My master thesis, in collaboration with Siemens, focuses on improving the user interface (UI) of their Remote Control Operation System (RCOS) for crane operations. The vision for RCOS is to maximize production while ensuring secure and safe crane operations. Siemens aims to achieve more consistent crane usage, which will help extend the equipment’s lifespan and minimize damage. However, the current UI lacks user friendliness. This thesis explores ways to enhance the UI's user friendliness, thereby optimizing the concentration levels of the operators.

This study develops a roadmap to guide the integration of robotic technologies into Dutch agriculture in a responsible manner that benefits farmers and the environment.
The Dutch agricultural sector faces challenges from climate change, labor shortages, and sustainability pressures. Robotics shows promise in addressing these issues through applications like precision farming and reducing physical demands. However, widespread adoption of these technologies has been limited due to barriers like high costs, reliability concerns, lack of awareness among farmers, and uncertainty. A more strategic and coordinated approach is needed to responsibly introduce robotics into Dutch agriculture in a way that benefits all stakeholders over the long run.
An extensive literature review explored technology trends, agricultural challenges, and stakeholder perspectives. Insights informed the creation of a future vision and three-horizon roadmap using a strategic planning process combined with speculative design techniques. Validation gathered feedback from industry experts.
The roadmap envisions autonomous agriculture empowering resilient food systems through three horizons of Raising Awareness, Community Building, and Fostering Wellbeing, towards the future vision:
The future of agriculture is an automated and sustainable system which enables farmers to sustain the longevity and resilience of their farming business.
By providing structured guidance, the roadmap aims to help stakeholders overcome adoption barriers and establish the Netherlands as a leader in sustainable and resilient farming. If adopted systematically, the roadmap could transform Dutch agriculture globally through robotics.

How to enhance communication between people is always an interesting topic in the design area. After going through the research, the author set the specific context for online counselling due to the increasing demand for online counselling during the COVID-19 pandemic. The online format limits a lot of non-verbal information like body language, vocal tones, facial expressions, and posture (Keynan et al.) that is only available in face-to-face communication. This limitation is critical as counselling clients have broad expectations for assistance in various life aspects (emotional, social, vocational, educational, and physical) (American Psychological Association, 2008) and the effectiveness of counselling hinges on the relationship and trust between the counsellor and the client, making effective communication especially vital in the online counselling environment. The current online counselling service providers were studied to understand how people access relevant services. After conducting interviews with clients and counsellors experienced in both online and in-person counselling, it became evident that there were notable differences in the counselling process phases: before, during, and after the session. The during-session and after-session phases were selected for focused attention since the during-session is vital for communication between the parties and the client requires a mental shift to effectively transition from this phase after the counselling. Following the creative sessions and initial testing, the design vision was established: enhancing interactivity and connection in online counselling by augmenting sensory perception between the client and the counsellor. A system for monitoring and generating content assisted by artificial intelligence was conceptualised. The system could monitor the client's emotion and convey it to the counsellor, use the generated content to improve review and reflect activity, and help them better foster interaction and connection between the involved parties. The envisioned system aims to: 1. Enhance the client's perception of self-emotions and counsellor's engagement 2. Deepen the counsellor's understanding of the client's emotions, reduce their workload and improve engagement 3. Provide effective session reflection for the client, a unique advantage of the online system. The feasibility and limitations were analysed in terms of the emotion recognition technology and ethical issues. This concept could be integrated with current online video platforms or online counselling service websites and the design of this work could provide valuable insights and opportunities to enhance the entire online counselling process and potentially extend its benefits to other online communication environments.

Unfortunately, accidents and emergencies happen every day. Today, emergency services only rely on auditory information from the caller; to dispatch the right tools and instruct the caller. Imagine if the dispatcher gets extra visual information and sensors to their disposal. Or that the caller receives immersive, self-evident instructions right in front of their eyes. So they can provide aid without taking their hands or their attention away from the emergency. That is all possible with EVU. EVU, Emergency Vision Unit is a mixed reality helmet to professionally deal with critical emergency calls while the first responders are on their way. EVU provides visualisation of instructions in real-time to the caller during an emergency and gives the dispatcher real-time visual information to assist.

