This research-by-design project provides designers with new strategies to design for sustained well-being.Positive activities have been proposed as the most promising starting point to improve well-being (Wiese et al., 2020). Currently, 14 activities have been identified (Lyubomirsky, 2007; Wiese et al., 2019). Avoiding overthinking and learning to forgive were chosen to design for in this project, as few existing products meaningfully support people in engaging in these activities. The Vision in Design approach (Hekkert & van Dijk, 2011) was applied to construct future world views of both activities, in order to create meaningful design goals. Two design strategies were developed for both activities and evaluated by PhD candidates and a design practitioner. This concluded that the strategies meet most of the requirements of a strategy (Wiese et. al., 2020), and could support designers. Recommendations to improve the strategies were composed and presented in the report. The conducted research and developed strategies contributed to existing knowledge by showing how designers can promote sustained well-being on an activity level. Further research should be conducted with more designers to evaluate the strategies’ usefulness in practice more extensively.

This thesis is the final result of the graduation project of the master programme Design for Interaction at the faculty of Industrial Design Engineering at the TU Delft (Delft, The Netherlands). The project is done for the Delft Institute of Positive Design in collaboration with Marten van Doorn from Bartimeus. When glasses or contact lenses are not sufficient enough to correct someone’s vision, visually impairment is diagnosed. The Netherlands counts 345.000 people who are visually impaired or blind. On estimate, 2020 will count 380.000 visually impaired people (Keunen, 2011). This is an increase of 20% since 2009, due to aging and diabetes (Bartimeus, 2017).  Especially when it comes to mobility, visually impaired people (VIPs) are continuously challenged. They use a cane to detect passing obstacles and recognition points. However, the cane does not lead the route to these recognitions points which make the visually impaired in need for other assisting solutions. Dependency and autonomy seem to clash with each other: Assistive technologies provide additional certainty within the field of mobility but often taking away a piece of autonomy. Autonomy is defined as “freedom from external control or influence; independence” (Stevenson & Lindberg, 2010). Being autonomous is a psychological need for well-being (Ryff & Keyes, 1995), which will be the primary focus of this project. This result into the following assignment: Assignment Design a mobility tool for visually impaired people that lets them experience a feeling of autonomy. New developments seem to fail because of their distance from real-world settings (Loomis, Klatzky &  Giudice, 2012; Maidenbaum, 2014). Besides, Loomis et al. states that many assistive technologies are a result of a solution to a practical problem and that the outcome is based on the type of engineering that is available. This approach to new product development is known as the engineering trap. Therefor the primary approach is to stay as close as possible to the real-world setting by designing for autonomy with empathy with the main goal to contribute to the well-being of visually impaired people in the field of mobility.  This is done by looking the context from different angels: : the own experience lens, the VIP experience lens ant the expert lens-  This is done by doing research and design explorations. These explorations create insights of VIP’s daily life -including benefits and struggles- required theoretical research, own experiences (as being visually impaired), observations and interviews. This resulted in a list of VIP superpowers, mobility mindsets, main mobility concerns, four dimensions of autonomy a list for characteristics for autonomous assistive tools. These insights are translated into an opportunity to design. In the current situation, being in control is an important aspect for VIPs to be able to know the route, walk smoothly and prevent mistakes, although the definition of autonomy is about freedom from external factors. There seems to be an opportunity to design for impulsivity within the mobility context. Therefore, the following question will serve as the leading question for the next explorations:  Opportunity Is there room for impulsivity while being in control? To be able to understand the meaning of impulsivity in the VIP mobility context, four cycles of design explorations are done. Every iteration loop starts with a different definition of impulsivity based on the previous iteration. Next, ideas are generated and evaluated on autonomy. These iterations resulted in the final impulsivity definition, the three design characteristics and the design goal. The definition of impulsivity states that; Impulsivity definition Make a small mental detour. In the current situation, VIPs have a number of fixed routes in their mind. They do need help in this route if they got lost in orientation due to distractions caused by noisy traffic, obstacle or noisy weather conditions. Mostly they ask for confirmation when they ask for help, to retake their control on their current orientation. It is established that one of the design characteristics describes that feeling autonomous is not about receiving less help, but it is about the type of help. So how can the design support VIPs in their mobility activity, instead of helping them?  If VIPs feel supported, it will open the possibility that there is no need for 100% focus. So they will walk their route as good as possible and have the possibility to make a small mental detour by paying attention to the unpractical elements of the route. Therefore, the following design brief is formulated:  Design brief Design a supporting device that illustrates the current position within a preprogrammed known route on demand, that opens the opportunity for a small mental detour by paying attention to the unpractical elements of the environment. The design translates this design goal into the concept design: Walkmen. The design Walkmen is a support tool which is a GPS connected voice recorder on your smart-phone. With Walkmen, you can track routes and create your mobility tool, which can be used as support tool. The design is tested from different perspectives: my own experience, VIP’s experience and experts’ discussion. The perspectives are the same as those used in explorations done at the beginning of the project. Overall, the tests made me realize that the need for concept design is urgent. People are intrigued by freedom that the device provides, so they are able to make their own personal reference tool which is easily accessible. As an additional deliverable, a booklet is made with principles for designers, who want to design for autonomy for people who are in need for assistance. To conclude, daily life is not designed for VIPs, but designed by and for sighted people. Unfortunately, many tools for VIPs are nowadays designed by sighted people to provide assistance to fill the gap of the missing visual senses. Within this project it is found that the mobility tool for VIPs should be a support tool instead of an assistive tool in order to evoke a feeling of autonomy. Walkmen is a result of the approach taken which includes the autonomous design characteristics and, according to the validation, evokes a feeling of autonomy.

