Society is facing a critical point of unsustainability, urging the need to accelerate the transition towards a circular economy (CE). This transition not only addresses pressing issues but also unlocks new business opportunities. However, the lack of clarity around its specifics leaves many businesses uncertain about how to best respond, navigate, and adapt to this change.

The design and innovation agency IN10 is committed to contributing to this transition by bridging this gap. Specializing in digital design, they collaborate with clients to create positive, future-oriented, user-centered service solutions. As the company has recognized the value of co-creation sessions to drive transformations, it seeks to expand its service offerings to encompass the circular economy context.

This graduation project revolves around their creative problem-solving approach. It aims to define the innovation mindset IN10 should embrace to design for the CE transformation and explores how this mindset can be applied in a co-creation session. Following a learning-by-doing approach involving exploration, analysis, and creation phases, the project delves into various innovation strategies, business barriers, and conceptual metaphors to develop a comprehensive understanding of the circular economy and the type of thinking required to achieve this.

An examination reveals that the prevailing technocratic narrative of the circular economy overlooks vital aspects of the transition, making it too narrow to rely on exclusively. Therefore, this project proposes to adopt the Living Ecosystem Mindset, which conceptualizes the circular economy through the metaphor of a forest and addresses the limitations of the technocratic perspective. This holistic view embraces ecological and social values, draws inspiration from nature’s open-ended and flexible cycles, and integrates social sustainability considerations. Furthermore, it redefines the purpose of the circular economy beyond mere economic growth to prioritize meeting human needs.

The CE transition demands systemic change, necessitating a systemic design approach. An analysis of IN10’s approach reveals shortcomings in this area. Consequently, the project compares two systemic design approaches to identify success factors that IN10 can adopt. Both internal and external insights inform the concept development phase.

Ultimately, the project introduces the Circular Future Session as a theoretical foundation and starting point for IN10’s Circular Sprint Series. The session encompasses systemic design phases: creating a shared understanding, understanding the big picture, and envisioning a desirable future. It includes the following activities: Vision Talk, Actor Map, Wider Lens, and Circular Idea, aiming to generate circular ideas aligned with living ecosystem thinking.

The concept underwent internal testing within IN10, but it is recommended to be refined further through client sessions. Besides, IN10 must continue investing in knowledge about the circular economy and living ecosystem thinking. This investment will enable them to execute future co-creation sessions effectively and navigate the other design steps related to the CE transformation.

The challenges of today’s world don’t restrict to borders, specific industries or fields of expertise as linear development models may suggest. In order for development to react in a synchronized manner to capture the complexity of these crises, a transition has been initiated within the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the way of doing development, called the portfolio approach. An approach that agrees with the statement Rittel en Webber (1973) that finding the solution to a problem is similar to understanding the nature of the issue. The goal of the new approach, developed by the Strategic Innovation Unit (SIU) of the UNDP is to move from linear project planning to a more systemic and holistic way of working within the discipline.

This report follows the online journey of an UNDP team into this new way of doing and discussing development. The journey did not go without hurdles, both external factors, political dynamics and organization hierarchy, and internal factors, adjusting to a new mindset and communication manner, influenced the learning process of the team.

Observations of these dynamics has led to an intervention in the domain of communication within the portfolio realm in order to socialize the principles of systemic approaches and bring the team closer to the challenge of concern by discussing its subjective stories. The powers of the universal and context dependent characteristics of physical objects is taken as a starting point. They functioned as a boundary object, a concept that facilitates collaboration between different groups and stakeholders adjusted to different social worlds (Star & Griesemer, 1989) and steers conversation to facilitate connection in the domain of complexity.

Experiments with a variety of UNDP members explored the possibilities of the objects. The unusual objects found during this research have proven to spark new information streams and offer specific insights on the subject matter. The project’s accumulated in an elaborate workshop designed to guide CO teams to explore tangible objects in their domain. The objects collected by the team in the workshop serve as valuable tools for the team’s internal collaborations and externalizing perspectives. Utilizing physical
objects to achieve this, aims to accelerate engagement, foster recognition and enable context-specific conversations, reinforcing the statements of both the necessity of a portfolio approach and its systemic nature.

