This thesis mainly describes the research, design and evaluation of an activity for improving soundscape beginners' sound awareness -- Sound Detective.

For new students who are just beginning to learn about soundscape, or researchers who have just entered this field, in addition to mastering basic soundscape knowledge, it is equally important to improve their sound awareness. Sound Awareness, to be specific, is Listening to sound (hearing sounds in the soundscape), Experiencing sound (knowing what feelings the soundscape will cause and how to describe it), Understanding sound (knowing the characteristics of sounds and how we use/react to different sounds), and finally Organize sound (adjusting the sound for a better experience).

However, the current learning methods have limitations. To be specific, the limitations are lack of practice (lectures), lack of flexibility (workshop), lack of guidance (research studying), and heavy use of teaching resources (workshop). It is worth mentioning that Sound Walk, as a very pioneering soundscape learning activity, can indeed enhance sound awareness, but it is limited to the first part "listening to sounds" and ignores other parts.

Thus, Sound Detective, which is the main outcome of this thesis, is designed to act as a supplement and improvement that focusing on training beginners' awareness of sound during their studies of soundscape, in combination with other learning methods.

The thesis starts with a survey of soundscape, serious gaming, and existing soundscape-related activities and educational methods, interviews experts in the field of soundscape, and proposes three different activity designs. Following this, the paper conducted a selection of concepts based on the given benchmark and performed multiple optimizations, resulting in the final output. An evaluation of this output was then carried out. The conclusion of the paper provides a summary, discusses the limitations, and offers suggestions for future work.

Despite the fact that product sounds have been shown to have a significant impact on the experience of products, product sounds are rarely considered in design projects and design education at the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering. Research through literature review and expert interviews revealed that product sound design requires an interdisciplinary approach. A framework was created from different areas of product sound design. This framework separates that product sounds are influenced on three levels. The first is the product features, i.e. the components that act as a sound source. At this level, it is most important to consider how acoustic and engineering decisions can influence the perception of sound as derived from psychoacoustics. The second level, the object level, is about factors that influence the composition of the product and is mostly based on knowledge from subfields of musicology. The third level, the scene level, considers the sound of the product together with its use and location. This makes it possible to assess whether the external influences still result in the desired sound. Based on this framework, a digital audio design tool was developed. The purpose of this tool was to give practical examples of how sounds can be changed. This is achieved by providing parameters that have an impact on the engineering of a product, such as the choice of components and materials, and by allowing a composition of all the features to create the sound of the whole product. Finally, external factors such as the user’s interaction with the product and the influence of the context in which the product’s sound is heard can also be modelled. User testing has shown that this tool allows creative exploration of possible product sounds, while being concrete enough to gather initial design objectives. As an ideation tool, it provides direction for the further development of the product, taking into account its sound.

Current earphone designs follow a universal approach, which might fit average body shapes comfortably but lead to discomfort for others. Leveraging technologies like AI, simulations, and digital models enables efficient creation of personalized products at scale (Sony, 2018). With the development of new AM techniques, printing options are becoming faster and the materials more versatile. Techniques for printing flexible materials, such as silicones and printing multiple materials within the same print (Rossing et al., 2020), allow a larger scale of design properties, increasing the possibilities for which products will be fit for mass customisation.
When people customise or personalise a product, they intensify their emotional connections to the product (Mugge et al., 2009). Involving customers in the creation of their earphones leads them to be more emotionally invested in the product.
To create a personalised product, it is essential to obtain data of the individual body part as everyone is unique. For this project, the customer should be able to scan their ears by themselves at home. To evaluate which scanning methods best represent the shape of the ear while being easy to use, the 3D scanning methods and the physical representations of those scans are validated. Through tests it is determined that the Truedepth scanner provides the best results for the envisioned use case of scanning at home.
Customers perform multiple activities per day with which they would prefer to use their earphone. By designing for extreme use cases (dancing with lots of head movements and long consecutive use of the earphones), the design is expected to perform well in other use cases as well.
Since earphone tips provide the main point of retention in the ear, they typically are the cause of irritation among users. To increase the level of comfort, the pressure should be equally distributed to parts of the concha.
The concept Seal is based on the Truedepth scan data of the concha. Seal distributes the retention force across the concha, rather than providing retention in the auditory canal. The part that fits in the cymba concha is made of flexible material, providing a softer touch and therefore more comfort. The seal creates a sealing effect at the entrance of the auditor canal using a flexible collar. Therefore, it does not need to enter the auditory canal which means that its audio canal can remain short. The advantage of this is that the seal fabricates as little extra geometry as possible.
The prototypes show that it is possible to design earphones based on scanned data that are gathered by a smartphone or tablet. This provides the customer with new listening experiences. However, the success of the concept partly depends on the availability and the quality of scanners in smartphones in the future.