Female sexuality remains a taboo in our modern society. Women feel shame and social pressure when vocalising their sexual needs and are judged when they express themselves too freely sexually. As our societal view is influenced by the visual design of products and the underlying message they uphold, appropriate visual design can positively influence the public attitude towards female sexual pleasure. Currently, in products and services for female sexual pleasure and sexual wellbeing, there is a persistent attempt to distance sexual products from the representation of sex as ‘dirty’. Sexual expressions are submerged in a posh/designer style, a feminine/innocent look or a clinical appearance. Thereby, an opportunity is missed to visually communicate female sexual pleasure to the consumer and to normalise the subject. When female sexual pleasure is visualised, it lacks a sense of nuance, diversity and inclusiveness. This results in a lack of resonance between product and consumer and creates a unilateral perception of female sexual pleasure. This thesis investigates how women would visually express their personal feelings of sexual pleasure. We propose a new visual language that portrays a variety of personal visual expressions of female sexual pleasure. This visual language is developed into a visual guide, ‘The Pleasure Gallery’, which inspires and guides graphic and product designers through the design process of visually communicating a realistic message from the perspective of women regarding their sexual pleasure. The Pleasure Gallery provides the user with visual stimuli that evoke a new way of looking and thereby create a ‘change in perception’ in the current visual communication design. When The Pleasure Gallery is spread among brands in the field of products for female sexual pleasure and sexual wellbeing, the aim is to trigger a discussion concerning the current visual communication design, leading to innovative designs that communicate a message that enhances female sexual pleasure. When designers start to work from the perspective of women regarding their sexual pleasure, firstly the sense of relatedness and attraction between product and consumer will be increased. Secondly, if female sexual pleasure is more frequently and positively portrayed, women will be positively addressed on their feelings of sexual pleasure and society as a whole will obtain a more open and inclusive view on female sexual pleasure. Eventually, this will contribute to the normalisation of female sexual pleasure and thereby create more freedom for women to express themselves sexually.

Het huidige systeem rondom schulden biedt weinig ruimte voor een menselijke aanpak en dus voor het aansluiten op de behoeften van het individu. Dit heeft een slecht mentaal functioneren door stress als gevolg. Daarnaast zorgt het ervoor dat je gedrag meer aangestuurd wordt door emotie, wat kan leiden tot een grote stapel ongeopende enveloppen en het verzwijgen van schulden. Door beide redenen hebben veel mensen met schulden het gevoel dat ze niet meer deel kunnen nemen aan de maatschappij. In sommige gevallen leidt dit tot sociale isolatie en depressie. Dit alles wijst naar het taboe dat bestaat rondom schulden, wat ervoor zorgt dat veel schulden onzichtbaar blijven voor bijna iedereen. Het doel van dit project is daarom het ondersteunen van mensen met schulden bij het doorbreken van het taboe, door hun persoonlijke behoeften te beantwoorden. Waardoor uiteindelijk al deze negatieve consequenties kunnen afnemen. In het onderzoek heeft de persoon met schulden telkens centraal gestaan. Het onderzoek heeft zich gefocust op de wijk het Oude Noorden in Rotterdam, omdat 21% (Idem, 2016) van de huishoudens in deze wijk problematische schulden heeft. Daarnaast is de wijk aan het gentrificeren, wat een diversiteit in cultuur en inkomen als gevolg heeft. Daarom moet men behoedzaam zijn voor de verdringing van oorspronkelijke bewoners of conflicten tussen beide groepen. Uit dit onderzoek blijkt dat mensen met schulden het gevoel hebben geen erkenning te krijgen voor hun problemen en bestaan als persoon, bijvoorbeeld van hulpverleners, kennissen of buurtgenoten. Ook moeten zij vaak al hun autonomie uit handen geven wanneer ze hulp krijgen, hoewel het over belangrijke beslissingen gaat. Daarnaast verliest iemand het vertrouwen op zijn kunnen en is er tijdens het oplossen van schulden vaak weinig mogelijkheid tot het ontwikkelen van nieuwe competenties. Daarnaast blijkt dat er een mentaliteitsverandering nodig is, om ervoor te zorgen dat het taboe doorbroken kan worden. Daarom focust dit project zich op het teweegbrengen van een mentaliteitsverandering bij buurtgenoten en tegelijkertijd op het vervullen van de 3 fundamentele psychologische behoeften die mensen met schulden op dit moment missen: competentie, autonomie en erkenning. Dit alles wordt bereikt met het concept DEBT. Dit concept biedt de debiteur een podium om erkenning te krijgen voor zijn problemen door de nadruk te leggen op zijn eigen kracht. Het concept begint met een creatieve workshop waarin mensen met schulden brainstormen over wat ze allemaal kunnen doen met hun oude enveloppen die ze krijgen. De productideeën die in de workshop bedacht zijn worden uitgewerkt tot design producten, gemaakt van bijvoorbeeld belastingdienst of gemeente Rotterdam enveloppen. Om deze producten heen wordt vervolgens een campagne georganiseerd gericht op yuppen in de wijk het Oude Noorden. Door het in aanraking komen met de campagne, lezen zij het verhaal van een wijkgenoot met schulden. Dit zorgt ervoor dat ze uiteindelijk anders over hen gaan denken en zich meer betrokken voelen. Door DEBT. voelen mensen met schulden zich weer sterk genoeg om over hun schaamte heen te stappen en zo samen het taboe rondom schulden te verbreken.