The project aims to provide fresh perspectives on the transition to a portfolio approach and its communication strategies, contributing to the research on effective implementation and integration of the portfolio approach within UNDP teams. The report presents a practical and an alternative conversation starter on the systemic
aspects of the approach in order to facilitate engagement with the approach and emphasize a deeper (personal) involvement of the participants.

While robots and automation in general have been replacing humans in repetitive and routine labour for many years, the role of AI is considered to develop from mere tools to integral teammates. However, recent developments in artificial intelligence (AI) are redefining the role of AI from being mere tools to becoming integral teammates within Human-Autonomy Teams (HATs). The emergence of advanced large language models (LLMs) has extended the capabilities of AI, enabling machines to mimic cognitive human functions and thus marking a new era of collaboration between humans and AI. This transition has attracted many companies across diverse industries, such as medicine, manufacturing, spaceflight, and construction, where the development and integration of HATs are actively explored.

As the landscape of human-AI collaboration continues to evolve, there is a critical need to delve deeper into understanding how these teams will function. While research in the field of Human-Autonomy Teams has been expanding rapidly, most studies have been limited to controlled laboratory settings. Therefore, it is imperative to conduct more field research to assess the real-world effectiveness of HATs, particularly in workplace contexts.

This research focuses on exploring the potential of AI-powered systems to support team effectiveness, with a specific implementation context within ThoughtWorks. It aims to identify and address the challenges of human collaboration in interdisciplinary product development teams and examines how AI can be leveraged to enhance team effectiveness. By proposing speculative AI-driven solutions to these challenges, the study highlights not only the transformative potential of technology but also the symbiotic relationship between humans and machines in the context of teamwork.

The outcome of this research offers a futuristic vision of Human-AI teamwork scenarios and provides a framework for examining AI's role within these scenarios to augment team effectiveness. The study combines a comprehensive analysis with in-depth investigation, contributing to a holistic understanding of the roles, capabilities, and interactions of AI within teams, as well as the implications of these advancements for the future of work.

The development of Fully Autonomous Vehicles would fundamentally change the nature of user interactions, behaviors, needs, and activities within vehicles. Passengers who are free from driving would expect to undertake diverse in-vehicle Non-Driving-Related Tasks (NDRTs) to keep themselves occupied and free from boredom. Conversational Artificial Intelligence with its ability to have free-flowing conversations could offer a solution to improve in-vehicle user experience. To explore design innovation opportunities that Conversational AI may offer within Fully Autonomous Vehicles, this work first researches what roles and relationships can Conversational AI play towards users of fully Autonomous Vehicles. These are investigated by conducting qualitative interviews of end-users and subject matter experts, and analyzing these interviews using the Thematic Analysis method. Second, this work examines how end-users qualitatively assess the embodied user experience provided by Conversational AI roles and relationships designed for Fully Autonomous Vehicles through the means of user-technology interaction experiments. These are conducted by employing a combination of participant role enactment method and a Wizard of Oz experimental setup with a mock Conversational AI operated within a prototyped Autonomous Vehicle under laboratory conditions. Ensuing these interaction experiments, the qualitative assessment of these in-vehicle Conversational AI roles and relationships was done by conducting guided brainstorming sessions using the parameters outlined in the Subjective Assessment of Speech System Interfaces (SASSI) questionnaire along with two free-from questions. Results from both phases are presented in the form of user-desired in-vehicle Conversational AI roles, aspects that would enable the forming of Human-Autonomous Vehicle relationships mediated by Conversational AI, and user experience evaluation of the embodied idea. Based on these results, design guidelines are articulated that are aimed to inform design professionals as well as internal design strategies of Autonomous Mobility and Artificial Intelligence companies looking to innovate.
Finally, we reflect on our methodological approach to indicate directions for future studies on similar lines and discuss our research’s implications for professional practice.

Reflective writing plays a vital role in the development of designers, enabling them to evaluate their experiences, enhance their learning, and foster professional growth. However, traditional methods of assessing reflective writing have limitations in terms of reliability and objectivity. To address this gap, this research project aims to analyze the reflections of design students in the Design Theory and Methodology (DTM) course using linguistic analysis. By exploring the linguistic elements and patterns within these reflections, the study seeks to facilitate a comprehensive analysis to understand and assess students’ reflective practices (Ullmann, 2019; Tausczik & Pennebaker, 2009).

