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Applied
Design
Research
A Mosaic of 22 Examples,
Experiences and Interpretations
Focussing on Bridging the Gap
between Practice and Academics
Edited by Peter Joore,

Guido Stompff,
Jeroen van den Eijnde
First edition published 2022
by CRC Press
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and by CRC Press
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© 2022 selection and editorial matter, Peter Joore, Guido Stompff,
and Jeroen van den Eijnde; individual chapters, the contributors.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Joore, Peter, 1967- editor. | Stompff, Guido, editor. |
Eijnde, Jeroen van den, editor.
Title: Applied design research: a mosaic of 22 examples, experiences and
interpretations focussing on bridging the gap between practice and
academics / edited by Peter Joore, Guido Stompff, Jeroen van den Eijnde.
Description: First edition. | Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 2022. | Essays
translated from Dutch. | Includes bibliographical references.
Identifiers:
LCCN 2021059382
ISBN 9781032209197 (hbk)
ISBN 9781032209173 (pbk)
ISBN 9781003265924 (ebk)
Subjects: LCSH: Human engineering. | Industrial design. |
Design--Social aspects. | Design--Research.
Classification: LCC TA166 .A673 2022 | DDC 620.8/2--dc23/eng/20220110
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021059382
DOI: 10.1201/9781003265924
_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ______________________________________________________________
This publication is a result of the NADR2 project, executed by the

Network Applied Design Research. This project was co-funded by
Taskforce SIA, part of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific
Research (NWO).
Contributors: Peter Joore, Guido Stompff, Jeroen van den Eijnde,
Daan Andriessen, Karin van Beurden, Rens Brankaert, Anke Coumans,
Tessa Cramer, Wander Eikelboom, Tomasz Jaskiewicz, Christine de Lille,
Remko van der Lugt, Masi Mohammadi, Sebastian Olma, Anja Overdiek,
Eke Rebergen, Perica Savanović, Wina Smeenk, Aletta Smits,
Peter Troxler, Koen van Turnhout, Job van ’t Veer, Eveline Wouters,
Marieke Zielhuis, Antien Zuidberg.
Design and layout: Studio RATATA.nl
Illustrations: Kalle Wolters
Translation: Proactive Translations
Publisher’s note: This book has been prepared from camera-ready
copy provided by the authors.
Content
Preface 6
Karin van Beurden
About the editors 8
Peter Joore, Guido Stompff, Jeroen van den Eijnde
Applied Design Research 10
Part 1: Eyes on the future

Research into research 25
Daan Andriessen
Radio Dabanga 33
Koen van Turnhout & Aletta Smits
Learning from prototypes 43
Tomasz Jaskiewicz
Design thinking for professionals 53
Guido Stompff
Dance? Dance! 63
Peter Troxler
Part 2: The urge to

improve the world
Idealistic visions of the future
or realistic solutions? 75
Peter Joore
Designing the future 85
Tessa Cramer
The artistic attitude in a social context 95
Anke Coumans
Looking for trouble 105
Eke Rebergen, Sebastian Olma, Wander Eikelboom
Discomfort as a starting point 115
Marieke Zielhuis
4
Part 3: Design and
research with others
Systemic co-design 127
Remko van der Lugt
Inclusive designs in healthcare 137
Rens Brankaert
Societal impact design 147
Wina Smeenk
Designing our society together 157
Christine De Lille
Integral development of the built environment 167
Perica Savanović
Part 4: Building bridges

between disciplines
Smart transitions with design 179
Anja Overdiek
A new mindset in research 189
Eveline Wouters
Focus on the practical question 197
Job van ’t Veer
Shaping an empathic living environment 207
Masi Mohammadi
Seducing the conshuman 217
Antien Zuidberg
Part 5: The task for applied

design research
Something old, something new 229
Karin van Beurden
A letter from the future 241
In conclusion
Epilogue 252
LITERATURE
5
Preface __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ________________________________________________________
Preface
Karin van Beurden
Design research, a form of research that is highly interwo-

ven with design, is a relatively new discipline in the world of
research. The first “design generation” in the 1960s tended
towards a rational and systematic development of the field. 1
Inspired by visionary designers like Victor Papanek, 2 in time,
more social-oriented approaches came up. Being a design
student, I followed Papanek’s design class in 1979 at Kansas
City Art Institute, a couple of years after he published his
now-famous book Design for the Real World: Human Ecology
and Social Change. I have always remembered Papanek’s
inspiring lessons while working as a product designer and
design researcher myself.
From 2001 onward, at universities of applied sciences in the

Netherlands, research groups were founded that started
working on an applied form of design research. Each of
these research groups developed its own specific approach.
One focuses on healthcare, others on circular innovations or
on innovative networks. Even though they differ significantly
in size, background, and focus, these applied design
research groups do share a common language and
approach. When professor Daan van Eijk asked me, in 2012,
whether I wanted to represent the applied research sector
in CLICK | Design, 3 I agreed to do so after consulting a
handful of design professors from other universities.
Although I didn’t have an exact picture of who or what I was
representing at that time, in retrospect this was the moment
when the seed for the Network Applied Design Research
(NADR) was planted.
Mutual contacts and intense discussions on approach, used

methods and best practices, led to the establishment of
6
the Network Applied Design Research in 2016. A network of
researchers who all focus on applied design research,
_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ____________________________________ Karin van Beurden
albeit within very different domains. The network has since

1. Harriet Atkinson,
grown into an intensively collaborating group of highly Maya Rae Oppenheimer,
“Design Research – History,
committed professors and researchers, focusing on applied Theory, Practice: Histories
for Future-Focused
design research. Through the Network Applied Design Thinking,” Proceedings of
Design Research Society
Research, we aim to encourage collaboration between 50th Anniversary Conference
research groups and enable discussion about how design (Brighton, June 2016).
and research can mutually enhance each other. 2. Victor Papanek, Design
for the Real World. Human
Ecology and Social Change
In addition to promoting and identifying high-quality design (St Albans: Paladin, 1974).
research, another vital activity of the network is increasing
3. CLICK | Design was the
the visibility of the field. This is also the purpose of this forerunner of CLICKNL, the
innovation network of the
book: to show the diversity of applied design research, in Dutch Creative Industry.
all its aspects. At the same time, the book is also a form of
self-reflection, in which 25 passionate researchers reflect on
what they do, their approach, and what they consider impor-
tant. It shows the reader what the authors have in common:
their focus on the future, the drive to change, and the inten-
sive collaboration with users and other disciplines.
The initiative for this publication lies with Peter Joore. After
years of fascinating discussions, many open conversations
full of new insights, and moments of recognition (“that’s
exactly what I mean and what makes our profession so
disdistinctive”) it’s thanks to him that our experiences have
been brought together in this publication, allowing them to
find their way to a wider audience. The editorial team, con-
sisting of Peter Joore and co-editors Jeroen van den Eijnde
and Guido Stompff, has successfully merged the very diverse
contributions into an appealing and accessible book. As the
chairperson of the Network Applied Design Research, I am
particularly proud that this book was created with the input
of so many. And I am sure it will be an inspiration to anyone
interested in applied design research!
Karin van Beurden

Chairperson of the Network Applied Design Research
Professor of Product Design at Saxion University of
Applied Sciences
7
About the editors _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _______________________________________________________
About
the
editors
Peter Joore,
NHL Stenden University
of Applied Sciences
Dr.ir. Peter Joore focuses on design processes in which
different actors, across sectoral boundaries, work together
to solve complex societal issues in a living lab environment.
He was trained as an industrial designer at TU Delft. He
worked as a designer at several companies, among others
working on a redesign of the Fokker 50 aircraft interior,
the development of signage for Hong Kong’s Mass Transit
Railway Cooperation and the design of check-in systems
for Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport. In 2008, he switched
to higher education, working as a professor of Open
Innovation at NHL Stenden University of Applied Sciences in
Leeuwarden.
Guido Stompff,
Inholland University of
Applied Sciences
Dr.ir. Guido Stompff has been a Professor of Design
Thinking at the Creative Business research group of the
Inholland University of Applied Sciences since 2019. After his
training as an industrial designer (TU Delft), he worked for
over 25 years as a designer, covering the full scope of the
field, including product design, UX design, communication
8 design, packaging design, branding, and even art. In 2011, he

_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ Peter Joore, Guido Stompff, Jeroen van den Eijnd
obtained his PhD in the facilitation of innovation in multidis-

ciplinary teams. His book Design thinking, radicaal veranderen
in kleine stappen was published in 2018. The book was voted
Dutch management book of the year.
Jeroen van den Eijnde,

Artez University of the Arts
Dr. Jeroen van den Eijnde studied product design at the
Arnhem Art Academy and art history at Leiden University. He
obtained his PhD with a study into the theory and ideology
in Dutch formgiving education. Since 2016, he has worked
as a Professor of Tactical Design at ArtEZ University of the
Arts. Van den Eijnde was co-founder and board member of
the Design Platform Arnhem. As a consultant, he worked for
the Fonds Beeldende Kunst, Vormgeving en Bouwkunst (the
Fine Art, Design and Architecture Foundation) and the Raad
voor Cultuur (Culture Council). He is member of the program
council for CLICKNL, the innovation network of the creative
industry’s top sector.
Network Applied
Design Research
All editors and authors in this book are involved in the
Network Applied Design Research, NADR. NADR is a joint
initiative of design researchers affiliated with different
universities of applied sciences. They have joined forces and
work together to ensure the quality and visibility of applied
design research. The NADR partners apply design research
within a broad range of industries and work among others
within the healthcare, food and agriculture sector, the built
environment, and on the development of circular products
and services. For more information, see www.nadr.nl.
9
Applied Design Research _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ________________________________________________________
Applied
Design
Research
Design and research: two areas of expertise, each with its

own traditions, methods, standards, and practices. Two
worlds that are still quite rigorously separated: researchers
research what is there, designers imagine what could be
possible. Design research is trying to bridge the gap by
integrating design and research to develop new knowledge.
However, building bridges between two worlds is not easy.
The search for what design research is, how to perform this
type of research, and which standards must be met resulted
in a proliferation of terms, such as research through design, 1
speculative design, 2 or design research through practice. 3 The
lively discussions on definitions, concepts, and methods
show that the field is developing and there is growing inter-
est from far beyond the design world.
For this book, we chose the term Applied Design Research.

“We” are the Network Applied Design Research: a learning
community of professors and researchers at various universi-
ties of applied sciences. Within this community, we share our
experiences with the many forms of applied design research.
We consciously choose the word “applied” because we like
to emphasize the practical application of design research. So
what do we mean by applied design research? And do we
even have a shared understanding about the concept?
10
___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Peter Joore, Guido Stompff, Jeroen van den Eijnd
By asking the members of the network: “What is your defi-

1. William W. Gaver,
nition of applied design research?”, we created a unique “What Should We Expect
From Research Through
spectrum of different perspectives. The resulting articles Design?,” in Proceedings
of the 2012 ACM Annual
give a glimpse into the kitchen of twenty-five professors and Conference on Human
researchers who apply this inspiring approach to product Factors in Computing
Systems (May 2012):
development, architecture, the arts, healthcare, food, and 937–946, https://doi.
org/10.1145/2207676.
the social sector. It leads to a remarkably transdisciplinary 2208538.
research field. When reading and discussing the articles, we

2. Anthony Dunne and
found a robust pattern of characteristics. These all manifest FionaRaby, Speculative
Everything; Design, Fiction,
to a greater or lesser extent in each individual contribu- and Social Dreaming
(Cambridge, MA: MIT Press:
tion, including a future-orientation, the desire to improve 2013).
the world and the ambition to involve others in the design
3. Ilpo Koskinen, John
process. Zimmerman, Thomas
Binder, Johan Redström
and Stephan Wensveen,
The book, organized into five parts, has not become a recipe Design Research Through
Practice: From The Lab, Field,
book but rather a mosaic of articles, each offering a different and Showroom (Amsterdam:
Elsevier, 2011).
interpretation, different illustrative examples, and different
methods. The characteristic of a mosaic is that each piece
contributes to the whole, but none contains all the infor-
mation. Together, they offer an excellent picture of applied
design research, its use, and what you can expect from it.
We hope that the book, with its many examples, can inspire
(novice) researchers to start applying this inspiring approach.
And that more experienced design researchers recognize
themselves in this book and feel challenged by it.
11
Part 1: Eyes on
the future
The researcher is focused on understanding the world as we
know it; the designer is focused on developing alternative
futures. Applied design research combines both and deals
with what is desired and thus tells us the current problems.
But because the future does not yet exist, it is also difficult to
discuss it. This appeals to the unique quality of the designer:
being able to visualize things that cannot be addressed, in
the form of visualizations, objects, or interventions.
The envisioning of future realities generates new knowledge,

“knowing.” Applied design research is a unique form of
science that tries to initiate intentional changes, to direct the
flow of events towards a more desired future. However, this
calls for difficult methodological and epistemological ques-
tions. The first part of this book contains articles by lecturers
that address the methodological challenge of outlining a
theoretical context for applied design research.
Daan Andriessen, in “Research Into Research,” describes the

development of design science research, and indicates that
in that field, the design of the solution itself, until recently,
was mainly seen as a “creative leap” that was less important
to the final result of the research. Over time, he has become
increasingly interested in design research that involves
developing real solutions for pressing problems. Andriessen
wonders how design can be used more effectively as a
knowledge-generating activity.
12
_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Peter Joore, Guido Stompff, Jeroen van den Eijnd
He was inspired by, among other things, the collabora-

tion with Koen van Turnhout. In “Radio Dabanga,” Koen
and Aletta Smits, through an illustrative case study, offer
insights into different types of knowledge that are char-
acteristic of applied design research. The two distinguish
between knowledge about the current situation, the desired
futures, and effective solutions to get there. In other words,
knowledge of how it |is|, how it |can| be, and how it |will|
be when we apply effective solutions. Each of these types of
knowledge has different quality criteria.
This taxonomy echoes in the results of Tomasz Jaskiewicz’s

research into practical knowledge acquired by designers. In
“Learning From Prototypes.” he distinguishes between insights,
ideas and know-how. These terms describe, respectively,
what designers consider to be truth, what are specula-
tive assumptions, and what needs to be done to achieve
something.
This taxonomy is also recognizable in “Design Thinking for

Professionals,” by Guido Stompff, in which he provides a
process description for design research for professionals
who do not have a design background. Not only designers
design; every professional designs from time to time. In an
iterative process of interpretation (of the existing situation),
envisioning (the desired situation) and design (how to get
there), a new framework and new knowledge are being
developed along the way. In this process, envisioning can
radically change the problem definition, just as design pro-
posals can question envisioned goals.
In “Dance? Dance!” author Peter Troxler describes the know-

how of designers to use artifacts as boundary objects to
bring together different parties and stakeholders, offering a
common language. These boundary objects are recognizable
objects that can mean very different things for the various
parties involved. When language is lacking, such objects
enable people to gain joint insights and come up with solu-
tions in a ballet of disciplines.
13
Part 2: The urge to

improve the world
In the second part, we highlight another characteristic of
applied design research. In the sciences, there is broad
consensus to strive for value-free research. This endeavor is
commendable to understand the current world, but less val-
uable if you want to change it (a bit). Value-free research can
explain the causes and consequences but cannot indicate
what is desired or how to get there, let alone help develop
new perspectives.
In every article in this book, the intention of the researchers

to improve the world can be felt. Applied design research
is anything but value-free. Peter Joore succinctly explains
that in his article “Idealistic Visions of the Future or Realistic
Solutions?”: “It is ultimately about developing a better and
more beautiful world, one in which idealistic visions of the
future are translated into realistic solutions in the here
and now.” That makes applied design research normative,
because it strives for the “good,” such as a more sustainable
world, a more inclusive society or better health care. But
it also raises delicate questions, such as what is “better”?
For whom? And why is it better? Where the researcher is
focused on indicating what is true, and thus on making a
truth judgment, the designer is focused on creating value
and on making a value judgment. This enables research and
14 design to complement each other.

The question ‘what is desired’ is also difficult to answer

because it is hard to envision what is possible in the future.
For example, in “Designing the Future,” author Tessa Cramer
describes that creating future solutions “requires fresh per-
spectives that old systems cannot think of” and that students
need to hack into those systems “in a friendly way.” In doing
so, she chooses a speculative approach to make people
think, with her goal being to teach people to deal with
uncertainty. She calls for a forward-looking, design-oriented
approach because creatives, artists, and designers can con-
tribute to thought processes around societal issues.
This is in line with Anke Coumans’ perspective, who in “The

Artistic Attitude in a Social Context” describes how students
work to portray elderly people with dementia, not so much
to solve problems quickly, but to empathize with others.
Instead of focusing on the development of solutions, this
perspective is mainly about understanding and explaining
a particular situation. She aims to design environments in
a way that enables other professionals, for example in the
healthcare industry, to start acting as designers.
Eke Rebergen, Sebastian Olma and Wander Eikelboom expand

on this in “Looking for Trouble.” Instead of being trouble-
shooters, designers must “question the socio-cultural and
ethical consequences of technological developments and
use design to demonstrate that the world can be different.”
They want designers to have a critical attitude and suggest a
form of speculative design “to raise, gather and own prob-
lems.” This can be annoying or uncomfortable.
In her article, “Discomfort as a Starting Point,” Marieke Zielhuis

chooses a different perspective. She describes her “discom-
fort” when she discovers that designers are seen primarily
as problem solvers, providing solutions in collaborations.
This ignores the needs of designers to develop in their new
role. That is why she does not study what designers should
do, but what they need to grow. In her research, she focuses
on the question, “How can design research contribute to the
design practice?”
15
Part 3: Design and

research with others
In all articles, a human-centered perspective manifests,
sometimes implicitly but usually explicitly. A focus on
humans who do not always act rationally, make intuitive
choices and behave differently depending on the situation.
Words like “empathy” are among the most commonly used
in this book. However, the unruly complexity of applied
design research lies in the fact that each design study
involves many people. They all have different interests,
different opinions, and different reactions, showing con-
trasting perspectives that are nearly impossible to bridge. A
reductionist, analytical perspective fails to understand and
change such situations.
Applied design research brings a fresh approach, trying to

transcend these contradictions. Devising and testing pro-
totypes is intended not so much to discuss the contrasting
perspectives, but to create a design that is tested in practice:
what works and what doesn’t? Does it help people to achieve
a goal? How is it experienced? What surprises? The feedback
provides knowledge for the next iteration of design. Applied
design research embraces subjectivity, but refrains from
“anything goes” relativism by putting practical consequences
central.
Some researchers in this book go beyond testing in order to

involve people. In “Systemic co-design,” Remko van der Lugt
discusses his extensive experience in facilitating co-design
processes. No longer is design framed as designing for
16
others, but as designing with others. His research centers
around how all participants can develop their design
capabilities so that they can contribute fully to the design

process. And how (professional) designers can take on a role
that facilitates that joint process, while also being able to
express their own creativity. This is an important question,
as it would be such a waste if experienced designers cannot
use their knowledge and skills.
Rens Brankaert is active in the healthcare industry and works

with teams of healthcare professionals, design professionals,
and design researchers. In “Inclusive Design in Healthcare,”
he describes how design research can be used to develop
“warm technology”: inclusive technology that focuses on
what someone is still able to do. The challenge he sees, in
line with what Guido Stompff writes in another article, is to
provide healthcare professionals with sufficient design skills
to start design research in their own practical environment.
In a way, this challenge has already been tackled by Wina

Smeenk. In “Societal Impact Design,” she describes the demen-
tia simulator. Through a visit to this simulator, healthy
people (healthcare professionals and informal caretakers)
experience what it is like to live with dementia, enabling
them to better empathize with the people involved. And this
empathy will make them act differently. She emphasizes
that there are no simple solutions for many of the issues;
they require a holistic and empathetic look, considering the
system as a whole.
Co-design is not only applicable to healthcare, as is shown in

Christine de Lille’s article. In “Designing Our Society Together,”
she describes co-design between actors in the retail industry.
In the Future Proof Retail project, a project also involving
Anja Overdiek, the team developed 22 (!) living labs where
industry associations, local retailers, and their employees
worked together on solutions that enabled them to become
future-proof. The labs shared their experiences, and the
results enabled the authorities to support the retail industry
on a larger scale. Based on their experiences, they also pub-
lished a how-to manual for innovation in labs.
17
In “Integral Development of the Built Environment,” author
Perica Savanović discusses co-design in the context of build-
ing, although he refrains from using the word co-design.
He focuses his lens on collaboration between construction
experts, residents, and policymakers. He observes that the
current construction practice hinders innovation because
all design requirements have been specified in great detail
beforehand, limiting the solution space. A shared design
process enables outcomes to transcend the requirements,
as all stakeholders jointly explore the design options before
making final decisions.
Part 4: Building bridges

between disciplines
It is remarkable that applied design research is used in
all kinds of contexts. The articles focus on the healthcare
industry, the construction industry, the social sector, retail,
education, and the public domain. Design research is appar-
ently relevant to all those different worlds, each with its own
knowledge, habits, practices, and stakeholders.
For example, in “Smart Transitions With Design,” Anja Overdiek

describes her own background as a sociologist and psy-
chologist. As an expert in scientific theorization, she had
turned her back on science after graduating: “To me, it was
too much like working in an ivory tower.” She describes how
the discovery of applied research lured her back to the world
of research because this approach enables her to keep
grounded in practices and effectively connect problems,
distinct frames of people with future possibilities.
Eveline Wouters also sees herself as the odd one out in

her article “A New Mindset in Research.” She is not a “real”
designer, but has a medical background. She describes how,
over the years, she has come into contact with a broadening
18 arsenal of research methods, with design research taking

a special place. She considers applied design research to

be more than a research method; it is a mindset in which
the complete involvement of the end-users in the design
of a product, service, or organizational change is of vital
importance.
In “Focus on the Practical Question,” Job van ‘t Veer focused

on that same mindset when discussing his healthcare and
welfare students. They are attracted to design methods that
are aimed at empathy and co-creation with the target group.
He found that, although there are plenty of books about the
many forms of design research, none of them were aligned
to healthcare education. This led to a textbook focused on
design-oriented work for (higher professional) healthcare
and welfare education, that he wrote with Eveline Wouters
and Remko van der Lugt, both of whom contributed to this
book.
In “Shaping an Empathic Learning Environment,” Masi

Mohammadi describes the fertile crossroads of technology,
healthcare, and construction, emphasizing the latter. These
are industries where significant changes are already taking
place, especially when you start working at the cutting edge
of these industries. She describes, among other things, the
development of the “Empathic Home,” which was developed
in close collaboration with a wide range of companies,
housing corporations, and healthcare organizations.
Antien Zuidberg describes another area of application in

“Seducing the Conshuman.” She explains how applied design
research is used in the food and agriculture industry. As
a food technologist, she worked in the food industry for
years. She worked, among other things, on the application
of proteins in food products. She observed that although
this industry had a rapid technological development, a more
significant transition was needed to become sustainable
and healthier. She is now using her Food Innovation Model
to entice the “consumer being” to take steps in the right
direction.
19
Part 5: The task

for applied design
research
Applied design research is being applied more and more, but
where is it heading? In “Something Old, Something New,”
NADR chair Karin van Beurden looks back on her 40 years of
experience and names the task we face, a challenge that
Victor Papanek 4 already posed to the design world half a
century ago. He called for contributions to a better world
and to stop designing poor products that sell well. Karin
describes her development through a multitude of exam-
ples. On the one hand, much has changed in the design
world, but on the other hand, the challenge has remained
the same, namely, to develop solutions that are – in
Papanek’s words – “responsive to the true needs of
mankind.” And apparently, that is much more difficult than
people think.
There is a light at the end of the tunnel. The contributions

show that applied design research is a form of research that
distinguishes itself fundamentally from other research. It
is generative, imaginative, future-oriented, and challenges
people to alter the course of unfolding events into a more
preferred future. It enables designers, users, residents,
experts, and other stakeholders to contribute to the chal-
lenges we face. Applied design research has no issues with
using the word “better,” no matter how tricky the discussion
gets. And it can be applied in a variety of sectors, although
much development is still needed. At the same time, applied
design research is critical of itself and warns against tech-
nocratic solutionism. With this, applied design research can
contribute to shape our collective futures for the better.
In the final contribution, Jeroen van den Eijnde looks back
on this with his “Letter From the Future. An Attempt at Good
20 Ancestry.”
4. Victor Papanek, Design

for the Real World; Human
(St Albans: Paladin, 1974).
In conclusion
Imagining plays a central role in applied design research.
Imagining is expressed by inspiring visualizations, tangible
objects, or meaningful experiences. As the English say, one
should “practice what you preach,” which is why we asked
illustrator Kalle Wolters to express each article by means
of one illustration. He surprised us with his interpretations.
Just as a good poem can convey an emotion that we cannot
describe adequately, he managed to distill something
important from each article that threatened to “drown” in
the jumble of words. Imagining requires a certain level of
courage because intuition, skill, and empathy are needed to
portray what is (still) difficult to express in words.
21
PART 1:
EYES
ON THE
FUTURE
22
“Discovering laws involves
drafting them. Recognizing
patterns is very much a matter
of inventing and imposing
them. Comprehension and
creation go on together.”
~ Nelson Goodman
23
24
_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ______________________________________ Daan Andriessen
Research
into
research
Design processes as
participatory knowledge
production
Daan Andriessen
In the autumn of 1999, I met my intended supervisor

Mathieu Weggeman in a grubby roadside restaurant some-
where in the Dutch province of Brabant. I planned to obtain
my PhD by answering the question of how companies can
measure what the knowledge in their company is worth. My
problem was that I had not yet started the research, even
though I had already designed the solution and even partly
tested it. ‘Well,’ Mathieu said, ‘you should read Joan van
Aken’s 1994 and 1996 articles on design science research.
They discuss a methodology for doing research aimed at
designing and testing methods such as yours.’ That was my
first introduction to design research.
For eight years now, we have been conducting research

at the Utrecht University of Applied Sciences on practical
research methodology. Design research – in all its vari-
ants – is an important trend within this methodology. So
we are, in fact, researching research. Our focus is on the
research competence of students, lecturers, and researchers
at the universities of applied sciences. We help education
25
programs and lecturers to get a good impression of the
students’ research competence through their curricula
Research into research _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _______________________________________________________
and graduation efforts. We help researchers master
practice-oriented research that has an impact on practice,
and we develop tools for better research.
Our research focuses on five issues: 1) How are research

competences expressed in the context of education,
research, and professional practice, and what is the relation-
ship with the other capabilities of professionals?
2) Which forms of methodical thoroughness are appropriate
for the use of research competence? 3) How can collabora-
tion between disciplines and those involved in research be
promoted? 4) How can the effect of research competence be
increased? And 5) How can the mind shift and organizational
transformation that are involved in research competence be
stimulated?
One of the ongoing studies in the research group is the

research of PhD student Marieke Zielhuis (see elsewhere
in this collection). She has a background as a designer (TU
Delft) and looks at how design research can yield more for
designers in a practical environment. In many cases, the
focus of design research is on developing knowledge and
products to solve specific problems. Such research can also
provide valuable results that can help you design better.
However, such knowledge does not yet sufficiently reach the
design practice. How can that be improved?
Design science research as

social science designing
I applied Joan van Aken’s approach in my thesis and
obtained a PhD from Nyenrode University in 2003 with a
study in which I had designed a valuation method and tested
it at six companies. Not long after, I met Joan van Aken in
person. In 2006 we founded the Design Science Research
Group (DSRG), 1 a community of practice for researchers
with a common interest in the methodology of this kind of
research.
Soon, I discovered that the design science research trend,

with authors such as Van Aken and Romme, is dominated by
26
management sciences and is relatively separate from other
design trends such as technology, IT and industrial design.
_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ______________________________________ Daan Andriessen
Design science research is, as it were, the social scientific

1. www.dsrg.nl
variant of design research. The DSRG, therefore, mainly
attracts other social scientific researchers, for example, from 2. Nicoline Mulder,
Value-based Project
the educational field. Design science research has many Management. Een Aanpak
voor Chaordische Projecten
affinities with educational design research, with authors vanuit het Perspectief van
het Complexiteitsdenken
such as Van den Akker and McKenney. (PhD Thesis, TU Eindhoven,
2012), https://doi.
org/10.6100/IR740171.
This social scientific variant designs social artifacts, not
physical ones: ways of action that are contained in methods 3. Donald Ropes,
Organizing Professional
and concrete interventions. In other words, we design ‘things Communities of Practice
(Amsterdam: University of
you can do’ such as a project management method , 2 a Amsterdam Press, 2010).
method for setting up communities of practice , 3 or a
4. Petra H.M. Cremers,
method for setting up hybrid learning environments . 4 Designing Hybrid Learning
These are solutions to practical problems, which are vali- Configurations; At the
Interface Between School
dated in a social scientific way. and Workplace, PhD Thesis
(Wageningen University,
10 February 2016).
For me, this also explains the increasing popularity of this
type of research, especially at universities of applied 5. Jos De Jonge,
Praktijkgericht Onderzoek bij
sciences. The practical researchers at the universities of Lectoraten van Hogescholen
(The Hague: Rathenau
applied sciences want to contribute to a better practical Instituut, 2016).
environment by providing solutions . 5 Design science

6. Pieter Jan Stappers and
research is focused on this. At the same time, it is an Elisa Giaccardi, “Research
Through Design,” in The
approach that focuses on the scientific validation of that Encyclopedia of Human-
Computer Interaction, 2nd
solution. I meet many lecturers at universities of applied edition, eds. Mads Soegaard
and Rikke Friis-Dam
sciences who find this combination attractive and perceive it (Aarhus, Denmark: 2017):
as a way to promote and at the same time contribute to the 1–94.
practical environment.
Another characteristic of design science research is that the

design process is a means of achieving the solution, but that
the designing itself is hardly used as a means of gaining
insight. Design science research is therefore not research
through design . 6 In fact, in the early years of the DSRG, the
designing of the solution itself was mainly seen as a ‘creative
leap’ that was less important for the end result. Instead, the
focus was on achieving a proper definition of the problem
and on validating the solution. However, in recent years, we
have gained more insight into the design process as a
separate research activity. The participation of researchers
who have been trained as designers, such as professor Koen
van Turnhout, has contributed greatly to this.
27
The third characteristic of design science research is that
7. Daan Andriessen,
“Kennisstroom and the studies are mostly ‘small n’ studies. It is about finding
Praktijkstroom,” in
Handboek Ontwerpgericht valid solutions to problems that are relatively unique and
Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek;
Wetenschap met Effect, Joan complex. For example, in the medical sciences (actually also
Ernst Van Aken and Daan
Andriessen, eds., (Den
a form of design research, since this also deals with design-
Haag: Boom Lemma, 2011): ing and testing solutions to problems), large numbers of
79–93.
patients are often involved. Testing is done on a large scale
8. Joan Ernst Van Aken
and Daan Andriessen, eds.,
in double-blind experiments, and statistics show whether
Handboek Ontwerpgericht the treatment works on average. On the other hand, design
Wetenschap Met Effect (The science research usually deals with small numbers. As a
Hague: Boom Lemma
Publishers, 2011). researcher, you will be lucky to find six organizations, for
example, that deal with a particular problem for which you
9. www.musework.nl
can develop a solution. Design science research, therefore,
often means case study research with a solid qualitative
character.
The starting point of design science research is that in such

complex problems, every situation is unique. In each case,
the solution you develop (the generic solution) must be
made suitable for the local context (the specific solution).
For example, one of the cases in my thesis was a small
consultancy firm that told me in advance: ‘Your method is
interesting, but the lead time is three months. That is far too
long for us. Can it be done in a day?’ As it happens, it was
possible.
Design science research has in common with other forms of

design research that the researcher moves back and forth
between the generic design and the concrete applications. In
the DSRG, we started calling this ‘moving between two
streams’: the knowledge stream and the practice stream. 7
This process is illustrated in Figure 1. We have now set up a
third process in between, where the design activities take
place. This shows the increasing attention within the DSRG
for the design itself.
28
_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ______________________________________ Daan Andriessen
Knowledge stream
THEORY DEMAND KNOWLEDGE
(RE)DESIGNING REFLECTION
EXPLORATION GENERATION DEVELOPMENT
Successes
Scientific Theory of
Theoretical Generic and
research action
framework solution improve-
question (CIMO)
ments
Casus n
Casus 2
Casus 1
Local
Local Recorded Effects of
research Findings
solution experiences actions
Practical question
situation
ACTION IMPLE- ESTABLISH

DIAGNOSIS EVALUATION
PLANNING MENTATION LEARNING
Practice stream
More makership, more Figure 1

Knowledge stream and
participation, and practice stream in design
science research. 7
more recognition
One of the objectives of the DSRG is to develop the method-
ology of this type of research further. One of the first results
was our 2011 Handboek Ontwerpgericht Wetenschappelijk
Onderzoek (Handbook on Design-Driven Scientific
Research). 8 In this manual, we elaborate on the above-men-
tioned characteristics and explain how you can solve
bottlenecks in the approach. The methodological challenge
we are now working on is to give the design process a more
prominent place as an integral part of the methodology.
This means more attention to design methods and to
designing as a knowledge-generating activity.
One of my great sources of inspiration in this is the work of

professor Bart van Rosmalen of the Utrecht School of the
Arts. He has developed the concept of ‘musework’, 9 in which
the researcher draws inspiration from the nine muses of
Greek mythology. For example, Terpsichore, ‘she who likes
to dance’. How can dance, physical motion, and
29
Research into research _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _______________________________________________________
performance, be of service in practical research? Or Calliope,
the muse of poetry, holding a stylus. How can poetry con-
tribute to the development and transfer of new insights? A
characteristic feature of all the muses is that they sing the
praises of reality by making something. This makership can
become even more central in design science research.
A second methodical challenge is to make the process of

design science research more participatory. In the begin-
ning, we tended to act as experts, coming in to research
a problem, develop a solution from behind a desk, and
come back to test the solution. I have also called design
science research ‘research by consulting’, in which the role
of consultant was more that of an expert than a process
supervisor.
In recent years, we have become interested in getting stake-

holders to participate in the research, and we have sought
contact with action researchers. One of the results is a
course called Action Research meets Design Research, which
is hosted by four universities of applied sciences and the
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. In this course, we examine the
similarities and differences between design research and
action research.
Finally, the challenge remains to get design science research

acknowledged as a scientific approach in the social sciences.
From the beginning, the social sciences have been very
divided on the question of what is good scientific research,
with many camps and paradigms. In this ‘method struggle’,
the post-positivists have long had the upper hand. As a
result, social scientific research was only taken seriously if it
included statistics.
In recent years, there has been growing interest in other

forms of research, partly due to a greater need for research
that contributes to a better society. However, PhD students
from the universities of applied sciences still find that their
intended supervisor wants them to perform mainly descrip-
tive and explanatory research; they do not accept design
science research as an acceptable approach for a thesis.
30
_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _______________________________________ Daan Andriessen
Thanks to NADR, my colleagues at the Utrecht University of

Applied Sciences, such as Remko van der Lugt and Koen van
Turnhout, and Marieke Zielhuis’ PhD research at TU Delft, I
am increasingly involved in the world of design scientists.
And I love that the focus on describing, explaining and statis-
tics is almost non-existent in that world. I like that the focus
is on developing solutions to pressing problems. Although
that world has its own peculiarities (‘Oh, you are not trained
as a designer…I see...’), it is an exciting and inspiring envi-
ronment in which I still want to learn a lot about better
designing, validating, and further developing solutions for
practical issues.
Daan
Andriessen
Utrecht University of
Applied Sciences
Dr. Daan Andriessen is Professor of Research Competence
at the Utrecht University of Applied Sciences. He worked
as an organizational consultant for KPMG during the first
twelve years of his career. After obtaining his PhD from
Nyenrode University in 2003, he started working at univer-
sities of applied sciences, first as a professor of Knowledge
Management at Inholland and since 2013 as a professor at
the Utrecht University of Applied Sciences. In his work, Daan
tries to make research more relevant for practice, and he
wants to use the complexity of the practical environment
to enrich the world of research. He is interested in design
31
research, action research, and in forms of research that
apply the qualities of the arts.
32
_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _______________ Koen van Turnhout & Aletta Smits
Radio
Dabanga
Applied design research
in human experience
& media design
Koen van Turnhout & Aletta Smits
Radio Dabanga is a radio station broadcasting for Sudan.

