collective effort, and each individual is truly recognised.

Through a systemic design approach, this project seeks to navigate these challenges by uncovering key personal values in receiving and providing care and mapping out the elderly care system to identify opportunities to intervene. An intervention that incorporates these values is designed to initiate a shift towards the desired direction.

To facilitate this change, I have developed a new approach for Surplus to have value-oriented conversations, to match what we find important in life. Inviting people to think beyond the care question and to look together at what is possible instead of what is no longer possible. Transitioning from a traditional “intake” in home care to “acquaintance”, it introduces the T-Doos (Tijd voor gesprek, Thee voor twee, Langer Thuis: Time for Conversation, Tea for Two, Staying Home Longer) personal preparation package with a conversation box and a conversation framework. This invites the elderly in need of support to think together with their informal carers about what is important to them in daily life, who they are in contact with, what makes them happy and how they look ahead. It sets the stage for meaningful discussions with district nurses to collaboratively explore possibilities. The professional caregiver adopts a coaching role, and a transition is started in mindset and practice within care organisations and among healthcare professionals.

The goal of almost all forms of crime is monetary gain. In serious forms of crime, like drug crime or human trafficking, enormous amounts of money are made. For criminals, this money is not directly usable. Spending it right away in the economy would be too obvious and attract attention from the authorities. Therefore, the dirty money gained by these criminal activities should be laundered first. The true origin of the money is disguised, and a legal source is linked to it. After money laundering the dirty money, the money appears clean and can be spent in the economy. Money laundering is not only a crime in itself but also a secondary offence. It can be seen as a symptom of other criminal activities because the need for laundering money is always a result of criminal activities where much money is made. For this reason, it is crucial to tackle it. The fight against money laundering is essential to fight all other kinds of serious crime effectively. The Public Prosecution Service plays a vital role in tackling money laundering. They are responsible for detecting criminal offences and prosecuting criminals. In this project, the initial goal was to: Map the current money laundering system in the region of Limburg and identify opportunities that support the Public Prosecution Service in the fight against money laundering in the current system. Money laundering is a complex problem. It involves many stakeholders and it is dynamic. In this project, the systematic design approach is used to tackle this complex problem situation. In the systemic design approach, the design thinking and system thinking methods are combined. The project can be separated into two parts. The first part is about researching and identifying the money laundering system. The second part is about developing interventions that fit in this system. To move from insights to interventions, an experiment with different methods is carried out. These methods were: GIGA-mapping, the VIP method, system mapping by using a causal loop diagram, and the reframing method. By reflecting on these methods and developed personal design criteria, an intervention framework was developed. This framework helped develop three new sub design goals, focused on providing understanding, guidance and inspiration for the Public Prosecution Service. These three goals resulted in three systemic interventions. The first intervention is the causal loop diagram, focused on understanding the money laundering system. Second, the action blueprint, consisting of six principles that guide the Public Prosecution Service in taking urgent action. And third, the tangible solution overview shows examples of how the six principles can be developed into tangible ideas. The interventions collaboratively help to increase the sense of urgency regarding money laundering among th Public Prosecution Service. Together they form the Money Laundering Design Manifesto.

In the Netherlands, around 100,000 people become a victim of sexual violence each year, 90% of which are female, and mostly between 12-24 years old. ‘’Sexual violence is a term used for all sexual acts that someone is forced to perform, undergo or see. It may involve sexual assault, rape or sexual abuse.’’ (Centrum Seksueel Geweld, 2019). The consequences on victims’ lives are severe. Victims can experience mental, physical and/or social problems, affecting their daily lives and sometimes lasting a lifetime if left untreated. 98% of the victims don’t look for help due to feelings of shame, fear and guilt (Bicanic, 2018). The aim of this thesis is to propose a design solution to aid with the processing of sexual violence, to specifically design for female victims (between 12-24 years old at the time of the event) of sexual violence in a way that reduces the negative effects on their daily lives. The research phase focused on defining the negative effects and finding opportunity areas, using elements of ViP and systemic design methods. Based on literature and field research, the broad context of support after sexual violence was built. The research included interviewing victims and experts in the field. Insights were gathered in a system map, which visualized all stakeholders and their relations. The problems victims experience were listed and discussed. Themes were identified and formed the basis for a worldview, summarizing the current meaning of sexual violence in the Netherlands. Based on the context research, a vision was formed including a framing statement, an interaction vision and design boundaries. Firstly, the most important stakeholders in the system were defined: the victim herself and her loved ones. The negative effect which needed to be addressed was the deteriorating bond between the victim and her loved ones, due to misunderstanding and ignorance of loved ones around the effects of sexual violence. Following this, the statement goal was to make a loved one feel confident in engaging with the victim by facilitating the sharing of insecurities in a playful way. This vision formed the basis for ideation. Ideation involved a generative session, individual ideation as well as rapidly prototyping ideas. The outcome was a working mechanism ensuring the sharing of insecurities. This mechanism was translated into a design concept, called VORM. VORM is a social game designed to strengthen the bond between a victim of sexual violence and her friend. The goal of VORM is to meet each other in the middle, by building a bridge towards each other. Players can get closer to each other by asking questions about insecurities and sharing their truths. The elements of the game provide the input for the questions and building the bridge. VORM was validated through user testing of the usability, desirability, effectiveness and sustainability of the game. Experts evaluated the target group fit, accessibility and placement in the care process. The conclusion is that VORM facilitates the sharing of insecurities in a playful way, strengthening the bond between players. Experts see a role for VORM in the care process and some participants expressed strong buying interest. Further research is required to map (the size) of the target group and consequent market opportunities.