This graduation project focuses on blissful eating experiences in the home context. After research on positive psychology and factors contributing to blissful eating, a positive design approach was applied to design concepts that assist people in savouring their home eating experience in order to enable blissful eating.

Literature research was conducted on design for happiness as well as the senses involved in the eating experience and factors contributing to a pleasurable eating experience. Within this process the happiness enhancing strategy of replaying and savouring was identified as particularly relevant. It can be reached through multiple strategies such as sharing with others, sharpening sensory perception and memory building. The research factors influencing the eating experiences revealed the multisensory character of eating and the need to address more than just the sense of taste. Additionally, literature showed that the eating experience in high-class restaurant is already designed but that the home eating context has not yet been as thoroughly investigated.

The subsequent qualitative research verified that the same factors contributing to pleasurable eating are also relevant for the peak experience of bliss. Furthermore, the conducted studies added detailed qualitative knowledge with 13 stimuli, 2 organism variables and 3 response variables influencing the eating experience. The results were translated into a card set that visualizes blissful eating experiences, food products, objects and customs and can be used for ideation. Many of the reported blissful eating experiences took place in the home eating context and the strategy of savouring was mentioned by many participants.

Combining the results from literature and qualitative study the design goal of assisting people in savouring their home eating experience to enable bliss in eating was derived. In the design the interventions that yielded good results after ideation, prototyping and user tests, were combined to three concepts assisting people in savouring their home eating experience: the mindful spoon, the sharing plate and the travelling tin. Containing a lens the mindful spoons aims to sharpen the sensory perception of people eating alone through magnifying food details. The sharing plate is designed for couples and aims to inspire people to serve their food in a creative way that encourages sharing. Sitting face to face the couple is connected through balancing the plate on their laps. The travelling tin is filled with homemade food and passed on to a person with a different cultural background which encourages memory building.

After several iterations and building interactive prototypes all three concepts were tested by seven participants or couples in order to evaluate if the design goal of assisting people in savouring their home experience was met. Each test was followed by an interview. In general, the participants responded positively to all three concepts but also mentioned some weak points that led to recommendations for further improvement. Summarizing the test results, the participants described rich emotions caused by the products and reflected positively on the indicators for a blissful experience.

Goal.
At times high care patients have no distraction from the negative experiences that come with their hospitalization, a lot of negative feelings arise. They often feel lonely, for not having the possibility to play with peers. Luckily, the new playroom can create opportunities for these children to interact with peers. To include bed-bound children as well, the design goal was to come up with a concept that would: create interactions in the playroom that give high care patients, aged 6-11 years old, a sense of belonging towards each other, also when confined to their beds.

Challenge.
Although all these patients have in common that they are hospitalized on the high care ward, they also know many differences in interests, development and physical abilities. To provide the patients with a sense of belonging towards each other, the challenge was to create a concept that every child can use in its way, but at the same time enables them to play and socially interact with each other.

The final design.
‘Het Interactieve Bouwlab’ is a play environment in the playroom where children can build with LEGO in an interactive environment. To create a meaningful interaction, the bed-bound child can control this environment via the ‘Bouwlab’ App, while also sharing a video and audio connection. The concept is designed with no predefined game rules to support open-ended play in which the users can create their games and building plans. However, to spark the imagination, a weekly theme will be announced where the users can build for.