However, their newsroom is located in Amsterdam because
of Sudan’s long history of repression of the free press. That
means that two journalists are tasked with covering the
journalistic needs of a population of 43 million citizens over
4000 miles away. How is that even possible? What are the
information gathering and verification practices of these
journalists? Can we design powerful tools that make this
Herculean challenge even remotely manageable?
The research group Human Experience and Media Design

(HEMD) aims to improve the user experience of digital
media. Increasingly, user experience (UX) professionals
working in design agencies, technology, or service compa-
nies have the opportunity to use data and AI as a design
material to conceive new meaningful digital media prod-
ucts and to improve the quality of the current generation
human-media interactions. Our focus is to support pro-
fessionals in this challenge with inspirational examples,
practical tools, methods and models. In practice, most of our
projects form a rich amalgam of multiple horizons, stake-
holders and complementary knowledge products. As the
Radio Dabanga project is a vivid example of all these charac-
teristics, we will use it throughout this paper to illustrate our
approach to applied design research.
33
Radio Dabanga _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _______________________________________________________
1. Koen van Turnhout,
Arthur Bennis, Sabine
What is applied
Craenmehr, Robert
Holwerda et al, “Design
design research?
Patterns for Mixed-
Method Research in HCI,”
Applied design research aims to deliver design-relevant
Proceedings of the 8th Nordic knowledge by solving real-world design problems. It is a
Conference on Human-
Computer Interaction: Fun, pluriform research tradition 1 appropriating many
Fast, Foundational (October
2014): 361–370. approaches from other fields. 2 Still, it is distinctly recogniza-
ble by its commitment to improving our designed world. The
2. Annie Gentes,
In-Discipline of Design: taxonomy of theory functions by Van Turnhout et al. offers a
Bridging the Gap Between
Humanities and Engineering comprehensive overview of the types of knowledge that are
(Springer Nature, 2017).
typically connected within a design project. 3
Marjolein Jacobs, Miriam
Losse, Thea van der Geest,
René Ronald Bakker, “A
truths ideals expectations
Practical Take on Theory in
HCI,” White paper (2019).
causes values effects
why? explanatory aspirational predictive
what? descriptive generative prescriptive
phenomena alternatives solutions
[is] [could ] [will]
Figure 1
Six well-known theory
In essence, the taxonomy maps well-known knowledge
functions are mapped to functions to the activity of designing. To design, we need
the types of knowledge
needed to design knowledge about the current situation (the |is| realm), we
a solution.
also need knowledge about desirable alternatives (the
|could| realm), and about what we know to be effective
mechanisms and solutions (the |will| realm). Each realm
has its own epistemological commitments, and for each type
of knowledge one could formulate different criteria for its
applicability, as mapped out in Figure 1.
Within this taxonomy, different (design) research tradi-

tions could be characterized by highlighting which theory
functions they consider to be the most vital outcomes of
their discipline. Many social sciences restrict themselves to
description and explanation (|is|), while some engineering
sciences consider prediction and prescription as their key
assets |will|).
34
___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _______________ Koen van Turnhout & Aletta Smits
In our view, applied design research incorporates all theory

4. Jesper Simonsen
functions in the following way. and Toni Robertson eds.,
Routledge International
Handbook of Participatory
• |is| We commit ourselves to identify and address Design (Oxfordshire:
Routledge, 2012).
real-world problems in current society and reframe them,
opening up an opportunity space for design. We share 5. Anthony Dunne and
Fiona Raby, Speculative
this commitment, and many of our approaches, with the Everything; Design, Fiction,
and Social Dreaming
Scandinavian school of participatory design. 4 (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press:
2013).
• |could| We consider proposing alternatives and formu-
6. Caroline Hummels and
lating underlying values and ideals in a design vision as Joep Frens, “Designing for
the Unknown: A Design
our primary contribution to these problems. In this Process for the Future
Generation of Highly
commitment, we feel related to the traditions of specula- Interactive Systems and
tive design, 5 opportunity-oriented design 6 7 and Products, in Proceedings
of the 10th International
constructive design research. Conference on Engineering
and Product Design
• |will| We commit ourselves to demonstrate and validate Education (Barcelona,
September 2008): 204–209.
the effectiveness of the alternatives that we propose,
preferably by implementing them in current practices. In 7. Koen van Turnhout,
Stijn Hoppenbrouwers, Paul
this commitment, we feel related to design science Jacobs, Jasper Jeurens, Wina
Smeenk, and René Ronald
research. 8 9 Bakker, “Requirements
From the Void: Experiences
Let’s turn to our Sudanese radio station again to apply these With 1: 10: 100,” in
Proceedings of the 3rd
commitments in our Radio Dabanga project. Workshop on Creativity in
Requirements Engineering
(Essen, 2011).
|is| The Dabanga radio journalists, who want to cover the news
in a country abroad, are for a large part dependent on citizen 8. Alan Hevner, Salvatore
March, Jinsoo Park and
journalists, people on the ground who send tips. Whatsapp Sudha Ram, “Design Science
Research In Information
(and to a lesser extent Facebook messages) are Dabanga’s “ear Systems,” MIS Quarterly 28,
no. 1 (March 2004): 75–105.
to the ground.” However, the journalists are in an information
overload situation. Some days the newsroom has to process 9. Joan Ernst van Aken
over 3.000 messages a day, especially during the revolution in Handboek Ontwerpgericht
2019. With their small team, they have no means to read all of Wetenschap Met Effect
them, let alone assess them and follow up on them. The staff (The Hague Boom Lemma
Uitgevers, 2011).
are agonizing over the fact that they might be missing valuable
information, information that might be essential to the people
of Sudan, and that they would like to broadcast.
35
Radio Dabanga _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _______________________________________________________
|could| In the project, we explored whether the tips of the
10. Aletta Smits, Erik
Hekman, Koen van Dabanga journalists could be organized with the help of text
Turnhout, “Ear to the
Ground: Using Text Mining mining algorithms. Topic modelling, for example, is a statistical
to Pick Up All Sudanese
Voices for Radio Dabanga,” technique that can identify messages with similar topics and
The EuroIA Conference
(Kraków, September 2020). group them. This can be used to create a dashboard where
journalists see the messages organized by topic rather than
11. Gesche Joost,
Katharina Bredies, Michelle chronologically, allowing them to pay attention to less frequent,
Christensen, Florian
Conradi, and Andreas
but important, messages that might not stand out enough to
Unteidig eds., Design be noticed. We explored these solutions of data processing and
as Research: Positions,
Arguments, Perspectives visualization in the light of journalistic values such as unbiased
(Basel: Birkhäuser, 2016):
224. overview, scrutiny of information and autonomy of the journal-
ist to act on the provided information.
|will| The effectiveness of the envisioned pattern classifica-

tion techniques depends crucially on contextual factors, such
as language use in the community we are tailoring to and the
modality of the messages (voice text/typed text). Topic modelling
is a technique that has been developed and is mostly used for
English. Arabic, however, has different linguistic characteristics
demanding other pre-processing methods – an Arabic stop word
list and a procedure that is specialized in Arabic conjugation
patterns – that we needed to apply to the project. Also, citizen
journalists inserted code words in messages to throw off poten-
tial government spies. These words were unknown to us and
complicated the clustering. In other words: applying the cluster-
ing in practice yielded knowledge about the contingencies and
requirements for using these techniques in practice.
Six horizons of applied

design research.
Who benefits from the knowledge that we develop? Tackling
an urgent contemporary and rich design problem like the
Dabanga case 10 in all its real-world complexity, sparks
several intertwined knowledge agendas. In many ways, each
project gives us the feeling that we are only just beginning.
No wonder that some authors characterize design research
as an indiscipline, a field without standardized methods of
developing knowledge, and even propose to commit to this
freedom of approach. 11 We share this sentiment to some
extent, but unravelling the different horizons of the project
36 will illuminate how we can be anchored in current practices

_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _______________ Koen van Turnhout & Aletta Smits
and real-world complexities and simultaneously be pro-

grammatic about it, i.e. deliberately working towards
knowledge transfer.
Horizon 1: Solving the practical

problem (|is|,|could|,|will|).
The straightforward answer to the question ‘who benefits’
is Radio Dabanga and the people of Sudan. By enabling
the journalist to sort messages in a more balanced way
and building support for source verification, we empower
the Dabanga journalists and increase the quality of news
reporting in Sudan. These solutions incorporate integration
of |is|, |could| and |will| knowledge restricted in scope
to the particular project; it is not easily transferable as an
integrated whole.
Horizon 2: Stakeholder’s knowledge agendas

The Dabanga project was implemented, among others, in
collaboration with Free Press Unlimited, an organization
supporting journalists abroad, a journalism research group
and a technical partner who built their prototype. Each
participated in the project with their own knowledge goals
(sometimes overlapping with the knowledge horizons that
follow). We feel that successful applied design research
projects need to be tailored to the knowledge needs of such
partners.
One could argue that the knowledge developed in a project

is contingent on the specific project situation; surrendering
to such contingencies is a disadvantage of applied design
research. This is the case for the integrated solution, but
disentangling the different types of knowledge shows that
each type of knowledge developed in the project has its own
opportunities for transferability.
Horizon 3: Identifying problem families

and opportunity spaces (|is|)
When we look at the |is| knowledge in the project, we see
that the problem framing that we developed in the Dabanga
project opens up an opportunity space for related problems.
Interfaces like the ones developed in the project can help
37
other radio stations broadcasting for their audiences abroad,
other journalists in general and other sectors struggling with
Radio Dabanga _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _______________________________________________________
information overload. Simply put: solving a problem
increases its importance 12 for others, and problem framing
is a reusable outcome of design research. 13 Similarly, the
difficulties of dealing with local language will play out
differently in different projects. Nevertheless, we have
identified it as an essential attention point for people trying
to tackle similar problems.
Horizon 4: Expanding solution repertoire (|could|)

We now shift our attention from people who may have an
information overload problem to the UX designers increas-
ingly working in data-driven ways. We need to sketch how a
project like Dabanga benefits them. The simple answer is
that solutions are contagious. Van Turnhout and Smits argue
that design disciplines are defined to a large extent by the
repertoire of solutions professional designers have mas-
tered. 14 Data-driven designers have knowledge of
techniques to optimize the seamlessness, engagement and
personal relevance of digital media. Dabanga adds scrutiny
to this list. Designers faced with a novel design situation can
use the Dabanga case as a primary generator of new ideas
for solutions in their context even if this is unrelated to the
original case. 15 To facilitate this transfer to the professional
practice, it is important to explicate the connections from
the design to the underlying values (see Figure 1); alternative
solutions need to be held accountable to the ideals and
values they represent.
38
_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ ________________ Koen van Turnhout & Aletta Smits
Horizon 5: Investigating feasibility;

12. Larry Laudan, Progress
developing the craft (|will|) and Its Problems: Towards a
Theory of Scientific Growth
Designers and data scientists can also benefit from the |will| (Berkeley, CA: University of
knowledge that we developed: the evidence collected that California Press, 1978).
proves our solution is effective. The many practical prob- 13. Donald Schön, The
lems we needed to solve to get the project up and running Reflective Practitioner: How
Professionals Think in Action
can contribute to the development of the craft of data- (New York, Basic Books,
1984).
driven design. Others can reuse the practical tools that we
appropriated to deal with local language and can get a feel 14. Koen van Turnhout and
Aletta Smits, “On Solution
for the difficulties that may arise in such a project, building Repertoire,” in: Proceedings
of the 23rd Engineering and
to a general feel of feasibility that they need in assessing Product Design Education
Conference (Herning,
novel problems. Denmark, 2021).
15. Jane Darke, “The

Horizon 6: Programmatic design Primary Generator and the
and theory annotation. Design Process,” Design
Studies 1, no. 1 (1979):
Most authors on design research argue that it should not 36–44.
consist of independent projects but take place in design
16. Ilpo Koskinen, John
programs that have a theoretical core. 16 These programs Zimmerman, Thomas
Binder, Johan Redström
ensure knowledge build-up across projects. In practice, and Stephan Wensveen,
Design Research Through
there is a tension between our commitment to solve real- Practice: From the Lab, Field,
world problems and programmatic design: arguably, our and Showroom (Amsterdam:
Elsevier, 2011).
design projects portfolio is less coherent than that of
research groups with a primary commitment to a theoretical 17. Bill Gaver and John
Bowers, “Annotated
core. Portfolios,” Interactions 19,
no. 4 (2012): 40–49.
However, we do work programmatically, but we focus on

theory annotation rather than theory building. Gaver &
Bowes 17 correctly observe that design is underdetermined
by theory and that theorizing is underdetermined by the
designs made in projects like ours. A project like the
Dabanga project demonstrates the appropriate and actual
use of theories that we use for guidance. As such, the
relation between the knowledge we utilize in the project is
not hierarchical – the project as an illustration of theoretical
insights – but horizontal – the project can be related to
theory with a certain amount of subtitling. A portfolio of
solutions, connected through such annotations, in turn, also
forms a body of knowledge that benefits design.
39
Radio Dabanga _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _______________________________________________________
Conclusions and outlook
It turns out that yes, it is possible to design powerful tools that
aid journalists in filtering lots of information.
This is good news for other professionals facing similar

problems, and for designers and data scientists who’d like to
add such solutions to their repertoire. In this paper, we have
examined the Dabanga project as an interplay of different
types of knowledge: |is|, |could| and |will| knowledge.
We also argued that each of these types of knowledge has
its own transfer horizon, benefiting different professional
groups in different ways. It is this culmination of profes-
sional and scientific interests that makes many applied
design research projects so rich and unique; but which
also poses challenges for programmatic research planning.
Understanding how applied research annotates theories
and contributes to the solution repertoire of professional
designers can aid this planning. We hope to expand on these
notions in the coming years, and to illustrate them with
more unique, rich projects.
40
_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ ________________ Koen van Turnhout & Aletta Smits
Koen van
Turnhout &
Aletta Smits
Applied Sciences
Dr. Koen van Turnhout is professor of Human Experience
& Media Design at the Utrecht University of Applied
Sciences. The research group focuses on User Experience
(UX) professionals. Koen did his doctorate research at the
Eindhoven University of Technology with interdisciplinary
design research into speech interaction in a social context.
His current research is aimed at the methodology of design
(research) and the designing of data-driven smart products
and services. Koen is the chairman of the Design Science
Research Group, a community of practice for design-focused
research, and of CHI Nederland, the professional association
for human-computer interaction professionals. Dr. Aletta
Smits is an associate professor for the Human Experience &
Media Design research group. Aletta obtained her doctorate
at the University of Amsterdam studying computational
linguistics; she is currently researching data-driven user
research and user experience design. She has developed
the Data-Driven Design master course and, apart from her
work at the Utrecht University of Applied Sciences, she is
41
also a public speaker on subjects such as ‘how people make
choices’ and the development of the adolescent brain.
Radio Dabanga _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _______________________________________________________
42
_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _____________________________________ Tomasz Jaskiewicz
Learning
from
prototypes
From the design
studio to the city
Tomasz Jaskiewicz
My recently started Civic Prototyping research group aims to

1. Jane Fulton Suri,
develop new tools and methods enabling urban residents to “Informing Our Intuition:
Design Research for
exploratively research and develop applications of new tech- Radical Innovation,” Rotman
Magazine (Winter 2008):
nologies. This allows them to improve their everyday lives by 52–57.
taking their own initiative in creating valuable services, prod-
ucts, collaborations, and shared spaces. Facilitating applied
design research is an essential part of this. But what does
applied design research look like in the context of a commu-
nity of people who keep trying to change the world around
them? And what are the challenges for the implementation
of applied design research in such a context? To answer
these questions, I first need to explain my understanding of
what applied design research actually is.
The meaning of applied

design research
‘Design research both inspires imagination and informs intuition
through a variety of methods with related intents: to expose
patterns underlying the rich reality of people’s behaviors and
experiences, to explore reactions to probes and prototypes, and
to shed light on the unknown through iterative hypothesis and
experiment’. 1 This elegant quote by Jane Fulton Suri per-
43
fectly captures my understanding of what is applied design
research.
Learning from prototypes __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _______________________________________________________
The term ‘design research’ in academic circles has grown to
2. For a comprehensive
definition and overview, mean the study of designers, design processes, and their
please refer to: Pieter
Jan Stappers and Elisa outcomes. Adding the prefix “applied” brings the term back
Giaccardi, “Research
Through Design,” in The to how it functions in designers’ common speak. There,
Encyclopedia of Human-
it simply means all kinds of activities that designers do
edition, eds. Mads Soegaard to understand better the context they design for. To me,
and Rikke Friis-Dam
(Aarhus, Denmark: 2017): applied design research means exactly that: the hands-on,
1–94.
practical, but also often informal investigation into the
3. William W. Gaver, design context, which is an integral part of doing design.
“What Should We Expect
From Research Through
Design?,” in Proceedings Internationally, the discourse on applied design research
of the 2012 ACM Annual
Conference on Human and the synonymous term research through design 2 has
Factors in Computing
Systems (May 2012): grown considerably over the last five years. Bill Gaver,
937–946, https://doi.org/
10.1145/2207676.2208538. among others, published an insightful set of challenges for
the academic research through design community, 3 and the
4. Abigail C. Durrant,
John Vines, Jayne Wallace, first Research Through Design (RTD) conference followed in
Joyce S.R. Yee, “Research
Through Design: Twenty- 2015. 4 What made this conference exceptional was its
First Century Makers and
Materialities,” in Design
relevance to both academics and design professionals.
Issues 33, no. 3 (Summer During the RTD conferences, several styles of applied design
2017): 3–10, https://doi.
org/10.1162/DESI_a_00447. research were brought together, and prototypes were used
as a valid form of knowledge transfer.
In 2019 we had the honor to host the RTD conference at

TU Delft. We saw first-hand how the discourse on applied
design research has matured in recent years. However, the
diversity of research through design approaches has also
given rise to a discussion about what defines ‘good’ research
through design practice, guaranteeing the validity and gen-
eralizability of design knowledge.
Zigzagging between design

research and design activities
Applied design research can be challenging for designers –
simply because research and design are two activities with
very different purposes. Research is focused on generating
knowledge about the world in which we live. Design is aimed
at producing interventions that will change this world. This
friction plays out all too often in design processes. Design
research focuses on learning about the design context
and generating new knowledge. The focus of design is on
44
_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _____________________________________ Tomasz Jaskiewicz
applying knowledge to create an intervention that (in the

eyes of the designer) will improve the world.
Designing and design researching can be seen as two par-

allel processes that stimulate each other but have different
goals. A good designer iteratively moves back and forth
between those two processes, as visualized in Figure 1. In
the poetic words of Donald Schön: “the designer (...) shapes
the situation in accordance with his initial appreciation of it,
the situation ‘talks back’ and he responds to the situation’s back
talk.”
research Figure 1
Designers make iterative
moves between designing
and researching their
design context.
new
knowledge
new
prototype design
design
Managing one’s own design iterations is a difficult skill. I
have coached numerous design students who were hope-
lessly stuck in their design research. They would not dare to
come up with any design ideas until their research felt truly
complete. This is what design coaches often call ‘analysis-pa-
ralysis’. Paradoxically, the more the students researched,
the less complete their research felt. At the same time,
other students had design ideas in the first moments of
their design process and rejected the need for doing design
research altogether. They were fixated on their first ideas,
and immediately wanted to invest a lot of time and energy in
their detailed development. Driven by the loss aversion, they
would then do everything they could to protect their ‘design
darling’ from any research or criticism that might prove it
flawed.
45
My best design students were able to continuously move
5. Emil Flach’s team-
mates were Marieke between their design research and design activities. They
Noordermeer, Yu Wang and
Ward Groutars in the first kept adapting their ideas, building many prototypes, and
stage of the project, and
Sarah Kraan, Maira Ribelles gathering feedback on these prototypes from others, making
and Ziwei Li in the second,
coached by Roy Bendor and
their design research and design development progress
Marise Schot. This story work hand-in-hand and support each other.
uses the perspective of
one person to emphasize
the individual character of
learning during design.
An example
6. Roy Bendor, Aadjan
van der Helm and Tomasz
Let me give you an example to better explain the complexity
Jaskiewicz, eds., A Spectrum of applied design research in practice. Emil Flach was a
of Possibilities: A Catalog of
Tools for Urban Citizenship in fourth-year Industrial Design Engineering student at the TU
the Not-So-Far Future (Delft
University of Technology, Delft when he was commissioned to design a speculative

2018).
‘instrument of citizenship for Rotterdam 2060’. The assign-
ment was part of the Interactive Technology Design course.
At the beginning of the project, Emil and his team 5 were
told that they were expected to come up with an application
of interactive technology that would help future city dwellers
to be more informed, more active and influential in shaping
their future city.
Over the next nine weeks, Emil and his team would come
up with several ideas about what the future of Rotterdam
could hold and invent interactive products that would fit into
that future. One of these products was an interactive device
that looked like an umbrella and could help create personal
space in a busy city (Figure 2). Each of such prototypes
helped Emil and his team imagine the future city in more
detail and grasp the complexity of future urban problems.
They did so by investigating the city and citizens of today

and extrapolating the observed trends into the future. These
investigations led them to a future vision of an overcrowded
and competitive society. The team converged on a design
for a device that would help people to prove themselves as
valuable to their community, while at the same time raising
many ethical questions about the balance between a per-
son’s obligations as a citizen versus personal freedom.
Next, the teams were rearranged. Emil joined his new

teammates, and this new cooperation brought up another
aspect of overcrowded society, namely dealing with immi-
46 grants who settle in the city. The process ultimately led to a

Figure 2
Thanks to rapid prototypes,
Emil and his team could
apply their ideas and learn
from them in the real
world. (Photo Yu Wang)
Figure 3
The exhibited ‘Smart
Migrants Dispenser’
surprised some visitors and
upset others during the
Dutch Design Week 2018.
(Photo Maira Ribelles)
provocative concept of a device that links migrant families to

current city dwellers as hosts (Figure 3).
The users of the device still had several choices, but in the
end, citizens were always forced to take care of newcomers
to their society. The prototype led to much discussion about
the validity of the different attitudes that citizens may have
toward migrants. It confronted the seemingly noble idea of
‘adopting’ a migrant family with a forced, automated, and
dehumanized way to implement it. It challenged people to
question their own values and beliefs about migration.
During the design process, Emil’s team’s prototypes were

shared with other students through work-in-progress
exhibitions organized as part of the course. 6 During the
project, students regularly exchanged insights and
47
Learning from prototypes _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ________________________________________________________
know-how, helping each other express and understand the
complexity of the current and future challenges facing
Rotterdam and its inhabitants.
The ‘smart migrant dispenser’ was later exhibited with

other prototypes during the Dutch Design Week in 2018,
where it reached thousands of visitors. Emil observed the
reactions of people to the prototype while he supervised
the exhibition. Many visitors were puzzled. Some laughed,
others shrugged their shoulders. Some of them got angry
with Emil because they were offended by the taboos that
the prototype crossed, or because they misunderstood its
thought-provoking purpose.
In his recent reflection on this project, Emil noted that for

him personally the key lessons learned during the project
were the technical skills he developed while building his
prototypes and the ability to explore a design space iter-
atively. He also regretted that he could not articulate his
team’s nuanced views on migration when confronted by
visitors during the Dutch Design Week exhibition. It was a
skill that other team members focused on. Each of the more
than a hundred other students who followed the Interactive
Technology Design course that year went through a dif-
ferent, very personal learning process. However, they all
had the same challenge in mind, improving the future of
Rotterdam.
The knowledge of designers

When following the story of Emil’s applied design research,
you may notice that there is not a single topic or type of
knowledge that he has obtained when working on his
project. Many of his learnings were tacit and manifested
themselves rather in his design actions than in what he
said or wrote. Many of his observations, impressions and
thoughts probably got lost in between his iterations, while in
various ways they still influence Emil’s abilities as a designer
and design researcher.
In recent years, I have been researching ways to struc-

ture, capture, and share practical design knowledge such
48 as Emil’s. In a series of studies, my colleagues and I have

analyzed the design research documentation of large groups

of students. Our analysis revealed three ways to differen-
tiate the different types of design knowledge the students
documented, as illustrated in Figure 4.
First, that knowledge was either related to the domain of the

design context or the design process. Second, we encoun-
tered three different types of knowledge descriptions. There
were declarative statements, commonly called ‘insights’,
that described what designers considered to be true. There
were also procedural descriptions, which we called ‘know-
how’. They represented a process needed to be followed to
achieve a specific result. There were also speculative state-
knowledge
domains
Knowledge knowledge
types Topics
ments, which we called ‘assumptions’, ‘design hypotheses’

Figure 4
or simply ‘ideas’. They described what designers expected The three sides of design
knowledge detail what
a specific intervention to achieve. Third, the topic of the designers learn.
acquired knowledge differed. Some students focused on
individual people, others on society at large, or on tech-
nology, while in many cases, a combination of topics was
addressed.
This systematization of design knowledge has further helped

us to better support applied design research by creating
a ‘reflection card’ tool for structured reflection during the
design process. Such a reflection card is a simple digital
form organized based on the identified design knowledge
categories. Each student designer had to fill in a reflection
49
card for each design or prototype iteration created. In some
7. The statement that
‘everyone is a designer’ cases, this meant 20 cards per student. The cards forced
was popularized by IDEO’s
Tim Brown together with student designers to briefly reflect on their design process
the concept of “design
thinking,” 8 but it has and its outcomes and articulate the most recently acquired
long existed in the design
discourse. For example, knowledge.
Herbert Simon wrote in The
Sciences of the Artificial: 9
Everyone designs who devises
Based on our analysis, we determined that the use of reflec-
courses of action aimed at tion cards involved a sequence of six different activities:
changing existing situations
into preferred ones. And
Victor Papanek wrote in 1. Changing the mindset from design-oriented to
Design for the Real World: 10
All men are designers. All that research-oriented
we do, almost all the time, is
design, for design is basic to 2. Articulating knowledge
all human activity. This does
not negate the importance 3. Generalizing knowledge
of design expertise. In
Design, When Everybody 4. Sharing knowledge with others
Designs: An Introduction
to Design for Social
5. Validating knowledge
Innovation, 11 Ezio Manzini 6. Applying knowledge to the design
clarifies the difference
between “diffuse design”
performed by non-experts In each of these activities, designers encountered different
with their intuitive design
capacity, and “expert kinds of challenges. They often were tempted to describe
design” which requires
trained professionals.
what they did rather than what they had learned. Recording
very project-specific notes was also much easier than
8. Tim Brown, Change by making more generally applicable statements. However, the
Design. How Design Thinking
Transforms Organizations effort to articulate and generalize their insights, know-how
and Inspires Innovation
(New York: Harper Collins-
and ideas proved to be a valuable means of communicating
Publishers, 2009). with others. The student designers who were better able to
articulate their knowledge gathered more valuable feedback
9. Herbert Simon, The
Sciences of the Artificial, from peers and coaches and could better communicate their
Third Edition (Cambridge,
MA: MIT Press, 1996). project to the outside world.
The articulation of knowledge during the design process also

for the Real World. Human enabled serendipitous connections among students from
(St Albans: Paladin, 1974). different teams, sparking collaboration opportunities. Rather
than discussing the designs, the student designers began to
11. Ezio Manzini, Design, exchange insights, know-how and ideas more often, turning
When Everybody Designs:
An Introduction to Design the design studio into a design research community.
for Social Innovation
(Cambridge, MA: MIT Press,
2015).
Towards ‘civic prototyping’

The challenges faced by the students in our design studio
are also at play in cities. In many ways, a grassroots civic
initiative, a civic hackathon, or a maker community in many
ways resemble an exploratory design studio. The rapid
50
construction of prototypes, articulating and sharing of the
accumulated knowledge, communicating and working in
multidisciplinary groups are all challenges that such commu-

nities face. People in those communities who innovatively try
to improve their city are in fact also designers, 7 with unique
expertise, insights, and skills. The question remains though,
can they all also be design researchers? The articulating and
sharing of practical knowledge remains a challenge for both
professional and non-professional design researchers.
Structured reflection can help, and we can certainly continue
developing our tools, methods, and techniques to better
support different creative communities.
Tomasz
Jaskiewicz
Rotterdam University
of Applied Sciences
Dr. Tomasz Jaskiewicz was appointed as a professor at the
Creating010 research centre in March 2021, where he leads
the Civic Prototyping research theme. Within this theme,
he researches new applications and methods, tools, and
processes to involve city dwellers in the digital innovation of
their social and physical environment. Tomasz has a back-
ground in architecture and urban planning and has practical
work experience in developing experimental architectural
projects, interactive installations, and digital design tools. In
2013, he obtained his PhD from the Faculty of Architecture
at the Delft University of Technology. From 2014, he worked
51
as an assistant professor at the Faculty of Industrial Design,
where he currently holds a design fellow position.
52
_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ __________________________________________ Guido Stompf
Design
thinking for
professionals
as a driving force for
innovating education
Guido Stompff
In their distinct practices, professionals sooner or later face 1. Herbert Simon, The
problematic situations where they do not know what to Sciences of the Artificial,
Third Edition (Cambridge,
do. They are faced with issues they haven’t experienced MA: MIT Press, 1996).
before and for which no ready-to-use solutions are available.

Therefor they can not rely on experience. For instance, a
communication professional discovers that waste separation
information campaigns are failing because plastic waste
contains much more residual waste than expected. Or an
IT administrator is confronted with a new type of virus and
needs to respond quickly. In such situations, professionals
should not only be able to explore what the problem is, but
also to come up with new solutions.
To achieve this, professionals need next to research abilities

and also some design capacities. Designing is devising plans
of action to turn an existing, problematic situation into a
more preferred situation. 1 So, it is not just designers and
architects who are designing. Every professional, such as a
53
physiotherapist or a facility manager, occasionally designs.
Unfortunately, most professionals are hardly trained in
Design thinking for professionals _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _______________________________________________________
design. If they have to design, they will opt for an analytical
2. Horst W.J. Rittel
and Melvin M. Webber, approach, whereby research should lead to insights into the
“Dilemmas in a General
Theory of Planning,” Policy problem and, hopefully, to ideas for a design, or at least
Sciences, 4, no. 2 (1973):
155–169. design requirements. In practice, this proves to be ineffec-
tive: stakeholders respond not as expected, well-intentioned
3. Roger L. Martin, The
Design of Business: Why solutions lead to additional problems, it is unclear what is
Design Thinking Is the Next
Competitive Advantage ‘good’ enough to stop, and unexpected developments
(Boston, MA: Harvard
Business Review Press,
change the problem completely. In other words, the
2009). problem is wicked. 2
4. Richard J. Boland, and
Fred Collopy eds., Managing Design thinking seems to fit better with such situations. It
as Designing (Stanford, CA:
Stanford Business Books,
was somewhat tautologically defined as ‘solving problems
2004). the way designers solve problems’, 3 but with a substantially
5. Tim Brown and different context, such as management 4 or social issues. 5
Jocelyn Wyatt, “Design
Thinking for Social
Design thinking requires empathy, the ability to put yourself
Innovation,” Development in the shoes of the other; it requires creativity to overcome
Outreach 12, no. 1
(2010): 29–43, https:// existing dilemmas and expressive skills to portray your
doi.org/10.1596/1020–
797X_12_1_29. ideas. 6 Design thinking is integrating design and research
and aptly can be named design research or design-based
6. Guido Stompff, De
Kracht van Verbeelden, research. It advances through learning by creating and
Design Thinking in Teams,
Inaugural speech reflecting on the outcomes, using a different logic (abduc-
(Amsterdam: Hogeschool
Inholland, 2020). tion 7 ) than the classical sciences.
7. Kees Dorst, “The Core

of ‘Design Thinking’ and Its
Application,” Design Studies
32, no. 6 (2011): 521–532,
Design thinking in
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
destud.2011.07.006.
higher education
Despite the growing interest in design thinking, the develop-
8. Joan Ernst van Aken
and Daan Andriessen, eds., ment of design ability is hardly embedded in Dutch higher
Handboek Ontwerpgericht
Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek; education, although ‘ontwerpgericht onderzoek’ doing
Wetenschap met Effect,
(The Hague: Boom Lemma
research a priori design activities has for some time been
Publishers, 2011). heralded as an approach that may establish a scientific way
of designing. 8 But, as Daan Andriessen mentions elsewhere
in this publication, ‘designing itself is hardly used as a means
of gaining insight’. Design thinking and design research put
the designing at the center. By devising new concepts,
creating prototypes, and reflecting on the results, new
insights are acquired.
It is time to better position design thinking in higher edu-

cation. We are facing two problems here. Firstly, the
transformation of design thinking to other contexts is still in
54 full swing. Although some design methods, such as customer

_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __________________________________________ Guido Stompf
journey maps, are already widely applied in other contexts,

the question remains whether unaltered design thinking – as
designers do it – is effective for those other contexts. For
example, should managers be able to draw? Are energetic
hackathons suited to solve social problems? What is a suita-
ble prototype to test a new way of organizing?
Secondly, there is a gap between three different bodies of

knowledge: (1) design, (2) all other professions (ranging from
physiotherapy to facility management) and (3) the education
of professionals. These three bodies of knowledge overlap
(see Figure 1): the overlap between design and other profes-
sions concerns the designing skills that every professional
needs (design thinking). The overlap between education and
design is related to how designers are trained, with much
attention to creating, creativity and expression. The third
overlap is of less importance here. The research gap is about
developing design skills for (future) professionals who are
not designers.
The research gap Figure 1

The development The research gap of the
of design skills study on teaching design
thinking to non-designers.
for professionals
Field of design
professionals
Design Design
education thinking
Other professional
Field of pedagogy Higher fields, e.g. tourism
and education edu- or communication
cation
55
9. Richard Buchanan,
Those who have not learned to express their ideas in inspir-
“Wicked Problems in Design ing ways to stir others, who have not learned how to make
Thinking,” Design Issues 8,
no. 2 (Spring, 1992): 5–21. and test a prototype, who have not learned that there are
dozens of ways to fuel creativity, and who are not used to
10. Jeanne Liedtka, “In
Defense of Strategy tackling a wicked problem.
as Design,” California
Management Review 42, no.
3 (2000): 8–30, https://doi.
org/10.2307/41166040.
Design research: The
11. Simon, The Sciences of
the Artificial.
development of design
12. See also the contribu-
skills for professionals
tion by Koen van Turnhout
and Aletta Smits in this
The Creative Business research group at Inholland is linked
publication. to various courses, such as Tourism Management, Business
Innovation, and Creative Business. These are not classical
design courses, but the vision is to also teach the students of
these courses relevant design skills. But how do you develop
design capabilities in prospective professionals who do
not take design courses? Initially, this seemed to be mainly
an activity to support education, but gradually it became
clear that this is a complex question that requires thorough
research. The coaches involved raised all kinds of sub-ques-
tions: Which design skills are desired? How do you develop
them effectively? How do you assess these skills? Which
methods do we teach students? How do we adjust the cur-
riculum? How do we professionalize lecturers?
Noblesse oblige: the study Educating professionals in design

thinking is set up as a design research project. Design
research combines research and design: the interpretation
of the problem and creation of possible solutions.
Unfortunately, design research is also a problematic union
between two fundamentally different worlds, a subject that
design theorists have been discussing for decades. 9 10 11
Research focuses on interpreting the existing situation (what
is?). In contrast, design is focused on what does not yet exist,
the future. And within that, design is imaging what is desired
(what might be?) and designing plans to get there (what can
be?). 12 This difficult combination leads to many design
researchers choosing one or the other. Either they choose
research for design, with the emphasis on interpreting the
existing situation as input for a design. Or they select
research through design, with the emphasis on imaging the
56 desired and creating and testing designs as input for

research.
_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ __________________________________________ Guido Stompf
Interpreting
Figure 2
Making sense of existing situation Design research combines
different types of activities,
which do not take place so
much in succession, but
iteratively, with the results
of the activities influencing
(Re-)framing the other activities. Some
how do activities are aimed at
What we see the interpreting the existing

situation situation (sense-making),
is? some at imaging the
desired situation (envision-
ing) and some at designing
plans to get from the exist-
ing to the desired situation,
given the constraints
(design). All activities are
framed by a frame that
develops gradually: how do
we see the situation?
What
might be?
What
can be?
Envisioning
the preferred situation
Design
devising plans of action to change
an existing situation into a more preferred situation
However, this practical research requires both research for

design and research through design. Research for design is
needed to understand what is going on, what the problem
is. Lecturer-researchers, therefore, carry out studies on the
success and failure factors of adopting design thinking in
education. For example, they discovered that coaches with
a classical academic background overestimate the value of
theoretical frameworks and underestimate the importance
of testing. They also learned that the design vocabulary
(‘concept’, ‘prototype’) is ambiguous and creates much con-
fusion. Research through design is needed to create designs
and test prototypes. A team of lecturer-designers has been
brought together to develop online and offline resources,
methods, and learning experiences that can be used for the
relevant training programs.
57
13. Tonnie van der
Zouwen, Actieonderzoek
Applied design research: In
Doen: Een Routewijzer voor
Studenten en Professionals
and with educational practice
(Amsterdam: Boom
Publishers, 2018). One interesting aspect of this practical research is that it
relates to the practice that the researchers (and myself) are
14. Dalila Cisco Collatto,
Aline Dresch, Daniel a part of! In this sense, it is very similar to action research,
Pacheco Lacerda, Ione
Ghislene Bentz, “Is
which initiates change by researching in and with the practi-
Action Design Research cal environment. 13 In action research, after extensive
Indeed Necessary?
Analysis and Synergies research and with knowledge of similar situations, interven-
Between Action Research
and Design Science tions are devised and carried out. The outcomes of those
Research,” Systemic Practice
and Action Research, 31, interventions are then reflected on. Our research approach
no. 3 (2018): 239–267,
https://doi.org/10.1007/ combines design research (in the broad sense) with action
s11213–017–9424–9.
research. It is research for design and research through
design, and is carried out in practice and with practitioners.
This generates new knowledge, both in the form of explicit
knowledge and in the form of knowledge embedded in
methods, artifacts, and tools.
Such research is sometimes called action design research,

but the explicit mixing of two research traditions raises the
necessary questions. 14 I call this applied design research,
because it is an applied form of design research, in which
the practical value comes first. It is first and foremost about
better education; scientific publications come second. And
that choice has consequences because practice is ambigu-
ous, complex, and full of surprises.
Thus, this project regularly cuts corners to respond to unex-

pected problems. Plans are derailed by additional conditions
or when new opportunities present themselves. Practice
requires a research design in which agility is crucial to
achieve the desired practical goals. For example, it became
clear that educational operations raise many practical barri-
ers for experiments. Time schedules that have been in place
for months and strict education and examination regula-
tions limit the necessary experimental space. Improvisation
skills are a necessity to test new concepts in existing
programs. Partly for this reason, there is an intensive collab-
oration with experienced lecturers in a learning network.
58
_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ __________________________________________ Guido Stompf
The challenges for applied Figure 3
design research A workshop with lecturers

and staff of Inholland in
the context of educational
Applied design research is efficient and innovative because innovation.
something new is created that transcends existing, familiar

solutions. Something new implies new knowledge, possibly
relevant for the scientific body of knowledge. Unfortunately,
its exploratory nature is at odds with existing academic
standards, such as methodological rigor, extensive literature
review, data transparency and repeatability of results. Does
this mean that applied design research cannot be scientif-
ically justified? No, but it is not easy. I think there are two
significant challenges.
First of all, scientific standards are embedded in specific

philosophical traditions, including theories on what ‘knowl-
edge’ is and what ‘truth’ is. Practice-led research – and not
just applied design research! – has a complicated relation-
ship with the specific traditions most sciences are based on,
because much of the knowledge is embedded in practice (i.e.
59
in the practical environment). It is incorporated in what
professionals do, in the artifacts they create, in the roles
they assume, in the tools they use, in the environment
where they work. Therefore, scientists who carry out prac-
tice-led research place great emphasis on the tacit dimension
of knowledge, 15 the non-verbalizable form of knowledge.
Applied design research can better follow the example of the
practice-led sciences, where pragmatism generally perme-
ates. In these traditions, thinking cannot be seen separate
from doing, theory not separate from practice, and behavior
not separate from the environment. It provides a rich basis
for understanding design and applied design research, but
Figure 4
although there is a renaissance of pragmatism, 16 17 the
Co-creation workshop translation to scientific standards for applied design
with lecturers and staff of
Inholland. research has not yet been done sufficiently.
A second challenge is the experience of researchers apply-

ing applied design research. Experience plays a significant
role in design: senior designers can successfully complete
complex assignments that contain so much uncertainty and
ambiguity that inexperienced designers do not know how or
60 where to start. This means that researchers without design

_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ __________________________________________ Guido Stompf
experience are poorly equipped to carry out projects in