Despite the rise of digitalization, and consequently e-commerce, the physical fashion store remains relevant in the retail environment. Still generating almost all sales. However, stores are shifting from a place to buy to a place to be. Where experiences are more important than products. Inevitably, to fulfil customers’ needs and differentiate from the competition a personal experience is necessary.
With arising trends and technologies, retailers are overwhelmed by the possibilities and in need of guidance. Other sectors, such as the cultural sector, provide an opportunity for inspiration. In this thesis, the possibilities for museums as inspiration for fashion retail are explored on a strategic level. Resulting in a strategic model that guides retailers towards creating meaningful customer experiences. By researching the retail and museum sector an opportunity is identified: museums have a higher reputation than companies. Reputation is defined as the emotional bond between a company and its customers. Based on insights he following interpretation is established. Reputation is built through experience and trust. By delivering the expected customer experience a trustworthy relationship is developed, resulting in a high reputation. This reputation is maintained when expectations are exceeded, by providing unexpected elements and room for serendipity in explorative retail spaces. Based on an online customer research, performed in context, two reasons for the reputation gap between retail and museums in Rotterdam can be described: museums meet the expected customer experience and museums have a bigger impact on society. This impact is related to their contribution to heritage, education and entertainment. Therefore, applying a purpose-driven strategy. Defining purpose as the fundamental reason for existence. Inspired by museums, retailers are able to increase reputation and create a meaningful customer experience by adopting a purpose-driven mindset. Even though a purpose itself does not change, it encourages change by setting an unreachable goal. Striving to reach this goal, retailers need to make decisions guided by their purpose. Not only does purpose create the foundation for a trustworthy customer relationship, it also increases internal alignment and motivates employees. As a result, the Purpose Paradigm is introduced. A strategic model that identifies the steps towards implementing a purpose-driven mindset in retailers. Aiming at behavioural change inside the company that leads to employee engagement and facilitates decision-making. In return, creating a genuine and meaningful customer experience. Being purpose-driven is a long-term and sustainable approach for retailers reacting to the changing retail environment. The implementation of the Purpose Paradigm for a fashion retailer is illustrated in a fictional case. 