The research project utilizes the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) tool for linguistic analysis. This tool allows for the examination of linguistic patterns, word categories, and cognitive processes present in the reflective writings of design students (Tausczik & Pennebaker, 2009). Building upon Ullmann’s model of reflection detection, which encompasses eight categories (components) including experience, belief, difficulty, perspective, feeling, learning, intention, and descriptive (Ullmann, 2019), the study provides a comprehensive framework for evaluating reflective writing and serves as a basis for the analysis.

The key insights of this explorative research project are twofold. Firstly, the analysis of LIWC categories reveals that specific linguistic features are associated with different components of reflection. The study identifies two types of high-quality reflections: “Holistic narrators” that emphasize personal experiences, learning, intention, and positive outcomes, and “In-depth explorers” that focus on critical assessment, multiple perspectives, and descriptive text. These findings shed light on the diverse ways in which individuals engage in reflective writing and highlight the multidimensional nature of high-quality reflections.

Secondly, the research project explores the feasibility of using LIWC analysis as a tool for identifying high-quality reflections. While LIWC analysis provides valuable insights into certain linguistic features associated with reflection components, it has limitations in capturing the complexity and nuances required for accurate grading. Therefore, a comprehensive and multi-dimensional approach that integrates quantitative measures with qualitative assessments, expert judgment, and a well-defined rubric is crucial for a robust evaluation of reflection quality.

The implications of this research project are significant for design researchers and education. The identification of specific linguistic features associated with high-quality reflections can guide the development of interventions and instructional strategies aimed at fostering critical thinking skills, self-reflection, and diverse perspectives among design students. Additionally, the insights gained from this research can inform the development of automated tools or natural language processing techniques to assist educators in assessing and providing feedback on reflections, thereby enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of reflective practice in educational settings.

In conclusion, this research project contributes to our understanding of reflective writing in the context of design. By analyzing the linguistic elements and patterns within the reflections of design students, the study provides insights into their reflective practices. The findings highlight the diverse nature of reflective writing and emphasize the need for a comprehensive assessment approach that considers contextual factors, qualitative aspects, and individual variations in reflection quality. The implications of this research extend to the development of instructional strategies and automated assessment tools, promoting the growth and development of design students’ reflective skills.

Overview
This project describes the development and evaluation of a mindfulness course for enabling design practitioners to develop enhanced creative insight possible, both in a moment of practice during daily design work and in the long-term development of character. The course is centred around a novel mindfulness exercise: ‘closure practice’. It aims to explicitly integrate two opposing processes of cognition that are central to the mechanism of insight: “scaling down” and “scaling up”, which are isolated in traditional meditation and contemplation practices, respectively (Vervaeke and Ferraro, 2016).

Design outcome
The course to teach designers this exercise was embodied as an online podcast, The mindful designer. It first introduces the relevance of mindfulness for designers and then moves to separate exercises that tackle several aspects of closure practice. The goal of the podcast is to teach the listener to perform closure practice in absence of the podcast with the use of an auxiliary bracelet, similar to the traditional use of the rosary, tasbih, and mala.

Key findings
The podcast was evaluated with a mixed-methods approach with respect to the design goals. Participants (n = 3) filled in online questionnaires. They agreed that mindfulness is useful during creative problem solving, to a greater degree post-study, than they did pre-study. Feedback suggested that ideas and insights occurred as an effect of the exercises, although the guidance of the narrations was problematic at times should be improved to suit design projects better. Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) analysis on the response texts also indicated that the practice had cognitive effects in line with the design intent.

Recommendation
Feedback throughout the project strongly suggested that experienced mindfulness practitioners found utility in closure practice, but that less experienced or naive practitioners did not, because they lacked the skills necessary to derive the benefits from the practice. I recommend the development of a course to teach design students or professionals the basic skills of mindfulness spanning several months and eventually the performance of closure practice, which might be recognised as more valuable by then. Broader implications were also discussed.