15. Michael Polanyi, The
which design activities play an essential role. Applied design Tacit Dimension (New York:
Doubleday Anchor, 1966).
research requires design expertise. The challenge is how
we teach researchers these skills. Or, conversely, how we 16. Peter Dalsgaard,
“Pragmatism and Design
teach experienced designers research skills. In short: applied Thinking,” International
Journal of Design 8, no. 1
design research places high demands on those who apply it! (2014).
17. Brian Dixon, Dewey

and Design: A Pragmatist
Perspective for Design
Research (London: Springer
Nature, 2020).
Guido
Stompff
InHolland University
of Applied Sciences
Dr.ir. Guido Stompff has been a Professor of Design Thinking
at the Creative Business research group of the Inholland
University of Applied Sciences since 2019. After his train-
ing as an industrial designer (TU Delft), he worked for over
25 years as a designer, covering the full scope of the field,
including product design, UX design, communication design,
packaging design, branding, and even art. Since 2003, he
has combined his work with teaching at various universities
and universities of applied sciences. In 2011, he obtained
his PhD in the facilitation of innovation in multidisciplinary
teams, leading to various publications on team design and
the importance of imagination for innovation processes. His
book Design thinking, radicaal veranderen in kleine stappen
61
was published in 2018. The book was voted Dutch manage-
ment book of the year.
62
___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ____________________________________________ Peter Troxler
Dance?
Dance!
The contribution of practice-
driven design research to
the ballet of disciplines
Peter Troxler
This article invites applied design research to a new chal- 1. Bruce Archer, “Design
lenge: the “dance of the disciplines.” It begins with an as a Discipline,” Design
Studies 1, no. 1 (1 July
attempt to discern the elements of applied design research. 1979): 17–20. https://
doi.org/10.1016/0142-
It continues with a set of examples to display the relevance 694X(79)90023–1.
of these elements. And it concludes with a call to reclaim

2. Nigel Cross,
design and reintroduce it in transdisciplinary practice “Designerly Ways
of Knowing,” Design
through boundary crossing, the “dance of the disciplines.” Studies 3, no. 4 (1982):
221–27. https:// doi.
org/10.1016/0142-
694X(82)90040–0.
Discern
Design, since Archer 1 and Cross, 2 is understood respec-
tively as its own “discipline” and an “area of education” –
distinct from the two more traditional areas of education in
science on the one hand, and arts and humanities on the
other – with its own study subject, its own goals, values, and
methods:
• Design studies the man-made world, whereas science

studies the natural world and the humanities the human
experience.
• Design seeks appropriateness, while science seeks truth
and humanities justice.
63
Dance? Dance! __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _______________________________________________________
• Design values practicality, ingenuity, and empathy. In
3. Merriam-Webster.
Research. In www.merri- contrast, the values in science are objectivity, rationality,
am-webster.com, retrieved
31 January 2021, from and neutrality; in the humanities, they are subjectivity,
https://www.merriam-web-
ster.com/dictionary/ imagination, and commitment.
research.
• Design methods are modelling, pattern-formation, and
4. OECD, Frascati Manual synthesis; science methods are controlled experiment,
2015: Guidelines for
Collecting and Reporting
classification, and analysis; humanities methods are met-
Data on Research and
Experimental Development,
aphor, criticism, and evaluation.
the Measurement of
Scientific, Technological and Research is understood to be the production of knowledge,
Innovation Activities (Paris:
OECD Publishing, 2015). the
5. Daniel Fallman studious inquiry or examination, especially investigation or

and Erik Stolterman,
“Establishing Criteria experimentation aimed at the discovery and interpretation
of Rigor and Relevance
in Interaction Design of facts, revision of accepted theories or laws in the light of
Research,” Proceedings of
Create10 – The Interaction new facts, or practical application of such new or revised
Design Conference (2010).
theories or laws. 3
6. Peter Miller,
“Reliability,” in The SAGE Such “studious inquiry” is “creative and systematic.” 4 Creative
Encyclopedia of Qualitative
Research (Thousand Oaks, implies that research can produce new findings based on
CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.,
2008): 753–754.
original, not obvious concepts or hypotheses, of which the
final outcome is uncertain. Systematic requires research to
7. Peter Miller, “Validity,”
in The SAGE Encyclopedia
be conducted in a planned way that documents the steps
of Qualitative Research taken and the outcomes achieved. Systematic also implies
(Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE
Publications, Inc., 2008): that the results could be possibly reproduced and used
909–910.
elsewhere. Systematic research is rigorous and relevant. 5
8. Ministerie van Typically, systematicity of research is operationalized as
Binnenlandse Zaken en
Koninkrijksrelaties, Wet validity and reliability of research. Validity stands for the
op het Hoger Onderwijs
en Wetenschappelijk “goodness” or “soundness” of a study. However, it cannot be
Onderzoek, retrieved 9
February 2021, https:// expressed in global criteria except in quantitative, positivist
wetten.overheid.nl/
BWBR0005682/2021–01–01.
research tradition, so it has to be described according to the
purpose and methods of a given design study. 6 Reliability is
9. Vereniging
van Hogescholen, the “dependability,” “consistence” and often “repeatability” of
Brancheprotocol a study. Again, the diversity in many areas of research
Kwaliteitszorg Onderzoek
(October 2015). requires a case-by-case approach. 7
Applied (with regards to research) signifies that applied

design research is prompted by and feeds straight back into
professional design practice. In the Netherlands, there is a
legal difference between “academic research,” carried out at
universities, and “research directed at professional practice”
at universities of applied sciences. This distinction is instru-
64 mental for the distribution of government funding for

_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ____________________________________________ Peter Troxler
research – namely only for research at universities. 8 As

such, applied research is much closer to the actual applica-
tions of the new knowledge it produces, thus requiring little
extra “technology transfer” efforts. Applied design research
is “rooted in professional design practice. Applied design
research is prompted by professional design practice (real-life
situations), in both profit and non-profit sectors. Applied design
research generates knowledge, insights and products that
contribute to solving problems in professional design practice
and developing this practice.”9
Applied design research, therefore, is the creative and sys-

tematic production of knowledge that is prompted by and
feeds right back into shaping the man-made world through
modelling, pattern-formation, and synthesis, achieving
appropriate results that can be tested for practicality, inge-
nuity, and empathy.
Display
In terms of applied, applied design research garners its
relevance from focusing on the “applied” in design research
– and this is not just semantics. Applied design research
takes its cues from design practice, not only from the tribu-
lations of mainstream practice but from the fringes where
investigation and experimentation are required to develop
the technique.
Figure 1
Open Design:
Demonstration of the
open-source Wiki House
in Vienna, 2015. Photo:
© 2015 Claudia Garad
(cc-by-sa), retrieved
from https://commons.
wikimedia.org/w/index.
php?title=File:Wiki-
House_Wien_Eröffnung_
II.jpg&oldid=493867214
65
Dance? Dance! __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _______________________________________________________
For example, when the concept of open design
10. Bas van Abel, Roel
Klaassen, Lucas Evers, Peter emerged, 10 11 designers were baffled by the idea that they
Troxler, Open Design Now:
Why Design Cannot Remain could seriously be required to even think of relinquishing the
Exclusive (Amsterdam: BIS
Publishers, 2011). business model they believed they were thriving on –
earning royalties on their “intellectual property.” Through
11. Peter Troxler, “The
Beginning of a Beginning of investigation 12 13 and experimentation 14 – which is still
the Beginning of a Trend,”
in Bas van Abel, Roel ongoing 15 – researchers tried to approach the phenome-
Klaassen, Lucas Evers, Peter
Troxler, Open Design Now: non, understand the frictions and develop ways to “do open
Why Design Cannot Remain
Exclusive (Amsterdam: BIS design.”
Publishers, 2011).
In terms of design, applied design research garners its
12. Peter Troxler and Pa-
tricia Wolf, “Look Who’s Act- relevance from focusing on design approaches in applied
ing! Applying Actor Network research. As such, it can be related to design as the practice
Theory for Studying Knowl-
edge Share in a Co-Design of design professions and their development – architec-
Project, International Journal
of Actor-Network Theory and ture, landscape, furniture, fashion, light, product, package,
Technological Innovation 7,
no. 3 (2015): 15–33. graphic, web and so forth, or it can be related to design
13. Patricia Wolf and
in other practices, such as organization design, research
Peter Troxler, “Communi- design, and education design, and studying the contribu-
ty-Based Business Models:
Insights From an Emerging tions of design by organizing, researching or teaching the
Maker Economy,” Interac-
tion Design and Architec- subject of the man-made world.
ture(s) 30 (2016): 75–94.
14. Peter Troxler, “Building

For example, many educators express the view that with the
Open Design as a Com- teaching methods and school systems – many of which stem
mons,” in Loes Bogers and
Letizia Chiappini, The Critical from the late 19th and early 20th century 16 – they are
Makers Reader: (Un)Learning
Technology, (Amsterdam: In- insufficiently equipped to teach in the supposedly VUCA 17
stitute of Network Cultures,
2019): 2018–226. environment of the early 21st century. 18 A design approach
to educational processes, devised by a designer, developed
15. Roland Jochem, “The
Future of Product Creation by teachers, and encouraged by school administrators,
is Open and Commu-
nity-Based,” Research promises to “transform education on a small scale but with a
Outreach 113 (2020): 6–9,
https://doi.org/10.32907/ big impact.” 19
RO-113–69.
16. Robert Anderson,

European Universities From
the Enlightenment to 1914
(Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 2004).
Figure 2
Designing Education:
Manon Mostert – van der
Sar (right) working with
educators in Utrecht, 2019.
Photo: Roy Borghouts.
66
_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ____________________________________________ Peter Troxler
In terms of research, applied design research garners its

17. VUCA is an acronym
relevance from creatively and systematically producing new which stands for Volatility,
Uncertainty, Complexity,
knowledge in the field of design – using designerly methods Ambiguity.
such as modelling, pattern-formation, and synthesis, also 18. Ken Robinson, Out
known as “abduction” 20 – and validating the research of Our Minds, the Power of
Being Creative (Hoboken NJ:
results by ascertaining that they are useful in a given prac- Wiley, 2011).
tice, that they are clever and original for that practice, and 19. Manon Mostert – Van
der Sar, Hey Teacher, Find
that they are sensitive towards and in rapport with the Your Inner Designer (Am-
practice. sterdam: Boom Publishers,
2019).
For example, after maker spaces in libraries started to 20. Lauri Koskela, Sami
Paavola, Ehud Kroll, “The
emerge, 21 the National Library of the Netherlands wanted to Role of Abduction in
Production of New Ideas
investigate if there was indeed a way forward for this new in Design,” in Pieter E.
concept as part of their digital strategy. A design research Vermaas and Stéphane Vial
(Eds.), Advancements in the
project was set up that studied that question and came up Philosophy of Design (Spring-
er International Publishing,
– through several design sessions – with a roadmap, outlin- 2018): 153–183, https://
doi.org/10.1007/978–3-
ing three lines of development – policy development, 319–73302–9_8.
curriculum development, and community development. 22 21. Theresa Willingham
This roadmap was then validated. and Jeroen De Boer,
Makerspaces in Libraries,
Library Technology Essentials
4 (Lanham MD: Rowman &
Design Littlefield Publishers, 2015).
22. Peter Troxler, Eva Viss-

Design and design research (applied or not) have come a er and Maarten Hennekes,
Roadmap Makerplaatsen.
long way since emerging from engineering and “trying to Van Knutselen 2.0 Naar
Leren met 21ste Eeuwse
bend the methods of operational research and management Vaardigheden, (Rotterdam:
techniques to design purposes.” 23 The past five decades Kenniscentrum Creating
010, 2018).
have seen design growing into a discipline of its own – in
23. Bruce Archer, “Design
education, as a profession – eventually a reflective one. 24 as a Discipline,” Design
Studies 1, no. 1 (1 July
Endless discussion ensued about distinctive definitions of 1979): 17–20. https://
doi.org/10.1016/0142-
694X(79)90023–1: 17.
24. Donald Schön, The

Reflective Practitioner: How
(New York, Basic Books,
1984).
Figure 3
Validating the roadmap for
library maker spaces with
(from left to right) library,
maker and space profes-
sionals at the National
Library, The Hague, 2018.
Photo: © 2018 Peter
Troxler.
67
Dance? Dance! __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _______________________________________________________
research about, through, from, in, and for design, their
25. Nigel Cross, “From a
Design Science to a Design subtle nuances enshrined in the programs of conferences,
Discipline: Understanding
Designerly Ways of Knowing the editorial lines of journals, and professional societies’
and Thinking,” In Design
Research Now: Essays and collective identities. 25 More variations and deep thoughts
Selected Projects, ed. Ralf
Michel (Basel: Birkhäuser, became the material for myriads of introductory chapters of
2007): 41–54. https://doi.
org/10.1007/978–3-7643–
PhD theses all around the globe.
8472–2_3.
It is time for design research professionals to leave that
26. Harold G. Nelson
and Erik Stolterman, discussion there – for that is where it belongs – and move on
The Design Way, Second
Edition. Intentional Change
and continue to actually do design research, in extension to
in an Unpredictable World how Nelson and Stolterman 26 summarize what designers
(Cambridge, MA: The MIT
Press, 2012). do:
27. Modified from Nelson
and Stolterman, 2012, p.
“Design researchers are heavily invested in understanding,
243, modifications shown
as emphasis.
developing and using good design processes and realizing
desired outcomes. In design inquiry, the process is aimed by
28. Holger Rhinow, Eva
Köppen, Christoph Meinel,
design intention – desiderata and new knowledge. The right
“Design Prototypes as process going in the right direction will reach the right outcome,
Boundary Objects in
Innovation Processes,” both in products and the knowledge enshrined in them and
in Proceedings of the
Design Research Society distilled from the process. In other words, desired outcomes
International Conference
(Bangkok, July 2012): are made visible and communicable and are successfully
1581–1590.
achieved with mindful, intentional aiming. Process and outcome
29. Lucy Suchman, are entwined and equally important to the designer and the
“Working Relations of
Technology Production and
design researcher. A good process, properly aimed in the right
Use,” Computer Supported
Cooperative Work 2, no. 1
direction, reveals the answer to the question: What (about)
(1994): 21–39. https://doi. design is desired to be made real?” 27
org/10.1007/BF00749282.
Two things happened in the past years to design that are

essential signals that design and, with it, design research,
have to move on and move differently. One, design got
highjacked by management consultants as “design thinking.”
Designers need to reclaim design thinking as their profes-
sional way to make the desired reality. Two, designers like
to understand their discipline as ultimately interdisciplinary
– the idea that a designer has insights in all the disciplines
(or can gain that quickly) and solves all their problems. This
is an attitude that is not so different from that of manage-
ment consultants, and is often a sign of blissful ignorance
or, worse, offensive arrogance. Designers need to return to
design to make the desired real.
68
_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ____________________________________________ Peter Troxler
Making the desired real, however, is not a solo discipline.

Designers know how to use artifacts as boundary objects 28
to bring different parties and stakeholders together to
develop a common language about the desired outcome,
the object of a collective process of problem-solving, of Figure 4
delivering desiderata – the “what” in design. In working Research as visualised
in Violeta Clemente,
together with other disciplines in the entire design process, Katja Tschimmel &
Fátima Pombo, “A
however, boundary objects alone are insufficient. Future Scenario for a
Methodological Approach
Differences in how and why disciplinary practices are applied to PhD Design
Research. Development
performed become evident and need to be addressed. of an Analytical Canvas,”
The Design Journal 20
Fruitful collaboration in such a transdisciplinary practice (September 2017): 792–802,
emerges in a development called “boundary crossing.” 29 https://doi.org/
10.1080/14606925.
2017.1353025.
69
Dance? Dance! __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _______________________________________________________
transform
reflect
coordinate
Figure 5
Boundary crossing in identify
transdisciplinary work.
Boundary crossing is the dance of the disciplines (…) to the

rhythm of:
(a) identifying the communalities and differences by making

them explicit;
(b) coordinating the collaboration to primarily appreciate

and to efficiently address the problem at hand, from
what forms a common understanding;
(c) reflecting the differences and reframing the viewpoints

based on the multiplicity of perspectives; and
(d) transforming and bridging those different perspectives so

that they lead to the new solutions that would not have
been possible without the transdisciplinary collaboration.
Boundary crossing is creating power and direction from the

communalities and forming new ideas from the generative
combination of the difference. 30
70
_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ ____________________________________________ Peter Troxler
Boundary crossing in transdisciplinary work is the new

30. Mortaza S. Bargh
challenge for applied design research: and Peter Troxler, “Digital
Transformations and Their
Design – Renewal of the
• What are designerly ways of knowing in transdisciplinary Socio-Technical Approach,”
in Hoger Beroepsonderwijs in
settings? 2030. Toekomstverkenningen
en Scenario’s vanuit
• What are design practices and processes of boundary Hogeschool Rotterdam, eds.
Daan Gijsbertse, Arjen
crossing? van Klink, Kees Machielse,
• What are the artifacts (form and configuration) that foster Jeroen Timmermans
(Rotterdam: Hogeschool
boundary crossing beyond the “what”? Rotterdam Uitgeverij, 2020):
326–369.
It is important to answer these questions from within design
and gradually interweave them with the answers from other
disciplines to deepen the insights into the contribution of
design and communicate it to the outside.
Peter
Troxler
Rotterdam University
of Applied Sciences
Dr. Peter Troxler is professor of Revolution in Manufacturing
at Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences. He obtained
his PhD at the ETH Zurich, at the cutting edge of occupa-
tional psychology and business administration, specializing
in organisation design. He has worked as a management
consultant at a design consultancy firm in Switzerland
(1997–2018), as a research manager in artificial intelligence
at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland (2001–2004), and as
a senior project manager and freelance executive editor at
Waag in Amsterdam (2007–2010). He was also the founder,
mentor and inspirator for many Fab Labs in Europe (2009–
2013). He worked as a producer for an independent theatre
71
group in Switzerland (1994–2001), and was the director of a
critical artistic research collective in Aberdeen (2003–2007).
PART 2:
THE URGE
TO IMPROVE
THE WORLD
72
“If you want truly to understand
something, try to change it.”
~ Kurt Lewin
73
Dance? Dance! __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _______________________________________________________
74
_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ______________________________________________ Peter Joore
Idealistic
visions of
the future
or realistic
solutions?
Baby steps towards
innovation leaps
Peter Joore
Do I choose idealism or realism? Do I select a training

program that allows me to work on undefined dreams, or do
I opt for a practical program? Without really knowing what
I was getting myself into, in 1985, I went to study Industrial
Design Engineering in Delft mainly because, besides the
technology, this program also had a creative component.
To be honest, back then, a ‘higher’ design goal to improve
the world was unheard of. Designs were aimed at fulfilling
a ‘function’, and ideals were aimed at a smart technical
concept, a firm cost price, and a good realization of the ergo-
nomic framework conditions. Of course esthetics also played
a role somewhere in the background, although at the end of
the day, form always played second fiddle to function.
Form follows function was the adage, and the client’s purpose
was the deciding factor at all times. That client was almost
always an industrial company – the program was named
75
Idealistic visions of the future or realistic solutions? _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _______________________________________________________
industrial design for a reason – looking to sell as many prod-
ucts as possible and making as much profit as possible. The
research at the faculty was mainly functional and technically
oriented at the time, with the researcher dropping a vacuum
cleaner a thousand times to determine after how many times
the plastic started breaking. Undoubtedly very important, but
not something that inspired me personally.
Halfway through the program, I decided to go on a personal

quest for idealism. I took a break and did several things,
including working in the shanty towns of Bombay in India for
several months. After my time at university, I tried to keep
going in that direction, among other things through a not
very successful attempt to work as a missionary and develop-
ment worker in Albania, but eventually, I started working as a
product designer. One of my most memorable projects was
the development of the new Chek Lap Kok airport in Hong
Kong and the stations of the new MTRC subway there, in col-
laboration with NKI Group, Springtime Design, Total Design,
and Norman Foster’s architectural firm in London. Not very
idealistic, but very challenging and exciting.
Innovation Leaps
The next stage in my development came when I switched to a
research group at TNO in Delft. There, the Kathalys research
group was working on the development of sustainable
system innovations. 1 These innovation leaps focused on a
factor 4 sustainability improvement, with the underlying
reasoning that if we want to cut the environmental impact of
used materials and energy by half, while the population
grows and possibly doubles, the ecological impact of a
product must therefore be reduced by two-times-two-is-
four. 2 This factor 4 was later replaced by a factor 10, which
required even more radical innovations.
We soon discovered that if you want to achieve such radical

innovation leaps, it is not enough to innovate at the product
level alone. To have a real impact, it is necessary to innovate
at the level of the product-service system, or rather at the
level of the socio-technical system, where different actors
76
each fulfill their role and pursue specific interests. In this kind
of innovation, it ultimately proved essential to think carefully
_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ______________________________________________ Peter Joore
about the underlying world vision held by the actors

1. Adrie Beyen, Kathalys:
involved. This overarching world view turned out to be a Vision on Sustainable Product
Innovation (Amsterdam: BIS
decisive factor for the choices made within innovation Publishers, 2001).
projects. This insight provided a direction to connect the

2. Ernst von Weizsäcker,
idealistic perspective I was still looking for with my work as a Amory B. Lovins, L. Hunter
Lovins, Factor Four: Doubling
designer. This was reinforced by the cooperation with Wealth, Halving Resource
Use (London: Earthscan
Professor Ezio Manzini of the Politecnico di Milano in the Publications Ltd, 1998).
European HiCS research project, which for me was the first
3. Ezio Manzini,
time that I met someone who really looked at the design Luisa Collina, Stephen
Evans, Solution Oriented
profession from a broader philosophical perspective. 3 4 Partnership. How to Design
Industrialised Sustainable
Solutions (Cranfield:
Experimenting with a
Cranfield Publishers, 2004).
new mobility concept 4. François Jegou,

Peter Joore, Food Delivery
Solutions (Cranfield:
One example of such an innovation leap project was a Cranfield Publishers, 2004).
collaborative project where we worked at TNO with partners 5. Peter Joore, Michel
such as Gazelle, Nike, and Achmea on a mobility concept for van Schie, Eindrapportage
MOVE – Mobiliteitsconcept
individual short-distance transport, called MITKA voor Individueel Transport
voor de Korte Afstand –
(Mobiliteitsconcept-voor-Individueel-Transport-op-de-Korte- MITKA (Delft: TNO, 2001).
Afstand, see Figure 1). Our goal was to motivate people to

leave the car and to start using a compact electric-driven
transport system. At some point, however, it became
commercially much smarter to promote the developed
vehicle as a trendy off-road cross-vehicle for affluent
yuppies. Although that may have been smart from an
economic point of view, in terms of our ideals, it was the
opposite of what we had intended. Therefore, we soon
discarded that option.
Figure 1
MITKA: mobility concept for
individual short distance
transport. 5
77
S4 S1
New Societal Societal
Situation Problem
Societal system
DEV
EL
MILOPMEN
S2
LEN T
IUM GO
LS A
MILLENNIUM
S3
DEVELOPMENT GOALS
Preferences
Vision ! Regarding
Development Social Order
R4 R1
New System
Socio-Technical Defficiency
System
Socio-technical system
CO2
R3 NOx
R2
System Dominant
Design Process Interpretive Framework
Q4 Q1
New Product- Functional
Service System Problem
Product-service
system
Q3 Energy
Q2
Product-Service Functional
Design Requirements
P4 P1
New Operational
Product Problem
Product-technology
system
P3 P2
Product Program of
Design Demands
Figure 2
Finally, we tested the system with the employees at Nike’s
Multilevel Design Model 11
European headquarters in Hilversum, with participants
documenting their experiences in a diary. The new transport
system was now used on a small scale, and the lessons we
learned from it were to be translated into application on a
large scale. This approach is also described as a Strategic
Niche Experiment, 6 a Bounded Socio-Technical Experiment, 7
or a Transition Experiment. 8
78
_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ______________________________________________ Peter Joore
Over the years, researchers have worked on this methodol-

6. René Kemp, Johan
ogy, and started to use different names for somewhat similar Schot & Remco Hoogma,
“Regime Shifts to Sustain-
approaches. 9 Much of this research applies a more philo- ability Through Processes
of Niche Formation: The
sophical and sociological perspective; it is not aimed at Approach of Strategic Niche
Management,” Technology
designers. I tried to establish the connection with design in Analysis & Strategic Manage-
ment, 10:2 (1998), 175–198,
my dissertation, where I developed a Multilevel Design Model https://doi.org/10.1080/
(Figure 2) to describe the relationship between the different 09537329808524310.
system levels at which the design process takes place. 10 11 7. Halina Szejnwald
Brown, Philip Vergragt,
Ken Green, Luca Berchicci,
“Learning for Sustaina-
Innovation at the cutting bility Transition through
Bounded Socio-technical
edge of industries Experiments in Personal

Mobility,” Technology Analy-
sis & Strategic Management,
This dissertation was the first step toward a position as a 15:3 (2003), 291–315,
https://doi.org/10.1080/095
professor of Open Innovation at the NHL Stenden University 37320310001601496.
of Applied Sciences in Leeuwarden. In that role, it was my
8. René Kemp, Suzanne
task to link the various professional areas of the university of van den Bosch, Transitie-Ex-
perimenten – Praktijkexperi-
applied sciences with the idea that innovation takes place at menten met de Potentie om
bij te dragen aan Transities
the cutting edge of different fields of work. This is where the (Delft: Kenniscentrum voor
Duurzame Systeeminno-
Neue Kombinationen (new combinations) are created, as vaties en Transities, 2006).
Joseph Schumpeter already mentioned in 1911. 12
9. Frans Sengers, Anna J.
Wieczorek, Rob Raven, “Ex-
This cross-sector approach is also essential in another ambi- perimenting for Sustainabil-
ity Transitions: A Systematic
tion of the research group, which aims to develop solutions Literature Review,” Techno-
logical Forecasting and Social
to the complex societal issues that we face. For example, Change 145 (2019), 153–164.
the northern part of the Netherlands wants to lead the
10. Peter Joore, New To Im-
quest for circularity. This, however, requires more than, for prove: The Mutual Influence
Between New Products and
example, technical solutions aimed at recycling plastic waste. Societal Change Processes,
(PhD dissertation, Delft
It requires economic profit models, behavioral change, new University of Technology,
2010).
policies and legislation, to name a few. In short, the ambition
towards sustainability and circularity requires a multidis- 11. Peter Joore, Han Brezet,
“A Multilevel Design Model
ciplinary, interdisciplinary, or transdisciplinary systemic – The Mutual Relationship
Between Product-Service
approach. System Development and
Societal Change Processes,”
Journal of Cleaner Production
97 (2015): 92–105, https://
Everyone designs doi.org/10.1016/j.jcle-
pro.2014.06.043.
The research group has been around for more than thirteen
12. Joseph Schumpeter,
years now, and NHL Stenden has adopted the design process The Theory of Economic
Development (Cambridge:
as a leading educational concept for the entire university. Harvard University Press,
1911).
Under the name Design-Based Education, more than 20,000
students from more than 75 different courses daily work on
developing new solutions for all different sectors of society.
79
Societal Problem Owners Design Factory Innovation Promising
Challenges and Institutional Network Toolbox Solutions
Stakeholders
Clean and
Renewable
Energy
Technological
Knowledge
New Products
Energy
Companies Frisian Design New Services
Societal Factory
Aging Society Impact Innovation
Projects Management
Healthcare AQ
U
Organizations NO A
VA
Food Security Creative

Tools
Design
New Business
Factory Spaces
Agricultural
Organizations Business
Reliable
Models
Water System
New Knowledge
and Experience
Local Co-Creation
Government Methods
Currently, my university of applied sciences has dozens of

Figure 3
Visualisation of the sys- design workshops where students design solutions for
temic approach that
is used by the Frisian questions from professional practice. These solutions are
Design Factory to design
solutions for complex
certainly not always physical objects or products but can
societal challenges.
Illustration by Marc Kolle.
also be in the form of a game, a recommendation, a policy
plan, a care protocol, or a business plan. In fact, it means
that all professionals are considered designers. This was also
described in 1969 by Nobel laureate Herbert Simon. He
stated in his book The Sciences of the Artificial that ‘Engineers
are not the only professional designers. Everyone designs who
devises courses of action aimed at changing existing situations
into preferred ones. The intellectual activity that produces
material artifacts is no different fundamentally from the one
that prescribes remedies for a sick patient or the one that
devises a new sales plan for a company or a social welfare for a
state. Design, so construed, is the core of all professional
training: it is the principal mark that distinguishes the profes-
sions from the sciences. Schools of engineering, as well as
80
schools of architecture, business, education, law, and medicine,
are all centrally concerned with the process of design.’ 13
_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ______________________________________________ Peter Joore
Designing a miniature society 13. Herbert Simon, The

Sciences of the Artificial ,
We are now facing the same challenge as I described above Third Edition (Cambridge,
MA: MIT Press, 1996).
in the pursuit of a sustainable society. Although most of the
questions from professional practice can be answered with 14. Marcel Crul, Plastic-
Free Tourism and
monodisciplinary solutions, a cross-sector perspective is nec- Hospitality on Dutch
Wadden Islands: Multi-level
essary to address the real complex societal challenges. To Design Approaches and
Experiences. Proceedings
achieve this, the concept of the strategic niche experiment of European Roundtable for
Sustainable Consumption
mentioned above can be translated into a design environ- and Production (Graz, 2021).
ment. This could be described as a field lab or a living lab,
where we would be working on groundbreaking solutions on
a type of ‘intermediate scale’. The working level here must be
‘large’ enough to think at the societal system level. And at the
same time, it must be ‘small’ enough to make the solutions
that have been developed concrete and tangible.
We try to apply this approach at the Frisian Design Factory

located in the former Blokhuispoort Prison in Leeuwarden.
Here, students, lecturers and professionals cooperate on
solving complex challenges related to energy, water, food or
healthcare, as presented in Figure 3. One of such examples
in which we work at the level of the societal ecosystem is a
collaboration with various stakeholders on the Frisian or
Wadden Islands. Together with local authorities and entre-
preneurs in the hospitality industry, students are working on
the ambition to make the islands completely plastic-free.
Innovations include the use of durable materials such as
biodegradable plastics, but the project focuses even more
on avoiding the use of plastics altogether. One of the ways
we try to achieve this is by using ‘nudging’: designing the
environment so that visitors are more or less seduced to
display the desired behavior. We do this, for example, by
making reusable products much more accessible compared
to the less desirable disposable products. 14
Another example of applying this systemic design approach

is the Inno-Quarter project, where we develop sustainability
solutions at and with festivals. For example, we created an
environment called DORP (the Dutch word for village) at the
Welcome to the Village festival. Here, students design
solutions for sustainability issues. Because the entire festival
81
is built from scratch in one week and is taken down after-
ward, a complete miniature society is built from scratch.
Something similar takes place at the Into the Woods festival
15. Aranka Dijkstra and
Marije Boonstra, Festival in Sweden and the Northside festival in Denmark. We
Experimentation Guide,
(Leeuwarden, NHL Stenden recently described our working method in the Festival
Publishers, 2021).
Experimentation Guide (Figure 4). 15 This 326-page manual
16. Aranka Dijkstra, Sybrith contains dozens of examples of innovations developed or
Tiekstra, Gertjan de Werk,
Peter Joore, “Festivals as tested at the festivals, ranging from the Semilla Sanitation
Living Labs for Sustainable
Innovation: Experiences Hub (which converts urine into drinking water), the Comp-A-
from the Interdisciplinary
Innovation Programme
Tent (a compostable tent based on bioplastics, hemp and
DORP,” Proceedings of
European Roundtable for
cardboard), KlimaKarl (a CO2 reduction game by a startup in
Sustainable Consumption Bremen) and SaruSoda (an organic post-mix lemonade). The
and Production (Barcelona,
2019). challenge is still to really innovate at a systemic level, but the
foundation has been laid. 16
Figure 4
Festivals as a breeding
ground for innovation, the
Festival Experimentation
Guide. 15
Idealistic visions and

realistic solutions
Finally, what about applied design research and all the
related definitions? I have to say that design research has
evolved considerably, when I look back at the bouncing
vacuum cleaners I mentioned at the beginning of this article.
Nowadays, we emphasize the difference between research
‘for’, ‘into’ and ‘through’ design, while also still using the
difference between the ‘designer’ who wants to change the
world, and the ‘researcher’ who wants to understand the
world. These roles seem to be increasingly intertwined. After
all, to change the world effectively, you must first under-
stand it properly. And to understand the world properly, it is
82 actually essential to work with it in a practical environment.

_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _______________________________________________ Peter Joore
In this sense, I feel least connected to the ‘pure’ researcher,

who studies the world remotely without actively entering the
playing field. Although this is the most neutral and objective
approach from a scientific point of view, it does not appeal
to me as a designer. At the same time – but perhaps that
has something to do with age – I find that in recent years, I
have been using an increasingly more reflective perspective,
trying to truly understand the innovation ecosystem. Perhaps
with the idea that only if you understand a situation properly
can you design effective interventions. Precisely that is what
has been the consistent factor in the more than 35 years
that I have been working in design. And that is what makes
design and designers so interesting and relevant, as far as I
am concerned. It is ultimately about developing a better and
more beautiful world, in which idealistic visions of the future
are translated into realistic solutions in the here and now.
This seems to have finally bridged the apparent contradiction
between realism and idealism that I once struggled with as an
18-year-old student.
Peter
Joore
of Applied Sciences
Dr.ir. Peter Joore focuses specifically on design processes in
which different types of actors, across the sectoral bound-
aries, work together to solve complex societal issues in
a living lab environment. He was trained as an industrial
designer at TU Delft, where he also obtained his PhD in
2010. After graduating in 1991, he worked as a designer at
several companies. He started working at the Netherlands
Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) in 1999.
In 2008, he switched to higher education, working as a pro-
83
fessor of Open Innovation at the NHL Stenden University of
Applied Sciences in Leeuwarden.
84
_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___________________________________________ Tessa Cramer
Designing
the future
Navigating the future
Tessa Cramer
As professor of Designing the Future, it is my mission to

promote futures literacy. And in my work as a futurist,
I connect the past and the future to help others make
informed choices today. In my work, I not only build bridges
between the past and the future, but also between science
and design. In May 2020, I obtained my doctorate with my
dissertation ‘Becoming Futurists,’ detailing how futurists
can be understood as a profession. Writing this academic
work made me realize that the mindset of futurists can be
useful for others too. For example, futurists share a mindset
in which creativity and keeping an open mind are regarded
as valuable. And futurists are not impressed by disciplines
or boundaries; they like to reside in the in-between space
of not knowing and uncertainty. In my research group, I
translate these lessons to a broader audience, for example,
for people who do not have the privilege yet to think about
the future, and invite them to learn new skills for navigating
the future.
Together with an alternating team of researchers that

includes lecturers and students, I strive to help others
increase their knowledge about the future and raise new
questions. We do this, for example, by questioning how
to live with the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Responding adequately to the changes that are currently
taking place is quite challenging. Words such as fear,
uncertainty, and change are used frequently and are often
85
Designing the future _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _______________________________________________________
1. Slavoj Zizek, The considered to be negative. But the future offers hope at the
Courage of Hopelessness,
Chronicles of a Year of Acting
same time. There is plenty of room to research and provide
Dangerously, (London: solutions that offer added value from a social point of view.
Penguin Books, 2017).
2. Kate Raworth, Doughnut The research question we ask at the Designing the Future
Economics, Seven Ways to
Think Like a 21st-Century
research group against this background is: how can
Economist (White River people learn to deal with uncertainty? In more concrete
Junction, VT: Chelsea Green
Publishing, 2017). terms: which ideas or (online) products and services can
be designed to learn how to deal with uncertainty? These
3. Roman Krznaric, The
Good Ancestor, How to Think questions are particularly relevant to the students of Fontys
Long Term in a Short Term
World (London: Penguin Academy for Creative Industries (from now on: Fontys
Books, 2020).
ACI). They shape that future in all its diversity, for example,
by developing new online business models in the Digital
Business Concepts training program, creating new meaning-
ful and sustainable experiences in International Event Music
& Entertainment Studies, and designing meaningful lifestyle
concepts in Trend Research & Concept Creation.
The relevance of a
design approach to
explore the future
Both on a methodical and philosophical level, a design
approach to explore the future is relevant for a broader
audience. From a philosophical perspective, in 2013, we
were struck by the words of Ricardo Semler in the Dutch TV
show Tegenlicht: “We have become boxed people.” He
describes how ‘boxes’ dictate our lives, not only at work,
through flow charts, but also at home (in architecture) and
on the road (in car or train). Semler describes how difficult it
is to reflect on the system we are part of. The philosopher
Zizek also describes this in his work the Courage of
Hopelessness, with the firm statement that we are letting
ourselves be distracted while Rome is burning. 1
Another thinker who inspired us is Kate Raworth. In her

work Doughnut Economics, she states that progress should
not be achieved at the expense of our planet. 2 In the book
The Good Ancestor, Roman Krznaric makes a plea for taking
responsibility today to safeguard the well-being of future
generations. 3 Each of these thinkers shows us that issues
86
have become so complex that we need all of our creativity
and imagination to even begin to navigate them.
_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ ___________________________________________ Tessa Cramer
Figure 1
Students at work at Fontys
Academy for Creative
Industries.
The Designing the Future research group is aware that future

solutions require new, fresh perspectives. Old systems will
not help formulate relevant answers. Young generations of
students are not yet burdened with too much knowledge of
these systems and as a consequence, are able to ‘hack’ them
in a friendly way. Our research group sees it as its task to
facilitate curiosity about the future, enabling students and
lecturers to contribute to shaping the future in a focused way.
The connection between

design thinking,
future research, and
speculative design
But how do we methodically translate these insights into
a design approach? In the research group, we emphasize
‘designing’ in a broad sense. Note that we use the verb (‘to
design’). That is on purpose: my institution trains creative
thinkers who develop innovative concepts that contribute to
society.
There are three areas of methodical expertise that we

develop within the research group: design thinking, specula-
tive design, and futures research. Design thinking is an
87
accessible and practical approach that is already used in
many different contexts and training programs. The method
offers our students concrete steps that they can apply in the
4. Tim Brown, Change by
Design. How Design Thinking research phase to develop concepts. Design thinking has
Transforms Organizations
and Inspires Innovation long existed within the domain of designers but was mainly
(New York: Harper Collins
Publishers, 2009). translated into new contexts and worlds by publications and
works by Tim Brown 4 and Roger Martin. 5 In recent years,
5. Roger Martin, The
Design of Business. Why this method has gained enormous ground, both academi-
Design Thinking is the Next
Competitive Advantage cally and in practice. In addition to the extensive literature
(Boston, MA: Harvard
Business Press, 2009).
published on the subject, 6 many large companies such as
IBM, Samsung, and Philips make use of (elements of) design
6. See for example Jeanne
Liedtka, “Why Design
thinking.
Thinking Works,” Harvard
Business Review (September
October 2018) and Michael
Speculative design is less well-known and widespread than
Lewrick, Patrick Link, Larry design thinking but appeals to the imagination. This perspec-
Leifer, The Design Thinking
Playbook: Mindful Digital tive invites designers and researchers to make the future
Transformation of Teams,
Products, Services, Businesses tangible. In 2013, Dunne and Raby published the book
and Ecosystems (New York:
Wiley, 2018). Speculative Everything, 7 which can be seen as the starting
point for speculative design. The central thesis of speculative
7. Antony Dunne, Fioana
Raby, Speculative Everything. design is that ethical discussion about what do we want with
Design, Fiction, and Social
Dreaming (Cambridge, MA: our future, is sparked when that future is tangible. The value
MIT Press, 2013).
of speculative design is, on the one hand, that this approach
8. James Auger, encourages reflection on possible futures and, on the other,
Speculative Design: Crafting
the Speculation. Digital to learn to ask critical questions. 8 Speculative design can
Creativity 24, no. 1 (2013):
11–35, https://doi.org/10.10
take many forms; it can be a science fiction film, a tangible
80/14626268.2013.767276. object, or a poem. For example, NextNatureNetwork 9
9. For more informa-
developed an artificial womb, which raises the question: is
tion about the Artificial the development of an artificial womb desirable?
Womb, see the NextNature
website at https://next-
nature.net/story/2018/ Finally, futures research is often connected to methods like
artificial-womb-design.
scenario planning. With this perspective it is possible to think
in alternative futures and question what one cannot know
about the future. 10 This requires a very different mindset
than focusing on what we do know about the future. 11 The
latter approach, focusing on the known, is tricky because it
encourages us to think about the future in a linear way.
Today is the same as tomorrow, even if we know that this is
not the case. Uncertainty is a central concept in this perspec-
tive 12 ; the future is simply impossible to predict, and the
courage to embrace that we do not know is of vital impor-
tance. This is also why futurists, artists, and designers have a
lot in common: they all navigate, in their own respective
ways, that gray area of not-knowing.
88
___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___________________________________________ Tessa Cramer
Within the research group, we see the added value of