In the current medialized world, it has become of great importance for citizens to know how to deal with the media accordingly. Understanding and having a critical attitude towards the media content that we “consume” and being able to work with media devices and platforms has become as important as learning to read and write. Sound and Vision, thé institute of media in the Netherlands therefore wants to offer a product for children in group 7/8 (Dutch education system, age 10-12) that can be used in the classroom, to make them more media literate. My context mapping research with several groups of children throughout the Netherlands, showed that children use many different media devices and are very active on social media. They are competent in accessing information and creating their own media content. Among these children, YouTube is the most popular platform on which countless hours of influencer videos are watched. However, children are very influenceable in this stage of their lives and take the information provided by the influencers often as the truth. The children have too little analytical skills and have to improve their ‘analyze’ competence: understanding a media message through textual and contextual analysis. Additionally, interviews with several teachers gave insights in appropriate teaching methods for this age group and in this context. In group 7/8, children learn best by doing and experimenting. They prefer to work together and with theme that is connected to their personal life. Based on these insights, the workshop ‘de media schatkist’ was designed. The workshop’s learning objective is ‘critical examination and viewing comprehension’. The children will take a better look at media content and think about missing or misleading information. In the workshop examples of earlier and recent influencer advertisement videos are used. These videos are short and easy to compare for the children because they always contain the same elements and structure. The elements serve as subthemes in the workshop: the setting, the sound and the actor in the advertisement. The children discover these themes in three parts. The first part contains analytical questions about the original audiovisual content from the Sound and Vision archive. In the second part, they discover the effects of content alteration of the original content. In the last part, the children are invited and supported to create media content themselves and to create a visual story. In the museum of Sound and Vision, the visitors are taken into a media world with all kinds of installations. To also bring this experience to the school, the classroom will be transformed into several small media environments. The children will receive boxes that through opening will create the environment, see figure 1. In the boxes, the children find products and attributes for their playfull active and coorperative media production assignment. Every theme has its own environment: a film set, a sound studio and the actors dressing room.

The aim of this graduation project is to research the current way youngsters, with a diverse migration background (age 18-30 and living in Amsterdam) experience the Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam (VGM) and to design an intervention that provides them with a relevant and enriching Van Gogh experience to thereby increase its inclusiveness. Over the last years, the VGM noticed they were not reaching a diverse group of youngsters even though our society is becoming more diverse so, to welcome everyone and be ready for the audience of the future, they felt the need to change their attitude. To create a concept that is successful and supported, the youngsters have been involved in every step of the user centred, loosely applied, Design Thinking framework. Literature shows that to change the museum into a place where inclusion is enhanced Sandell (1995) three cultural dimensions of inclusion are defined; representation (of a person’s cultural heritage), participation (opportunities in cultural production) and access (opportunities to enjoy cultural services). To gain insights on what the users need to find these three dimensions in culture, 6 interviews and 2 museum visits were carried out. It was concluded that in experiencing culture, youngsters find it important to be able to do their own meaning making, feel a personal connection and have a fun and exiting experience. Instead of the VGM feeling distant, not relevant and at times boring, which is currently the case. From these insights a new museum mindset is formulated, to help the VGM to communicate more in the ‘language’ of the youngsters. This means that their communication should focus more on identification, with Van Gogh, then adoration, communicate more evocative that informative, provide more guidance than autonomy and present themselves more boldly than conventional. In the ideation phase it emerged that the personal letters Vincent van Gogh wrote during his life to his friends and family could be a great source of inspiration for youngsters nowadays. This led to the development of the ‘Van Gogh, the other story’ concept, where youngsters with a migration background get acquainted Vincent van Gogh's personal life story in a meaningful way, find connections between his life and their own and create an artwork in cooperation with a professional artist. Based on his original letters, five modern letters have been written, and made into a booklet, with themes that are of interest to young people today. When implemented continuously, multiple exhibitions can be made with the newly made artworks and be presented in neighbourhoods like the Bijlmer or Nieuw-West, making them easy to access for everyone. This way the youngsters can tell their own story through art, something that Van Gogh did too. After testing the concept it became clear that the participants felt more connected with Vincent van Gogh, the letters provided personal insights for them and the creation of an artwork felt like an exciting adventure, showing the potential impact of the ‘Van Gogh, The other story’ concept on the tree cultural dimensions, representation, participation and access.