Sound in UX design can be used in a variety of ways; to navigate the interaction, for branding, to set the ambience etc. The importance of sound for the user experience of a product is undeniable; however, this is not represented in the practices of UX designers. UX designers lack the tools and knowledge needed to integrate sound design into their prototyping activities. As a result, the sound is often considered last-moment, limiting the creative potential and added value of sound in the interaction. This report explores the possibilities of integrating sound design activities into the practices of UX designers. This is done through design research activities such as interviews, co-creation sessions, creating (interactive) prototypes and user testing. The aim of the project is to provide UX designers with prototyping tools for sound design. Common sound design tools are difficult to integrate in prototyping activities as UX designers often lack the skills and knowledge needed to operate these tools in a quick-paced and iterative way; which is needed in order to facilitate prototyping. Furthermore ways of bridging the semantic gap between the stakeholders is explored as well as the potential of tangible interfaces in making sound design more intuitive and engaging for UX designers. Finally, a concept is introduced: The Timbreworld, parts of which are embodied in an interactive prototype. The Timbreworld is a (tangible) interface for sonic sketching, it enables its users to create quick and iterative sound prototypes. The interactive prototype has been tested with participants and evaluated based on the design guidelines provided in the report

takeUthere is a digital product design for nurses in the hospital to reduce working stress during work break time. As the professions that help people solve health problems, the hospital staff pay attention to the patientʼs physical condition all the time, including nurses, they face complex and difficult tasks every day. During the work, they need to follow orders from the head nurse and physicians, regulate mood for patients and their families, monitor the medical equipment, track the data and write reports for information sharing with colleagues, etc. This type of work challenges a nurse's professional skills, psychological enduring capacity, sense organ enduring capacity. Metally overwhelming becomes normal status in nursesʼ daily working time. Therefore, providing a balance between sensory and mental during the work break by regulating their mood has its value to be explored. This graduation project aims to solve this problem by introducing a product/service solution. It cooperates with TU Delft Critical Alarms Lab, which focuses on sound-related research and design, in the area of healthcare, academic hospitals, etc. The main goal is to reduce the daily working pressure of nurses through sound and music, therefore creating a positive mood to face their work. The outcome of the project - takeUthere digital product introduced a sound-driven experience in which nurses can enjoy short-term relaxation. It provides detailed sound from a daily office object. The user needs to find it and scan it on the APP. Then it delivers a fantastic charming scenario with 360-degree panorama visuals cooperating with relaxing scenario music. The final design includes APP user experience design, panorama visual design, and scenario sound editing. Moreover, it successfully convinced 8 participants with its unique fun experience. It shows the values for further development possibilities and improvement ideas. It also concluded new implementation opportunities areas followed by future recommendations. The project leads to the following conclusions: (1)Away from stress - design for nurses to use during work break. (2)Suitable for different types of user habits. (3)Simplified interaction yet targeting the problem. (4)Be engaged in the short story. takeUthere, let the sound bring you to a scenario that you ever dreamt of.