10. E.g., Wendell Bell,
connecting the various perspectives: future research, design Foundations of Futures
Studies: Human Science for
thinking, and speculative design. We make the future tan- a New Era, Volume 1 (New
Brunswick: Transaction
gible at multiple levels by connecting the design thinking Publishers, 2003).
approach to the creation of tangible concepts with specula-
11. Tessa Cramer,
tive design. It makes the somewhat abstract perspective of Becoming Futurists:
Reluctant Professionals
futures research concrete and adds an additional layer to Searching for Common
the further development and deepening of design thinking Ground, PhD Thesis
(Maastricht: Maastricht
and speculative design. We do this, for example, by making University, 2020). https://
doi.org/10.26481/
it clear how to create your own desirable future guided by dis.20200520tc.
the three perspectives. We also encourage our researchers

12. For a more in-depth
to experiment with the perspectives and fail, so they can try view of dealing with sce-
narios and uncertainty in
again. We believe that this approach is useful to grapple with practice, I refer to Marjolein
van Asselt et al, Foresight
the ever-evolving and changing world around us. in Action, Developing Policy-
Oriented Scenarios (London:
Earthscan, 2010).
Highlighted project:
the Rose Garden
The global health crisis caused by COVID-19 was an invi-
tation to slow down under exceptional circumstances: we
found ourselves collectively in the eye of an unexpected
storm. Within the Designing the Future research group,
we noticed an increased understanding of what matters,
both socially and personally. We momentarily let go of the
focus on theory and methods, so we could openly observe
what was going on around us. Our colleagues and stu-
dents started to raise new questions. For example, what is
‘essential’ when the economy is on hold? I often overheard
colleagues ask: Why was I in a hurry again? Together we
started to question: Why is an attentive, slower paced envi-
ronment the exception rather than the rule?
There was no straightforward answer to the questions that

were raised. They take time and require patience. This also
had practical reasons; it proved to be difficult to create head-
space if long to-do lists need to be finished. We started to
narrow our search down to the question of how to escape
the mechanisms in our society that consider our attention
as a currency, vying for our attention, visibly and invisibly.
Our era is characterized by a high degree of acceleration,
in which time seems to be passing increasingly faster. We
use multiple screens simultaneously, constantly engulfed by
notifications and apps. 89
Figure 2
We then went looking for literature and practices that could
Studio of the Designing help us in the search for answers. We found reflective books,
the Future research group
in the Fontys Academy for such as publications by Ramsey Nasr 13 and Merlijn
Creative Industries.
Twaalfhoven, 14 and a wide range of academic publications
that can be considered future research. 15 16 17 Our search
was triggered by several officials asking us: How do we
navigate this uncertainty since we’ve always been guided by
what is certain? That requires a tremendous change in
thinking and doing. Through her book How To Do Nothing:
Resisting the Attention Economy, artist and writer Jenny Odell
provides us with a valuable metaphor to envisage that
headspace: the Rose Garden. 18 Time and again, she returns
to a rose garden in her neighborhood to experience that she
doesn’t have to do anything. The rose garden showed her,
and us, that proximity to other people is not always neces-
sary to connect. And sometimes silence can connect more
than breaking it. In a sense, this rose garden resides in all of
us, and we can make it work for us – provided we make the
time for it. The latter is not always easy, with a smartphone
at your fingertips.
From this starting point, I started working in a special task

force, set up just after the first lockdown in April 2020, which
lasted until July 2020. The experimental task force, consisting
90
_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___________________________________________ Tessa Cramer
of secretaries, translators, and lecturers, was highly agile. 13. Ramsey Nasr, De
Fundamenten (Amsterdam:
For example, graduating students received mental support De Bezige Bij, 2021).
from the taskforce with a mobile fair that went door to door
14. Merlijn Twaalfhoven,
to visit them. This action was soon picked up by the national Het Is Aan Ons. Waarom We
de Kunstenaar in Onszelf
press and was reported in Dutch newspapers Telegraaf and Nodig Hebben om de Wereld
Algemeen Dagblad. Another example was a large group of lec- te Redden (Amsterdam/
Antwerpen: Atlas Contact,
turers who went on a search for headspace, at home, online, 2020).
and in the curriculum. Hiking clubs were started, as well as

15. Krista Tippett, Becoming
new peer review groups. All this work laid the foundation Wise. An Inquiry Into the
Mystery of Art of Living
for a larger theoretical project that resulted from the initial (Penguin Press, 2016).
question: How can people learn to deal with uncertainty?

16. Robin Wall Kimmerer,
The project that resulted from this successful task force was Braiding Sweetgrass.
Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific
renamed the Rose Garden. Knowledge and the Teaching
of Plants (Milkweed Editions,
2015).
In the current academic year (2020/2021), the research
group is looking for ways to make the Rose Garden a place 17. Louise Byg Kongsholm
and Cathrine Gro
for students, lecturers, Fontys ACI staff, and Fontys-wide Frederiksen, Trend Sociology
V.2.0 – the Ultimate Guide:
employees, but also for externals. The first concrete attempt Theoretical, Methodical and
Practical Work With Trends
is to facilitate a Floating Festival about ‘nothing’; during a (Pej Gruppen, 2018).
period of ten weeks, this festival ‘floats’ online through the
18. Jenny Odell, How
corridors of Fontys ACI. From May to the summer holidays To Do Nothing, Resisting
the Attention Economy
in 2021, every day from noon until 1 pm, we hosted an open (Brooklyn, NY: Melville
mic for all employees and students who needed company House, 2019).
and to just be together. We were surprised by how crea-

tive participants became: we saw them recite poems, play
piano, philosophize, and share research results, play games,
write together and display artwork. The festival allowed our
colleagues and students to slow down, stop doing things and
just be present. We hope to expand the project next year,
designing more physical and digital Rose Gardens in collabo-
ration with others.
The societal value of

the design approach
The challenge for the coming years is to let the forward-look-
ing design approach also inspire other disciplines and
experts, such as politicians. Last year, for example, we were
inspired by Ramsey Nasr’s interview on the Dutch TV show
Buitenhof about the value of creatives. In April 2020, he
91
noted that in the midst of the health crisis, the main focus
Figure 3
Future thinking for
beginners, a drawing made
during the Chaos in Order
festival in November 2020.
Credits: Joni Israeli.
was on ‘valid’ knowledge developed by a specific type of

scientist. The creatives, artists, and designers could have
made a massive contribution creatively thinking about the
social distancing guidelines. However, that connection has
not been structurally established. The one-sided image of
creativity as entertainment is outdated, but apparently still
very persistent. It is time to expand the societal narrative on
creativity and the creative economy and show their value
as sources of unexpected inspiration to inform decision-
making at the local and national level. Partnerships such as
the NADR can contribute to this broader understanding and
appreciation of the design disciplines.
92
_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ ___________________________________________ Tessa Cramer
Tessa
Cramer
Fontys University of
Applied Sciences
Dr. Tessa Cramer is futurist and professor of Designing the
Future at the Academy for Creative Industries at the Fontys
University of Applied Sciences. She is a cultural sociologist
and obtained her PhD from Maastricht University in 2020
with a dissertation titled ‘Becoming Futurists.’ Cramer is
co-founder and former board member of the Dutch Future
Society, co-founder of the Trend Research Lab, created a
bachelor curriculum about the future, is a member of the
New Amsterdam Council of Pakhuis De Zwijger as well as a
member of the Development Council of BrabantKennis and
a public speaker via TheNextSpeaker. In her work, Cramer
combines design and future thinking by applying design
principles to develop solutions for the future.
93
94
_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _________________________________________ Anke Coumans
The artistic
attitude
in a social
context
The art of daring to see
things differently
Anke Coumans
The research group Image in Context of the Research Centre

Art and Society in Groningen has spent the past eight years
developing new roles for artists and designers working in
social contexts. While searching for the specific role that the
arts (as a collective term for the various disciplines offered
within an art academy) can play in social environments, we
discovered a particular artistic attitude by which an artist is
distinguished beyond their visual and image-making quali-
ties. After all, without this artistic attitude that is the baseline
for all artistic practice, visual qualities would lose their full
potential, and the artistry would become but craft. It is this
artistic attitude that, in a social context, marks the difference
between the artist and, for example, a social worker or a
healthcare professional. The artistic attitude offers new and
radical avenues to look at social contexts beyond the care
context itself. This attitude is developed during their time at
the art academy.
95
The artistic attitude in a social context _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ________________________________________________________
Few publications have been written about this artistic
1. Merlijn Twaalfhoven,
Het is Aan Ons. Waarom We attitude, and even less within the academic context. The only
de kunstenaar in Onszelf
Nodig Hebben om de Wereld exception is composer Merlijn Twaalfhoven’s 2020 book Het
te Redden (Amsterdam/
Antwerpen: Atlas Contact, is aan ons. Waarom we de kunstenaar in onszelf nodig hebben
2020).
om de wereld te redden (‘It is up to us: Why we need our inner
2. Twaalfhoven, Het is aan artist to save the world’), 1 in which he examines the artistic
Ons, 21.
attitude through his own professional experience.
3. Elizabeth Fisher and Twaalfhoven speaks about the mentality of the artist in this
Rebecca Fortnum, eds., On
Not Knowing: How Artists context. To help non-artists take ownership of this type of
Think (London: Black Dog
Publishing, 2013). attitude too, he offers a tapestry of observations, experi-
ences, thoughts and actions as an instruction for how to look
4. Herman van
Hoogdalem and Gijs and see differently, dare to feel more, learn to think expan-
Wanders, Gezichten van
Dementie (Zwolle: WBOOKS, sively and start advancing to reach one’s ideals. 2 In his book,
2016) and: Herman van
Hoogdalen and Constance
he explores these four artistic mentalities through successful
de Vries, Mag Ik Gaan. Leven and less successful attempts to turn his audience into
en Sterven met Dementie
(Zwolle: WBOOKS, 2020). participants.
In this contribution, I will highlight how the focus on the

artistic attitude has developed using one of the research
projects of the research group: Ik zie ik zie wat jij niet ziet.
Portretten van mensen met dementie (‘I spy with my little eye:
Portraits of people with dementia’). Using various artist’s
texts from the book On Not Knowing: How Artists Think 3 and
the thinking of anthropologist Tim Ingold, I will explore the
very nature of this artistic attitude. Finally, via a second
research project of my research group entitled De ontwer-
pende attitude in de zorg voor mensen met dementie (‘The
design-like attitude towards people with dementia in care
institutes’), I will clarify the central focus of my research
group for the coming five years. By researching how the
artistic attitude can be adopted by those who did not study
at an art academy, I will focus primarily on professionals
working in various care practices.
A focus on the
artistic attitude
For the project Ik zie ik zie wat jij niet ziet, we asked art
students to portray people with dementia. This project was
developed with my colleague, visual artist Herman van
Hoogdalem, whose portraits of those with dementia have
96 been central to his own practice over the past decade. 4 Van
_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _________________________________________ Anke Coumans
Hoogdalem was the experiential expert in this research,

engaging with people with dementia via the process of
creating these portraits.
In the first two years, 2015 and 2016, my research group

ran this project in the institutional context of a care home,
where the art students and those with dementia were
paired off. From 2017, the students were connected to the
Odensehuis in Groningen: a drop-in center for those with
dementia and their family members. With nothing more
than a drawing pad, the very device that legitimized their
presence in this context, the art students entered, with hes-
itation and without tangible points of reference, this world
of dementia. They had some vague idea of what awaited
them, often due to personal experience. Still, none of them
Figure 1
Drawing of the conver-
sation we had with the
informal carers, caregivers
and the management of ’t
Blauwbörgje. Drawing and
photo: Asa Scholma.
knew how these men or women would truly react to their

presence. Alongside the finished portraits, which often were
powerful testimonies of the meetings between students and
people with dementia, the care professionals particularly
noticed the characteristic manner in which the art students
were present. They talked about the gentle slowness of a
process wherein things might be noticed that may normally
97
fall through the cracks of care professionals view, because
their focus lies more on quick and immediate tasks and
‘helping.’ The students were also warmly welcomed within
the Odensehuis because of their capacity to see and listen
to the people there and to make contact with them via the
portrait-making process.
Figure 2
Works set-up for Asa
The nature of the
Scholma’s drawing process
during the ‘Ik zie, ik zie wat artistic attitude
jij niet ziet’ project. Photo:
Asa Scholma. In her article ‘Tactics for not knowing: preparing for the
unexpected’, 5 Emma Cocker describes the artistic attitude
of not-knowing when entering an unfamiliar reality. The
artist gives space for the unexpected to occur, precisely
through this characteristic of not-knowing. Already from a
young age, we learn to identify and classify the unknown.
Our education teaches us that we must expand knowledge,
and that not-knowing is a fault. It seems that within the
artistic professions, this not-knowing is, however, a neces-
sary attitude that should somehow be protected.
In the 2013 Fortnum article, ‘Creative Accounting: not

knowing in talking and making’, artist Terry Diffey is cited on
98
this not-knowing, namely the absence of predictability in the
creative process. “To create is to engage in undertakings the
_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _________________________________________ Anke Coumans
outcome of which cannot be known or defined or predicted,

5. Emma Cocker, “Tactics
though there may be some presentiment of the outcome.” 6 for Not Knowing: Preparing
for the Unexpected,”
So, there is indeed a sense of direction present, but no in: Elizabeth Fisher and
Rebecca Fortnum, eds., On
predeterminate idea about the outcome. Not Knowing: How Artists
Think (London: Black Dog
Publishing, 2013).
According to anthropologist Tim Ingold, this artistic attitude
potentially makes artists better anthropologists. In his 2017 6. Rebecca Fortnum,
“Creative Accounting: Not
Groningen lecture, Ingold mentions four particular qualities Knowing in Talking and
Making,” in: Elizabeth Fisher
that are the foundation for this argument. 7 The first quality and Rebecca Fortnum, eds.,
On Not Knowing: How Artists
is generosity. Artists are generous when they are not greedy Think (London: Black Dog
in respect to the world around them; when they understand Publishing, 2013).
that we solely exist because of what others have given us; 7. Tim Ingold, Art, Science
when they can receive what is offered with an open attitude, and the Meaning of Research.
Keynote lecture presented
and when they give back that which does not belong to at the symposium Thought
Things (Groningen,
them. The second quality of the anthropologist-like artist is November 2017).
their ability to work not solution-oriented but open-ended.

8. Anke Coumans,
“Relational Drawing.
Thirdly, the anthropologist-artist should be comparative. De Kunstenaar als
Antropoloog,“ FORUM+ voor
This means that they recognize that one overall perspec- Onderzoek en Kunsten 26,
no.1 (2019): 38–47.
tive is not the only possibility. With this, the artist questions
both their own approach in relation to the other person and 9. Anke Coumans and
Ingrid Schuffelaars, “De
acknowledges that the approach of another is also of value. Relevantie van Artistiek
Onderzoek,” ScienceGuide,
Finally, the artist is critical: they do not accept the world as is. 21 June 2017.
The aforementioned idea of not-knowing is also related to

these four qualities. They facilitate an open and dialogical
relationship with their surroundings. In my article ‘Relational
drawing: The artist as anthropologist’, 8 I describe how these
characteristics are present amongst the art students in the Ik
zie ik zie wat jij niet ziet project.
Planting the seed for

further investigation
Drawing from the same attitude of the Ik zie ik zie wat jij niet
ziet students, we went on to carry out further research
projects within the health and care context. The openness of
this responsive type of environment was what catalyzed the
development of these projects. My colleague Ingrid
Schuffelers and I call this the process-orientated approach of
working. 9 It always starts with not-knowing, being open to
99
the unexpected and working open-ended rather than
solution-based; that is how we bring this framework to each
of the interventions. We use this to process in the projects to
open possibilities for how we conduct our researches. We
developed these research projects in collaboration with the
Figure 3
Online meeting while care workers, which resulted in a specific atmosphere and
Willemijn Rog makes a
drawing of the scenario space where those involved could establish their own way of
outlined by the participants.
Photo: Asa Scholma. speaking, acting and being.
In this manner, we developed a methodology via the project

De ontwerpende attitude in de zorg voor mensen met dementie
whereby both the healthcare professionals and the family
members of those with dementia (in this case, within the
institutional care home setting of ‘t Blauwbörgje) learn
from the different roles and perspectives present and gain
a better understanding. We gave space to an attitude we
called artistic. The people developed a similar open, recep-
tive attitude towards their own surroundings as an artist
would. We also called this attitude design-like in that it aims
to actually change and improve the world that the care
professionals and family members are a part of. This project
was developed from my own opinion of care institutions,
100 recognizing that they are designed around what is best for
_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _________________________________________ Anke Coumans
the specific people with dementia, while the institutions

Figure 4
should also cater to the actual needs of the healthcare Guyonne van Berge
Henegouwen with portret
workers and the family members. of visitor of the Odensehuis
in Groningen.
This way of working closely touches upon Participatory

10. Anke Coumans,
Action Research as we very much consider the participants “Ontwerpen In Het Hier en
Nu. De Artistieke Attitude In
as co-researchers of their own context. I describe the de Zorg Voor Mensen Met
Dementie,” FORUM+ voor
framework of this research in the article ‘Design in the here Onderzoek en Kunsten 27,
no.2 (2020): 3–13.
and now: The artistic attitude within the care context for
people with dementia’. 10
In 2020, we used this methodology with the same group

of people from ’t Blauwbörgje to gain insights into how the
pandemic measures affected the inner workings, the nuts
and bolts, of the care facility. The research focused on the
disrupted relationship between those directly involved with
’t Blauwbörgje and the outside world, particularly the rela-
tionship with young people. The development of a physical
meeting space for the young and the elderly, for those
outside and within ’t Blauwbörgje, is the objective: it gives
101
us the direction we wish to take with this project, once the
situation allows for it.
11. https://www.toukomst.
nl/projecten/woonvormen/
Research aims of the
12. Toukomst is a
research group for the
Groningen National
Program initiative
upcoming five years
comprising of West 8
(urban development and
The future challenges stemming from the projects described
landscape architecture are fourfold. Firstly, we wish to collaboratively develop a new
design bureau) and other
organizations from the and actual place for people with dementia, their families,
province of Groningen.
Together with Toukomst we healthcare professionals and artists to live and work
aim to develop projects for
the future of Groningen. together. Our methodology can help us to form a growing
development and design team. To achieve this, we have
become part of the Toukomst 11 initiative’s project group
‘How we wish to live’. 12
Secondly, we wish to research how the artistic attitude can

help us to develop a health care system with humanity at its
core. How can the residents, their family members and the
care professionals develop their own practices within the
overall policy framework? The pandemic has shown us how
important it is to have policies based on the reality of what
happens in the actual care context.
Thirdly, we are looking for a way in which this new way of

working of artists and designers – designing environments
in which the other person can become a designer – can be
taught within art education. What is needed to train artists
and designers to become designers of settings in a care
context? What competences do they need for this?
Fourthly, we are researching whether or not the artistic

attitude can, in fact, become a component of the care pro-
fessional’s education program. Just as the development of
an artist can benefit from discovering a balance in between
both an artistic and social attitude, we want care profes-
sionals to unearth what it means to operate with an artistic
attitude within the care context.
102
_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _________________________________________ Anke Coumans
To realize these challenges, we have built a consortium

in which the healthcare sector and artists are both repre-
sented. Evelyn Finnema, Professor of Nursing Science and
Education, (representing the healthcare industry) and the
care institutes ’t Blauwbörgje (Dignis Groningen) and Sunenz
(Haren) are willing to run and develop pilots within their
organizations. In addition, the alumni of the Ik zie ik zie wat jij
niet ziet projects will participate as representatives from the
artistic field.
Anke
Coumans
Hanze University of
Applied Sciences
Dr. Anke Coumans has gained work experience in a broad
field of art and culture, in the Netherlands and abroad. Her
work has focused on design, film, media, visual arts and
journalism. In 2010, she obtained her PhD from Leiden
University with the research ‘Als een beeld ‘ik’ zegt … het
dialogische betekenisvormingsproces van het publieke
beeld’. After a career as a professor and research coordi-
nator in art education (HKU Utrecht), she was appointed
as a professor at the Art and Society Center of the Hanze
University of Applied Sciences in Groningen in 2013. Since
103
her appointment, she has been investigating the role of dia-
logue in collaborative art and design projects.
104
_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ Eke Rebergen, Sebastian Olma, Wander Eikelboom
Looking for
trouble
Raising and tackling problems
through design research
Eke Rebergen, Sebastian Olma, Wander Eikelboom
Designers work on various products, campaigns, and

1. James Bridle, New Dark
platforms that significantly impact our daily lives. The Age (London: Verso, 2018).
products and services they design – literally shaping every-

2. Dominic Pettman,
day life – reflect social prejudices, ideologies, and power Infinite Distraction
(Cambridge: Polity Press,
structures. Increasingly, these aspects are critically exam- 2016).
ined in the most common objects and services, such as

3. Ivana Bartoletti, An
online platforms and shops, 1 2 or in the increasing number Artificial Revolution: On
Power, Politics and AI
of products that operate based on AI and algorithms. 3 4 5 (London: The Indigo Press,
2020).
The design of passports 6 or that of something as simple as
a coke bottle has also received critical attention. 7 4. Adam Greenfield,
Radical Technologies. The
Design of Everyday Life
The design of these products cannot be disconnected from (London: Verso, 2017).
the ethical, political, and far-reaching social consequences.
5. Safiya Umoja Noble,
A maker who designs under the naive belief that to be Algorithms of Oppression
(New York: NYU Press,
“neutral” forgets the social complexities and ideological 2018).
undercurrents that are irrevocably attached to each design,
6. Mahmoud Keshavarz,
both to the design process and its result. That is why it is a The Design Politics of
the Passport (London:
fundamental competence of the maker to critically under- Bloomsbury, 2019).
stand and challenge the ethical, political, social context of
7. Laurent de Sutter,
her work. This is a central aspect of the research that takes Narcocapitalism
place at Avans’ CARADT (Center of Applied Research for Art, 2018).
Design, and Technology).
105
Looking for trouble __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _______________________________________________________
8. Robert Hewison,
Cultural Capital (London:
Superficial innovations
Verso, 2014). and the creative industry
9. Angela McRobby, Be We believe that design must always be critical and must
Creative: Making a Living in
the New Culture Industries question ideology. This also means that designers need to
2016). engage with the current discourse surrounding the ‘creative
industry’. Today, this is particularly urgent as policy terms
10. Evgeny Morozov, To
Save Everything, Click Here such as ‘innovation’ or ‘value creation’ largely determine the
(New York: PublicAffairs,
2013). development of creative work (as propagated by the
‘Topconsortium voor Kennis en Innovatie van de Creatieve
11. Oli Mould, Against
Creativity (London: Verso, Industrie’ and similar organisations). For years, critics have
2018).
bemoaned the dominance of commercial concepts of
12. Justin O’Connor, “The creativity that have led to the adaptation of models whose
Great Deflation. Arts and
Culture After the Creative novelty consists in finding new ways to stimulate unneces-
Industries,” Making &
Breaking 2 (2021).
sary consumption, creating hollow innovation rhetoric and
exacerbating social inequity. 8 9 10 11 12 Following some of
13. Anand Giridharadas,
Winners Take All: The Elite these critical approaches, CARADT, the research group
Charade of Changing the
World (New York: Knopf,
Cultural and Creative Industries investigates how artists and
2018). designers can help shape a desirable future without falling
14. Sebastian Olma, In
prey to what the American journalist Anand Giridharadas 13
Defence of Serendipity. For a calls the ideology of ‘MarketWorld’: the idea that cosmetic
Radical Politics of Innovation
(London: Repeater Books, design interventions can correct the neo-liberal destruction
2016).
of recent decades in the areas of mental health, social
15. Elizabeth Resnick, welfare, democratic governance and the environment. We
The Social Design Reader
(London: Bloomsbury, understand that this is, in essence, a futile exercise in
2019).
‘changeless change’, 14 which we would like to steer clear of.
16. Bruce Nussbaum,
Is Humanitarian Design
the New Imperialism?, 7
June 2010, https://www.
fastcompany.com/1661859/
More critical design traditions
is-humanitarian-de- Within the design field, there is a current that engages with
sign-the-new-imperialism.
more urgent design challenges and tries to find effective
17. Tim Seitz, Design ways to address them. Often, this falls under the label of
Thinking and the New Spirit
of Capitalism. Sociological ‘social design’, 15 i.e., projects addressing social challenges
Reflections on Innovation
Culture (Cham: Palgrave and societal problems. However, the present-day application
Pivot, 2020).
of such ‘social’ design projects often avoids the necessary
analysis of the broader social context in which a specific
local “problem” is “solved” by a design intervention. Thus, it
tends to ignore the conflicts that are inherent to fundamen-
tal change. As a result of such lack of analytical rigor, even
socially-oriented ‘humanitarian design’ projects have been
exposed as a new kind of imperialism. 16 Social change
106
_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Eke Rebergen, Sebastian Olma, Wander Eikelboom
through ‘design thinking’ has been described as a lucrative 18. Anand Giridharadas,
kind of ‘business consulting’ 17 that does nothing but Winners Take All: The Elite
Charade of Changing the
confirm the status quo. 18 World (New York: Knopf,
2018).
Fortunately, a more stringent critical movement in the 19. Anthony Dunne and
design field seems increasingly gaining ground in various Fiona Raby, Speculative
Everything; Design, Fiction
‘critical’ or ‘speculative’ design practices, explicitly seeking and Social Dreaming
(Cambridge: MIT Press,
room for ideological dissent and critical experiment. 19 2013).
These types of projects don’t focus on effective solutions or

20. Bruce M. Tharp
lucrative improvement but on addressing structural prob- and Stephanie M.Tharp,
Discursive Design. Critical,
lems and preventing undesirable developments. Yet, we Speculative, and Alternative
Things (Cambridge: The MIT
should not be satisfied with a mere call for ‘free debate’ or Press, 2019).
an emphasis on ‘critical thinking’ for a small privileged group
21. Claudia Mareis and
of designers, which is always a risk when it comes to these Nina Paim, Design Struggles.
Intersecting Histories,
types of ‘discursive’ projects. 20 Pedagogies, and Perspectives
(Amsterdam: Valiz, 2021).
A specific type of applied 22. Danah Abdulla, Modes

of Criticism 4. Radical
design research Pedagogy (Eindhoven:

Onomatopee, 2019).
Hence, we wholeheartedly agree with designers and design 23. Tristan Schultz, Danah
Abdulla, Ahmed Ansari,
theorists who recently began to address potential ‘design Ece Canlı, Mahmoud
struggles’ within the creative fields, 21 and who want to Keshavarz, Matthew Kiem,
Luiza Prado de O. Martins
radicalize the (training to become a) designer. 22 To do this, and Pedro J.S. Vieira de
Oliveira (2018) Editors’
complex relationships such as that between design and Introduction, Design
and Culture, 10:1, 1–6,
colonialism, 23 or the role of creatives in violence, 24 must be DOI: 10.1080/17547075.
2018.1434367.
explored and deepened. More attention must be paid to the
long history of (often less well-known) designers and makers 24. Paola Antonelli and
Jamer Hunt, Design and
who tried to shape counter-movements or fundamentally Violence (New York: The
Museum of Modern Art,
questioned the status quo. 25 2015).
In the design domain, efforts will have to be made to break 25. Marjanne van Helvert,
The Responsible Object. A
the dominant paradigms and complicit narratives. 26 It History of Design Ideology
for the Future (Amsterdam:
should be obvious that this requires a better integration Valiz, 2016).
between design theory and design practice, academic
26. Daniela K. Rosner,
research and technological experiments, critical reflection Critical Fabulations.
and creative action. In short, this is what we believe a timely Reworking the Methods
and Margins of Design
integrated approach to applied design research requires. It (Cambridge: The MIT Press,
2018).
also means that we need to change the scope of the label
‘applied design research’ to include an explicit challenge to
the neoliberal ideology of creativity and innovation – much
more than has been the case so far in either education or
the field of design research.
107
Finding and stirring
up problems
Some years ago, Marie L. J. Søndergaard 27 used an expres-
sion that we believe helps to characterize what applied
design research should be all about. She obtained her PhD
by developing a design approach that she described as
‘Staying with the Trouble through Design’. This was inspired
by the work of Donna Haraway (though it stayed clear of
Haraway’s complex concepts such as ‘chthulucene’ or
‘cyborgs’).
Søndergaard’s design approach is characterized by her

Figure 1
Screenshot of www.cre- unfaltering insistence on a specific problem (staying with
atieveweerbarstigheid.nl.
the trouble) and, above all, by her making problems (cre-
ating trouble), rather than submitting to the design dogma
of finding solutions for problems. By engaging with the
world in such a meaningful way, general social problems
and criticism did not remain abstract theoretical reflection.
Instead, they turned into concrete phenomena that design-
ers have to struggle with and are part of. Problems are thus
brought in, raised, stirred up, and learned to be dealt with.
This approach can be used in the present context to make
a difference between, on the one hand, (common) forms of
applied design research, where problems are the starting
108 point for effective improvement or innovation, and on the

other hand, the new kind of design research that we con-

27. Marie L. J. Søndergaard,
sider to be so important, where designers learn to stay with “Staying With the Trouble
Through Design: Critical-
the trouble. feminist Design of Intimate
Technology,” PhD Thesis
(Aarhus University, 3
At Avans University of Applied Sciences, we have used two December 2018).v
different ways to try and shape this type of applied design
28. Ian Bogost, Play
research in educational projects. Anything (New York: Basic
Books, 2016).
Example of educational 29. Garnet Hertz,

Disobedient Electronics.
project ‘playful interaction’ Protest, January 2018, http://

www.disobedientelectron-
ics.com/; Finn Brunton
In a second-year quarterly project called ‘playful interaction’, & Helen Nissenbaum,
Obfuscation. A User’s Guide
two cohorts of more than 120 students of the CMD for Privacy and Protest
(Cambridge: The MIT Press,
(Communication and Multimedia Design) program in 2012); Nato Thompson
and Gregory Sholette,
‘s Hertogenbosch have worked on playful interventions for The Interventionists, Users’
Manual for the Creative
social problems. This project uses the potential of games Disruption of Everyday Life
(Cambridge: MIT Press,
and playful interactions to (temporarily) create or challenge 2004).
a different reality, or to disrupt and break through the usual
patterns of the design process 28 . Students were divided
into design teams and asked to come up with three design
proposals. To inspire them, a collection of sample projects
was gathered on the website www.creatieveweerbarstigheid.
nl (Figure 1), based on previously published inventories of
this type of creative work. 29 Some of the student’s research
findings were added to the collection at the end of the
project; next year, they can serve as examples for a new
design team.
One of the student projects was a design for a new program

called ‘Medicinal Distribution and Management Analysis’
(Figure 2), a draft proposal based on research into the
problems of drug trafficking, created by students Kevin
Nas, Bram Smits, Pleun Wilting, Luna van Loon, Mannus van
der Meer and Damon van der Voort. The students created
various communication materials, drafted an initial set-up of
entry requirements and a draft program description. They
continued the logical line of thinking about further profes-
sionalization and the significant economic importance of
mostly illegal drug trafficking and wondered whether, and
how, an extension of the training portfolio at their own uni-
versity of applied sciences could be aligned to that.
109
Figure 2
‘‘Education MDMA Flyer”
by Kevin Nas, Bram Smits,
Pleun Wilting, Luna van
Loon, Mannus van der Meer
and Damon van der Voort.
The design required the academy to take a position in

relation to the problem of drug trafficking. The design team
actually engaged in the discussion with the academy man-
agement and visualized it in concrete terms. One could
imagine that establishing such a program as an experiment
could have quite a disruptive effect on the current policy
on drug trafficking in the Brabant province. Or that such a
draft proposal could create a different kind of involvement
in the problem in an unexpected way. Much constructive
discussion took place in the various design teams about the
social role that they see for the designer, whom or what to
confront, and how to determine the purpose of the design
proposals.
Example of educational
project ‘Void’
Another project illustrating this type of applied design
research is ‘Void’ at CMD Breda. In this project, students
explore alternative and speculative forms of interaction in
order to criticize existing conventions and systems. 30 During
110
Void’s last iteration in the fall of 2020, 120 sophomores
researched a speculative future in which “man” is no longer

30. James Auger,
dominant. By asking what-if questions, they explored the “Speculative Design:
Crafting the Speculation,”
speculation of a post-anthropocentric world and its conse- Digital Creativity 24, no.
1 (March 2013): 11–35.
quences for the relationships between human and https://doi.org/10.1080/146
26268.2013.767276.
non-human entities and systems. In addition, students
mapped out the dominant systems that structure our 31. Cennydd Bowles, Future
Ethics (London: NowNext,
contemporary human-centric worldview and tried to 2018).
develop alternatives. The provocatypes 31 32 (prototypes
32. Carl Disalvo, Adversarial
with the purpose of stimulating ethical imagination and Design (Cambridge: The MIT
Press, 2012).
discussion) that they then created offered a fragmentary
experience of what a post-anthropocentric world could feel
like as well as stimulating critical reflection on the present.
An example of this is the project ‘Slave to the Rhythm’

(Figure 3). In this study, Esmay Klein researched a future in
which ‘smart devices’, under the guise of convenience, are
taking more and more agency away from people. She asks
the critical question of what ‘outsourcing’ more and more
activities to smart technology means for human autonomy.
Her design of a set of dysfunctional hair combs allows users
to experience that even the most mundane activities can
suddenly take a lot of effort when people no longer make
independent decisions and determine how things work.
In this and other cases within Void, speculative design is

not a form of trend watching, trying to predict the next
innovation. On the contrary, it is a tool to question the
socio-cultural and ethical consequences of technological
developments and to use design to show that the world can
also be different. Moreover, by imagining desirable as well
as undesirable futures, this type of design research can help
to determine actions that need to be taken in the present
to create a desirable future. In this sense, applied design
research enables students to better understand how the
present is creating the future (‘futuring’) thus actively trying
to ‘critically challenge the natural order of things’.
111
Figure 3
In the ‘Slave to the Rhythm’
project, Esmay Klein
designed a series of dys-
functional combs. By using
them, users experience that
even the most mundane
activities can take a lot of
effort when they can no
longer control how things
work.
33. Hartmut Rosa,

Resonanz: Eine Soziologie der
Weltbeziehung (Frankfurt am
Main: Suhrkamp, 2016).
34. Hartmut Rosa,

Unverfügbarkeit (Unruhe
bewahren) (Salzburg:
Residenz. 2018). Further research
35. This is the essence of We will try to expand and strengthen this type of design
Caradt’s mission statement
as well. Compare: https://
project in the coming years by, among other things, working
caradt.nl/about. with other (creative) courses within and outside Avans
University of Applied Sciences. Within design programs and
in design practice, we want to focus on ways to allow for
further resonance 33 34 and provide room for more critical
orientations on design research. If designers want to build a
sustainable future, they also need infrastructures through
which the current practice can be thoroughly questioned
and the ideological chaff can be separated from the progres-
sive wheat. 35
In this context, it seems relevant to us to examine how

forms of social criticism, more autonomous practices and
other forms of collective organization and vision formation
can strengthen each other in the design research, in order
to increase their effect or impact in social and societal terms.
In short, we see a great urgency to make this type of applied
design research a regular part of the student orientation in
the design field, and also make it part of how designers can
manifest themselves in the creative domain in the future.
112
_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ Eke Rebergen, Sebastian Olma, Wander Eikelboom
Eke
Rebergen,
Wander
Eikelboom &
Sebastian
Olma
Avans University of
Applied Sciences
Eke Rebergen and Wander Eikelboom both work as lecturers
of CMD courses at Avans University of Applied Sciences, and
as researchers within the Cultural and Creative Industries
research group of the Center of Applied Research for Art,
Design and Technology (CARADT). They are involved in
curriculum developments within the courses based on
their experience in the design field (Wander, among other
things, as part of the Polymorf design collective). Sebastian
Olma is a professor in this research group and is also a
board member of the national platform Kunst ~ Onderzoek.
He received his PhD from the Center for Cultural Studies,
Goldsmiths College, University of London in 2007 and subse-
113
quently conducted research at the Amsterdam University of
Applied Sciences’ Institute of Network Cultures.
114
_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ ________________________________________ Marieke Zielhuis
Discomfort
as a starting
point
How design research can
contribute to design practice
Marieke Zielhuis
As researchers, how can we ensure our design research pro-

jects contribute even better to something designers can use
in practice? That is the question I have been focusing on. My
interest in this topic has grown in the years that I was active
as a project manager within the research group Co-Design
at the Utrecht University of Applied Sciences. In many of
our projects – large consortia with academic and practical
partners – we tried to produce valuable insights to benefit
the design professional. Think of a service designer at a small
agency, a healthcare product designer, or an interaction
designer at a major digital agency.
To this end, we developed output such as practical tools and

card sets (see an example in Figure 1). That was quite a chal-
lenge at times. For example, what is a suitable and practical
form that designers can use in practice? Which content do
they need or want? Also, it can be hard for researchers to
allocate time and money to bring research results into prac-
tical use. Much attention is focused on developing solutions
for people who are directly involved in the problem context,
such as healthcare workers or the elderly. But the delivery
115
Discomfort as a starting point _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _______________________________________________________
of concrete output that other designers could also use in

Figure 1
Example of an attempt to such a context is considered less important. That could be a
provide useful results for
design professionals. This missed opportunity.
card set was developed in
collaboration with profes-
sional designers as part of In addition, I find it uncomfortable that the designers we
the SIA-funded research
project Touchpoint. It helps collaborate with sometimes have to invest more in a project
designers gain a clearer
view of their target group’s
than they can get out of it for themselves. In many projects,
behavior in designing for designers apply their practical expertise in user research
behavioral change.
Photo: Marieke Zielhuis. or prototype development, or they act as a client or super-
huis).
visor of design students. The insights they gain during their
engagement are illustrative for what could be relevant for a
broader group of professionals. For example, they develop a
better understanding of a particular target group or familiar-
ity with a theoretical model.
However, due to the often-limited role of the design-

ers, these insights are limited to a part of the project; the
designers are not included throughout the project. And
those insights do not always reach a broader group. And
finally, the participating design professionals often do not
116
see themselves and the broader design practice as a target
group in such a project; they mainly focus on contributing to
a societal problem. In such projects, where the design pro-

1. Daan Andriessen,
fessionals mostly play a facilitating role and where design Praktisch Relevant én
Methodisch Grondig?
practice is hardly served as a target group, they are still Dimensies van Onderzoek in
het Hbo, Public Lecture at
asked to fund (part of) the effort they put in. the Utrecht University of
Applied Sciences (10 April
2014).
This motivated me to focus on this topic and investigate the
following research question: How can researchers reinforce
the methodology of their applied design research projects so
that more knowledge is developed that is useful for design
professionals?
Studying research impact

The research group Research Competence at the Utrecht
University of Applied Sciences provided the opportunity for
me to carry out this research as a PhD study, in collabora-
tion with the department of Industrial Design at TU Delft.
The research group includes, apart from myself, researchers
who are also interested in ‘research into research’, in
professionalizing research and in realizing relevant contribu-
tions to practice. The research group focuses on the
methodology of practice-based research in all disciplines in
higher professional education, ranging from technology to
education and from healthcare to the arts. We use the term
practice-based research to indicate the type of scientific
research that arises from concrete issues in practice, is
carried out in close cooperation with practice, and has the
explicit goal of generating relevant knowledge that can be
used to support practice. 1 One of the central questions
within this research group is: How can we ensure that the
results of practice-based research have an impact on
professional practice? In my own research, I narrow this
question towards the practice of professional designers.