This graduation thesis critically reflects on the Smart City. It critiques certain values embedded in the technology used to source and analyse data, and manage the city, when it comes to the world of human experience. The theoretical critique is eventually expressed in a critical design. Applying the values of the Smart City to the feral pigeon.

This report describes the research towards and the design of a tool for informing and involving employees during organisational change. More than half of the change programs that are started are not completed successfully. One of the most influential factors to this low success rate is the resistance of employees. Informing and involving them in the organisational change is essential to gain their support and understanding for the change.

The design is specifically aimed at the employees of KLM Component Services. Roughly 800 employees will be affected by a move, renovation and a revision of all processes. What makes this context specific are the large number of non-desk workers and the relatively high average age (52). Many of these employees are not comfortable using modern technologies such as social media and smartphones and spend most of their workday on the repair of aircraft components. Not being able to read all newsletters or spend time searching the intranet, an alternative communication channel is needed. Based on this need, the design goal for this project was established: to design a tool to keep all employees at Component Services informed on relevant developments and help to overcome resistance by involving them in organisational change.

Current trends and existing solutions for communication during change were explored. Increasingly, digital media are used and a strong emphasis is put on visual content. Several other qualities were drawn up, setting requirements for the final design. Usability being the most important quality, experiments with various design solutions were conducted. The outcome of these experiments was the basis of a design concept; a large timeline showing the stages of the change program, situated in a central location in the building.

This concept was further detailed, resulting in a large interactive timeline, projected onto a wall. The key element – using motion sensors to establish an immersive interaction – was tested with a simplified prototype. The results were used to further optimise the design.

Still, there is still considerable opportunity for detailing this design, as several deficiencies were identified regarding the prototype used in the user test. The most influential of these was that the design had to be explained to participants. In further testing, it is suggested to have an autonomously operating prototype, to allow the researcher to observe if employees will also be able to use this design without any further guidance. A potential opportunity for the design lies in the customisation of the content shown in the timeline, using a smartphone. Further design and testing is needed to fully develop this idea.

Despite the limitations, the design was positively received by employees. These positive results indicate that this design has the potential to be an appropriate tool for informing and involving employees during organisational change. The design will stimulate conversations among employees and helps to reduce uncertainty. This helps to gain employees’ support for the change program and thereby reduces their resistance to change.

Digitization, the word itself sounds almost vulgar in this day and age. It is impossible to imagine our daily life without the digital tools we use. We work in the cloud, communicate on-line, stream our media and even find our life partner on an app.

Contemporary artists were among the first to embrace digital innovation as a tool to enhance their work. Yet contemporary art museums appear to need more convincing. Many fear the devaluation of the physical experience of art by investing in the digital.

The Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal (MAC) had recently been extending their efforts in digital content. This project comes at a point where the MAC is looking at the future of digital content in the museum.

In order to get new vision on this matter the designer was immersed in the museum for a period of 8 months. The approach to get to a new sustainable digital strategy was based in collaboration and creative discussion.

One of the common pitfalls in digital innovation is the influence of the traditional institutional structure on the final product. At the MAC,the devision in departments shines through in the digital initiatives. In order to move forward in digital content it is important to create the right environment to innovate. In this environment the values of design thinking should be implemented.

Well executed digital innovation in a museum has the potential to play a role in the larger scope. The challenge lays in utilizing digital tools to approach upcoming challenges in the museums path. This opposes a grant based approach to digital projects. In the case of the MAC there is a large scale remodeling (transformation) coming up. The second half of this report includes a concept design that arms the MAC in this time of change.

This concept uses the digital content that was created by the MAC in the past years and places it on a new stage. Combining digital content in a physical platform will increase the reach focusing on the upcoming period of transformation. The new content system re-imagines the way we interact with digital museum content and makes creating links that increase the value of the information easy and logical.

The project introduces solutions for the MAC specifically as well as establishing an approach that has the potential to innovate digital content in the contemporary art world as a whole.