Vervaeke, J., and Ferraro, L. (2016). Reformulating the mindfulness construct: The cognitive processes at work in mindfulness, hypnosis, and mystical states. In Hypnosis and meditation: Towards an integrative science of conscious planes (1st ed., pp. 241–268). Oxford University Press. ISBN: 978-0-19-875910-2

Context and problem statement (Chapter 1)
Disinformation, false or misleading content that is shared deliberately, can be a danger to public health. When citizens don’t follow evidence-based treatments or measures and do take non proven, unuseful or dangerous treatments (Freeman et al., 2022; Montagni et al, 2021; Prieto & González, 2021). This became clear especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. More broadly it is a danger to democracy.

Within the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport there are several hurdles to effectively deal with disinformation. Too narrow and present focussed problem frames are used, with little alignment and a lack of starting points for concrete interventions.

In response to these problems, my design goal is to catalyse a broader and anticipatory problem frame of disinformation, find concrete starting points for interventions dealing with disinformation and align key stakeholders.

Method
A combination of methods is made (Chapter 2). First, systemic design (Meadows, 2020), finding elements, mechanisms and starting points in a system, enables to create a broader problem frame. Second, anticipatory governance (Guston, 2014) adds the temporal dimension, creating an anticipatory problem frame. It consists of four phases. Foresight, creating plausible future images. Engagement, involving people inside the organisation to respond to the plausible future. Integration, implementation of those responses and ensemble harmonising these efforts. Third, experiential futures (Candy, 2010) enable alignment between stakeholders through future prototypes: objects as if they came from the future.

Section 1 - Foresight
Expert interviews and consultation of academic, popular ‘mainstream’ and ‘fringe’ literature is conducted (Chapter 3). This leads to a (dis)information system map (Chapter 4) showing mechanisms that influence the system like doubt, trust, crisis and polarisation. Currently, the system is unbalanced. Yet, there are leverage points where interventions can bring back balance. The second outcome is a driver and trend analysis showing how the elements in the system map might develop. A new systemic and anticipatory problem frame is proposed (Chapter 6) that reveals new threats, but also opens up possibilities to bring balance.

Section 2 - Engagement
A future scenario (Chapter 7) is written that communicates the systemic and anticipatory problem frame. Two aspects are central:
In 2033, we will live in a country with ideological splintering. Due to climate change, an extreme heatwave during the summer causes a great threat to public health.

This scenario is developed into experiential future prototypes (Chapter 8, Figure X). The future prototypes were used in a 1:1 simulation with key stakeholders in the government (Chapter 9). Participants were asked 1) to reflect on the future that was embodied in the artefacts, and 2) to suggest interventions inspired by the future prototypes. The simulation showed alignment (Chapter 10) on the new anticipatory problem frame and even sparked a shared future vision:
Becoming an empowering government based on mutual trust.

Section 3 - Integration and Ensemble
A disinformation team is initiated, together with a policy maker from the Ministry. This makes sure the results from this project can be integrated after the delivery of the thesis.

Investing has become a hot topic among the younger generation since the Covid-19 crisis. However, much of its potential is still unused, as seen in a big group of the younger generation which is positive to start but procrastinates this decision. While this younger generation would like to make a positive impact with their money on the environment of the planet earth, the existing investing propositions aren’t helping them with that sustainable mission.
In this thesis, I researched how Rabobank can help this group of young non-investors start investing, but with a sustainable focus. Creating a win-win situation for the non-investor who gets motivated to start investing consciously while at the same time helping them to fulfil their sustainable ambitions.