Evaluation.
The user tests showed that ‘Het Interactieve Bouwlab’ has the potential to give the patients a sense of belonging towards each other since it stimulated social play and made the children willing to interact with each other.

Pro-social helping activities are activities that are intended by the helper to mainly benefit the receiver. Research from WeHelpen showed that offering passive help through asking “if there is anything I can do, please let me know” does not often result in the helping behavior. Asking for help is difficult because it does not fit in the idea of being autonomous and self-reliance.
In this thesis, tools are developed to encourage people to actively perform the helping behavior. These tools consist of awareness, guidance and triggers. They are implemented in daily life products, to inspire, guide and remind people to perform the helping behavior.

Work-life balance is becoming increasingly important in today’s job market. Young professionals actively search for jobs that promote their well-being. The concept of well- being encompasses not just physical health. Psychological health, such as social connectedness and engagement, is just as important. Katz (1964) stated in his research that specifically extra-role actions intended to benefit people other than oneself, extra-role prosocial behaviors, are essential for successfully functioning organizations and well-being among employees. This project focuses on how office environments can foster these extra-role prosocial behaviors. Three themes were studied to answer this question.

Firstly, a literature study, two brain writing sessions and a focus group on prosocial behavior at work were executed to define various ways of- and incentives for these behaviors. These studies have shown that, in order for extra-role prosocial behaviors to occur more frequently, the most substantiated strategy is to invest in the improvement of collegial relationships across disciplines.

This leads to the second theme, interdisciplinary bonding at work. Interdisciplinary bonding encounters challenges due to differences in interests and practices. These differences are rooted within the organization’s culture. A literature- and generative study is performed, consisting of a questionnaire, interviews and observations, on cultural differences in organizations. These studies have shown that a common ritual can function as a way to enhance interdisciplinary bonding. A creative co-design session with an interdisciplinary group of participants resulted in the definition of four design strategies to strengthen interdisciplinary bonding in office environments.

The aim of fostering prosocial behaviors in office environments requires a sustainable change in routines and behaviors from the people in that environment. Research on the third theme, behavior change at work, has shown that for certain target behavior to happen, a person must have sufficient motivation, sufficient ability, and an effective trigger. Furthermore, the involvement of employees, for instance by allowing environment personalization, can have a positive effect on positive attitudes towards change. In addition, one can not neglect people’s different characters and their naturally different responses towards change. Three behavioral personas were defined in order to take these differences into account. Thereafter, the four defined design strategies are analyzed based on the above mentioned essentials for a sustainable change in behavior. As a result, the most viable design strategy is finding common ground in personal interests through environment personalization. The desired interaction consists of a ‘sharing’ and a ‘caring’ part. The design should facilitate employees to share personal interests, and for other employees to care for these interests. Three intervention iterations in context were performed based on the desired interaction. These interventions have shown that the development of genuine interest in one another is most important for sustainable change towards prosocial behavior. This led to the design goal: motivating knowledge workers to develop genuine interest in interdisciplinary colleagues. A benchmark analysis of existing interactions was performed to define the unique perspective of this desired interaction.

The conclusion from this benchmark analysis resulted in a definition of a product-service-system for Ahrend: the Ahrend Portrait. The Ahrend Portrait allows employees to visually portray their interest on the walls of their organization to personalize their work environment. Furthermore, it allows employees to develop interest in the portrayed interests on the wall by interacting with them. The concept combines the benefits of digital interactions (bridging distance) with benefits of the physical interactions (explicit and passive). Different use case scenarios of the concept describe the opportunities for interdisciplinary bonding and prosocial initiatives. In order to find backing for the effect of this concept, two validation tests were performed at two different offices. The results of these validation tests suggest that the concept is capable of fostering interdisciplinary bonding and attentive, prosocial, behaviors. Furthermore, the concept inherits the potential to lower communication thresholds and increase mutual understanding and tolerance in organizations.

From here, multiple validation tests are required, for a longer period of time, to prove its positive effect on prosocial behaviors in offices. Furthermore, further research has to show how misuse of the concept can be prevented, whether the incentive to interact with the concept is self sustaining and what the most effective way is to introduce the concept in offices.

In this graduation project, meaningful personal goals were defined as self-generative initiatives, which aim at positive changes or maintaining desired states in one’s life. Several meaningful personal goal qualities were specified through literature research and user study. The main outcome of the project is a map with insights cards, which aims at bridging the gap between theoretical qualities with the normal context of design practice. The map could be used in design for meaningful personal goals and other goal related projects. A mobile application was presented as a case study in order to demonstrate how to apply meaningful personal goal qualities into the design.