The aim of the project is to develop an installation, called Club Mojo, for the Mojo Backstage exhibition of Museum Prinsenhof Delft that would let visitors experience chills similar to one at a festival or concert. This aim is chosen to match the festival experience that is set with the exhibition, celebrating the 50th birthday of music promoter and festival produces Mojo Concert. A realistic and impressive design that matches the exhibition plan has the possibility to be included in the exhibition.

The development of the installation Club Mojo is done based on knowledge gained on the subject of ‘the experience of chills’. Researching the phenomena called aesthetic chills, which is the core aim of this project, showed the lack of a suitable tool for the graduate student to be able to design for chills.

To make it possible to design for aesthetic chills, a model is developed by the graduate student. This model is based on the reasoning of proven studies in different fields of knowledge. Additional, interviews and festival-context related literature are used to complete the model with realistic situations. The model is called the Aesthetic Chills Model and shows the relation between context and the intensity of the experience. The course of the model works towards a peak moment. The model is used to analyze inspiration and developing ideas for Club Mojo. The model focusses in this part of the process of creating a holistic design for an experience of a few minutes. Design challenges are included for the ideation to create a concept the matches the course of the experience intensity of the Aesthetic Chills Model.

A concept for Club Mojo is tested with a qualitative test. This test has a main focus on testing the experience of Club Mojo, including a sub-focus on validation of the Aesthetic Chills Model. The qualitative test showed the potential of the concept and the model, where after the final design of Club Mojo is presented. Based on the most recent changes in the exhibition the realization of the concept is presented. The final concept for Club Mojo showed to be a realistic, impressive and overwhelming design that raised the interest of both Museum Prinsenhof and Mojo Concerts.

Financial pressures in the airline industry, such as increased fuel prices, competitive environment and the extensive use of new technologies, have forced KLM to change its strategy in order to achieve a vital market differentiation. The new strategy introduces a user-centred mindset in developing new innovative products and services. In other words, the customer needs are researched and products are designed according to those needs. Consequently, KLM focuses on creating customer intimacy.

The customer satisfaction is measured by the Net Promoter Scores (NPS) index. KLM’s goal is to gradually raise this index from current score of 43 (2017) to 50 by 2020. In order to achieve that goal, KLM identified certain gaps in their customer’s journey experience to focus on and improve them. One of the identified gaps is the disruption handling.

Disruption is anything that alters the planning of the passenger. This might be a cancellation of a flight, a small delay of 10 minutes or a mass disruption due to weather circumstances. 38% of KLM’s passengers experience a disruption. Many quantitative researches conducted by KLM have shown that the disruption handling influences the NPS index dramatically (Delay NPS score of 2-16 is 16). Consequently, good disruption handling is very important for increasing the popularity of KLM and achieving its goal to “become the most customer-centric, innovative and efficient European network carrier”.

A very important customer need, defined by the aforementioned customer journey research, is the receiving of pro-active information when a disruption occurs. Additionally, KLM has already identified four factors that its customers need; passengers need consistent, relevant and personalised information at the right time. KLM offers several notifications from many different communication channels. However, KLM customer insights department receives many complaints about the disruption handling.

Also, there is no research or guidelines on how and what pro-active information should be received in order to fulfil KLM’s vision for customers: “KLM Cares for me by making me feel touched and recognised as an individual. I can feel that KLM is easy to deal with whenever a disruption occurs”.
The passengers that are influenced more by the disruptions are the frequent travellers, since they experience disruptions more often. Furthermore, usually those travellers are flying for business reasons. KLM believes that if there is a solution fulfilling their needs, then the same solution will likely solve the problem of the regular passengers as well. Thus, the focus is on the frequent travellers flying for business reasons.

In order to identify the passengers’ real needs during disruptions, a user research was conducted with KLM passengers. This research revealed that the passengers not only need information timely, accurate, relevant and personal but also transparent. Furthermore, it revealed that the main concern of the target group is to keep their schedule without changes, as much as possible. Last but not least, the delays are more frustrating disruptions than cancelled flights, because of their ambiguous nature and especially the delays that occur at the gates prior to the departure. As a result of the user research, this thesis focuses on the delays occurring at the gate, on the concern of the passengers that is in which level the schedule is influenced and includes transparent information.