To answer my research question, I study various research
projects (within universities of applied sciences and uni-
versities) that I would label applied design research. They
are all practice-based (applied): arising from concrete
practical issues, carried out in close collaboration with the
117
practical environment and with the explicit objective of
providing relevant knowledge for practice. My definition of
2. John Zimmerman, Erik
Stolterman and Jodi Forlizzi, design research here needs some additional explanation
“An Analysis and Critique of
Research Through Design: because the terminology in this field can be confusing. The
Towards a Formalization of
a Research Approach,” in term design research is commonly used to 1) indicate how
Proceedings of the 8th ACM
Conference on Designing research is done (also in practice) for the purposes of a
Interactive Systems – DIS’10
(2010): 310–319.
design project, to 2) indicate research that contributes to the
continued development of the design discipline, and to 3)
3. Pieter Jan Stappers and indicate research that has a design approach.
Elisa Giaccardi, “Research
Through Design,” in The I study research projects that aim to combine the last two
Computer Interaction, 2nd characteristics.
edition, eds. Mads Soegaard
and Rikke Friis-Dam
(Aarhus, Denmark: 2017): Within the third category, different traditions can be distin-
1–94.
guished. I am most familiar with the tradition of design
4. Kees Dorst, “Design research in which designing and creating prototypes is
Research: A Revolution-
Waiting-to-Happen,” Design seen as an indispensable part of the knowledge develop-
Studies 29, no. 1 (2008):
4–11. ment, internationally mostly referred to as research through
design. 2 3 Research through design has its origins in the
5. Don Norman, Living
With Complexity (Cambridge, disciplines of arts, design and architecture, and has shown
MA: MIT Press, 2010).
strong developments, in particular, the discipline of Human-
6. Johanneke Minnema, Computer Interaction. It is a relatively young discipline,
Lisa Rosing, Marjolein van
Vucht, eds., Veerkracht –
grown from the need of the design community to establish
Kennis- en Innovatieagenda its own research culture with a more academic foundation.
voor de Creatieve Industrie
2020–2023 (Eindhoven:
CLICKNL, 2020). It has since gained a fairly central place in the larger field
of design research. In the discourse on research through
design, different trends can be distinguished, with differ-
ences in cultural context and academic foundation: focusing
on technical universities in the Netherlands, on art and
design in the United Kingdom and Scandinavia, and on HCI/
IxD in the United States. In the Netherlands, the NWO call
‘Research Through Design’ highlighted such designing forms
of research in 2014.
I would also consider my own research approach in this PhD

project as a form of applied design research. The practical
part (applied) shows in my aim to deliver practical tools:
tools that enable researchers to strengthen their projects in
their practical contribution for design professionals. It also
refers to the collaboration with my own practice audience:
researchers as well as professional designers.
118
_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _______________________________________ Marieke Zielhuis
My research is design research in its contribution to the

academic design field and ultimately to design profession-
als (i.e., the second meaning of the term), but also in the
way I incorporate the design of interventions and tools in
a research through design approach to develop knowledge
(the third meaning). I am not only interested in the result-
ing interventions and tools, but also in the insights that
result from the design processes that I want to engage in
with researchers and professional designers. In addition to
this designing part, a large amount of my research consists
of case studies, in which I study design research projects
(through interviews and document analysis), but in which I
do not design or intervene myself.
professional
designers
(design)
researchers
applied design
research project
other
professionals
Design practice as a target Figure 2

The various audiences in
group: Why is it challenging? an applied design research
project.
What makes it so difficult for researchers to contribute to
designers in practice? Applied design researchers usually want
to contribute to practice, not just to science. This is even an
explicit task for researchers at universities of applied
sciences. The need to develop knowledge for the design
practice is there: the changing roles that designers need to
play require new knowledge. 4 5 Various relevant research
areas are described in the knowledge and innovation
agenda 6 by CLICKNL, the organization that represents the
interests of the creative industry in the Netherlands.
What makes it difficult is that the current subsidy landscape

in the Netherlands does not offer much opportunity to
develop knowledge directly intended for design practice.
119
Subsidized projects are tasked to focus primarily on social
issues, such as healthcare or sustainability. Contributing
to design practice is often not supported and is not some-
7. Yvonne Rogers, “New
Theoretical Approaches thing that researchers are assessed on. This means that
for HCI,” Annual Review
of Information, Science the knowledge base of the creative industry is developed pri-
and Technology 38 (2004):
87–143. marily in the slipstream of projects with a different primary
objective. This means that we should take full advantage of
8. Marieke Zielhuis,
Froukje Sleeswijk Visser, any opportunities, especially in those projects where design
Daan Andriessen,
Pieter Jan Stappers, professionals are not the most important target group.
“What Makes Design
Research More Useful
for Design Professionals? These opportunities will have to be sought in projects with
An Exploration of the
Research-Practice Gap,”
multiple target groups with a wide range of interests. A
Journal of Design Research single project can have an audience of researchers, health-
(in press).
care professionals, government employees, entrepreneurs,
design professionals, and people with dementia. Figure 2
shows the main different audience groups of applied design
research projects. I have observed that combining these
interests can be a challenge: the target group of design
practice is easily overlooked in relation to the primary target
group, such as healthcare workers or the elderly. If solutions
are aimed at practice, they are primarily aimed at these
target groups. And when we aim at a designer audience, we
sometimes respond – consciously or unconsciously – more
to the interests and needs of (design) researchers or (design)
students than to the practice interest of professional
designers.
Researchers also regularly find that the methods they

developed are not used in practice as they had intended. 7
Design professionals have different interests and prefer-
ences than academic researchers, even if the latter have a
design background. 8 The interviews I conducted among
design professionals indicated that they indeed do not use
tools – such as the above-mentioned card set – as intended
by the research team. However, these tools prove very
useful for them to demonstrate and illustrate the application
of an underlying theory.
Collaboration with real-

world designers
One way to bring in a practice perspective is to collaborate
with partners from practice. The creative industry com-
120 munity in the Dutch context is already relatively closely

_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _______________________________________ Marieke Zielhuis
user
oriented
researcher
advisor / theoretical researcher

consultant (addressing research
question)
designer
(e.g. prototype
development)
problem
owner
partners in an
applied research project
connected to the design research community at universi- Figure 3

ties and universities of applied sciences. I see that design Various roles for design
professionals as partners in
professionals are involved in research projects in various an applied design research
project.
roles: 1) as a designer (e.g. of prototypes), 2) as an advisor,
for example as a senior design coach for student teams
or in a sounding board, 3) as a hands-on researcher, e.g.
conducting user research, 4) as a theorizing researcher, and
sometimes 5) as a problem owner (see Figure 3).
The project that produced the card set in Figure 1 involved

professional designers in a combination of roles 3, 4, and
5. This was one of the few projects in which we could
prioritize design professionals as a target group. In many
cases, however, such research-practice collaboration is
primarily geared toward social goals, not toward the needs
of design practice. And that doesn’t sit right. This collabora-
tion is challenging when you, as a designer, have a role as a
co-troubleshooter in a project but are funded as if you are
the problem owner (and have to co-fund the project).
121
9. Jonas Löwgren,
“Annotated Portfolios
Promising developments
and Other Forms of The uncomfortable feeling that I described at the begin-
Intermediate-Level
Knowledge,” Interactions, ning of this article is linked to the paradoxical position that
(February 2013): 30–34.
professional designers seem to take in design research:
10. Bill Gaver and John on the one hand, they are seen as co-solvers of a societal
Bowers, “Annotated
Portfolios,” Interactions 19, challenge; on the other hand, there is little opportunity to
no. 4 (2012): 40–49.
develop knowledge that enables them to function optimally
as problem solvers.
In light of these challenges, I see some promising develop-

ments. One of these is the growing focus on suitable formats
to bring the insights and experiences from design research
to design practice. A wide range of intermediate forms has
been identified between abstract knowledge and concrete
design solutions. 9 For example, annotated portfolios 10 :
collections of design solutions in which the annotations
provide a better picture of, for instance, design decisions. In
addition, funding providers are gradually offering more
opportunities to consider design practice as a target group,
such as SIA’s GO-CI program.
Funding providers also offer more opportunities to involve

designers from the field in research projects. A signifi-
cant challenge is to develop ways to co-create with design
practice and to share knowledge and best practices about
these ways. Especially in large, long-term projects with many
research and practical partners, the question must be how
designers can find a role that matches the dynamics of their
practice and in which the give-and-take is well-balanced.
Finally, it seems a challenge in itself to reflect on such

matters, to develop best practices and to share them with
others. Especially in a field such as applied design research
with a multitude of approaches and concepts. I expect that
a further development of the shared definitions framework
(or understanding of the differences) and an overview of
the varied landscape of approaches in the applied design
research field will support such reflection and contribute to
a more powerful contribution to the practice of professional
designers.
122
Marieke
Zielhuis
Untrecht University of
Applied Sciences
Since 2018, Marieke Zielhuis has been a researcher at the
research group Research Competence at Utrecht University
of Applied Sciences. She focuses on methodical challenges
within applied design research on developing knowledge for
design practice. In 2019, she started a PhD research project
in collaboration with the Industrial Design department at TU
Delft. Trained as an industrial designer (TU Delft), Marieke
has worked at the Utrecht University of Applied Sciences
since 2002. She has been the project manager for several
research projects within the Co-Design research group. She
123
has also played a role in two Centers of Expertise: UCREATE
(Creative Industries) and Smart Sustainable Cities.
PART 3:
DESIGN
AND
RESEARCH
WITH
OTHERS
124
“In a fast and profoundly
changing world, everybody
designs. “Everybody” means
not only individual people,
groups, communities,
companies, and associations,
but also institutions, cities,
and entire regions”
~ Ezio Manzini
125
126
_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __________________________________ Remko van der Lugt
Systemic
co-design
The designer as a
facilitator of change
Remko van der Lugt
There I was, heart pounding, at the Emergency Department

of a large hospital. With an interdisciplinary group of
product, service, experience, and interior designers, we
had come to the end of an intensive week, during which we,
together with the staff of the Emergency Department, iden-
tified opportunities for innovations. In the coffee room, we
had created a map with insights and discussed the results
with the nurses and team leaders. It felt like a privilege to be
admitted to this strange working environment, where you
usually only get a patient’s view of how things work.
As a team, we noticed that we had become so alert to the

subject during that week that every time we heard an ambu-
lance siren, we looked up, ready to jump on it, hungry for
new insights. It actually felt a bit wrong, as if we were ambu-
lance-chasing lawyers. Curiosity is essential to designers, but
it is equally important to be empathic when approaching
people and situations. We also realized time and again that
the ambulance was on its way to real people, in real distress.
During the design week, we worked with and alongside

the nurses while they were doing their job. We examined,
observed, talked to the staff and patients about their expe-
riences, generated ideas, and developed them in draft
prototypes, to try them out and evaluate them with the
127
team straight away. In the beginning, the nurses were pretty
Systemic co-design _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ________________________________________________________
skeptical. They were used to having researchers or consult-
ants hanging around in the corridors. In most cases, they said
that these researchers had a certain distance or bias about
how the work should be done, without listening to the knowl-
edge and experience of the nurses. Fortunately, the staff
quickly warmed to our group. They appreciated our open and
modest attitude as we entered their working environment,
and they felt heard and inspired.
Figure 1
Discussing the ‘innovation
map’ with the nurses.
In the end, the week resulted in several innovation direc-

tions. From quick wins such as a way to secure breathing
equipment cables so that they couldn’t get disconnected by
accident, to new work processes so that cancer patients don’t
routinely have to go through emergency care, because the
occurrence of their side effects is often predictable. From sim-
plifying the flow of information from the ambulance through
the reception desk to the trauma room to improved experi-
ences for patients, such as alleviating the long waiting period
or creating an appropriate environment in a room to say their
farewells when their next of kin is not going to survive.
I was terribly impressed by the nurses’ actions, their persever-

ance, and their problem-solving capacities! They were great
at solving immediate problems they encountered and finding
workarounds in the big system. However, I was surprised by
their somewhat cynical attitude toward innovation. They had
often tried to initiate innovations themselves, but they were
repeatedly hindered in their efforts by the organization’s
system. On the other hand, new products were added to the
department frequently, but they did not really suit the nurses’
real needs and working methods. The need to give these
professionals an equal voice in developing the products, the
128 processes, and the work environment became clear to me

once again!
As a professor of Co-Design at the Utrecht University of

1. John Heider, The Tao
Applied Sciences, I have been immersed in ever-diverse of Leadership: Lao Tzu’s Tao
Te Ching Adapted for the
working contexts with an enthusiastic and diverse group of New Age (Atlanta, Georgia:
Humanics New Age, 1986).
designers-researchers since 2013. Part of my job is intro-
ducing people in these contexts to design collaborations. It
is that broad range that makes the work so exciting. One
moment you are in a hospital; the next moment, you are
working at an IT company, a paramedical agency, a school,
at a construction site, or working for the government. As
a research group, we participate in various research pro-
jects that always focus on complex social innovation. Our
research involves developing design capabilities in individ-
uals and teams: what do they need in skills and tools to
participate in a joint design process fully? And what does
that require of the designer as a facilitator in this process?
We are increasingly aware that complex issues require a Figure 2 & 3

systemic attitude, are sensitive to – and find a foothold in – Exploring a new infor-
mation path from the
often hidden dynamics in the system. Within this structure, ambulance to the trauma
room with the nursing staff.
we connect the designer’s tools, methods, and attitude to
complex thinking and systemic working.
I am often inspired by the metaphor of the designer as a

midwife. 1 It is about creating a safe space for people to gain
insights and to conceptualize themselves. Hard intervention
is sometimes needed, but always based on the conviction
that the process is owned by those who will live with the
new design.
129
Facilitating co-design
Some years ago, I facilitated a creative design session for
a large telecom technology company. The participants
included business developers, marketers, technology
experts, and designers. The company had flown in a hotshot
stylist designer from the US to inspire and empower the
participants during the session. This designer was a great
sketch artist and was able to convey his vision of the new
design. The problem was that this somewhat intimidated the
participants. In fact, they did not dare to put any more ideas
on paper or put forward ideas.
In facilitating co-design processes, that is the actual chal-

lenge. How do you enhance participants in their design
ability so that they can contribute fully? And how can you,
as a designer, take on a role of service to that collaborative
process while also engaging your own creativity? Facilitating
co-design processes requires a rather delicate balance of
guiding participants through the process and enabling them
to create their own path through training and/or providing
materials that will allow people to think and act in a ‘design
way’. We often tailor these materials specifically for the
context and characteristics of the task and the participants.
In general terms, these materials can be divided into two

groups. On the one hand, the materials that enable partici-
pants to act in a design manner, somewhat ending the
creative dominance of the designer. These are, for example,
graphic elements for collages or kits to develop models and
prototypes. Here, we rely primarily on the accumulated
experience with generative techniques and context
mapping. 2 On the other hand, we design materials that
make the already accumulated content knowledge accessi-
bly and actively available in the co-design process. These
include knowledge cards, personas, and posters such as
timelines and infographics.
Systemic co-design
For me, systemic thinking is not necessarily about large-
scale thinking. Even small-scale societal problems often
130 hide a world of complexity and system dynamics. Systemic

co-design focuses on these hidden dynamics between 2. Elizabeth Sanders

(groups or networks of) people, with the conviction that if and Pieter Jan Stappers,
Convial Toolbox. Generative
you can see the system dynamics, you can also see where Research for the Front End
of Design (Amsterdam: BIS
you need to focus your intervention as a designer. Publishers, 2012).
The recent project ‘What Moves You?!’ (Wat Beweegt Jou?!)

in the field of pediatric physiotherapy is a good example.
Children with disabilities tend to exercise too little, especially
in their daily environment. There are several reasons for this.
Parents or coaches are afraid that something will happen to
the child, or neighbors do not know how to behave toward
the child. In a co-design process with pediatric physiother-
apists, community sports coaches, parents and children
(Figure 4), we developed a toolkit with easy-to-use interven-
tions. For example, think of a small plexiglass window that
forces a meddling parent to take a more distant observing
role during the treatment, giving the child room to talk and
try things out. Or think of a picture frame that lets the child Figure 4
show people, for example their PE teacher, what they can do What Moves You?! Toolkit
with different interven-
and what they need in support (Figure 5). tions used in paediatric
physiotherapy.
131
Co-research
through co-design
The co-design facilitation attitude also translates into
how we conduct research within the research group. Our
approach is participatory, involving participants in design
projects as co-researchers. We use generative techniques to
enable the project team to gather data and generate insights
throughout the process. For example, reflective journals
help keep an eye on the research question and record
everything encountered. We also often use interview posters
designed for the situation. These enable co-researchers to
conduct in-depth conversations with people in their own
environment (colleagues, neighbors, family members, etc.).
We then interpret the collected data with the co-researchers,
actively using the entire space (the walls, the floor) to assist
in this process.
Figure 5
Model of a picture frame
that allows a child to show,
for example to the gym
teacher, what he or she
knows and what support he
or she needs to achieve it.
This type of research often motivates people; it makes

the participants feel involved in a collaborative learning
process. However, there must be sufficient trust, and if there
are interpersonal or organizational problems, these are
addressed first. Applying co-design when a reorganization is
underway, and people are afraid to lose their jobs is des-
132 tined to fail.

_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ ___________________________________ Remko van der Lugt
Reflecting on applied
design research
For me, the term ‘applied’ in applied design research refers
to researching while we are designing in, for, and with
the chaos of reality. The aim is to deal with the pragmat-
ics, dynamics, and pace of design in the real world that
goes with it. The challenge is to add a layer of systematic
knowledge development to this practice without affecting
the design process too much. With applied research-
through-design, we see the design process as an explicit
knowledge-generating activity, not separate from the
research. These can be insights from collecting and organ-
izing smaller and larger considerations when designing an
intervention. For example, what was the reason for that
change from a clean design to a warm and friendly design?
Why do we think that button should be placed there? What
other solutions did we have in mind? And what was the
reason we discarded those? The ‘applied’ aspect presents
several challenges that we can address together with the
NADR network and that can also benefit the broader design
and research community.
Figure 6
Collective sense-making:
Interpreting the interview
results by organising them
in a landscape on the floor.
Reflection-IN-action as a
knowledge-generating engine
As described above, in research-through-design, the design
team members also participate in the research as co-re-
searchers, who, during the design process, are sensitive to
gathering information about the research question. For
example, a speech therapy project that covers the following
133
questions: How can you design for the social dynamics
between the parents, the child, and the speech therapist?
3. Donald Schön, The
Reflective Practitioner: How When we apply Donald Schön’s distinction between reflect-
(New York: Basic Books, ing IN action and reflecting ON action, 3 it is not difficult, as a
1984).
team, to look back on the design activities and to gather
4. Joel M. Hektner, relevant insights.
Jennifer A. Schmidt, Mihaly
Csikszentmihalyi eds.,
Experience Sampling Method: However, this usually leads to rather broad views on reflec-
Measuring the Quality of
Everyday Life (Thousand tions. It lacks the refinement needed to gain insight into the
Oaks, CA: Sage Publications,
2006).
micro-steps and decisions taken in the process, while it is
precisely there that many valuable insights can be found.
5. George Roth and Art
Kleiner, Field Manual for a That requires reflection IN the design process by the partici-
Learning Historian (Boston:
MIT, 1996).
pants. However, this is not as easy as it seems. It is
challenging to maintain both the creative flow of the process
and at the same time record the reflections. One possible
developmental direction is to make reflection-in-action
extremely easy and accessible, for example, by applying
principles from experience sampling . 4 In specific reflection-
on-action moments, designers can, for instance, use the
many micro-insights to create a learning history 5 or project
journey map. This approach should be further strengthened
as a research methodology. Together we can work on a
repertoire of smart research tools that make applied design
research even more accessible through reflection-in-action.
Balancing the rigor

of research and the
dynamics of practice
The practical nature of our research brings with it grand
ambitions and limited budgets, and opportunities to spend
time solely on data collection and interpretation. Design in
and with practice is usually done in fast iterations, making
it difficult to do enough solid research before, during, and
after the design process. This usually makes it challenging
to publish insights into domain-content research journals
(in our case often paramedical in nature) that are used to
predict certain research methodology predictability. How
can we find appropriate ways to serve both the requested
rigor of domain scientific research and the speed needed for
practical relevance in the practical project?
134
_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ ___________________________________ Remko van der Lugt

as a methodology for
systemic change
The design field is increasingly moving into the field of sys-
temic transition or transformation processes, intending to
bring about change in complex socio-technical systems. We
are becoming increasingly aware that applying and partici-
pating in co-design and co-research itself is already a way of
contributing to such changes, not just the outcome of that
process (the resulting designed services, products or inter-
ventions on the one hand, and the resulting knowledge on
the other). NADR member Perica Savanović, lecturer of Built
Environment at Avans, made me aware of this. Performing
co-design and co-research together with the people in the
relevant societal domain can initiate much movement. It
is also essential to further develop this function of applied
design research as a key enabling methodology and
collect a repertoire of cases to draw from.
Remko
van der Lugt
Applied Sciences
Dr.ir. Remko van der Lugt investigates how the tools, methods, skills,
and attitudes of designers can accelerate complex societal innova-
tion projects. He focuses on how to engage people fully as experts
of their own experiences. He links the range of thoughts of partici-
patory design to systemic thinking and develops working methods
that enable designers to operate as facilitators of change. Examples
include Gigamapping, Design Probing, Stakeholder constellations,
and Socionas. Remko obtained his PhD at TU Delft. Since 2007,
he has been a Professor of Co-Design at the Utrecht University of
135
Applied Sciences, where he also serves as co-director of the Leren en
Innoveren (Learning and Innovating) Research Center.
136
_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ________________________________________ Rens Brankaert
Inclusive
designs in
healthcare
Warm Technology for
people with dementia
Rens Brankaert
Within my research, the perspective and experiences of the

1. Tom Kelley, The Art of
target group we design for are the most critical elements. Innovation: Lessons in Cre-
ativity From IDEO, America’s
We follow a human-centered design approach, where the Leading Design Firm, (New
York: Crown Publishing
target group is part of the design process. 1 When designing Group, 2007).
new technology in healthcare, the medical or technological
2. Amanda Lazar,
perspective is often dominant, while the client or patient Caroline Edasis, Anne
Marie Piper, “A Critical Lens
perspective is often overlooked. 2 The importance of inclu- on Dementia and Design
in HCI,” in Proceedings
sive and human-oriented work in healthcare is therefore of the 2017 CHI Confer-
ence on Human Factors
becoming increasingly important, building on the concept of in Computing Systems
person-centered care. 3 (Denver: ACM Press, 2017),
https://doi.org/10.1145/
3025453.3025522.
In this person-centered design approach, we actively involve
target groups in the design process through participatory 3. Rens Brankaert, Gail
Kenning, Daniel Welsh,
methods such as co-design. 4 As such, they support making Sarah Foley, James Hodge,
David Unbehaun, “Inter-
decisions and co-create the value that new technologies sections in HCI, Design and
and services can deliver. 5 By collaborating with people, we Dementia: Inclusivity in
Participatory Approaches,”
ensure that new technologies and services contribute to in DIS 2019 Companion –
Companion Publication of
improving the well-being and quality of life. the 2019 ACM Designing In-
teractive Systems Conference
(San Diego, CA, June 2019),
Involving the target group in design processes is more https://doi.org/10.1145/
3301019.3319997.
challenging in vulnerable groups, such as people with
137
dementia. However, doing so is crucial so that appropriate
Inclusive designs in healthcare _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ________________________________________________________
4. Rens Brankaert and solutions can be developed for that group too. We can do
Elke Den Ouden, “The
Design-Driven Living Lab: A that by adapting our methods and making them suitable and
New Approach to Exploring
Solutions to Complex Soci- accessible for them. 6
etal Challenges,” Technology
Innovation Management
Review 7, no.1 (2017): 44–51. Dementia is a general term for all kinds of conditions that
progressively affect cognitive functioning. As a result, people
5. Elizabeth Sanders and
Pieter Jan Stappers, “Co-cre- become dependent on support from others and healthcare
ation and the New Land-
scapes of Design,” CoDesign services. Moreover, people with dementia are often dis-
4 no. 1 (2008): 5–18, https://
doi.org/10.1080/1571088-
cussed, but not consulted. And sometimes, people with
0701875068. dementia are still considered to be the disorder, rather than
6. Niels Hendriks, the individuals they are, with their own wishes and needs. 7
Karin Slegers, and Pieter
Duysburgh, “Codesign With
People Living With Cognitive The statement ‘Not about us, but with us’, which was intro-
or Sensory Impairments:
A Case for Method Stories
duced in the 1980s by accessibility movements, still speaks
and Uniqueness,” CoDesign for itself, especially when it comes to design in healthcare.
11 no. 1 (2015): 70–82.
Unfortunately, it is still not implemented on a large scale.
7. James Hodge, In this chapter, I will illustrate how this can be done with
Kyle Montague, Sandra
Hastings, Kellie Morrissey, complex target groups through a number of examples.
“Exploring Media Capture of
Meaningful Experiences to
Support Families Living with In Dr. Manon Peeters’ Wearables Project, this approach is
Dementia,” in Proceedings
of the 2019 CHI Conference applied to wearable sensors. In this project, Manon investi-
on Human Factors in
Computing Systems (May gates with colleagues and students how wearable sensors
2019): 1–14, https://doi.org/
10.1145/3290605.3300653. can be used meaningfully and appropriately to support
people in complex healthcare (Figure 1), particularly when
8. Wijnand IJsselsteijn,
Ans Tummers-Heemels, people with a need for care can no longer express them-
Rens Brankaert, “Warm
Technology: A Novel selves well. For example, this wearable technology can
Perspective on Design for
and With People Living With
measure stress and stress-related problems almost in real
Dementia,” Rens Brankaert time, allowing healthcare professionals to act proactively
and G. Kenning eds., HCI
and Design in the Context of and appropriately, for example, to prevent escalation. In
Dementia (Cham: Springer
International Publishing, addition, such a wearable sensor could also be used to
2020): 33–47, https://doi.
org/10.1007/978–3-030– provide the target audience with easy access to personal
32835–1_3.
and meaningful media, such as the dog picture shown in
Figure 1.
Sometimes portable sensors are considered restrictive

because they track the person receiving care and record all
their movements. That is why it is essential to explore this
technology in its context, together with the target group, and
look carefully at how these sensors can play a meaningful
role in healthcare and contribute to well-being and quality of
life.
138
_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ________________________________________ Rens Brankaert
Figure 1
A wearable for complex
care (photo Marko Hofman,
student Fontys IPO).
This research by Dr. Manon Peeters takes place in practice,

with healthcare partners and the people who work there,
to address the challenges those partners have. If the tech-
nology is found to be appropriate, it can be applied in the
day-to-day care of people. The next steps in the project are
to better understand the context and to specifically explore
when and how stress occurs. We can then develop appro-
priate services for this and improve complex care for groups
that have challenges with expressing themselves.
Warm Technology
Over several studies and projects, we have developed the
concept of Warm Technology as a vision that supports the
design of inclusive technology in healthcare. Warm
Technology focuses on what a person still can do, address-
ing both social and emotional needs. The technology is
personally empowering, non-stigmatizing, easy to use, and
fits in their social context. 8 Warm Technology intends to
create technology that is more accepted, better addresses
needs, and contributes to improve quality of life.
The concept of Warm Technology moves away from the

‘temptations’ that technology developers often face. In
recent work we can see that developers seem to think the
following:
139
1. Technology is a solution for everything, while we need to
9. Maarten Houben,
Rens Brankaert, Saskia be careful when and when not to use technology.
Bakker, Gail Kenning, Inge
Bongers, Berry Eggen, “The 2. Screens are everywhere, but the world is not a glass plate
Role of Everyday Sounds
in Advanced Dementia and we have to accommodate the sensory richness of
Care,” in Proceedings of
the 2020 CHI Conference
people into our technology.
on Human Factors in 3. Measuring is everything, but we need to provide a clear
Computing Systems (April
2020): 1–14, https://doi.org/ reason to and added value when measuring something.
10.1145/3313831.3376577.
4. ‘Interpreted’ natural interaction is the solution. Existing
10. Roger L. Martin, The natural interaction, such as voice interaction, is often still
Design of Business: Why
Design Thinking Is the Next inconvenient due to a lack of clear feedback.
Competitive Advantage
(Boston, MA: Harvard 5. More features in one system is better, we add features
Business Press, 2009).
to systems all too often because we can. In doing this, we
often unnecessarily complicate the technology.
The perspective of Warm Technology contributes to our

mission to support people in care through technology. It is
reflected in our design processes as well. This is very much
apparent in the VITA project.
The VITA musical pillow was designed in collaboration with

De Bende, Interactive Matter, and the PIT team as part of
the healthcare organization Pleyade. In this design project,
our goal was to make music and sound accessible again to
people with dementia in long-term care. People with demen-
tia often need 24/7 care support and experience serious
cognitive and locomotor challenges. That is why traditional
ways to listen to music, such as a CD player or a computer
with Spotify, are not suitable for this audience.
VITA is the resulting design of an iterative and participatory

design process that involved healthcare professionals, infor-
mal carers, and people with dementia. Figures 2 and 3 show
the resulting design. People can play music and sound by
placing their hand on one of the six fabric sensors (Figure 2).
VITA is shaped like a pillow and inviting to touch, not intim-
idating, and easy to place on a person’s lap, table or bed. It
has a modern look, with high contrast, so the pillow stands
out in the surroundings.
A simple interface on the back of VITA functions as the

control panel, where caregivers can switch the power on/off,
turn the volume up or down, and select a personal profile
140 and a theme. The more complex settings can be managed

_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ________________________________________ Rens Brankaert
Figure 2
The VITA pillow in use as
part of long-term dementia
care.
through an app or online portal by both the healthcare staff

and the patient’s relatives. The profile function makes it
possible to create personal music and sound sets so that all
residents can have their own personalized sound or music
experience with the pillow.
Our research showed that the VITA has added value in

healthcare; it improves interpersonal contacts and thus
creates a pleasant and valuable moment. 9 The VITA was
used in several ways, sometimes by people with dementia
independently, but more often with family members or care
staff. The VITA was usually placed on the sofa or a cabinet
after use (Figure 3), making the VITA available whenever
people wanted to use it.

Design research is essential in the context of changing
healthcare and the more inclusive involvement of people in
healthcare. When it comes to significant social challenges
such as dementia, the design discipline can bring new ways
of thinking and new solutions. Designers have the skill to
combine different perspectives into one concept. 10 In design
research, the designers are both the inventors and the
facilitators of innovation. A designer does this by identifying
the existing needs and proposing concepts based on them.
The designer then uses an iterative process to develop a
141
prototype that is suitable for testing. 11 In addition, designers

Figure 3
The VITA pillow as part of bring together different disciplinary insights using their
the environment in long-
term dementia care. sensitive and inclusive way of working. 12
Both the research carried out by designers and the position-

ing of design as a research approach have led to Design
Research becoming an academic discipline. According to
Gaver, 13 one of the most important added values of this
research field is ‘the ability to challenge the status quo
continuously and creatively’. Applied design research
contributes in the same way to different sectors and profes-
sional practices. In the health sector, healthcare
organizations and other stakeholders can benefit from this
‘designerly’ way of working and thinking.
One example that illustrates how this could work in practice

is the Pleyade Innovation Team (PIT). The PIT initiative was
set up at the healthcare organization Pleyade. The organ-
ization understood that innovation and change need to
be done by professionals who have been trained to do so.
Together with Pleyade, we have set up a team of healthcare
professionals, design professionals, and design researchers.
This team looks for latent needs within the organization and
142 develops new concepts and ideas based on these needs.