This report describes the results of a thesis commissioned by Proportion, a global design agency, situated in Amsterdam. Proportion aims to innovate for social impact by applying the human-centred design approach to current problems in society (proportion.global). One of the challenges Proportion wants to tackle is youth unemployment in Kenya. There are two parties connected to this challenge of youth unemployment within this graduation project. Firstly, there is a significant problem of youth unemployment in Kenya. This problem was addressed by Proportion, whereby they want to explore possible interventions against this unemployment. Secondly, social businesses in Kenya aim to create employment. Therefore, this graduation project seeks to redefine the relationship between social businesses and young professionals in Kenya, tackling the problem of youth unemployment. To be able to redefine the relationship between social businesses and young professionals, in-depth context research was required. This context exploration consisted of desk and field research with social entrepreneurs and inspiring youth alike. Additionally, creative sessions with Kenyan youth and social business owners were carried out. The qualitative information was used to identify the challenges of the current situation of youth unemployment. Furthermore, this helped to gain insights into the desired condition for both social businesses and young professionals. This qualitative research resulted in three problem areas of youth unemployment; the challenge of personal identity, the difficulty of what journey to take in life and the gap between theory and practice. These problem areas are linked to three opportunity areas: identifying the capabilities of the youth, creating an open company culture and providing mentorship. These opportunity areas, which were derived from identified problems, created a frame of reference for the future relationship between social businesses and young professionals. This frame of reference initiated secondary literature research on employee engagement. The findings of the theory on employee engagement led to an adapted diagram of the employee performance pyramid (Stum, 2011). Several levels need to be fulfilled to create employee engagement. These are the following in chronological order; rewards, comfort, collaboration, relations and growth. The designed concept needs to incorporate these levels to create a relationship between social enterprises and young professionals where engagement is enhanced. The findings of the research resulted in a strategic framework, in the form of a future vision on the relationship between social businesses and young professionals. It indicates the boundaries of the solution space and future developments. The future vision describes a collaborative working environment, where support and involvement for every individual are essential. Moreover, personal and organisational development is established by creating independent goals and future expectations for the company and youth alike. The final creative capacity-building concept (CCB-concept), is a solution within this framework. It supports social businesses in their employees’ journey, specifically in the onboarding process of young professionals. The CCB-concept bridges the gap between social enterprises and young professionals in Kenya by identifying the skills and goals of the employees and translating them into personal performance journeys. The proposed concept comprises three steps: an experience workshop, a reflective moment, and a group reflection and planning. It relies on a cycle of action, reflection and planning (Kolb, 1984). Through collaboration and creative capacity-building, the CCB-concept aims for better personal and organisational development. In this way, it enhances the relationship between social businesses and young professionals in Kenya. It is recommended to do a pilot test of the proposed concept in Kenya to evaluate the feasibility, viability and desirability. Furthermore, it is suggested to explore the several service packages. Lastly, a partner able to financially fund the project for early implementation is recommended.

The domain of Sustainable Development innovation is facing a significant transformation. Several trends, social, political, economical forces and players are concurring in the rise the concept of impact on sustainable development challenges. That is being introduces in the strategies of big and small enterprises, at different degrees, varying from innovations along the value chain to small adaptive tactics keeping the pace with the latest governmental regulation in matters of emissions reductions, workforce welfare etc.
Moreover, a growing number of emerging startups already include sustainable development challenges in their DNA as a main mission -often called Impact Startups. However, being hybrids with ambitious impact change goals and financial sustainability needs, they often struggle to survive and develop models of impact. In this context, BMI Lab is a consultancy supporting organisations with business model innovation. The current process does not account for ‘impact drivers’ in the equation for business model generation, therefore does not have the capabilities to support impact startups, and will need to evolve to do so. The project arouse from the knowledge gap of including Sustainable Development Impact as an additional driver in business model generation.
The aim is to provide a strategic design angle to complement the Business Model Design Sprint, based on an explorative approach over the impact factors and challenges in achieving impact models. First, the concept of impact model is defined, then based on field immersion, impact entrepreneurs and experts stories and interviews, and academic sources, the research identifies a set of critical activities that could positively influence the development of impact models. Those have been embedded in a toolkit. The toolkit takes place in the first day of a BMI Lab BM generation Sprint and aims at guiding through the identification of new opportunities that align SD goals and viability. It consist of four main stages focusing on the value exchanged with the ecosystem of intervention.