This thesis presents experiments to integrate design practices for organisational change in a non-profit organisation in Brazil that contributes to the sustainable development of the Amazon rainforest region.
The organisation that hosted this project is the Foundation for Amazon Sustainability (FAS). It is a civil society organisation that develops and implements environmental, social and economic projects within 16 Protected Areas for Sustainable Use and Manaus in the northern region. FAS aims to improve people’s quality of life by enhancing the socio-economic benefits of the forest and its biodiversity by disseminating sustainable practices and empowering local communities. Their work comprehends a wide range of activities, from giving technical support and mobilising resources to engage and influence public policy to support long-term sustainable development. This thesis initiated exploring how design can propose a human-centred process when the organisation is involved in policy-making matters.
A literature research on design for policy and design value for organisation supported the project approach. The project followed a non-linear process and three guiding principles: collaboration, visual communication and experimentation. The work was carried out in two main streams: (A) supporting the FAS Public Policy team to redesign their involvement with policy-making matters; (B) disseminating designerly thinking and methods among the FAS workforce.
The first stream started with several experiments that supported the redefinition of the problem. Then the focus turned to developing and testing methods to co-create an advocacy vision for the organisation. The second stream comprehends the development of workshops to introduce basic design ideas and give a hands-on experience on the design process. Both streams inspired interest in how design, especially its human-centredness nature, enhances FAS internal processes and supports delivering better services to the communities.
This thesis presents the design practices that enhance the organisation’s work and the challenges of conducting a project remotely. Finally, the project gives recommendations to enable the adoption of design practices among the organisation workforce, such as making the departments boundaries more permeable, having management level support, and setting the environment and resources.
In conclusion, the project contributed to the Public Policy team to view their work from a more integrated perspective with other departments. In addition, design practices such as creating artefacts and interactive meetings contributed to a positive work experience and collaboration. Following a non-linear process revealed to be more adaptable than traditional FAS project planning and the design human-centred nature was the most relatable to the organisation.
Design practice involves, more than methods, tools and processes, finding ways to engage and propose action-oriented meetings that provoke critical questions. Finally, designers do not hold the solution to complex problems, such as sustainable development in the Amazon, but rather act as enablers in bringing diverse experts and people with lived experiences to build a more inclusive future.

This report describes the development of an implementation strategy for using data in the design process of a design team at the RIC of Ford in Aachen. The implementation strategy consists of a card set and a poster to show contemporary developments in using data in the design process, a service concept, a practical tool kit to start using the data and an organizational implementation roadmap. Throughout the project, a co-creation approach was used by working on one of the commercial vehicle concept projects. This resulted in barriers, enablers and drivers of different approaches for the team. First, I consulted literature on design and data to create an overview of the approaches in this field. I concluded that contemporary approaches use open data such as social platforms to find users expressed thoughts and feelings, or (owned) sensor data to find users functional needs in measurable behaviour. In a case study the insights from literature are visualized in the form of cards to create a tangible artefact for evaluating the different approaches and also act as later reference. This was the first deliverable of this project. The case study resulted in a set of preliminary set of drivers, enablers and barriers for using data. Next, a design intervention was done in the team’s service design project. Together the qualitative insights gathered and analysed. Then I chose parameters for “a behavioural data profile” and designed a service concept based on these parameters. In this service concept behavioural data of the user is used as input for personalized service functionalities. This allows the team to research behaviour and create the foundation for more advanced research. From this step I translated the learned lessons into a final set of barriers, enablers and drivers. This set allows the team to use this specific approach in future projects as well. The main barriers are now defined as: (1) Designers and researchers having different perspectives when setting up research projects resulting in an inability to create the described design concept. (2) There is no clear indication for the design team where and how to use data in the design process. To overcome these barriers a practical tool-kit was designed to allow the team to bridge the gap between the qualitatively gathered data and defining a product-service concept based on a data profile. The value of this practical tool-kit is supported by literature showing the trend towards in-situ research approaches and an evaluation process. The roadmap, the final deliverable of this project, presents directions for applying this approach and presents steps for further organizational implementation. For future research I recommend developing an accessible persona dashboard of the implemented services for Ford to perform easier and more focussed research in the relations between the different sub-functionalities of the vehicle. The practical tool-kit, set of cards and the roadmap help the team in answering their question: “how to use data to better understand our users and their behaviour” by indicating an appropriate approach, an example project and a practical tool-kit.

Scientific conferences are a valuable place in which a lot of knowledgeable people come together to create meaningful content. However, in a fast-evolving world with increasing environmental issues, inequalities and crises, conferences seem to only change slowly. Besides the irresponsibility towards the environment, due to the large usage of resources and vast amounts of travelling to conferences, also the exclusion of groups of people are still widely a result of the current conference system.
Therefore, we need to investigate the context of the future conference in order to design a better conference of tomorrow.