_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ________________________________________ Rens Brankaert
Next, the team starts working in short design cycles to 11. John Krogstie,
realize the concepts into experienceable prototypes that are “Bridging Research and
Innovation by Applying
then put into care practice. In this process, the organization Living Labs for Design
Science Research,” in
learns from how designers work. It benefits their organi- Lecture Notes in Business
Information Processing 124
zation directly and has resulted in many new technological (2012): 161–176, https://
doi.org/10.1007/978–3-
innovations, such as the VITA. The innovation team enables 642–32270–9_10.
healthcare professionals to express their needs, invites them
12. Julie Thompson
to think about innovation and different solutions to existing Klein, “Prospects for
Transdisciplinarity,” Futures
problems, and supports management to organize a future- 36 no. 4 (2004): 515–526,
proof healthcare. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
futures.2003.10.007.
Another example of a collaborative project between design- 13. William W. Gaver,

“What Should We Expect
ers and health professionals is the collaboration between From Research Through
Design?,” in Proceedings
healthcare organization De Riethorst Driestromenland, of the 2012 ACM annual
design studio Luckt, and design researchers. A team of ten conference on Human
healthcare professionals was invited to design new Warm Systems (May 2012):
937–946,. https://doi.org/
Technology within the healthcare organization. During the 10.1145/2207676.2208538.
design process, we found a need that people with dementia

were mostly too passive between planned activities, and
sometimes even fell asleep. We went looking for a way to
keep people with dementia active throughout the day.
Together with the team, we designed SAM (Figure 4): an

interactive table friend that invites people to interact. During
a participatory design process, the first SAM prototype was
built and evaluated in long-term care. People can interact
with the SAM by shaking, tapping, or caressing it. The SAM
reacts with lights, sounds, and vibrations. The two SAM
prototypes also interact with each other to create a social
situation. For example, one gets jealous when the other is
picked up and starts asking for attention.
In addition to the concrete product SAM, the results of the

design process in terms of mindset and implementation
were probably even more relevant. The team gradually
became more open to new ideas and innovations, and more
creative over the course of the process to tackle the found
challenge with designers. In addition, the team embraced
the SAM as a result of their own efforts. This contributed to
the team spirit and the integration of the SAM into everyday
care practice. This shows how design and designers contrib-
143
ute to the care domain as inventors and facilitators.
Figure 4
The SAM prototype to acti-
vate people with dementia.
Advancing insight
Applied design research has grown considerably in recent
years. This is demonstrated by a worldwide need for design-
ers to contribute solutions for societal challenges such as
dementia. In addition, designers’ skills have also become
interesting for non-designers. Example projects like the
above show how organizations can benefit from including
designers in their work practice. In my position at the Fontys
University of Applied Sciences, these developments also take
place: healthcare professionals develop design skills that
are relevant to work with changing circumstances and new
innovations in their own healthcare practice.
To professionalize applied design research, we need to

explore the added value of this approach and the challenges
we encounter in practice further. This could be done in at
least the following three ways.
1. B
y teaching design skills to non-designers and training
designers to include all relevant stakeholders in their
processes as facilitators. In our research, we can identify,
map, and build a repertoire of best practices in different
domains for the processes for multidisciplinary and trans-
disciplinary collaborations.
2. B
y stronger advocating, as design researchers, an inclu-
sive way of working, as described in the introduction of
this chapter. This subject needs to be discussed further. It
144
will enable us to tackle prejudice and inequalities, which
unfortunately still exist widely in our society. In the case
_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _________________________________________ Rens Brankaert
of dementia, for example, this has to do with age and

stigmatization of the disease, but there is also room for
much progress in other areas such as culture, diversity,
and socio-economic status.
3. Finally, by looking for sustainability within applied design

research. Sustainability in the sense of a long-term
implementation and impact of design or process results,
ensuring that target groups can benefit, now and in the
future. If a change occurs only when designers are present
(which means that innovation depends on the designer),
it undermines the societal challenge and the necessary
transformation. Only by designing, experimenting with,
and creating a new way of working in professional practice
can we change society and give people in healthcare a
high quality of life and work.
Rens
Brankaert
Applied Sciences
Dr.ir. Rens Brankaert is a professor at the Paramedic School
of Fontys University of Applied Sciences and an assistant
professor at the Eindhoven University of Technology. He
researches how we can take a more person-centered and
personal look at technology for people with dementia. He
calls this ‘Warm Technology’, and explores this with the
target group through co-design, Living Labs, and applied
design research in healthcare practice. Rens Brankaert
is a co-director of the TU expertise center Dementia &
Technology, a Key Technology Partner Fellow at UTS Sydney,
and the scientific director of the Dementia Lab Conference.
In 2021, he won the Young Outstanding Researcher Award,
145
awarded by the Alzheimer Nederland foundation, for his
research on Warm Technology.
_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ ___________________________________________ Wina Smeenk
Societal
impact
design
Empathic and
systemic co-design
as a driver for change
Wina Smeenk
Societal challenges are becoming increasingly acute. As

1. Ezio Manzini, Design,
people, citizens, residents, and city users, we all have to When Everybody Designs:
An Introduction to Design
deal with them. These are topics such as dementia, climate for Social Innovation
(Cambridge, MA: MIT Press,
change, and COVID-19. It is difficult to truly understand 2015).
and address these challenges, because there is not one
2. Daniela Sangiorgi,
owner; issues are interconnected, intertwined, and dynamic. “Transformative Services
and Transformation
Moreover, issues can fall outside the region, focus, tasks, Design,” International
Journal of Design 5, no. 2
and responsibilities of the stakeholders involved. Therefore, (2011).
it is difficult to get a good overview of the situation, make
joint decisions, and take steps together.
This demands both an individual and collective orientation

to address these orphaned challenges that fall between the
cracks. Nowadays, design is increasingly considered a
possible approach to these kinds of challenges, 1 2 because
design can handle uncertainty, is optimistic, and investiga-
tive in nature. Moreover, through its experimental and
action-orientated nature, design can contribute to creating
meaningful, alternative futures.
This thought has greatly broadened our design field over the
147
last decade. From designing esthetic, functional products
and services, designers are now increasingly committed to
Societal impact design _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _______________________________________________________
developing meaningful experiences and work processes,
and even making people aware of their influence on certain
pressing situations through design (interventions).
Figure 1 (left)
The dementia simula-
tor, exterior. Photo by
The Dementia Simulator
Jacqueline Gielen. One example of such a complex challenge is dementia. People
with dementia are often misunderstood. One of the main
Figure 2 (right)
The dementia simula- challenges is how family members, informal carers, and health-
tor, interior. Photo by
Jacqueline Gielen. care professionals can better relate to someone with dementia
to make both their (working) lives more enjoyable. I have worked
on this issue in a multi-stakeholder coalition: a collaboration
with healthcare institutions, the corporate world, knowledge
institutions, people with dementia, and their partners (see
Figures 1 and 2). Research using empathic discussions, simula-
tions and role-play has provided new insights into strategy
development and supported finding a shared ambition in the
promising idea of a dementia simulator. Through a visit in the
simulator, healthy people (healthcare professionals and infor-
mal carers alike) can experience what it is like to live with
dementia. By experiencing this, they are emotionally ‘touched’,
increasing their understanding. This then motivates them to look
at their own behavior and adjust it where necessary. Ultimately,
it improves the home situation: the simulator and subsequent
training provide behavioral changes for individual informal
carers and/or healthcare professionals, allowing people with
dementia to continue to live at home longer and enabling
148
professionals to work more comfortably and effectively. 3
_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ ___________________________________________ Wina Smeenk
My brand-new research line Societal Impact Design at 3. www.intodmentia.nl

Inholland’s Creative Business research group studies how
co-design, as an approach, can contribute to exploring and
addressing complex transition challenges in networks, and
thus lead to positive societal change. In this research line,
impact means that we empathically pursue social, ecolog-
ical, and economic values and significance, for individuals,
families, teams, neighborhoods, organizations, networks,
and our society.
Applied Design Research

What is Applied Design Research? The term has a double
meaning, as far as I am concerned. For me, design research
has always been applied and practice-oriented. It is about
research in a realistic context, with people who actually play
a part in the societal challenge, and with design (interven-
tions) as a means.
At first sight, the adjective ‘applied’ seems superfluous.

However, to distinguish us from design research at univer-
sities, one might say that research at universities of applied
sciences has been more applied. Applied in the sense of
‘gathering knowledge in, with and as part of the practice’.
And bringing that knowledge back to the practice in a form
that fits in with that environment.
The latter fits me as a co-design practitioner and design

researcher who obtained her PhD as an extra-doctoral
student based on the work from own practice. In this social
innovation practice, research questions emerged. These
questions were encountered by designers, change makers
and design coalitions – consisting of stakeholders from
government, (non)profit organizations, knowledge institu-
tions, and other stakeholders – in aiming for societal impact.
I am now trying to support them by creating, deploying and
testing practical, empathic co-design models, methodologies
and methods.
149
Societal Impact Design
Collaborating in broad coalitions to achieve societal impact is
challenging for many reasons. First of all, it is not easy to
‘solve’ complex challenges ‘just like that’ with current innova-
tion instruments. Solutionism is no longer sufficient. 4
Secondly, there are many different stakeholders involved
and thus many different perspectives and roles. This makes
it difficult to understand and comprehend the situation well,
to get an overview, to see alternative futures together, and
to arrive at supported and joint decisions and action. Thirdly,
societal challenges require a new approach in which citizens,
profit and non-profit organizations, and government are
willing and able to take on their roles more often and
prominently. 5 The research line Societal Impact Design
therefore contains three areas of focus on co-design pro-
cesses: opportunity-oriented design, mixing perspectives,
and empathy.
Opportunity-oriented design
Opportunity-oriented design assumes that problematic
situations cannot always be solved, but we can (learn to)
relate to them differently. 6 7 The responsibility for this lies
not only with research, government, profit or non-profit
organization(s) or the individual, but is shared by these
parties. Issues such as dementia cannot simply be diagnosed
or cured with a pill or surgery, unlike, for example, a broken
leg (solutionism). They require a more holistic and systemic
look, such as a manual therapist looking at your body’s
entire system to eliminate certain symptoms.
This is also the case for societal challenges. These often

require individual and collective behavioral changes, either
consciously or unconsciously. 8 Dealing with dementia, for
example, is a complex societal challenge for the collective.
Many different stakeholders have an essential role when
someone has dementia: the person with dementia, their
family members, friends, GP, case manager, but also health
insurers, healthcare and social institutions, and the local
authorities. All of these stakeholders have their own per-
spective, approach and interests, and see other
opportunities for the same issue: how to optimally support
150 the person with dementia and make them enjoy life. The
challenge is to approach this integrally.
_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___________________________________________ Wina Smeenk
Mixing perspectives 4. Kees Dorst, “The Core

Secondly, we believe that social innovation and impact can of ‘Design Thinking’ and Its
Application,” Design studies
only be achieved by including all the different perspectives 32, no. 6 (2011): 521–532,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
of those involved in an challenge, including one’s own. As an destud.2011.07.006.
example, I was the informal carer of my mother-in-law with 5. Jung-Joo Lee, Miia
dementia. This brought me much relevant experience, Jaatinen, Anna Salmi, Tuuli
Mattelmäki, Riitta Smeds,
understanding, and sensitivity during the Dementia and Mari Holopainen,
“Design Choices Framework
Simulator study, but possibly also some bias. That is why the for Co-creation Projects,” In-
ternational Journal of Design
research line is active in studying and explicitly encouraging 12, no. 2 (2018): 15–31.
the mixing of three basic perspectives at every stage of a
6. Caroline Hummels and
design process. 9 Joep Frens, “Designing for
the Unknown: A Design
Process for the Future Gen-
In relation to the work and experiences of others, one’s eration of Highly Interactive
Systems and Products,
own relevant experience can be used more consciously and in Proceedings of the 10th
International Conference
meaningfully, and possible bias can be prevented in design- on Engineering and Product
Design Education (Barcelona,
ing with and between others. First of all, it is important to be September 2008): 204–209.
aware of your own relevant experiences, feelings, but also
assumptions and prejudices (first-person perspective). In Sabine Craenmehr, Robert
Holwerda, Mike Menijn,
addition, it is essential to want to hear, see and understand Jan-Pieter Zwart, René
the perspective and experiences of others (second-person Bakker, “Tradeoffs in Design
Research: Development
perspective). Finally, it is vital to incorporate the knowledge Oriented Triangulation,”
in Proceedings of the 27th
and work of others (experts), such as theory and data, but International BCS Human
Computer Interaction Confer-
also documentaries and design of others (third-person ence (September 2013).
perspective). This will provide a good overview of the playing
8. Katja Battarbee, Jane
field and the opportunities and dilemmas to achieve positive Fulton Suri, and Suzanne
Gibbs Howard, “Empathy on
impact. the Edge: Scaling and Sus-
taining a Human-Centered
Approach in the Evolving
Empathy Practice of Design,” Harvard
Business Review (January 01,
Next, our Societal Impact Design research focuses on what 2015).
empathy and empathizing can provide in co-design pro-

9. Wina Smeenk, Oscar
cesses: in engaging with different stakeholders, in creating Tomico, and Koen van Turn-
hout, “A Systematic Analysis
social innovations and in pursuing positive impact. of Mixed Perspectives in
Empathic Design: Not One
Developing empathy is an individual process. Although Perspective Encompasses
All,” International Journal of
psychologists still disagree on the exact definition, they Design 10, no. 2 (2016).
agree that empathy increases as you consciously focus your
10. Justin Hess and Nicho-
attention on self and other(s), as well as that you switch, las Fila, “The Development
more deliberately, between affective experiences and and Growth of Empathy
Among Engineering Stu-
cognitive processes. 10 dents,” paper presented
at 2016 ASEE Annual Con-
ference & Exposition (New
Empathy is an essential skill in collaboration and co-design, Orleans, LA, 2016).
but also a key in generating promising common ideas and
151
social innovation. It is important to use authentic stories,
relevant experiences, aspirations, and feelings of people
directly affected by an challenge. For example, in the
Dementia Simulator project, I developed an Empathic
Handover (EH) method for the empathic transfer of my
research insights and outcomes to the design team that, for
ethical and economic reasons, could not be present in the
research itself. 11 Empathy with the design team eventually
led to meaningful experiences in the simulator, which in turn
led to empathy in its visitors and to behavioral change in
daily life.
Experience, interest
and expertise
Based on the Empathic Formation (EF) compass, 12 Figure 3
shows an overview of how to look at your own experiences,
interests and expertise. The two axes represent the
empathic formation process, and the spheres with numbers
represent the three basic perspectives discussed above.
With this idea, I want to clarify that mixing perspectives and
being aware of your experiences, interests, and expertise,
and that/those of other stakeholders, is crucial for collabora-
tion. This applies both to managing stakeholder expectations
and to realizing societal impact and concrete results.
Figure 3 affective
Stakeholders’ experience, 1 2
interest and expertise.
own our others'

experience experience experience
self own our others' other

interest interest interest
own our others'

expertise expertise expertise
cognitive
152 3
_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___________________________________________ Wina Smeenk
This new idea relates to my previously discussed work and to

11. Wina Smeenk, Janienke
a recent practical study that I conducted with a shrinking Sturm, and Berry Eggen,
“Empathic Handover: How
municipality and its inhabitants: the Co-Design Canvas, 13 an Would You Feel? Handing
Over Dementia Experiences
empathic co-design instrument with societal impact. The tool and Feelings in Empathic
Co-Design,” International
explicitly challenges stakeholders to name and discuss Journal of CoCreation in
everyone’s individual and organizational interests, knowledge Design and the Arts 14 no.
4 (2018), https://doi.org/1
and power from the start. 14 Particularly, power is a relatively 0.1080/15710882.2017.13
01960.
undiscussed concept in the design world.
12. Wina Smeenk, Janienke
Sturm, and Berry Eggen,
“Comparison of Existing
Conclusion Frameworks Leading to
an Empathic Formation
Compass for Co-design,”
Societal challenges require a multi-stakeholder approach: International Journal of
holistic, integrating different perspectives and including Design 13, no. 3 (2019:
53–68.
empathy, and facilitating citizens, (non-)profit organizations,
13. Wina Smeenk,
and government to take on their role more often and promi- Anja Köppchen, Gène
nently. By consciously setting up a co-working process in a Bertrand, Het Co-Design
Canvas. Een Empatisch
network that stimulates people to be self-aware and creative, Co-Design Instrument met
Maatschappelijke Impact
existing structures can be broken up, leading to acceleration, (SIScode project, 2020).
flexibility and more diversity in tackling challenges together. 15

14. Jung-Joo Lee, Miia
Jaatinen, Anna Salmi, Tuuli
Working in networks make it necessary to introduce a Mattelmäki, Riitta Smeds,
and Mari Holopainen,
systemic perspective in addition to empathy. But to be “Design Choices Framework
for Co-creation Projects,”
honest, designers are not (yet) trained for that. They have International Journal of
Design 12, no. 2 (2018):
proven to know much about designing for ‘gesellschaft’ 15–31.
(society), but have not (yet) been properly equipped for
15. Jos van den Broek,
designing in ‘gemeinschaft’ (in networks), 16 which provides Isabelle van Elzakker, Timo
for new design opportunities. This requires collaboration with Maas, Jasper van Deuten,
Voorbij Lokaal Enthousiasme.
human sciences areas and cooperation with a different, more Lessen voor de Opschaling
van Living Labs (Den Haag:
multi-stakeholder field than designers are used to. Rthenau Instituut, 2020).
16. Ferdinand Tönnies,

Future work: Systemic Gemeinschaft und
Gesellschaft (1887)
co-design (Whitefish, MT: Literary

Licencing, 2014).
I am pioneering with this new approach and am researching

ways to creatively, meaningfully and efficiently collaborate on
societal challenges. That is the reason why my fellow profes-
sors and I plan setting up an Expertise Network for Systemic
co-design with professors of the Utrecht and The Hague
University of Applied Sciences. In this network, we can further
develop our vision of Systemic co-design (see Figure 4).
153
Figure 4
Systemic co-design
bead chain.
Systemic co-design is seen as a multi-stakeholder approach

that brings together co-design, the systemic perspective,
and human sciences to address wicked societal challenges
and herewith accelerate transitions in networks. It is a
meaningful and valuable addition to the current set of inno-
vation instruments. Although there are enough Systemic
co-design aspects (beads) such as models, methodologies
and methods to identify, we need to find out when to use
them: in which combination, order and context? How do
you ‘string’ a chain of beads that matches the situation,
because no situation is the same (see Figure 5). Some schol-
ars already have experience with using Systemic co-design
aspects, and others have thoughts about it, but we need to
look at how this can be validated and made accessible to
stakeholders and even more generic within different transi-
tion challenges. In and with our expertise network, we can
then realize more meaningful innovations which have broad
support and ownership for society, networks, organizations,
neighborhoods, teams, families and individuals.
Impact and effect

Finally, my work (models, methodologies, and methods)
contributes to further impact in knowledge development,
social innovation, personal development, and system devel-
opment. It also has an impact on society, practice, research
154 and education. The Empathic Handover approach is being

_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___________________________________________ Wina Smeenk
used and further developed by a Belgian researcher, who 17. Wina Smeenk,
Navigating Empathy:
due to the pandemic could have limited contact with people Empathic Formation in
Co-Design, PhD Thesis,
with dementia. The Dementia Simulator will have a follow-up Eindhoven University of
Technology (2 December
in a Virtual Reality version which makes the experience 2019).
available to even more people. The Co-Design Canvas has
been picked up by our Dutch ministry of Healthcare (VWS),
the Pharos expertise center, and various Dutch municipali-
ties as part of the program ‘Kansrijke Start’ (Promising Start).
The tool is also shared with the Mediawijzer network for the
benefit of inclusive media design. Even more, the latter has
also demonstrated its usefulness for lecturers, students and
working field partners within our Inholland urban living labs.
In this way, we gradually and jointly accelerate our collective
innovation capacity.
Wina
Smeenk
InHolland University
of Applied Sciences
Dr.ir. Wina Smeenk studied Industrial Design at the Delft
University of Technology. She then worked as an innovation
strategist and designer for international companies such as
Giant Bicycles, Sony, and PlayStation. After working as a
program manager for the Industrial Design course at the
Eindhoven University of Technology, she also developed
innovative design-oriented educational programs for the
Inholland, HAN and HvA universities of applied sciences, and
at THNK, the Amsterdam School of Creative Leadership.
Since 2010, she has also been running her own co-design
agency called ‘Wien’s Ontwerperschap’. In 2019, she
obtained her PhD with the thesis ‘Navigating Empathy,
empathic formation in co-design processes’. 17 Since 2021,
155
Wina has been a Professor of Societal Impact Design at the
Inholland University of Applied Sciences.
156
_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _______________________________________ Christine De Lille
Designing
our society
together
With a different language
towards a desired future
Christine De Lille
I am a designer, and I do research. Even more, I do design

research. That research is also valuable to designers. Are
you still with me? I trained as a designer in Delft. The
focus of my training was on the people we design for. The
methods we used during the design process were often
developed in an academic context or within large companies.
That is why I chose to focus my PhD research on determining
how small businesses could design for and with their users
and customers.
My PhD research taught me that small businesses could use

the same methods and integrate them into their daily prac-
tice. For example, small businesses would not just be having
a coffee with a customer but using that moment to gather
information and use that information. Small businesses are
agile and can respond quickly to this information. When the
entrepreneur says this is how things should be, that is what
is going to happen. In addition, collaboration offers small
businesses many opportunities. This is a true example of
how you are stronger together. More about this later.
157
Designing our society together _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _________________________ ______________________________
Design research
In this example, I am studying small businesses. I carry out
design research because I collaborate with them; by design-
ing possibilities, I learn what suits small businesses. The
knowledge that this provides helps both small businesses
and designers who work within and with such companies.
Design in research has many advantages over other

research approaches. Almost all types of research are based
on the existing situation and study how that situation is
handled. That means you always use what is familiar, what is
known, as your base. That gets us stuck. Designing enables
us to create a new situation and to study that situation. As
a result, design researchers can explore new possibilities.
They do not use the ‘what is’ as their base, but rather the
Figure 1 ‘what can be’. This allows us to get away from the past, learn
Designing Futures Model,
Mission Zero. what might be and take the new possibilities further.
Uncertainty
Possible Future Worlds
Time
Possible
Mistery Future Shifts
Black Swan
Horizon Scanning
Expanded Now Weak Signals Learn

Personas
Now Context
Probable
Observation
Recollection Emerging Issues
Drivers of Change
Reflection Probablility Space Engage

Scenarios
Results Trends
Reality Apex
Play
Perspectives
Experience/Memory
Impact
Preferable
Synthesis
Pr
ch
n
In
tio
ot
sig
ar
Artefact Generation
ot
ea
se
Outcome
ht
yp
Id
Challenge
Re
e
Dis
De
ne
r
ve
ve
co
li
De
lo
De
ve
p
r
Iteration
Distant Past Recent Past Near Future Distant Future 20+ years
158
Designing a desired 1. Elizabeth Sanders and

Pieter Jan Stappers, Convial
sustainable future Toolbox. Generative Research
for the Front End of Design
(Amsterdam: BIS publish-
The Innovation Networks research group is also part of the ers, 2012).
Mission Zero Center of Expertise. In this Center, we want to
actively start creating a desired sustainable future. We do
not abide by a future that may happen (probable future),
or that can happen (possible future). We want to work on a
desired future: a preferable future. (See Figure 1 for an over-
view of the working method, based on the work by Steven
Santer.) Through design research, we can consciously use
methods to explore a possible future and make conscious
choices toward a desired future. Through design research,
‘we can study the future by creating possible futures,’ and we
can see the potential impact of the different future scenarios
that have been created. We can move away from a future
that may be waiting for us toward a future that we want.
A different language
This ‘making possible futures’ indicates a different strength
of designers and design researchers. They use language
differently. Not the language of words, but that of images
and form. 1 People say that a picture says more than a
thousand words. A picture in itself does not say more, but
above all, it says something else. It has nuance, it is less or
more explicit, and it also appeals to your intuition. This is
illustrated by the drawing by Manu Cornet (Figure 2). We can
try to describe organizations, how they are structured, their
culture, and the consequences. The drawings show this
quickly but powerfully and carry many feelings with them.
The central heart of Apple, around which everything is

organized, actually does not differ much from Jeff Bezos who
controls everything at Amazon. Yet, the drawings convey
a different feeling. Or what about the pistols between the
teams at Microsoft? They literally illustrate the killer com-
petition between teams. How does Oracle keep up with a
huge legal team and a much smaller engineering team that
should actually be the core of the business?
159
Designing our society together _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _______________________________________________________
Figure 2
Org Charts, Manu Cornet,
created june 27th 2011,
http://www.bonkersworld.
net/
Working with a different language within research is rel-

atively new. It is often seen as frivolity because it may
look childish and raises the question: how do you capture
something, other than in words? At the same time, it allows
us to design with organizations: how can the organization be
seen as design material? Can we play with this by drawing
structures, like Manu Cornet? And how can we try this out
in real life? These were the questions I also asked myself
after my PhD research. Smaller companies are stronger by
working together. How can we design and explore such
collaborations?
Designing collaboration
Over the last four years, this was the topic of the Innovation
Networks research group. How can we design collabo-
rations? The issues we face as a society, such as energy
transition, sustainability, and security, are no longer attrib-
utable to a single organization. These types of issues can
only be addressed by several organizations together. There
is also no longer a clear client; we all have to deal with the
160 problem together.

There is a role here for the government, as a representative

of the people and our society. This government is used to
making policies to protect us, but it takes much effort to
design, be active, and disconnect from the existing situation.
The current issues are often considered complex, difficult,
elusive. Through their way of working, designers can offer
a grip on this, a language, an opportunity to look at society
from a desired vision of the future.
We have to realize that our society has come about through

choices in the past. And that new and different choices will
allow us to change society to a desired form. Our society can
therefore be designed. But how do we do that? Where do we
start?
Designing our society, Figure 3
step by step From Food Chain to

Circular Food Chain to
Food Web by Marjanne
In her research, Marjanne Cuypers-Henderson looked Cuypers-Henderson.
specifically at the context of our food system. Why don’t we

look at nature as an example in which collaboration and the
whole system are not organized according to food or in a
circle, but more like a ‘food web’, so that if one organization
(or in this case, organism) falls away, the web can survive.
Figure 3 shows how we might move from a chain to a cir-
cular chain to a ‘food web’. How can we get organizations
to work together, so there is no waste, with one feeding
the other, and at the same time not being vulnerable when
one of the organizations is eliminated? Currently, Marjanne
has her own company, where she looks at how to set up a
new network for seaweed by experimenting, trying out, and
161
exploring with others what is possible in the future.
Figure 4
Impacting Systems with
Getting started locally
Labs. De Lille, C & Another example is that of the Future Proof Retail project.
Overdiek A. 2021 ©
What started with a small project in The Hague, ‘From
Pop-up to Local Hero’ by Anja Overdiek, soon turned into
feedback sessions with the National Retail Agenda, at the
request of the Municipality of The Hague, to provide input
on how we can stimulate the retail sector as a whole. A
nationally supported program was set up using previous
experience in the aviation industry: 2 Future Proof Retail. The
research group was the base for coordinating this program,
with more than fifty partners, including fourteen municipali-
ties, trade associations, six universities of applied sciences,
and three intermediate vocational education institutes. We
used our expertise to design a new collaboration that was
scalable and allowed us to take a step back after the
program ended.
Crucial in this was to connect the local and national levels.

We developed local labs, a total of 22 labs in 2.5 years, using
six different formulas. In these labs, local retailers and their
employees worked with other retailers and industry associa-
tions on themes that enabled them to become future-proof.
The experience was shared between the labs and nationally,
162
which allowed the government to support the retail industry
on a larger scale.
In this program, we worked as designers to focus on the

2. Rebecca Price, Christine
future, in the context of our research, by designing new De Lille, and Katinka
Bergema, “Advancing
possibilities with a different kind of language. We designed Industry Through Design:
A Longitudinal Case Study
and explored not only other forms of collaboration, but also of the Aviation Industry,”
She Ji: The Journal of Design,
ways to learn from each other. The results of this program Economics, and Innovation 5,
are incorporated in the book Innoveren met labs (Innovating no. 4 (2019): 304–326.
with labs) by Anja Overdiek and Heleen Geerts, 3 together 3. Anja Overdiek and
with the project partners. Heleen Geerts eds.,
Innoveren met Labs, Hoe
Doe Je Dat? Ervaringen
van Future-Proof Retail
Connecting locally (The Hague: The Hague

University of Applied
Sciences, 2020).
with society
In this project, the labs were not isolated activities; they sup-
ported the entire industry. This systemic approach allows
us to design on a larger scale to impact the overall system.
This starts with a good understanding of the current system:
what are the issues, and which organizations have an impor-
tant role to play in this? What are the interrelated dynamics
and relationships? And where does the current system run
into problems? Why is the desired future not achieved? By
mapping out these questions, the system becomes dis-
cussable, and we can get a grip on it. In this, we explore the
language of the system and its thinking. What are the every-
day concerns and power relationships? We can use labs to
try this out, in collaboration with others, and experience the
possibilities. The lessons from the labs enable us to design a
new future system: a desired society, designed according to
the process in the model (Figure 4).
With a different language

towards a desired future
The labs play a central role in enabling possible changes,
although labs are not the only possible form. What is similar
about the different forms is how we facilitate a dialog and
make the intangible experiential. Designers often work with
prototypes, an experiential design, a reflection of their idea,
which can solve the problem. The aim is to experiment, to
create something similar that can be used.
163
Figure 5
Together with Being a
Designer, the research
group developed a ‘lid set’,
allowing people to both
experience and change a
system.
For example, take the different lab formulas of Future Proof

Retail, where we use the different lab formulas to see which
works best. To make a system experiential and negotiable,
we can also use another type of prototype: Provotypes
(Boer, Donovan & Buur). These are ‘Provocative Prototypes’;
prototypes that want to encourage dialog, create a new
framework, and provide a language for it. So, it is not about
making the prototype a reality and it being the solution to
a problem. Instead, it is a way of making the participants or
users change their minds.
One good example of this is the ‘lid set’, which the research
group created for the Mission Zero Center of Expertise (see
Figure 5). In the energy transition, much is being said about
how we, as a society, can move away from gas, more spe-
cifically from natural gas. This is a very current problem in
light of the earthquakes in Groningen. Many municipalities
inform their inhabitants that they have the ambition to be
‘free from natural gas within ten years’. But how do we make
this possible? What does the desired future of the energy
system look like?
To facilitate this conversation, we have put the most

important organizations and drivers on ‘lids’. During two
workshops, with more than 50 participants, we first mapped
out the current system. This went very smoothly. When we
asked the participants to shape the desired system with the
164
lids on their tables, everyone stalled. It isn’t easy to get away
_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _______________________________________ Christine De Lille
from the existing situation. At almost all tables, the shape

of the system was pushed to the side to start over. By using
the lids, the system became experiential and at the same
time, makeable. A new language had been created, which
was shared by all participants. They felt able to talk about
complex subjects, point out the mutual relationships, and
get a grip on the situation. This is an essential first step
towards a desired society.
To achieve a desired society, we must first be aware that

there is a difference between a future that happens when
we hold on to society as it is now, a possible future, and a
desired future. As soon as this awareness is created, we can,
by means of design research, create a dialog that allows us
to take steps in the desired direction.
Christine
De Lille
The Hague University
of Applied Sciences
Dr.ir. Christine De Lille is Professor of Innovation Networks.
Her research focuses on designing innovation networks,
how these can collaborate – i.e., in living labs – and the
role of design in research. With her research, she wants
to impact at a system level, as she has previously done in
the manufacturing, textile, aerospace and retail industries.
Christine is co-director of the Mission Zero Knowledge
Center. She is also an assistant professor at the Faculty of
Industrial Design of Delft University of Technology. She has
165
been involved in several European projects and has exten-
sive experience in leading large consortia.
Designing our society together _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _________________________ ______________________________
166
_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _______________________________________ Perica Savanović
Integral
development
of the built
environment
Shaping joint responsibility
through common understanding
Perica Savanović
Built environment is something we all are familiar with,

based on our personal and daily experiences. To speak
about and discuss built environment is in a way similar
to discussing a national football team. Everybody inter-
ested has a sense of expertise, is clearly vocal about it, and
would love to have some say in the direction of its (game
plan) development. Whereas in the case of football, this
complex participation is highly debatable, in case of built
environment it is almost entirely justifiable – since we all, as
individual citizens and the society as a whole, have to live in
and deal with it.
Practice-driven research at Avans University of Applied

Sciences therefore approaches built environment from an
integral perspective, focussing on participative co-creation
as a way for a joint ‘onderzoektocht’ (exploration) for pro-
fessionals from different disciplines and a variety of (end)
users. Built environment is literally the place where all the
167
stakeholders come together and, even if often they hold very
different ‘world views’ and perspectives, this offers a great
Integral development of the built environment _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _______________________________________________________
possibility to make the results of collaboration between the
public sector, private sector, civil society and academia (often
referred to as a ‘quadruple innovation helix framework’ within
a knowledge economy) be felt and tangible.
As a professor in built environment, I professionally bring

a background in electrical engineering and architectural
design perspective to the table. My formal education started
in former Yugoslavia at a broadly oriented electrical engi-
neering professional school, where, in addition to science
and engineering subjects, history, literature etc. were also
given proper attention. Interrupted by the war at the start
of the 90’s, I resumed my education in the Netherlands. I
quickly encountered a ‘cultural shock’ of a fairly reductionist
technical university engineering education in a predomi-
nantly male environment. Looking for a more open, holistic
and human-centred approach, instead of largely closed
technical systems approaches, I made a switch towards
architectural design. Later on, based on examples in practice
where I repeatedly witnessed continuous misunderstandings
between designers and engineers, the former focussing on
synthesis and the latter on analysis as a way to understand
an assignment or a given situation, I successfully pursued a
PhD on an integral design method (a process of integration of
design and engineering disciplines) in the context of sustain-
able building design (innovations based on integration of
human and technical aspects).
Personally, as someone who has experienced what the dis-

integration of a country and a society means, I bring in the
perspective of a European citizen interested in ways of jointly
creating a sustainable built environment for the resilient
society.
Design, research,
design research
My interpretation of the relation between design(ing),
research and design research is based on my position as
a designer and an engineer that is driven by knowledge
development and innovation. Therefore, for me it feels as
168 completely natural that design(ing) and (design) research go

hand in hand.
_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _______________________________________ Perica Savanović
In building practice, design is often, or perhaps even com-

monly, seen simply as a set of methods to solve problems
using existing knowledge and already present (sub)solutions.
An approach to match the existing technology, developed
‘independently’ and elsewhere, with client and/or user
requirements. This is partly due to the building procedures
that focus on risk management, proven solutions and guar-
antees. And even though this matching is not bringing us
(fast enough) towards a sustainable built environment, this Figure 1
Simplified housing renova-
practice generally persists. tion project process.
?
1 2 3
?
4 5 6 1
For example, in most renovation projects led by housing cor-

porations, a set of requirements is described; on this basis, the
companies from the construction industry are asked to provide
a solution (Figure 1, step 1). The contractors then usually gather
different professional disciplines to ‘solve the problem’ and
provide
2
?
a set of feasible 3possibilities (step 2). The
4 preferred
solution is selected, together with the client (step 3). Then a
5
minimum of 70% of the residents/end-users have to agree that

the presented solution is acceptable (step 4). The construction
project is then implemented (step 5), and at the end, an evalua-
tion takes place (step 6), if at all. For any new initiative regarding
the same type of tasks, the same procedure is repeated, even
when the same parties are involved.
6 7 1
169
Expected to be primarily a problem-solving activity, it is often
overlooked, also by designers themselves, that through
design and designing, new and tangible knowledge can be
created ‘along the way’ – allowing innovations and expanding
the possibilities by collaborative ‘reflection in action’.
Therefore, I think and argue that it is necessary to include

the perspective of design research, which explicates this
aspect of conscious and deliberate knowledge development
by design(ing) in order to give it a deserved place among
other ways of knowledge development. For me, this merging
of design and research, together with the merging of prob-
lem-solving and possibilities creating views, involving various
professional disciplines and non-professional stakeholders,
resulting in new processes and products in practice, is the
promise of applied design research.
Applied Design Research

The (top sector of the) creative industry in The Netherlands
and design research at Dutch technical universities gener-
ally position design and designers in relation to the national
‘Mission-Driven Innovation Policy’ from a specific perspec-
tive of ‘Key Enabling Methodologies’. To connect to a policy
based on research views mainly derived from the natural
sciences and technology perspective (hence the mirroring of
the terminology ‘Key Enabling Technologies’), the KEMs are
described as design methods to help realize the predefined
missions.
This approach is very similar to the current building practice,

where designers and design are seen as a problem-solving
tool to reach predefined goals, using the existing knowl-
edge and its extrapolations. A very understandable and
recognizable approach if the goal is the optimization and
reconfiguration of the built environment as a closed tech-
nical system. And probably even very efficient in this way,
especially in the built environment, where the procedures
are already such that the problem definition is initially ‘set
in stone’. Then the tendering and purchase take over, and
in the remaining space, the designers are asked to solve the
170
resulting, often contradictory and/or ‘wicked’, problems. This
_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _______________________________________ Perica Savanović
approach is highly questionable if we are to make a major

leap towards a sustainable built environment.
Design, as a strictly problem-solving activity, and research, as

a purely knowledge-developing activity, are this way sepa-
rated and insufficiently cross-pollinated, in both directions
– from research to development and from development to
research. Applying the intermediate design results and the
design-driven newly acquired knowledge to, for example,
reframe a task at hand is usually barely possible because of
the linear ‘(problem) analysis-first, (solution) synthesis-sec-
ond’ based approach.
Applied Design Research can help implement design meth-

odologies as a way to jointly evolve requirements and
solutions, demand and supply, questions and answers.
Designing, researching and directly applying the newly
developed knowledge and innovations to (re)define both the
goals and the solution possibilities. Applied Design Research
can show, through explicit knowledge development, where
and why in the process of designing and in a specific state
of design, adjustments in the requirements, criteria and/or
general descriptions of the context/situation are welcome
– and how different stakeholders can play an active role in
this reframing. A design methodology incorporates various
aspects of change, including redefining the roles etc., and
represents much more than a design method.
It is important to emphasize here, certainly regarding built

environment, that it is not only about getting different types
of professionals, or different design and engineering dis-
ciplines, to work together or better reframe and (re)create
their joint understanding – translated and made tangible
by designs – but to also actively involve non-professionals
(users and citizens, policy makers).
Going back to the renovation project example in housing, an

intervention in the process could be based on the initial solu-
tion decision and could, for example, involve the end-users in
evaluating the renovation of each house or building part (Figure
2, step 2), together with all the professional disciplines (step
171
3). The collaborative reflection directs the (changes in) further
Integral development of the built environment _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ________________________________________________________
construction (step 4), and the process is iteratively repeated until
the whole building is done (Figure 2, step 5). All the improve-
ments along the way can, where possible, also be implemented
‘backwards’, resulting in a continuous construction improve-
ment project. The end result (step 6) would most probably be
markedly different from the choices traditionally made (Figure 1,
step 3), but most importantly, it would acquire more than 70%
of end-user support along the way. Additionally, this applied
design research process would result in a number of extra
variations and different (sub)solutions already ‘validated’ by the
end-users could be used as a kick-start for new collaborative
development projects (Figure 2, step 1). From a design perspec-
tive, construction projects could be steered as a development
through direct implementation type of projects.
Applied design research regarding built environment is

about a multifaceted knowledge and innovation develop-
ment that requires embracing complexity and dealing with
this complexity using design methodologies.
Within built environment we need to learn how to create

new options and possibilities for joint sustainable future(s)
together. This creation aspect precedes decision and/or
selection-making on which possibilities to further pursue or
use. Moreover, it precedes the final definition of criteria for
decision/selection making. If applied design research would
help change the common view in built environment develop-
ments that design is essentially making choices / decisions /
selections, and the essential ones exclusively by the ‘one that
pays’ – the impact would be enormous!
Looking from a broader societal perspective, especially in

times of bigger polarisations, learning to create new possi-
bilities together is essential to pass on to new generations.
Applied design research as a way to fuel this change fits in
seemingly perfectly with the Universities of Applied Sciences,
since their practice-driven research actively involves stu-
dents and teachers in an intimate connection between
research and education.
172
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _?
1
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _______________________________________
2 3
Perica Savanović
Current technocratic
trends and future
creative challenges
Unfortunately, the latest
5 trends regarding built environment
?
4 6 1
point in a technocratic direction. Where the expectations
five years ago based themselves on the further development
of the ‘golden triangle’ of business, government and aca-
demia – towards a direct inclusion of users and citizens in
‘quadruple helix’ innovation processes – we have witnessed
an increased focus on bilateral relations grounded in the cli-
ent-contractor relationships. Technical systems engineering,
still perceived as relatively new in built environment, encour-
aged thinking that we still can decompose and simplify the
challenges ahead (even those as big as climate change!) and
that we need to continue to educate new generations of pro- Figure 2
Simplified housing renova-
fessionals to act from within their own discipline silos. tion project process.
2
? 3 4 5
6 7 1
Design within built environment goes in the direction of

standardized solutions, partly because of the imposed
interpretations of the industry that a ‘platform approach’
requires product standardization for mass production. The
potential of the still existing craftsmanship in the construc-
tion industry, which combined with new technology enables
development through mass customization instead of mass
173
standardization, is largely neglected.
The main challenge remains to establish learning com-
munities to creatively apply applied design research for
built environment; hands-on, for gaining knowledge and
understanding each other increasingly better along the way,
to create a resilient society. Creating a way, a catalyst, to
kick-start diverging development, a variety of changes with
converging exchanges.
Future professionals in built environment ‘designerly’ use

technology as a tool to shape sustainable living environ-
ments and business models, actively engaging with all the
stakeholders in an ever-evolving open society. They are
an integral part of, and the driving force behind, an open
socio-technical system, not merely a cogwheel in a techno-
logical world where the only way forward is to optimize the
already predefined closed system.
Applied design research in built environment is primarily

about a multi-faceted innovation and knowledge develop-
ment that requires embracing the (contextual) complexity.
Being able to cope with this complexity is made possible
through use of design methodologies (and thereby their
simultaneous further transformation), which stimulate
creativity and collaboration, resulting in requirements tran-
scending creations.
174
_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _______________________________________ Perica Savanović
Perica
Savanović
Avans University of
Applied Sciences
Dr.ir. Perica Savanović is a professor of Built Environment
at the Avans University of Applied Sciences. He was born in
former Yugoslavia and brought his background in electrical
engineering with him to the Netherlands. Perica studied
architecture at the Delft University of Technology and, after
graduation, went to work at the architectural firm of Van den
Broek en Bakema. Fascinated by the difference in thinking
between design and engineering, he obtained his doctorate
with a thesis in Integral Design at the Eindhoven University
of Technology. To apply what he had researched in prac-
tice, he then went to work as Program Manager for Integral
Collaboration at the Construction Research Foundation, and
later on as a Development Manager of Integral Housing at
the University of Utrecht. In his practice-driven research,
Perica explores the relationship between humans and tech-
175
nology and strives to achieve participating creation through
communal conceptualization.
PART 4:
BUILDING
BRIDGES
BETWEEN
DISCIPLINES
176
“Once you see the boundaries
of your environment, they
are no longer the boundaries
of your environment.”
~ Marshall McLuhan
177
Integral development of the built environment _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ________________________________________________________
178
_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __________________________________________ Anja Overdiek
Smart
transitions
with design
Making the future tangible for
businesses and individuals
Anja Overdiek
‘We are not anti-social; we’re cybersocial.’ This is what one

student said in reaction to a frequent reproach about social
behavior in digital spaces and the increased loneliness of
people due to them exchanging physical interaction for
digital contact. What could ‘cybersocial’ mean when we try
to see it not as a defense but as an ambition? Make digital
and hybrid spaces more inclusive and democratic? How can
design and design research of technology refer and react
more to social systems, with their contemporary challenges?
The Cybersocial Design research group at the Rotterdam
University of Applied Sciences was created in early 2021 to
find answers to these questions in collaboration with col-
leagues from the Creating 010 Research Centre.
Nowadays, digitization is driven by large, international

technology companies; it is (more or less) socially supported.
However, digitization offers many more opportunities for
sustainable, inclusive, and healthy social systems. Think of
cities, circular and local production chains, new ways of col-
laborating and governing. To turn these opportunities into
179
Smart transitions with design _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ________________________________________________________
innovations, we need to make new technologies and their
1. Maung Sein, Ola
Henfridsson, Sandeep potential transparent and tangible for SMEs and individuals.
Purao, Matti Rossi, and
Rikard Lindgren, “Action As a form of Social Design, Cybersocial Design focuses on
Design Research,” MIS
Quarterly 35 (2011), the joint research and design of digital interactions, making
37–56, https://doi.
org/10.2307/23043488. a positive contribution to social transitions.
Applied (design) research

as a discovery
As an expert on social movements and the close link
between social practice and scientific theory, I had turned
my back on the university after my PhD. To me, it was too
much like working in an ivory tower. I wanted to gain more
hands-on experience, and from there perhaps discover
greater heights. Applied research has lured me back to
research. The challenge to connect current problems and
people’s frames of reference to abstract ideas about future
possibilities is nowhere more extensive than in this field.
Nowhere is there so much room for research based on
theory and speculative methods, and at the same time room
to build the future in concrete terms together with profes-
sional practice. As a political scientist and sociologist, I only
started studying design and design research in the last ten
years. Applied design research has enriched the qualitative
research methods I used until then with a future perspec-
tive and systematic abductive thinking. Abduction, thinking
in new concepts from an intersubjective but also intuitive
and esthetic approach (What feels right? What is nice?), in a
time of complex problems and fragmented perceptions and
‘bubbles’, is particularly valuable in a time like ours.
I experienced the impact applied design research can have

in this time when I was heading a recent design-led research
project in the retail sector. This was a large project at The
Hague University of Applied Sciences, carried out with seven
universities of applied sciences and fourteen municipalities.
The approach was mixed-methodical, but the basis of
everything we did was design. Together with a multi-stake-
holder group and facilitated by design researchers, we
designed different forms of experimental spaces for shop-
ping areas. We then tested these ‘lab formulas’ locally with
180 small and medium-sized retailers and their employees in

