According to the literature, sleep deprivation is becoming more common among women between the age of 35-54. These women are easily affected by stress due to their peculiar hormonal, familial and social conditions. Their lifestyle rhythm is shifting towards a 24/7 time-schedule where there is a massive presence of technologies and stressful factors during each moment of the day. This ‘modern’ way of living has a major influence on their lives and in particular affects the sleeping preparation phase of the day (corresponding to the 2-3 hours before sleeping) when the body starts to produce the hormone melatonin that prepares in falling asleep.

Maya, is a future vision on how technology could empower women who are suffering from sleep deprivation in conducting a consistent routine during the 2-3 hours before sleeping, through moments of awareness and motivation. The final design involves a journey during the 2-3 hours before falling asleep aided by different sceneries of environment within the house. To help smoothening the transition from being awake into falling asleep.

This Master Thesis describes a graduation project developed to investigate how to help people when disrupted life events occur and how to create strategies to empower them in coping with the situation. It is in connection with the research developed by the PhD candidate Patrizia D’Olivo. To date not many strategies were developed to empower people who suffer of the alopecia condition. Thus, the project attempted to help people with alopecia feel comfortable in their everyday lives by designing coping strategies for the individual with alopecia and anyone he feels close with.
In this project different research and design methods were applied, like interviewing, surveys, a co-creative session and design evaluation with assistance of the Alopecia Vereniging. Context and user research deepened the knowledge on the topic and classified the problems the target group encounters. The disrupted life event of alopecia and the population affected by this condition encounter a lot of problems that differ according to the level of severity and risk. It was evident that the communication between the person with alopecia and anyone he feels close with should be stimulated and improved.
Different design explorations combined with a concept evaluation study and a co-creative session showed the desired features for the final design. The proposed design ‘Imagine alopecia’ gives people close to someone with alopecia a better understanding of the impact of the condition and stimulates the communication between them.
The design evaluation study confirmed that the target group feels that the design has the potential to improve the communication between them and the people they feel close with. In addition, also the people close to someone with alopecia believe in the added value of the design. However, to validate the effect of the design on communication, it should be evaluated by letting people use the design in real life situations.

The aim of this graduation project was to design a product/service to improve the psychosocial school experience of children with cancer aged between 8 and 10 years old (group 5/6 at primary school) and the people around them during the treatment phase. The projected is conducted under the project ‘Meedoen=Groeien!’.

Within the current situation, children with cancer and the people around them experience several challenges which affect the school experience. One of these challenges is that teachers tend to underestimate children with cancer, while sick children tend to overestimate themselves. For teachers it is difficult to understand what to expect from sick children, since their mood and energy level is affected by the cancer and its treatment and can changes during the day. Sick children tend to overestimate themselves due to their willingness and enthusiasm. They want to do the same as they did before the cancer and do the same as their classmates to get a sense of belonging. The effects of over- and underestimation are similar. Both have a negative influence on the self-confidence, self-image, and development of the child. Therefore the project aim was to prevent over-/underestimation by designing a product/service that supports sick children to express their mood and energy level in order to create together with their teacher a suitable individual planning throughout the day.

This is established by the ‘Humeur adviseur’ which exist of the ‘Gevoelens medaille’ – product and ‘Mijn les’ – cards. The ‘Gevoelens medaille’ is lying on the table of the sick children and can be used whenever they want. The ‘Gevoelens medaille’ stimulates the sick children to think and talk about their mood and energy level, makes it possible to express this in an easy, quick, and unforced way, and reminds classmates and teachers of the impact cancer and its treatment has on the sick child. Based on the mood and energy level of the sick children, the teachers can decide which tasks the sick children could do. This can be written down on the ‘Mijn les’. To involve the sick children and regain control, they can mark which tasks they are going to do by choosing from the tasks proposed by the teacher and/or by adding extra tasks.

The ‘Mijn les’ – cards will be used by the classmates as well, to give the children the feeling that the sick child is treated like a “normal” child and create a sense of belonging. On the front of the cards the children can write down the goal of the lesson, the tasks they are going to do, and how long they have to fulfil the tasks. During the lesson they can mark which tasks they have finished and after the lesson they can reflect on the lesson. This makes learning visible and gives the sick children the opportunity to communicate to the teachers how they perceived the lesson. This information can be used by the teachers to create a better understanding of the sick children.