This graduation project dives deep into the purpose of scientific conferences and how this purpose can evolve in the future to propose a new visionary concept. It investigates changes within the domain of the academic society and its conferences but also takes into account factors that can have an impact on the domain, such as climate change, societal and technological developments or the COVID-19 pandemic. The result of this project is a new conference vision that proposes design interventions within the organizational and interaction level in order to create a more inclusive but also impactful conference.
The report presents the investigation for designing a future experience for academic conferences. The exploration revealed three main driving forces that can play a big role within the world of conferences:

1. The growing relevance and awareness of academics’ impact on climate change and on society will continue to increase academics’ sense of responsibilities. There will be more focus on creating knowledge and doing so in a meaningful and respectful way towards environment and society.
2. The growing relevance and awareness of inclusion will highly impact the social value. The community is going to become a safe and welcoming space for people to celebrate uniqueness and distinctiveness rather than fit and sameness.
3. Technology can make it easier and more effective to reach an inclusive and impactful community by giving people the chance to be able to express themselves and inspire each other.

The final design ‘The living conference’ is a response to these main driving forces by providing a space with more flexibility in participation as well as creating more insight and consideration into individual contributions and people. This shall help to make it easier for people to participate (inclusion) as well as creating a more effective space for knowledge creation (impact). The design consists of a digital space that makes use of interactive data visualization to represent content and people for more consideration and insight but also presents different formats of sessions to provide people with eye-opening content and activities.

The COVID-19 health crisis at the beginning of 2020 saw a dramatic number of adaptations to health systems around the world. One of these adaptations was the accelerated shift towards e-health solutions. This rise happened because of the inability of the medical system to serve patients of non-respiratory related illnesses during the pandemic. This was experienced as a rise from 1% to 70% of remote general practitioners consultations in the early months of 2020(Mueller, 2020).
Key to these consultations is the use of medical devices to gather information relating to the patient's state. New medical device categories now allow people with little or no training to collect accurate information (European Commission, 2017), including by using wearables first intended for tracking activity-related metrics that are currently being fitted with state-of-the-art sensors that allow them to become a realistic alternative to strict medical devices (Raja et al., 2019). Despite this, several key issues impede their use in standard medical practice and are more commonly used as informational tools only (Raja et al., 2019).
The use of wearables as informational tools has the potential to increase the awareness of people of the effect of the things they do on their wellbeing, an essential part of the concept of preventative medicine. A concept that aims to enhance wellbeing is wellness, with health being a state of being and a goal to achieve (Stoewen, 2015).
Wellness is also a concept that is well entrenched on the product lines of the brands of Arçelik, and is seen as an important opportunity to grow medical capabilities in the products they already dominate.
This thesis project presents a service design concept that aims to help people create their own wellness journey by passively tracking habits and receiving advice based on this information. The concept is based around the gathering of information through smart home appliances, focused around four modules: nutrition, activity, sleep and vitals.
The project concludes that the proposed service solution brings the possibility to integrate the capabilities that Arçelik needs to enter the larger healthcare market while staying in the product categories that it dominates.

We live inan increasinglycomplex andinterconnected world, were severaldevelopments likeshiftingpolitical power,blurry physical and conceptual frontiers, andrecentlytheCOVID-19 pandemic, test theresilience of organizations andindividuals.Thehumanitarian system and its financingstructures are under greatpressure asseveralprotracted crises affect over 2 billion peopleliving incountries byfragility, conflict andviolence. Despite the efforts ofgovernments,INGOs, andother allies to address some of thelong-lasting fundingand efficiencyproblems;the gap between needs and aid continue togrow.For thisreason, severalorganizations areexploring Innovative Finance ; a wider rangeoffinancingstructures and sources that have thepotential of increasing funding,improvingtheefficiency and effectiveness of processes, andcrowding in newactors.The aimof this graduation project was toinvestigate how could theNetherlands RedCross(NLRC) seize the potential of theseinnovative financingmechanisms to increasetheimpact of their humanitarian activities.The first partof this projectcontemplatedresearch involving three spheres of knowledge:thehumanitarianlandscape, innovativefinance, and the NLRC as an organization,whichlead to therealization that the entitiesinvolved in this topic are connectingto eachotherto increase their resources and knowhow.However, this ‘EmergentEcosystemforInnovative Finance’ is facing some barriersto their success,namely,cumbersomecollaboration, reluctance & hesitation ofexternal actorstoengage, and unfit processesfor addressing uncertainty andcomplexity.Luckily,research also offeredrecommendations on how to tacklethesedifficulties, whichare collected in threecategories. The first one is tobuild and nurturesocialnetworks, the second one to articulateproblem field andshared visions;finally, toadapt individual’s and organization’smindsets,processes &structuresThe NLRC, as a key player in thehumanitarianlandscape could benefitfrom working withthese novel financialmechanisms, and couldoffer importantassets and expertise to thisecosystem.However, they are still hesitantaboutadopting a more proactive stance.With theaim of helping the members oftheInternational Assistance Department of theNLRCto articulate their visionand exploreways to overcome their barriers fortakingpart in these innovations;the outcome of thisproject is a dialogic toolin the form of alarge-scalevisualization of the key findings of theresearch.This object hasthe double purposeof increasing awareness on the topic,andfacilitatingdialogue between members of theNLRC or other stakeholders.It’splayful andcolorful visual language aimsto be attractive and engaging. And it’ssizeandmaterial provides flexibility of use; it could beshowcased as stand-aloneposter,or be theanchor piece of a workshop.   