After three iterations with prototypes and small user tests KLM passengers, the created solution is a communication system, called “My Delay”, integrated in the KLM mobile application. It aims to make the passengers feel in control of the situation, less angry and assist them to make the most of their time.

In order to fulfil the passenger’s concern about the change of his/her schedule, an alarm philosophy was created which is based on which actions the passenger should take in order to make his/her travel as smooth as possible. Four levels of urgency were identified. The lower level of urgency concerns situations where the delay is small and/or it does not change the passenger’s schedule. The next level of urgency concerns situations that the schedule is slightly altered but with no dramatic changes. The high level of urgency concerns situations in which the schedule of the passenger is totally disrupted. Finally, the highest level of urgency includes situations that are harmful for the life of the passenger, such as terrorist attacks.

All the aforementioned the levels of urgency are depicted in the communication system with differences in notification sounds, colours, information and instructions. Each level has an emotional goal that needs to be derived from the passenger. In the lower level the passenger needs to feel calm, in the medium level intrigued, in the high level active and in the last highly active.

The way the message is communicated to the passenger and the compensational additional features are based on the theory of management studies “delivery of bad news”. The message prioritise the information presenting firstly the fact and its basic details, secondly the change of the schedule and the next step of the passenger, thirdly the reason of the delay and the solution and fourthly the further steps the passenger can take. In that way, KLM shows that takes the responsibility to inform honestly the passengers and help them to make the most of their time.

Finally, evaluation user tests were conducted with KLM passengers, testing the perceived criticality of the messages and the derived emotions from the passengers. The results were very positive. The participants were pleased with the message and the amount and kind of information, understanding the criticality of each situation. It is worth mentioning the fact that the result of the NPS of the user test was 55, which is a huge difference from the current score during delays, which it is 16(NPS 2016). Of course, there are some limitations in the user tests and this number should not be considered as the one in real situations. However, this index offers the confidence that a communication system like this will increase the satisfaction levels of the passengers when a delay at the gate occurs.

This report will describe the analysis of two topics: the pheromone based communication method used by ants in their foraging behaviour, and the phenomenon of trade fairs. This natural communication model has been analyzed and its defining characteristics have been abstracted, after which they have been used to design a product that solves the problems experienced by the visitors and exhibitors that participate in trade fairs: The EvAnt Matchmaker. This product can best be described as a self-enriching system of indirect mass communication, in which trade fair visitors receive subtle suggestions on which stands to visit based on the opinions of previous like-minded visitors. The purpose of this design is to help visitors find the rights exhibitors during a trade fair visit, on the basis of their actual content rather than superficial factors. Visitors and exhibitors interact with the data in this system through two products: a personal device worn by all visitors and a stand device present at each exhibitor. These two products allow visitors to leave their profile (personal interests and objectives) at interesting exhibitors by scanning their personal device at their stand devices similar to the way ants leave their pheromones at interesting food sources. Stand devices then use this collected data to find potentially interested visitors by transmitting it to the personal devices of those who are in close proximity, which then nudge their user towards the exhibitor whose previous visitors best match his/her profile. Furthermore, this design allows exhibitors to visually acquire information about a visitor’s profile by simply reading their badges. This allows them to be more efficient in their work by focusing their effort on visitors they expect to be a good match based on their interests and objectives.

Formiliar is digital a tool with which users can explore artworks by completing challenges, all focussing on visual elements in paintings. The main aim of the application is to encourage users to look closely at the paintings and to familiarise with them visually. Through multiple challenges users will look at the way elements, such as colour or composition, are applied in a specific painting and will get a peek into the artist’s process and considerations. By exploring, dissecting, manipulating, zooming into and comparing the artwork, the effects of different visual elements on the user’s perception are shown. Users are independent in their explorations, meaning that though the challenges have a clear result, there is no singular ‘solution’ and their personal experience is central. The results of the challenges, for instance colour schemes, cut outs or light directions, are stored and used for art historical or perceptual research.