_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __________________________________________ Anja Overdiek
different shopping areas. The goal was to ‘deliver’ lasting

experimental spaces, which help micro retailers and their
employees to take steps towards a digital and sustainable
business model. Through action design research, 1 we
started comparing designs and began iterative testing in the
shopping areas, to develop generic and context-appropriate
experimental environments.
Figure 1
Inspiring learning Future-Proof Retail: Eight
shopping area ‘lab formu-
in Retail Labs las’ tested and scaled up
over 22 local living labs, ©
The Hague University of
Applied Sciences.
Circularity in food retail

Towards a vibrant
city centre
LEEUWARDEN
ASSEN
Entrepreneurs learn
from entrepreneurs
MEPPEL
Business modelling, innovation,

change, customer journey
Students visit
the shopkeepers Hospitality
LEIDSCHENDAM
VOORBURG
DEN HAAG
RIJSWIJK In-store customer technology
DELFT experiences for employees
and executives.
ROTTERDAM
Dealing with new customer

technologies in shops. Dutch Design
co-creates for retail
EINDHOVEN
Learn together with students

what digital innovations can
ROERMOND
mean for the retailer.
Acquiring skills for retail
Design innovation from

local to system
In the lab formulas designed in co-creation with system
stakeholders, we have taken up important societal transition
themes one by one: digitization, robotization, sustainability
and purpose economy. Micro retailers (1–10 employees),
181
which account for more than 60% of the physical shops in
Dutch cities, are not known for their innovative capacity.
However, they have been motivated to start moving by
2. Elizabeth Sanders
and Pieter Jan Stappers, bringing the future to their working environment in a tangi-
Convivial Toolbox. Generative
Research for the Front End ble way (Figure 1).
of Design (Amsterdam: BIS
Publishers, 2012).
In the local shopping labs, ‘make tools’ 2 were used to
3. For research through strengthen co-design aimed at forms of collaboration and
design in the field of
human-computer inter- business models, and to gain insights about new retailer
action (HCI), see John
Zimmerman, Jodi Forlizzi, skills. This was more generative and participative research,
and Shelley Evenson,
“Research Through more research through design. 3 The approach led to many
Design as a Method for
Interaction Design Research
small innovations for the retailers involved and ultimately to
in HCI,” in Proceedings the retail industry embracing a ‘lab approach to learning’. 4
of the SIGCHI Conference
on Human Factors in
Computing Systems (2007): The prerequisite for the impact we could make was systemic
493–502, https://doi.org/
10.1145/1240624.1240704. thinking: exploring the language and thinking, with everyday
4. Anja Overdiek and
concerns and power relations in the industry as a system
Heleen Geerts eds., context. We linked this systemic thinking to the local experi-
Innovating With Labs, That’s
How You Do It! Insights ments. Future-Proof Retail is an example of an increasing
from Future-Proof Retail
(The Hague: The Hague number of similar projects of ‘systemic co-design’. With my
Sciences, 2021). Available fellow design professors, I want to explore this relatively
on www.lulu.com.
new area further in the coming years. 5
5. For systemic design,
see Beyond Net Zero – A The power of applied design research lies, in my view, in its
Systemic Design Approach
(London: Design Council, future-oriented and problem-solving perspective, its merit to
April 2021).
provide contextual and participatory customization, its
6. David Hesmondhalgh, abductive thinking, and its ability to bring together various
The Cultural Industries,
Third Edition (London: Sage groups of people through artifacts. I want to explain the
Publishing, 2013).
latter. What designers (and design researchers) have in
common with artists is that they are ‘symbol creators’. 6 They
create things and services, which give concrete form to ideas
and possibilities. Like this, designers can make complex
problems understandable and negotiable through ‘a thing’.
The Fairphone case is still an impressive example of this. The

idea of making mobile phones without rare minerals has
long existed. But it wasn’t until PR expert Peter van der Mark
and designer Bas van Abel created a ‘dummy’ mobile phone
in 2009 and called it Fairphone that all relevant stakehold-
ers from the production chain, governments, start-ups, and
consumers joined forces to actually develop, build, market
and use this product. This is the typical effect of a ‘boundary
object’ that can bring people from different communities
and professional cultures with different ‘languages’ together
182 for a concrete goal.

_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __________________________________________ Anja Overdiek
In my view, one other good example of problem-solving,

contextual, and participative work is the $eev app, created
by the ‘Afdeling Buitengewone Zaken’ design agency, which
won a Dutch Design Award for this in 2020 (Figure 2). This
app offers a playful solution to youth debt. The app was
developed in collaboration with students from the Albeda
College in Rotterdam. Also very inspiring is the work of
‘future food designer’ Chloé Rutzerveld. With the exhibition
‘A Radical New Food System for the Post-Anthropocene City’
(2020), she lets the general public experience what future
food could look and taste like and what effects food choices
have on our environment, the body, and the experience of
eating (together).
Figure 2
The $eev app for young
people with debt problems,
© Afdeling Buitengewone
Zaken.
Payment How much can

reminder you afford to
All information pay?
at a glance Select an
amount
School fees
Can’t pay your bill at

the moment?
What can I afford?
We will help you set
up a payment plan.
Make a payment plan Select
Reduce complexity ‘by design’

Even closer to home for the digital researcher is the criti-
cal work of ‘privacy designer’ Tijmen Schep, who designed
‘Candle – the privacy-friendly smart home’, a cloud-free
and open-source alternative to the current, data-collecting
applications (Figure 3). Candle makes people more sensitive
to the privacy effects of conventional smart home devices
and demonstrates that there are alternative ways to develop
digital technology.
183
Digital design can also be used in difficult times to

Figure 3
Prototype of the ‘priva- strengthen the creative connection between people. That is
cy-friendly smart home’
equipment, © Tijmen what the Japanese TeamLab did during the global COVID-19
Schep.
pandemic. Their online application ‘Flower Bombing Home’
was accessible via YouTube to anyone with an Internet
connection; it used an algorithm that interactively brought
together drawings of people from all over the world in one
moving ‘online painting’. That is how designers and design
researchers demonstrate that digitization can be different,
i.e., more social. In addition, they reduce the complexity
associated with the use of these future technologies for
individuals and SMEs.
In the coming decades, the transition to sustainable energy

and production systems and to resilient food and health
systems will be socially essential. In addition to designing
solutions, designers will also increasingly facilitate more
social, multi-stakeholder transition processes. 7 Designs
(including physical, digital, and mixed artifacts) can make
complex subjects manageable. Possible solutions are not
only tangible but also testable. In addition to principles for
the design of facilitating artifacts, this also requires more
systems thinking. The mission of the so-called ‘systems-ori-
ented design’ (SOD) is to support designers in dealing with
184
complex problems resulting from the increasing connection
of people, nature, and technology.
_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __________________________________________ Anja Overdiek
As Birger Sevaldson writes: ‘While systems thinking describes

7. Manuela Aguirre,
the interconnectedness of complex issues, design suggests Natalia Agudelo, and
Jonathan Romm, “Design
how to react and innovate as well as solve complex prob- Facilitation as Emerging
Practice: Analyzing How
lems. These two modes have not been integrated well Designers Support Multi-
Stakeholder Co-Creation,”
enough. The approach of SOD is to build the designer’s own She Ji: The Journal of Design,
Economics, and Innovation 3,
interpretation and implementation of systems thinking, so no. 3 (2017): 198–209.
that systems thinking can fully benefit from design thinking
8. Birger Sevaldson on
and practice and vice versa.‘ 8 www.systemsorientedde-
sign.net, visited January
2021.
Complex thinking is challenging, and already developed
tools for this, such as giga-mapping, 9 are too. That is why it 9. Linda Blaasvaer
and Birger Sevaldson,
is crucial that we, as professors in higher education, trans- “Educational Planning
for Systems-Oriented
late insights and principles into stories and tools, together Design: Applying Systemic
Relationships to Meta-
with and for higher professional education students. Mapping of Giga Maps,” in
Jones, 10 11 calls this Design 4.0. He has formulated ten DS 95: Proceedings of the
21st International Conference
principles that connect design thinking with systems think- on Engineering and Product
Design Education (University
ing. Although recognizing design application areas is of Strathclyde, Glasgow,
2019).
essential, I do not think the implicit hierarchy of Jones’ model
is appropriate, because the design discipline learns across 10. Peter Jones, “Systemic
Design Principles for
these application areas. Instead, I prefer to base myself on Complex Social Systems,”
Social Systems and Design
the layout of Price et al.; 12 I consider the different design (Springer: Tokyo, 2014):
91–128.
application areas as concentric circles, with the outer rings
drawing from the inner rings’ methods and vice versa 11. Peter Jones, “Contexts
of Co-Creation: Designing
(Figure 4). with System Stakeholders,”
Systemic Design (Springer:
Tokyo, 2018): 3–52.
Cybersocial design: A 12. Rebecca Anne
concrete summary Price, Christine De Lille,

and Katinka Bergema,
“Advancing Industry
In the coming years, digitization will focus on the develop- Through Design: A
Longitudinal Case Study
ment and deployment of data feedback systems on different of the Aviation Industry,”
She Ji: The Journal of Design,
platforms and the use of augmented or virtual reality and Economics, and Innovation 5,
no. 4 (2019): 304–326.
artificial intelligence. As a professor of Applied Sciences,
I consider it my role to support SMEs, governments, and
individuals with knowledge and practices regarding the
social and democratic use of these technologies. The
Cybersocial Design research group will do so using two
research lines: Smart Transitions and Systemic co-design.
In the Smart Transitions research line, we focus primarily

on the much-needed social transition to short and local
food chains. In concrete terms, this is about supporting the
local/regional network in Rotterdam through interaction
185
design and design facilitation. Networks, not individuals or
individual companies, will form the base for new ways of
producing and consuming food. How can digital technolo-
gies strengthen networking for sustainable and resilient new
systems? Which data feedback algorithms promote the inter-
ests of these transition networks?
or
Learning
ga
s
ni
em
za
st
ns
tio
se
sy
tio
rv
ns
ac
ice
integrated
er
s
products
int
processes
Figure 4
Development of design
discipline covering three
application areas, based on
Jones (2018) and Price et al.
networks
(2019) © Overdiek 2021.
What are concrete designs for this, when and with which
tools can the local network be supported and scaled up?
These questions will be answered in collaboration with
regional companies, the municipality, national networks and
consumers, and lecturers and students of the Institute of
Communication, Media and Information Technology of the
Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences. Resulting plat-
forms and insights fit well with the city of Rotterdam and its
ambition to be a trendsetter as a ‘smart and social city’.
The second research line, Systemic co-design, focuses on the

design principles, competencies and tools that designers
need to create more systems-oriented designs and to design
with various stakeholders. Which competencies are essential
for guiding multi-stakeholder networks, and which tools can
be developed for this? These include the further develop-
ment of integrative ‘design future’ approaches 13 or creating
186 and facilitating using ‘cultural probes’ 14 15 aimed at various

_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __________________________________________ Anja Overdiek
stakeholder and user groups. It is also important to find out

13. A recent example of
which design principles, but also which specific learning such research is Fernando
Galdon, Ashley Hall, and
spaces, 16 support design students in higher professional Laura Ferrarello, “Futuring
and Trust; a Prospective
education to develop these skills. In addition to the partners Approach to Designing
Trusted Futures via a
mentioned in the first research line, the research group will Comparative Study Among
also work closely with regional design offices. Design Future Models,”
Proceedings of DCS confer-
ence, Scenarios, Speculation
Using collaboration and new insights around these two Strategies (November 2020).
research lines, the Cybersocial Design research group aims 14. For the use of HCI
to contribute to making the future smart and social by probes, see Kirsten
Boehner, Janet Vertesi,
keeping it tangible and influenceable for individuals and Phoebe Sengers, and
Paul Dourish, “How HCI
businesses. Interprets the Probes,”
Proceedings of the SIGCHI
Conference on Human
Systems (2007): 1077–1086.
15. Kirsten Boehner,

William Gaver, and Andy
Boucher, “Probes,” in Celia
Anja
Lury and Nina Wakeman
eds., Inventive Methods: The
Happening of the Social (New
York: Routledge, 2012):
185–201.
Overdiek
16. About the use of
temporary space as a lab in
a real-life context see also
Anja Overdiek and Gary
Warnaby, “Co-Creation
and Co-Design in Pop-Up
Rotterdam University Stores: The Intersection
of Marketing and Design
of Applied Sciences Research?,” Creativity and

Innovation Management 29
(2020): 63–74.
Dr. Anja Overdiek has been a professor of Cybersocial

Design at the Creating 010 Research Centre of the
Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences since January 2021.
Her research areas are stakeholder engagement, co-design,
and experimental spaces, mainly aimed at societal transi-
tions. She is particularly interested in the opportunities for
digitization and interaction design for these transitions.
Anja previously worked as an international manager in the
IT industry. She was the director of her own organizational
coaching company called Human2Organisation. Currently,
she is also an associate professor at the Mission Zero knowl-
edge center at The Hague University of Applied Sciences.
Anja obtained her PhD in political sciences at the Freie
Universität Berlin with a thesis in the sociology of knowledge
187
field. Originally from Germany, she has been living in the
Netherlands for more than 20 years.
188
_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _______________________________________ Eveline Wouters
A new
mindset in
research
Creativity, empathy, and
participation lead to
successful technological
innovations in healthcare
Eveline Wouters
In the NADR network, I am a bit of an odd duck: I am not

a designer but have a medical background. Moreover, the
term design is not mentioned in our research group’s name,
Health Innovations and Technology, as with most other
research groups. But one sure thing is that the term design
suits me and what we do in our research.
Over the years, first as a (clinical) researcher, and later

as a professor of ‘Health Innovations and Technology’ at
Fontys University of Applied Sciences and as professor
of ‘Successful Technological Innovations in Healthcare’ at
Tranzo, Tilburg University, I have gradually familiarized
myself with an ever-broadening range of research methods.
Design research, which for me is the relatively latest meth-
odology, plays a very special role.
Involve users in
healthcare innovations
Our research focuses on using technology in long-term
healthcare, focusing on human factors that promote and
hinder it. The acceptance by stakeholders (patients, family, 189
A new mindset in research _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _______________________________________________________
and care providers), the implementation aspects in a care
organization, and their accessibility and applicability for
various target groups and in different circumstances are
topics of our knowledge development.
In the recent past, the use of technology in healthcare was

often based on a product that had already been designed. It
looked at existing technology, which is applicable in health-
care, and then at factors that affect its acceptance. However,
the design process itself is strongly and inextricably linked to
its subsequent acceptance. The deployment process (imple-
mentation) at the back-end cannot be separated from the
front-end design process.
That is how design research logically became an exciting and

vital subject for us. The involvement of users, taking various
necessary steps in the process, and the sound (scientific)
basis of these steps, also makes design research a prac-
tical framework to naturally link research to the practical
environment.
A new mindset in
healthcare research
After learning all this, to me, applied design research means
more than just a research method. First and foremost, it is a
mindset that focuses on the full involvement of end-users in
the design of a product, service, or organizational change. It
is a form of true democracy, in which the people for whom
a design is intended are co-shaping it. Within chronic health-
care, these are the patients, their family, informal carers,
and healthcare professionals.
Secondly, it is not one type of research, but a combination

of methods that, based on the stakeholders mentioned,
can take many forms. Thirdly, applied design research is a
way for me to be creative in research without affecting the
validity of that research. It is a way to gain more room for
solutions other than the usual methods offer. It is also a way
to become more forward-looking and solution-oriented and
not just evaluating.
190
_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _______________________________________ Eveline Wouters
Focus on the future

of healthcare
Applied design research provides room for deepening its
application. That is precisely the element that appeals to
me in this research: being creative, going deeper, and the
genuine involvement of people who want to create better
healthcare. As a researcher, you cannot distance yourself
from the participants as you can in quantitative clinical
research. It is truly ‘applied’, in the sense that it takes place in
and with the practical environment.
There is also the possibility of trying out a lot, thinking outside

the box, and actually coming up with surprising results. As a
result, sustainable solutions are created, and we (the health-
care professionals) stop repeating ourselves. Also noteworthy
is that it is a fun way of working. Because of the creative
element, the many possibilities that address both cognitive
and emotional aspects, and the participation in sessions by
stakeholders, is usually perceived as fun. People get excited
and become more creative. The method itself is already
enriching, apart from the outcome. I have also found that the
participants’ involvement and full participation in a design
process is generally greater than in ‘classical’ research.
I have also experienced that applied design research, through

its broad range of approach options, offers practical tools to
support an impact project pathway. For larger projects, where
besides the scientific impact, the social impact is especially
relevant, sub-steps can apply design research methods. In
an impact project, based on higher targets, the work is done
backward towards concrete activities that have an impact.
Design methods and the mindset associated with applied
design research can support the setting of goals and the iden-
tification of desired effects, and the ‘measuring’ of them.
The essential step

towards the future
For me, applied design research means more than what I
wrote here. In my already quite long working life (over 40
years) in various branches of science, I have often missed
something. I have been classically trained in medicine and
191
epidemiology, with randomized controlled trials, experi-
ments and cohort research as leading research methods.
This result is a high degree of evidence, valid for large
groups. The development of healthcare has greatly benefit-
ted from this.
While very much appreciating the value of these methods,

I always felt something was missing, as I said. Traditional
research starts at the group level, is based on hypotheses,
and takes place in the present or the past. It generates gen-
eralizable knowledge and is therefore of great importance.
However, what is lacking is the ‘improvement step’, the step
Figure 1 (left) towards the future. After establishing correlations and, if
Nursing home profession-
als using LEGO Serious Play. possible, causal relations, there is still a step that is not so
much looking at the present and the past, but wants to
Figure 2 (right) improve the future. This requires something else, a different
Results of the LEGO Serious
Play workshop. mindset and a different approach.
A research method
with empathy
A second aspect that I missed was the relationship with the
practice environment. For example, take the relationship of
the discussion between the unique individual patient and
the physician, and the scientific facts at group level. For me,
applied design research adds something significant to this
gap.
192
_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _______________________________________ Eveline Wouters
What is important to me personally in this respect is that the

1. SCAMPER: acronym for
first step in applied design research, when it comes to par- Substitute, Combine, Adapt,
Magnify or Modify, Put to
ticipatory design, is ‘empathy’. I have found that by using this another use, Eliminate,
Reverse or Rearrange.
type of research more often, making it better known in wider
scientific circles, researchers who perform other types of 2. Eveline Wouters
and Joost van Hoof,
research gradually become ‘infected’ with this consciousness. “Professionals’ Views of
the Sense of Home In
They become aware that research (in my case in healthcare) Nursing Homes: Findings
From LEGO SERIOUS
is based on knowing and understanding the needs of the PLAY Workshops”
care recipient. This relationship between researcher and Gerontechnology 16
(2017): 218–223, https://
participant has significant implicit consequences. It means doi.org/10.4017/
gt.2017.16.4.003.00.
that participants more often will be treated in a different,
more empathetic way and will be involved in the research.
How it works: Two examples

I want to illustrate the pleasant involvement of participants,
the encouragement of creativity, and the finding of solutions
with two examples. The first example is ‘feeling at home in
the nursing home’, where we used LEGO Serious Play (LSP).
The second example addresses the research ethics approach
within higher professional education, where we have applied
the SCAMPER method. 1
Explore the ‘feeling at home’

with LEGO Serious Play
One of our research programs dealt with developing a
nursing home environment, focusing on making residents
‘feel at home’. At the start of this program, we wanted stake-
holders who work in a nursing home to express what they
consider ‘feeling at home’. During an evening session, we
asked seventy professionals for their opinion.
After a brief introduction, they started working in smaller

groups using LEGO (Figure 1). By first building and then
naming what they had built, we also appealed to their
feeling, their intuition. Then, by letting everyone tell the story
of the building, all participants could tell their story and what
was told, was remembered better: the image strengthened
the story (Figure 2). Although this evening was meant to
introduce the ‘feeling at home’ program, it provided us with
such a wealth of information that we wrote a scientific article
about it. 2 193
Ethical antennas
with SCAMPER
Since 2012, the Fontys University of Applied Sciences has
had a Research Ethics Committee. This committee assesses
human-involved research and advises on the ethical aspects
of research to researchers. One of the tasks we set ourselves
was to write a manual for researchers. The main objective
was to develop ‘ethical antennas’ in students conducting
research.
To this end, we organized two sessions with research

supervisors, lecturers, and students. The central question to
the second session was ‘how do you, as a lecturer-coach,
develop ethical antennas in students in the context of their
research?’ We started using the SCAMPER method. Step 1
was to get the problem clearly in view. Step 2 was to come
up with a solution and name the pitfalls in words and
drawings. Step 3 was to choose one of the seven methods of
SCAMPER (for example, to ADAPT the preferred solution or to
COMBINE elements). On the different work tables, cards with
letters were laid out for the participants. The session gener-
ated great, useful ideas, which we have incorporated in the
book Ethiek van praktijkgericht onderzoek; Zonder ethiek is het
al moeilijk genoeg. 3 (Applied research ethics; Without ethics it
is already hard enough)
What has changed

Looking back on the last five years, I have noticed that the
research has developed from almost nothing being done
within the context of healthcare and well-being, to design
methods being frequently used in research. Design research
has acquired an important place in various institutes within
the Fontys University of Applied Sciences, next to the more
classical research methods. I also see that design thinking
is being applied not only in a research setting, but also in
other practices, for example to involve more employees and
students, but also external stakeholders, from the bottom
up, in policymaking. That is a good development.
194
_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ ________________________________________ Eveline Wouters
How will it proceed? 3. Eveline Wouters

and Sil Aarts, Ethiek van
I anticipate that this trend will continue and that design Praktijkgericht Onderzoek:
Zonder Ethiek is het al
methods will be increasingly applied in a broad field, not Moeilijk Genoeg. (Houten:
Bohn Stafleu van Loghum,
only for healthcare itself but also for health education and 2017).
various services. As a result, those involved have a stronger
voice in what the future (of healthcare) will look like. I expect
and hope that this will also lead to a mind shift in healthcare
and education itself. The fact that people are thinking more
out of the box means that the user’s voice (whether this is
the student, the patient, or the client in a healthcare situa-
tion) is heard. As a result of these developments, the quality
of healthcare and education is improved; it has become
more diverse, more personal, more enjoyable, and better
accessible to more people.
Eveline
Wouters
Applied Sciences
Prof. dr. Eveline Wouters is a Professor of Health Innovations
and Technology (HIT) at the Faculty of the Fontys University
of Applied Sciences, School for Allied Health Professions. She
trained as a physician and epidemiologist. In addition to her
work at Fontys, she works as a professor of the ‘Successful
Technological Innovations in Healthcare’ chair at Tranzo,
TSB, Tilburg University, the academic collaborative center
‘Technological and Social Innovations for Mental Health’.
In her research, Eveline focuses on the human aspects of
technological innovations in long-term healthcare; she seeks
answers to how and why technology is or isn’t adopted at
an individual level, and how technology affects the work
195
and the collaboration of and between people in long-term
healthcare.
196
_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __________________________________________ Job van ’t Veer
Focus
on the
practical
question
The meaningful
application of technology
in healthcare and welfare
Job van ’t Veer
In recent years, many healthcare and welfare organizations

have experimented with eHealth applications such as elec-
tronic patient records, wearables, apps, games, virtual reality,
or social robots. In some cases, the extent to which these
investments have led to actual use by professionals, clients,
or patients is questionable. Many projects that focus on
digital (healthcare) applications demonstrate that successful
innovation is primarily not technical but social.
Within the Digital Innovation in Healthcare and Welfare

research group we focus on how technology can be used
meaningfully in healthcare or welfare practice. Human-
oriented design is, therefore, an essential theme within
the research group. Not only to create meaningful digital
applications but also to enable the integration of these
applications into the practical context. The design process
of innovative (healthcare) interventions must consider the
social, professional and organizational aspects.
197
Focus on the practical question _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _______________________________________________________
This means that, from the start, professionals and their
target groups are required to play an active role in the
development of an application and the sustainable integra-
tion of this innovation in daily practice. We believe that this
gives substance to the ‘A’ in applied design research. The
importance of designing solutions based on the wishes
and characteristics of the user is something that is often
advocated in healthcare; but at the same time, it is often
not consistently followed through. Our research group
is focused on developing a vision of what an (applied)
design-oriented approach to innovation in healthcare and
welfare involves, and how this translates into a sound meth-
odological approach.
Below we would first like to discuss how applied design

research has developed in recent years within the activities
of the research group both in research projects and in edu-
cation. Next, we offer a brief look at what could be relevant
directions for the further development of applied design
research in healthcare and welfare.

in the field of healthcare
and welfare
In recent years, applied research has been given a more
prominent place in higher professional education. Still, it
has not been able to distinguish itself much from academic
institutions. Although research conducted at universities of
applied sciences clearly puts more emphasis on how results
and insights are relevant in daily practice, more than is the
case in scientific research, much of the research still relies
on traditional research methods.
This often translates into interviews, questionnaires, obser-

vations, or focus groups for healthcare and welfare. The
increased attention design-oriented research received over
the past five years, creates an opportunity for universities of
applied sciences of to develop a more distinctive and recog-
nizable profile on applied research.
198
_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __________________________________________ Job van ’t Veer

in research practice
In applied research, the most suitable methodological
approach is determined by how a research question
emerges from the working field. Although this can still lead
to a traditional research approach (i.e., an exploratory or
evaluative study), things are shifting.
Within the Digital Innovation in Healthcare and Welfare

research group we are increasingly looking for the poten-
tial design issue that is bothering the practical environment.
The aim is not to apply a design-oriented methodology
at all costs, but to explore the problem (or wish) from a
design-oriented perspective. Our experience shows that
these discussions with professionals in the field often result
in widening the scope of one’s problems. This frequently
leads to the (self)-insight that professionals are inclined
to reason from their pre-existing assumptions about (the
cause and effect of) an issue. And they disallow themselves
to go beyond these familiar frameworks to reach innovative
solutions.
By articulating the question through a design-oriented

mindset, we, in collaboration with the working field, are
more likely to come up with the formulation of projects that:
(1) are more focused on the ultimately desired situation,
preferably from the perception of the main target groups
and (2) are formulated in such an ‘open’ way that enables a
broader view of possible solutions. These essentially differ-
ent conversations, which we conduct from the start of a
project, are essential to stick to a design-oriented approach
in the next steps.
MEE Lab: Design-oriented

working as a basis for an
intensive collaboration with
the practical environment
Recently, NHL Stenden and social welfare institution MEE Noord
199
(an organization that supports people with a mild intellectual
disability, autism, or other mental disorders) entered into a
multi-annual collaboration in the form of the innovation lab
1. Vijay Kumar, 101 Design
Methods: A Structured MEElab (meelab.nl). The supporting principle behind MEElab is
Approach for Driving
Innovation in Your Company that we explicitly initiate all projects from a people-oriented
(Hoboken: John Wiley and
Sons, 2012). approach. The MEElab aims to tackle the more complex issues
involved when helping the various target groups. One of the first
2. Robert Curedale,
Design Thinking: Process and projects focuses on people with mild intellectual disabilities who
Methods (Topanga: Design
Community College, 2016).
have committed a criminal offense. These people often commit
multiple crimes, and the recidivism rate in this target group is
remarkably high. This ineffectiveness does not only appear to be
caused by the methodical approaches used by professionals.
The processes within the system of collaborating organizations
are also far from optimized. As a result, you have a nice wicked
problem that the MEElab wants to address, with the participa-
tion of the target group itself and the relevant organizations (e.g.,
the welfare and justice departments, rehabilitation facilities).

in education
In recent years, much attention has been paid to the
‘research skills and mindset’ of students in higher profes-
sional education. Parallel to the development of research
groups, education has long been based on existing research
traditions in the social sciences and medical world. In recent
times however, this research vision seems to shift towards a
different, more design-oriented interpretation. Working with
design methods that stress the importance of empathizing
and co-creating with the target group, appeals to the stu-
dents in the field of healthcare and social work. These forms
of work fit seamlessly into the professional framework in
which students are trained: they gain insight into the person
that requires certain medical or social support and try to
create an appropriate care path.
Within the curricula of the healthcare and welfare educa-

tion programs of many universities of applied sciences, this
development toward a more design-oriented approach
is becoming more and more substantial. What started in
200
NHL Stenden with some of the Master’s programs (Health
_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __________________________________________ Job van ’t Veer
Innovation, Design-driven Innovation, Serious Gaming), is

now broadening into the Bachelor’s programs. In the health-
care and welfare programs of NHL Stenden, all students
now choose to graduate with a design-oriented thesis unless
the nature of the assignment explicitly requires something
else. This implies that these design research skills require
attention earlier on in the curriculum. And this is developing
quickly: the many field labs or innovation hubs, which are set
up in conjunction with the practical environment, provide
bachelor students in all years of the curriculum the context
they need to work on authentic challenges in a design-ori-
ented manner.
Figure 1
The book Designing for
Healthcare and Welfare 3
These developments in higher education have also increased

the desire for appropriate educational material. Although
there are already many (digital) sources about design
thinking and the methods to be used within this concept, 1 2
these often do not self-evidently fit the higher professional
education standards. They do not match in terms of depth,
and also not in the extent to which the design-oriented ideas
are explained to the field of healthcare and social work. This
changed in 2020 due to the arrival of a new textbook, which
we developed with, among others, Eveline Wouters and
Remko van der Lugt. They each describe their experiences
elsewhere in this publication.
201
3. Job van ‘t Veer, Eveline
Wouters, Remko van der
Lugt, Monica Veeger,
Textbook design-
Ontwerpen Voor Zorg en
Welzijn (Bussum: Coutinho,
oriented work for (higher
2020).
professional) healthcare
and welfare education
Based on the projects in recent years, the different research
groups have gathered the necessary knowledge and experience
about a design-oriented approach to healthcare and welfare. In
recent years, several universities have been orientating on alter-
native approaches to applied research within their healthcare
and/or social work curricula. For example, to enable students
to work more towards relevant professional products in grad-
uation projects and minor assignments. To produce something
more than just a research report; something that makes a more
tangible contribution to, for example, the improvement of a
healthcare intervention or support process.
To this aim, three research groups got together and created the
Ontwerpen voor Zorg en Welzijn book (Design for Healthcare
and Welfare). 3 In the book, we explain how a design-oriented
approach is relevant to the field of healthcare and social welfare.
The book also has a methods toolbox. The explanation of the
methods in this book is deliberately more extensive than in
other design books. This enables the reader to apply the
appropriate work methods methodically. It is estimated that the
book is currently used nation-wide at approximately 15 to 20
higher professional education courses.
Developments in the field

of healthcare and welfare
In healthcare and welfare, the professional works with target
groups with different characteristics, vulnerabilities, and
disabilities, e.g., people with dementia, intellectual, phys-
ical or visual disabilities, or people with an immigration
background. To come up with suitable solutions for these
target groups, the design process must also be sufficiently
accessible to them. Inclusive design, therefore, also requires
inclusive design methods.
202
_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ ___________________________________________ Job van ’t Veer
Figure 2
Working with clay during
the online context mapping
session.
The wide variety of design methods potentially offers many

opportunities to improve the participation of people with
disabilities in the design process. For example: methods that
rely heavily on participants’ verbal abilities are not always
suitable. Sometimes, more visual or active working forms
(such as photo elicitation, cultural probes or LEGO Serious
Play) are better suited because participants are very young
or have a cognitive disability.
However, there is still much to learn about how these

methods can be more specifically tailored to the various
target groups, so that these participants can demonstrate
their interests and perspective (even) better. The added
value of a (people-oriented) design approach could be
increased by using this methodological refinement in
the coming years. Current projects, as described in the
framework texts, can hopefully act as a model for further
(methodological) development.
Further development
of design-oriented
methods towards
specific target groups
Which psychosocial challenges do people with a visual disa-
bility face due to the pandemic? And what kind of appropriate
intervention can be designed together with them to better deal
203
with this? This is the subject of a ZonMw project, led by Saxion
University of Applied Sciences’ Brain & Technology research group
in collaboration with NHL Stenden University of Applied Sciences
and practical partners Koninklijke Visio, Bartimeus, and the
Robert Coppes Foundation. In this project, we have the particular
challenge of making the design methods suitable for a blind/vis-
ually impaired panel (of which some are also hearing-impaired).
Because many design methods aim to make things visual, many
of the regular design methods are rendered useless.
It is common, during a so-called context mapping session, to

have people draw or build something with LEGO. This should
support them in expressing their thoughts and feelings on a
particular theme. The objects that are created then provide the
direction for a subsequent discussion. These visual options were
obviously useless in this project. That is why it was decided to
work with clay. Relying on their sense of touch, the participants
proved very capable of creating attributes that were supportive
of the further discussion.
In parallel with this ZonMw project, Koninklijke Visio has

launched a project to develop a more expansive repertoire of
design methods suitable for people with visual disabilities. This
fits in with the policy of involving the target group (even) more in
the innovative projects that will be initiated in the future.
What does this mean for

education in the field of
healthcare and welfare?
When design-oriented research is given a structural place in
the curricula, it will also require further development in terms
of the mindset and methodological skills that go with it. This
applies to the students, but certainly also to the lecturers who
are responsible for the supervision. This will require further
investments. Research groups can play a role in the profes-
sionalization of lecturers in this area.
The expectation is that increasingly more healthcare and

welfare training courses will choose design research as an
option for the graduation phase. This makes applied design
204
research a vital element for a program’s final level. If this
_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ ___________________________________________ Job van ’t Veer
trend continues, programs will have to formulate a clear

policy in this regard. This also makes national alignment
desirable. What is the added value for career professionals?
What is a ‘design-oriented professional product’ that logically
connects with the final qualifications of healthcare or welfare
programs? In this respect, attention may be less focused on
the methodological carefulness and transparency (i.e., the
rigor) of research activities. And perhaps more on how the
process has led to a well-founded prototype and/or trig-
gered a specific movement among key stakeholders in the
practical environment.
In short, in the coming years, there are exciting challenges to

further consolidate and develop applied design research in
the research and education of higher professional education,
including in the field of healthcare and well-being.
Job
van ‘t Veer
of Applied Sciences
Dr. Job van ‘t Veer is Professor of Digital Innovation in
Healthcare and Social Work at the NHL Stenden University
of Applied Sciences. Since 2004, he has been a lecturer for
various healthcare and welfare programs, particularly at
the Master Health Innovation program. As a researcher, he
is always focused on the social participation of vulnerable
groups, such as people with mental illness, mild intellectual
disorders, and dementia. Since 2012, he has been focusing
on digital innovation in healthcare and social welfare. Within
all research projects, the emphasis is on a design-oriented
approach: how can you, together with clients, residents, and
205
professionals, innovatively and possibly digitally, improve
healthcare and social welfare?
206
_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _____________________________________ Masi Mohammadi
Shaping an
empathic
living
environment
Design research as an incentive
and medicine for healthy living
Masi Mohammadi
Technological and social phenomena require a periodic

reorientation of the design of our living environment. How
we experience our living environment and the effect of
space on our (social, physical, and mental) health cannot be
understated. The Chair Architecture in Health – part of the
Built Environment Academy at the Arnhem and Nijmegen
University of Applied Sciences (HAN) – combines advanced
technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the
Internet of Things (IoT) with social issues such as aging and
civil society to shape healthy and stimulating living envi-
ronments. To that end, the Chair uses approaches such as
Active & Healthy Living and considers people’s capabilities
and conditions. Our ambition is to develop, for, and together
with the (end) users, methods, and strategies for healthy
living in our increasingly smarter homes and neighborhoods
and to put these strategies into practice.
People-oriented approach
The guiding principle of our research is a human-centered
approach. By conducting research together with and for
207
the user, our research group aims to develop an empathic
living environment. By creating a balance between the
Shaping an empathic living environment _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ________________________________________________________
inhabitant’s needs, housing conditions, and technology,
such a living environment enables people to shape their
everyday lives (self-reliantly) based on their capabilities and
preferences. Although this caring and interactive environ-
ment goes beyond today’s (im)possibilities and is, in essence,
future-proof, it revolves around the ‘new (independent)
living,’ in which the smart living environment helps to keep
users physically, mentally, and socially healthy and, where
possible, encourages them to a healthier lifestyle. As such,
architecture goes beyond assisted living and becomes both
a stimulus and a ‘medicine.’
My experience in working with industrial partners, civil

society organizations, and SMEs, combined with my aca-
demic background in several fields (cartography, civil
engineering, health architecture, smart building technology),
have led to an interdisciplinary and holistic line of research.
This is translated into our interdisciplinary research
program ‘Empathic Environment’, where we develop an evi-
dence-based framework for a human-centered embedding
of emerging technologies in spatial concepts and systems.
To arrive at this framework, real-life experiments in field
labs are a prerequisite. In 2017, together with partners from
science, industry, and housing and care practice, I set up the
Dutch Empathic Environment Living (DEEL) labs to develop
and empirically evaluate emerging housing typologies and
their impact on users’ well-being and social engagement.
Building for a healthy and

inclusive living environment
Our research program has three focus areas: Smart Assistive
Homes, Architecture of Cohesion, and Sustainable Healing
Environment.
Smart Assistive Homes research focuses on innovative archi-

tectural solutions for special target groups, such as seniors
(with dementia) or people with disabilities. The emphasis
is on designing and evaluating smart, user-oriented homes
and districts to stimulate health and (independent) living. We
developed an Empathic Design Framework to provide the
208 theoretical basis for cross-disciplinary research projects in

this ethically sensitive field.
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The Architecture of Cohesion research theme aims at study-

ing socio-spatial interventions in the living environment to
stimulate social health and inclusion. It entails research into
(design) guidelines for (emerging) housing typologies as an
answer to societal issues like healthy lifestyles, independ-
ent living, or regional shrinkage. The social intervention is
expressed in providing and implementing mechanisms for
residents’ empowerment and participation in the design
and realization process. This also includes tools for integral
collaboration between stakeholders.
Our third research theme, Sustainable Healing Environments,

focuses on the relationship between sustainability and
health. It examines the preconditions and concepts for
designing a both healthy and green built environment. This
line of our research program builds on existing knowl-
edge in the field of smart biophilic design with a specific
focus on the (end) user. Research into biophilic design has
demonstrated positive effects on reducing stress, improv-
ing cognitive functioning, and enhancing the healing rate
of certain conditions. By combining human- and nature-
friendly models, this theme explores opportunities to design
therapeutic and healing living environments.
Figure 1
An example of our
participatory research
is the ‘Empathic Home,’
built in collaboration with
over 30 companies and
organizations.
209
Types of research
The Chair of Architecture in Health is primarily con-
cerned with setting up and carrying out high-quality
research, gaining and sharing insight into the healthy living
environment, and developing architectural and build-
ing-technological concepts and instruments to create and
sustain such environments. Our research group conducts
(design) research on three levels: academic, practice-based,
and applied.
The academic research is characterized by investigating the

theoretical underpinnings of health architecture, close col-
laboration with other universities in several PhD trajectories,
supported by peer reviews (also among our multidisciplinary
research group), and output in terms of scientific articles.
Our practice-based (design) research is cross-disciplinary

in nature and is carried out in close collaboration with
public organizations (e.g., housing associations), indus-
try and academia. In doing so, we follow the Socially
Responsible Building (SRB) approach, which revolves around
a human-centered and integrated approach. We use design
thinking and participatory design methods as a basis for
this. Validation of our research projects takes place in Living
Labs and Field labs, where during the innovation cycles, we
slowly scale up from an experimental test environment (for
example, in a specially designed research house in Arnhem,
Netherlands) to a real-life setting (for example, at a housing
association or healthcare organization).
The Dutch Royal Institute of Engineers (KIVI) considers this

holistic approach to be of great (social) relevance – one of
the reasons for awarding our research group the KIVI-Chair
in 2016. KIVI values our comprehensive approach, which is
reflected in the expertise present in the research team in
areas such as architecture, building technology, sociology,
health sciences, industrial design, planning, ethics, (electri-
cal) engineering, and (circular) design.
The Chair Architecture in Health operates at the intersec-

tion of the building industry and healthcare, two industries
210
subject to significant transformations. The urgency of tran-
sition is strongly felt within both sectors, leading to many
_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _____________________________________ Masi Mohammadi
initiatives to approach research from the day-to-day practice.