As the COVID-19 struck, many organizations faced the challenge to rapidly adapt in order to stay relevant. Over night consumers’ needs changed, leaving the organizations in an uncertain environment. The current situation highlights that organizations need approaches that must enable them engage in search activities, in order to find out how to adapt and deal with uncertainty. This thesis was carried out in the context of a strategy design agency. They help their clients to explore how to adapt an organization by designing strategies and new business models. By a design doing approach they help their clients to engage in search activities with a focus on business model innovation. An initial business idea is considered to be a ‘guess’ that needs to be tested. During the search activities a prototyping process is followed to test these ‘guesses’, referred to as assumptions.The prototyping process is carried out by a multidisciplinary team, consisting of employees of the organization from various departments and business designers from a strategic agency. These (validation) teams aim to use prototyping to reduce uncertainty. By carefully deciding what assumptions needs to be tested, an experiment (activity) is designed to do so. Prototypes in the form of artifacts are build to generate learnings. With the use of these learnings, teams can iterate their business model, value proposition and product designs.Initial observations show, validation teams face difficulty to create suitable prototypes, and setups to test these assumptions while uncertainty is only addressed to a limited extent. Underlying assumptions, which are not explicit at first, are seldom considered. To enhance the current practice, a wide range of prototypes are created which are implemented within the context. The implemented prototypes are aimed to enhance the current process, mainly through a digital manner due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Through numerous of prototypes, new ways were explored with the intention to enable teams to address uncertainty, and moreover, help to create suitable prototypes. These efforts manifested in enabling teams to utilize prototypes as a straw man within the team or use prototypes to trigger customers in an early stage. These activities helped the team to go beyond testing assumptions, and enabling them to reveal assumptions. Through the practice of revealing assumptions, the prototyping process enables to drive continuous learning, since the newly revealed assumption can influence learnings goals for the next steps.The project also identified obstacles that could hinder a successful use of prototyping, such as a risk avoidance mindset and lacking skills of team members.Eventually, based on the developed prototypes and generated learnings, a boundary object in the form of a digital warroom was designed and presented. So the teams are being enabled to go through the prototyping process to address uncertainty. The embodied approach of the warroom should help teams to drive changes by developing new business models, value propositions with product & services supporting these.

In this project, I research how to unveil the hidden curriculum in Design Education. The hidden curriculum is the curriculum that students develop tacitly during their studies. It is also defined as tacit knowledge developed in education. tacit knowledge is a part of knowledge that everybody takes for granted without being fully aware of its influence on perceptions and actions. Unveiling tacit knowledge by design students has been considered by several authors a source for students to support awareness in judgments and decision making (Grey, 2018; Vakantesh & Ma, 2019; Wang, 2010; Whelan et al, 2017) because it allows students to become more aware of their perspectives when learning. However, tacit knowledge, as well as the hidden curriculum, are difficult to make explicit (Grey, 2018), because they are hidden in ourselves and our culture (Mareis, 2012). In the course, IDE Academy, a first-year master course in the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering of the Technical University of Delft, the hidden curriculum plays an important role for students. The course set up allows students to choose skills to learn in a free-fail environment, thus, the curriculum of the course is highly dependent on the students and their decision making. This means that the hidden curriculum of the students becomes the curriculum of IDE Academy.The aim of this project was to find ways to make the hidden curriculum more explicit in IDE Academy and to contribute knowledge of how to unveil the hidden curriculum in design education.