We are closely involved in research initiatives in various
(construction) companies and (healthcare) organizations and
support these organizations with field research as well as
advice and monitoring. The chair members are also actively
involved in embedding and anchoring (acquired insights
from) research in education.
Figure 2
With sensory stimuli, such
as the smell of bread
spreading in the kitchen
while projecting a sandwich
on the wall, the smart
house in Arnhem contrib-
utes to the self-reliance of
seniors with dementia.
The Empathic Home: A hybrid

learning environment
The ‘Empathic Home’ project is an empirically grounded
illustration of our research. In collaboration with over thirty
companies and organizations, this research facility was built
in the city of Arnhem (www.empathischewoning.nl). The
project started in 2014 and has since grown into a hybrid
learning environment aimed at the next generation of smart
homes. This home, which has recently attracted much
attention from media, serves as a laboratory for researchers
and students, a showcase for practice-based research, and a
source of inspiration for healthcare, construction, and engi-
neering professionals.
In this experimental home, we study how technology can

support both seniors (with dementia) and their informal
carers. In this ‘empathic’ home, human-centered design
solutions are designed to take over some of the tasks of
the informal caregivers by encouraging older people with
dementia to remain active for longer. Sensors, projections,
light, and sound signals combined with the architecture
of the building guide independently living seniors with
dementia in their rhythm. In an iterative design process, the
211
‘Guiding Environment’ prototype for this interactive home

Figure 3 (left)
Dinner time. The arrow on is designed, tested, and improved until a second prototype
the floor lights up, and the
directions in the kitchen can be implemented. The developed products are tested
help the inhabitant prepare
the food. by older people (with dementia). In this, collaboration is
being sought with various (care) organizations. The early
Figure 4 (right)
The students of the studio
prototypes of the developed products have been installed
Smart Healthy Environment in the Empathic Home; the improved prototypes are being
use research through a
design approach to study tested in some nursing homes. Students from the HAN
which (new) housing
topologies can contribute University of Applied Sciences, Amsterdam University of
to social cohesion in an
urban or rural context. Applied Sciences, and the Technical University of Eindhoven
(Students: L.Y.S. Damen,
A.N. Duman, B.K. Tunç, and are involved in this research. In conducting design research,
D. van der Velde).
they contribute to the socio-technological solutions for an
empathic living environment for this target group.
An example of design research carried out in our Empathic

Home project is the ‘Edible Wall’: a green wall with edible
plants that you can adjust to the right height to allow people
who have difficulty getting out of the house to garden in
their living room. We aim to increase living comfort and
keep older people (with dementia) moving and active. The
‘COOK3R’ has also been developed for this pilot home:
a cooking aid that helps the senior prepare meals inde-
pendently. This appliance shows the proper order of pots
and pans to be used when cooking.
212
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Living communities in
shrinking regions
The living facilities in Dutch villages are decreasing, and
the identity and attractiveness of villages have come under
pressure lately. At the same time, since the introduction of
civil society in the Netherlands, a growing number of people
have participated in local policymaking and organize them-
selves into civic bodies to improve their living environment.
Subjects such as housing and care, which are closely linked
to the viability of a community, often form the core of these
citizens’ initiatives. The project ‘Living Communities in Viable
Neighborhoods’ tackles this problem in a multidisciplinary
way, with project partners on both sides of the Dutch-German
border in four Dutch and four German villages. In this project,
our research group collaborated with the Hochschule Rhein-
Waal and local communities in the field of livability (www.
euregio.org/action/projects/item/103/krake/).
The project focuses on how the spatial living environment of

small communities can be designed to boost the quality of
life in the village. The aim is to develop design guidelines for
the authorities and designers to support the planning and
designing of future-proof rural environments. The gained
insights are also translated into publications in both academic
and professional journals. In addition, students have been
introduced to this theme in various design studios, where they
designed solutions for enhancing the residential livability in
these villages.
Future developments
Architecture in Health’s research projects are usually commis-
sioned by public parties, such as housing associations and
care organizations, and are carried out in real-life settings
(Field labs), where the multiple stakeholders with different
backgrounds come together. In the meantime, our research
group and the Eindhoven University have been running eleven
Living Labs throughout the Netherlands. These Living Labs are
part of the learning community Dutch Empathic Environment
Living labs (DEEL Academy), a knowledge platform that devel-
213
ops and shares (DEEL means ‘to share’ in Dutch) knowledge in
the field of ‘The New Living.’
An example of the research we conducted in DEEL Academy

Figure 5
A collage of the ongoing is the project ‘Room for Encounter’, commissioned by housing
field lab projects that are
brought together in the corporation TALIS. The project examines the effects of shared
learning community Dutch
Empathic Environment meeting spaces in social housing on stimulating social interac-
Living labs (DEEL).
tion among (older) residents.
Also, the research group is responsible for several PhD

research projects. Some examples are: we, together with the
care organization Siza and Academy Het Dorp, are research-
ing (technological) means that increase the self-reliance of
their residents with non-congenital brain damage and res-
piratory support. Another example is the PhD study ‘Shared
Spaces, Shared lives’ in collaboration with the housing
association Woonzorg Nederland that explores socio-spatial
(design) guidelines and strategies for communal living for
seniors in the social housing sector.
The know-how developed by our research group is being

widely shared, mainly through our annual conference ‘The
New Living’ jointly organized with de TU Eindhoven, pol-
icymakers, managers of care organizations, and housing
corporations. Our lecturers and researchers also share their
knowledge with students from several HAN departments,
such as Built Environment and Engineering. By doing so, we
aim to increase our students’ awareness of the broader soci-
etal context in which they will later work and their ability to
214 research to gather and evaluate relevant, existing knowledge.

_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _____________________________________ Masi Mohammadi
Direct knowledge transfer from our research projects to

education is carried out in Smart Healthy Environments
(SHE) studio. In addition, lecturers from other departments
and fields regularly contribute to our educational activities.
The aim is to ensure that students’ assignments in SHE are
better aligned with the Living Lab research projects. This
gives students a better understanding of the real-life pro-
jects and front-row seats to how research is conducted in
practice.
Masi
Mohammadi
HAN University of
Applied Sciences
Prof.dr.ir. Masi Mohammadi is the Leading Professor in the
Academy of the Built Environment at the HAN University
of Applied Sciences, where she heads the research group
Architecture in Health. Also, she is a Full Professor of Smart
Architectural Technologies at the Eindhoven University of
Technology. As the principal investigator and leader of the
‘Dutch Empathic Environment Living labs’ – a nationwide
collaborative community consisting of industry, housing, and
care organizations – she aims to pilot and empirically evalu-
ate smart homes and neighborhoods. Furthermore, she has
served as chair or board member of various (inter)national
committees and research networks, as a board member
of a European committee on ‘Active Aging & Design,’ as a
member of the Board Science, Technology and Society of
215
The Dutch Royal Institution of Engineers, and as visiting
Professor at the University of Technology Sydney.
216
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Seducing
the
conshuman
Design methods as fertile
breeding ground for the food
and agriculture industry
Antien Zuidberg
The rapid population growth after WWII demanded an 1. Marielle Borderwijk

and Hendrik Schifferstein,
increase in food quality and more efficient food production. “The Specifics of Food
Design: Insights From
To support this, technological-oriented study programs such Professional Design
as Food Technology were created. From the 1980s, Practice,” International
Journal of Food Design 4, no.
designers have also started to design food in their own 2 (1 August 2020): 101–138.
typical way. 1 2. Roberto Verganti,

Design-Driven Innovation,
Changing the Rules of
A new higher professional education course, Food Competition by Radically
Innovation, was created in 2004, to address the gap between Innovating What Things
Mean (Boston, MA: Harvard
food technology and marketing. In addition, the course also Business Press Books,
2009).
focuses on creativity and design subjects to develop food
concepts, creatively responding to the needs of conshumans
(people who consume food). Unlike functional product
features such as nutritional value and safety, these food
concepts give new meaning and value to food (design-driven
innovation). 2
Fifteen years later, it is time to assess the state of play in

applied design research in the food and agricultural industry.
Where do we come from, where are we now, and what are
the challenges for the future?
217
Seducing the conshuman _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ________________________________________________________
3. https://www.hashoge-
school.nl/hbo-opleidingen/
Where are we now?
food-innovation-den-bosch, The Food Innovation course is now over 15 years old and
consulted on 3–5-2021.
has become a well-established name in the Dutch food
4. Hasso Plattner industry. Food Innovation alumni are active as food profes-
Institute of Design, An
Introduction to Design sionals in existing and new companies; they play an
Thinking: Process Guide
(Stanford: 2010). increasingly important role in the food industry in the area
of food innovation. The program provides three main
5. Tim Brown, “Design
Thinking,” Harvard Business specializations in the field of design, packaging, and
Review 86, no. 6 (June 2008):
85–92. marketing. 3
6. Herbert Simon, The The design methodology that is taught, is a melting pot of
Sciences of the Artificial,
Third Edition (Cambridge, marketing, product development, and graphic design. Years
MA: MIT Press, 1996): 111.
1 and 2 of the program are based on the backbone of the
7. Jeanne Liedtka, Food Innovation model (see Figure 1), which contains many
“Perspective: Linking Design
Thinking with Innovation elements of design thinking.
Outcomes Through
Cognitive Bias Reduction,”
Journal of Product Innovation • To a large degree, the phasing follows the Stanford
Management 32, no. 6 (25
March 2014): 925–938, Institute for Design’s design thinking model. 4
https://doi.org/10.1111/ • The program uses Tim Brown’s definition ‘design thinking
jpim.12163.
is a human-centered approach to innovation that draws
8. Guido Stompff,
Design Thinking- Radicaal
from the designers’ toolkit to integrate the needs of
Veranderen in Kleine Stappen people, the possibilities of technology and the require-
(Amsterdam: Boom uit-
gevers, 2018) ments for business success’, with terms such as feasible,
9. Kees Dorst, Frame
viable and desirable. 5
Innovation: Create New • The model is aimed at changing the current situation into
Thinking by Design
(Cambridg: MIT Press, a new desired situation, according to Herbert Simon. 6
2015).
• The model is aimed at users (conshumans).
• The model uses market elements in the discover and
develop phases, such as carrying out an internal and
external analysis and using a SWOT table to achieve
strategic innovation opportunities, as well as looking at
commercial feasibility and the business model in the
develop phase.
• The model has an additional deliver phase to actually
bring concepts to market, which fits in well with the
design thinking framework of Darden Business School
‘what works’. 7
218
_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ________________________________________ Antien Zuidberg
The Food Innovation Model fits seamlessly with the ‘research

for design’ and ‘research by design’ typing that Guido
Stompff mentions as research to create the best design and
research to validate the design. 8 Important aspects of
design thinking such as iteration or continuous reflection on
the design, and the framing of possible solutions (Dorst 9
and Stompff 8 ) have been somewhat neglected in the Food
Innovation Model and could make the model even stronger.
Figure 1
Food Innovation Model. The
process of concept develop-
ment, © HAS University of
Applied Sciences, 2016.
Developments in the food

industry: Trends & transitions
The developments in the food industry in recent years have
focused on convenience, health, and sustainability. We see
an increasing role for the transitions that are seen world-
wide as fundamental challenges for humans to improve the
world, e.g., the United Nations Sustainable Development
Goals. In the Netherlands, conshumans are used to having a
wide range of affordable, tasty, and convenient food prod-
ucts. The big challenge is to seduce these same conshumans
to start eating healthy and sustainable foods.
Over the last twenty years, the food industry has invested
largely in technological developments such as sugar reduc-
tion, salt reduction, and meat substitutes. By now, there is a
wide range of, for example, acceptable plant-based meat
219
substitutes in our supermarkets, and these products have
seen a substantial growth in sales. 10 However, according to
Wageningen University & Research (WUR) research in 2019,
the Dutch population still consumed as much or even more
meat than before. 11
The situation is even worse for products based on alter-

native, sustainable protein sources such as insects and
algae. The production has increased, several products have
been marketed, and legislation is being amended. People
are curious, but do not yet embrace products with alterna-
tive protein sources. Meanwhile, hiding the ‘less attractive
(read tasty) ingredients’ (insect meal in bread, vegetables
in sausage rolls) is slowly becoming the norm, to entice the
conshuman to make a small step. The thought behind that
is that, once people are used to this, they can then take
another step. However, this way, we will not achieve the
Sustainable Development goals by 2030.
Food transitions’
wicked problems
There are several complex human, systemic and wicked
problems underlying the desired food transitions. Design
thinking, but also systems thinking, 12 because of the holistic
and creative approach, have greater chances of succeeding
in solving these ‘wicked problems’ than the classical ways of
thinking. What are those ‘wicked problems’ precisely? Below
are some examples of potential foods that could be made
more sustainable.
1) W
e have a different relationship with
our food than with our car
A new car or solar panels on our roof is something differ-
ent from food: we put food in our mouths, in our body, it is
essential for our health, and we have a much more intimate
relationship with it than with products such as cars. We are
used to blindly trusting the food in the supermarket because
we have devised systems to ensure its quality. However, we
continue to persistently mistrust certain types of food, such
as algae and insects. Moreover, we see the mistrust of the
220
_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ________________________________________ Antien Zuidberg
major food producers growing. To secure our trust, there is

10. Pepijn de Lange,
a great need for transparency about our food and where it “Nederlanders Eten Van
Alle Europeanen de Meeste
comes from. Vleesvervangers,” De
Volkskrant (10 May 2021).
2) We derive our (cultural) identity from eating food 11. Hans Dagevos,
David Verhoog, Peter
What we eat is determined strongly by our culture and our van Horne and Robert
upbringing. People derive their identity from rituals that Hoste, Vleesconsumptie per
hoofd van de bevolking in
include food, and what we don’t know, we won’t eat. After Nederland, 2005–2019, Nota
2020–078 (Wageningen
all: ‘What is unknown is unloved.’ A good example is the Economic Research,
September 2020).
consumption of dairy and meat in the Netherlands. For
years, we have heard that dairy and meat are the best food 12. Anu Manickham and
Karel van Berkel, Wicked
sources, and the idea is that eating meat is linked to manli- World: Complex Challenges
and Systems Innovations
ness. This is reinforced by advertising where meat-eating is (Groningen: Noordhoff
Uitgevers, 2020).
portrayed as ‘manly’. To give the protein transition a greater
chance of success, food, and eating meat in particular, must 13. Romain Cadario and
Pierre Chandon, “Which
be separated from our traditional identity values. Healthy Eating Nudges
Work Best? A Meta-Analysis
of Field Experiments,”
3) The temptation of the price and liberal thinking Marketing Science 39, no. 3
(May June 2020): 459 – 665,
Many problems can easily be solved by playing with pricing: https://doi.org/10.1287/
mksc.2018.1128.
a 10% price reduction works as well as the best health
nudge. 13 Less healthy products such as pizza, fries, burgers,
and sausage rolls are more appealing than healthier fruit
and vegetable products; price plays a significant role. In
general, sustainable food is also more expensive. However,
reducing the price of fruit and vegetables, or making meat
products more expensive, runs counter to our Dutch liberal
principles not to intervene in market forces. Politics may
come to rethink this when examples from other countries
prove to work well, such as the sugar tax in the United
Kingdom.
4) We do not (yet) have a fair price system

The current Dutch food system is out of balance after years
of subsidizing and price wars between supermarkets. The
competition is fierce and to get that low price, some of
the links in our food system chain have been struggling.
Farmers in particular do not get a fair price, which prevents
innovation for the sake of sustainability. Moreover, actual
environmental costs are not yet included in food products.
In animal products in particular, a fair price could accelerate
the protein transition.
221
Shift in applied design
research in food &
edition, eds. Mads Soegaard agriculture
and Rikke Friis-Dam
(Aarhus, Denmark: 2017): Applied design research in food & agriculture is research
1–94.
aimed at creating the best design (concepts, services and
15. Verheijen, L., systems) for conshumans. To solve the challenging food
Praasterink, P. Giezen, P,
van Aken, S., and Riedesel, transitions and solve the ‘wicked problems’, some of which
A., Student Manual: A Food
Systems Approach: A Toolkit have been outlined above, we need a strategy shift: from
to Unravel Complexity research for design to research through design. 14 The
(Research group Future
Food Systems, HAS research is increasingly focused on designing interventions
sciences, 2020). to learn how people (both conshumans and employees in
the food industry) are dealing with the new desired situation
and how they can be seduced to behave in more sustainable
and healthier ways. There is more need for knowledge about
human behavior, seduction and nudging of people and
companies towards the necessary food transitions. Linked to
this, we will be performing more systemic research, focusing
not only on a concept or event, but also on underlying
systems, such as organization, structures and people’s view
of the situation. 15
An example of applied
design research in
food & agriculture
One of the tools that the Design Methods research group
has worked on in the field of food over the past three years
is an inspirational seduction model for meaningful innova-
tion in food & agriculture. The seduction model (see Figure
2) has been developed from the idea that healthy and
sustainable food concepts need more seduction to influence
conshumans towards healthy and sustainable behavior. The
aspects explained in the model are based on behavioral
literature, marketing, food-design experience, and practical
case studies. It is an excellent example of research through
design.
222
_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ ________________________________________ Antien Zuidberg
This model aims to provide inspirational ways to design

meaningful food & agriculture innovations, making them
as seductive as possible from the point of view of the
conshuman. The model highlights four aspects that affect
seduction. In the model, these four aspects are portrayed
by an analogy to how bees are attracted by flowers. The four
aspects are:
1. the bees are the conshumans who are being seduced;

2. the flower is the sustainable or healthy concept;
3. the field in which they grow is the place of purchase, with
multiple flowers (alternative solutions);
4. the magic of the experience, the communication, and
other tools to seduce conshumans (in an ethical way) to
change their behavior.
Seduction Model
1. the bee = the conshuman 4. the magic = experience,

2. the flower = the food concept communication and
3. the meadow = the place of influencing behaviour
purchase
Figure 2
The inspirational
temptation model for
valuable innovation in food
& agriculture.
In a previous version, the seduction model has been tested

for three food cases with HAS students. The first case was
the development of packaging for a commercial insect
burger. The students researched the most promising target
group and the best communication on the packaging and
website to get the target group interested. The second case
was a re-design of the HAS cafeteria, run by Appél Catering.
The researchers looked into what makes a healthy cafeteria
look as appealing as possible for the broad target group of
223
HAS students. In the third case, the seduction model was
used to create a banana with a ‘true price’ (fair price in which
16. Joan Ernst van Aken all hidden costs are taken into account) as appealing as
Handboek Ontwerpgericht
possible to the conshumans. In all three cases, designs were
Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek; created that will be tested as soon as the Covid pandemic
Wetenschap met Effect (The
Hague: Boom Lemma permits it. Students and lecturers have provided feedback
Uitgevers, 2011): 151–152.
on the seduction model and how it can be used: a final
17. Tonnie van der design and manual to implement it in HAS courses is now
Zouwen, Actieonderzoek
Doen: Een Routewijzer voor being developed.
Studenten en Professionals
(Amsterdam: Boom
Uitgevers, 2018).
18. Antien Zuidberg,

The future of applied
What U Design = How U
Design, Inaugurele Speech
design research in
(’s Hertogenbosch: HAS
Sciences, 2020).
food & agriculture
Although the Food Innovation program and the Food
Innovation model have proven themselves to the food
industry outside the HAS, the traditional food & agricul-
ture research world is still skeptical about design thinking
methods. They want to know what it means exactly and
what it offers in addition to traditional research methods. To
what extent is applied design research actually research?
It is not yet sufficiently recognized that the combination of
technology and design research leads to the best design
solutions for the future food and agriculture practice.
We hope that these questions will be answered when we

solve the ‘wicked problems’ of food transitions, which cannot
be solved only by technology. The demand for proof that
applied design research and design methods are effective
will gradually become less relevant. When we develop
solutions for food issues using applied design research, we
are dealing with pragmatic validity: 16 ‘the extent to which
the research results lead to actions that will produce the
desired effects in the future’. It is also expected that conshu-
mans, individuals, and society will be more involved in
developing solutions for food transition issues, also known
as co-creation, participatory, or action research. 17
In the coming years, the Design Methods in Food research

group will focus on design through research: designing inter-
ventions for healthy and sustainable concepts, using the
seduction model and themes such as sustainable packaging
224
and preventing food waste.
_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ________________________________________ Antien Zuidberg
Antien
Zuidberg
HAS University of
Applied Sciences
Dr.ir. Antien Zuidberg studied food technology and has a
PhD from Wageningen University & Research. For eleven
years, she worked at the dairy company Campina, where she
worked on developing and applying proteins in food prod-
ucts, among other themes. In 2004, she became a professor
at HAS University of Applied Sciences, for the Food
Innovation program. After seven years as program coordina-
tor for Food Innovation, she became a Professor of Design
Methods in Food in 2019. She is convinced that concepts
225
that contribute to healthy and sustainable food transitions
can be marketed more successfully using design methods. 18
PART 5:
THE
TASK FOR
APPLIED
DESIGN
RESEARCH
226
“An explorer can never know
what he is exploring until
it has been explored”
~ Gregory Bateson
227
228
_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _____________________________________ Karin van Beurden
Something
old,
something
new
How the pillars of design
changed dramatically in
the last forty years, but the
challenges remained the same.
Karin van Beurden
‘We must recognize the obvious. It costs more to produce our 1. Victor Papanek and
present forms of ugliness than to create better alternatives. We James Hennessey, How
Things Don’t Work (New
will be forced (like it or not) towards better, saner and more York: Pantheon Books,
1977).
energy-saving tools and devices, simply because we cannot
afford any other kind.’ 1
Visiting Kansas City in 1979, I enrolled in a design class with

Victor Papanek, who was the head of the Design Department
of the Kansas City Art Institute at the time. The six weeks
before I had done an internship at the design department
of Plantronics in Santa Cruz as part of the Industrial Design
course at TU Delft. At Plantronics, I designed headsets
intended for mass or serial production. Two different experi-
229
ences that, in my opinion, seamlessly interlinked.
Something old, something new _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _______________________________________________________
Industrial Design
Research Group
Since 2004, I have been professor of Product Design at the
Industrial Design research group, part of Saxion Academy
Life Science, Engineering & Design. As a University of Applied
Science professor of the first hour, I have shaped this posi-
tion, and my traits as a designer proved to be an advantage.
For example, taking stakeholders as a starting point, but also
being fond of changes and being able to deal with uncer-
tainties. My industry-developed standard question ‘Yes, but
how can it be solved?’ also proved to be the motto within the
context of the university of applied sciences.
The pitch of the Industrial Design research group is: ‘The

current social challenges require creative solutions that meet
human needs. At the same time, many new technologies are
being made available. How do we design meaningful and
socially relevant products with these new technologies?’ We
answer this question through three research lines.
Research line 1 – People in Design is aimed at designing

products (and services) in such a way that they align with
the real needs and experience of users. Target groups with
which experience has been gained are diverse, ranging from
caregivers to firefighters and women after a mastectomy.
Research line 2 – Technology in Design aims to make

knowledge about innovative materials and technologies
accessible and translate this into innovative applications. In
2014, we won the SIA 2 Award for the best practice-oriented
research with the ‘Materials in Design’ project.
Research line 3 – Sustainable in Design deals with research on

how product development and innovation can contribute to
a sustainable society. This research line focuses on minimi-
zation (longer lifetime and reduction of material and energy
consumption), re-use, and recycling.
Design in Motion
In Victor Papanek’s view, in the late 70s industrial designers
had produced many expensive but awkward and ugly
230 products. 3 And that while at that time, industrial designers

followed the Bauhaus ideal to make beautiful and practical

2. The Taskforce for
design accessible to everyone. The Industrial Design course Applied Research SIA is
committed to promoting
in Delft was also based on the Bauhaus objectives: 4 creating more and even better
applied research by univer-
high-quality technical and esthetic products, with an empha- sities of applied sciences. It
is part of the Netherlands
sis on functionality. Organisation for Scientific
Research (NWO) and is
financed by the Ministry
In line with this, at the start of the research group in 2004, of Education, Culture and
we focused on ‘supporting companies in innovative product Science.
development of industrial products for consumers or busi- 3. Victor Papanek, Design

ness to business, which are manufactured in series and/or for the Real World; Human
mass production’. However, with people as the starting point, (St Albans : Paladin, 1974).
taking Papanek’s critical note into account. 4. Walter Gropius, The

New Architecture and the
Since then, the domain has been very much in motion, which Bauhaus (Cambridge, MA:
The MIT Press, 1965).
has had a significant impact on the activities of the research
group. Nowadays, a product is usually no longer only physi- 5. The Dutch Ministry
of Economic Affairs and
cal, but also often has a digital component. Due to Climate, Missies voor het top-
sectoren- en innovatiebeleid
technological developments such as additive manufacturing, (The Hague, 26 April 2019).
the size of the series is becoming increasingly smaller. This

6. Linda Rindertsma ed.,
brings us back to the ‘craft of the past’, with its unique Kennis- en Innovatieagenda
voor de creatieve industrie
products. Only now are we producing personalized products 2020–2023 (Eindhoven: TKI
CLICKNL, 2020).
on an industrial scale. The ownership of the products is also
changing. In the old days, you would buy a lamp; now you 7. Nigel Cross, “Designerly
Ways of Knowing: Design
buy light; the lamp remains the manufacturer’s property. Discipline Versus Design
Back then, the industry’s initial demands were the main Science,” Design issues 17,
no. 3 (2001): 49–55.
driving force for innovation; nowadays, social challenges are
often the starting point. 5 6 Solutions require collaboration
across an entire chain, including societal organizations.
What has not changed is the holistic, the integral approach. 7

The ability to translate complex and sometimes contradictory
requirements and research results into possible solutions,
1+1=3, is still characteristic. This puts the design process at
odds with (scientific) research. After all, the solution is the
product of the designer’s thinking process. They make some
implicit choices: give two designers the same problem and
they will each come up with a different solution, where one
solution is not necessarily better or worse than the other.
The belief that the designer can play a role in realizing a

better world is still there, as the discussions within the
Network Applied Design Research show, just like their focus
231
on change. The ability to imagine that future, to look ahead,
and deal with uncertainties is still an essential element.
edition, eds. Mads Soegaard
and Rikke Friis-Dam
(Aarhus, Denmark: 2017):
1–94.
Design & research

In the research group ID, design and research are always
closely interwoven. We distinguish between research for
design, research into design, or research through design. 8 In
the beginning, the emphasis of the research group was on
research for design, but now our portfolio contains all three
variants.
Research for design is about collecting knowledge that

is important for the development of a particular product
or service. For example, the research line People in Design
involves a lot of quantitative research into the wishes and
requirements of target groups, e.g., with the help of perso-
nas and various forms of user-centered research. On the
other hand, the research line Technology in Design focuses on
determining the functional properties of innovative mate-
rials and technologies and their applications. This is done
through literature study and experiments, in which scientific
findings are explored and translated into design guidelines.
232
Figure 1 & 2
Proud Breast: an external
breast prosthesis inte-
grated in lingerie.
Proud Breast
The current external breast prostheses for women who have
undergone a mastectomy are heavy, sweaty, rubber-like items.
In collaboration with Proud Breast (a start-up company),
researchers looked into how women use and experience these
external breast prostheses. Interviews revealed two main
reasons for wearing an external breast prosthesis: to experience
a personal sense of normality and the avoidance of uncomforta-
ble situations with other people (taboo).
However, a literature study and discussions with taboo experts

show there is a third strategy: full acceptance by showing it
openly. This last strategy led to discussions with students about
the designer’s own responsibility versus the results of the user
research. None of the women who participated in the study had
indicated that ‘showing’ was an option. The question is whether
this is because this option did not suit them, or because there
are still no proper solutions that positively confirm the women’s
self-esteem? The solutions shown during the Dutch Design Week
2018 evoked many emotional discussions with the visitors.
233
9. Gerard van Os and
Karin van Beurden,
“Emogram: Help (Student)
Loc2use
Design Researchers Lab-on-a-Chip (LOC) devices are expensive and can only be used
Understanding User
Emotions in Product under special conditions. However, LOC devices show great
Design,” Proceedings of the
21st International Conference potential for use outside the laboratories, such as in healthcare
on Engineering and Product
Design Education (E&PDE and forensic investigation. The Saxion research groups NanoBio
2019) (Glasgow, September
2019), https://doi.
and Industrial Design work together with corporate partners to
org/10.35199/epde2019.44. make LOCs cheaper and suitable for ‘everyday’ applications.
By creating current and future usage scenarios with users in the

healthcare sector and forensic investigators, real user situations
are explored, and requirements identified. At the same time,
experiments with ‘normal’ production methods are performed
to determine their potential for producing LOCs. By bringing
the use cases together with the technological possibilities, new
solutions for microfluidic devices have been realized.
Research into design involves research into (the improve-

ment of) the design process or the development of
design-related methods. This is often a by-product of the
other activities in the research group ID. For example, we
try out new scientific methods in practice. By reflecting on
this, we acquire knowledge about the applicability of these
methods. In some cases, it will lead to variants or further
developments.
Emogram
The Emogram 9 was developed out of frustrations that it was
not possible to record the primary – emotional – associations of
people with a product using standard interview techniques.
Without the usual mixture with cognitive reasoning of the
answers, the primary responses are ranked by importance.
Selectietool (selection tool)

This is a model designed to come up with innovative applica-
tions for new technologies. It is a variant of the Delft Innovation
Model, focusing on the properties and strengths of the new
material or technology instead of on the company. By linking
234
these strengths to challenges, promising new applications can
be defined.
Research through design raises the most questions in the

Figure 3
formal research world, but it is very characteristic of design Experiments with 3D metal
printing.
research. (Prototypes of) concepts or designs are developed
and then used with the intention of acquiring knowledge.
This is where the design and research approaches are most
closely intertwined.
In the research group ID, much knowledge is developed on

concrete cases. For example, the possibilities of new mate-
rials or technologies are discovered by designing concrete
applications for them, such as in the research into 3D
metal and concrete printing. That goes hand in hand with
experimenting: how slanted can you print? And how high?
Reflecting on multiple cases generates both generic and spe-
cific knowledge. Sometimes it is necessary to design first, to
get a clear picture of the requirements. This is the case, for
example, with the application of completely new technology,
such as in the Drone Robot project.
235
Figure 4
Green Dome Case, 3D
concrete printing and para-
Green Dome
metric design. Unlike other research groups, the Industrial Design research
group and its partners, do not see the challenge in printing an
entire house, but in looking for interesting applications where the
specific benefits of 3D concrete printing come into their own. The
possibilities are explored by means of cases, such as a ‘vispas-
sage’ (fish pass in a river) and the Green Dome. The Green Dome,
a housing for a high-rise green waste collection point, consists
of 58 parametrically designed concrete blocks. The computer
calculates the ideal shape based on preconditions, such as that
the blocks must not be heavier than 50 kilos, so that you can
lift them with two people under occupational health and safety
regulations.
Drone Robot
How would a farmer use a drone? What are the requirements?
Interviews showed that farmers had trouble imagining the poten-
tial of this new technology, let alone say something useful about
the requirements. However, by allowing the farmer to experience
various scenarios of the drone through a fictitious control panel,
the discussions yielded valuable results. The researchers were
236
able to formulate an initial list of requirements.
_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ____________________________________ Karin van Beurden
Figure 5
Green Dome Case, 3D
concrete printing and
parametric design.
10. Papanek, Design for

the Real World.
Research as a condition
Victor Papanek’s quote, which started this story, summarizes
how I see the designer’s role, or if you like, as a director of
change. You cannot rely on your own limited perception and
knowledge. Design research is a precondition for making
well-founded choices for change, ensuring that the right
products are developed, but even more important, that the
right problems are addressed.
This does not mean that if you base everything on research,

you will automatically do the right things. The Proud Breast
example illustrates that the designer/researcher, with their
critical mind, also has their own responsibility. After all, if
you were to leave it to the women interviewed, there would
be no need for taboo-breaking, self-esteem-improving
solutions.
Viktor Papanek did not think much of designers, but fortu-

nately, he gives the profession a second chance, under strict
conditions: ‘Design must become an innovative, highly
creative, cross-disciplinary tool responsive to the true need of
men. It must be more research-oriented, and we must stop
defiling the earth itself with poorly-designed objects and
structures.’ 10 In this statement, he ascribed a vital role to a
research-oriented approach. More than fifty years later, we
are still working on this.
237
11. Michael Rubenstein,
Alejandro Cornejo, Radhika
Time for change
Nagpal, “Programmable One by one, the pillars supporting the field of industrial
Self-Assembly in a
Thousand-Robot Swarm,” design have changed dramatically. What will be the next
Science 345, no. 6198
(15 Aug 2014): 795–799, change? I guess that it will be the integral, holistic approach.
https://doi.org/10.1126/
science.1254295. At Harvard, the Self-Organizing Systems Research Group
is working on insect-like little robots that find their place in
a swarm, not because they are sent there according to an
all-encompassing design, but through mutual communica-
tion and coordination.
To me, self-driving cars and ‘a thousand-robot swarm’ 11 are

metaphors for a radically different way of designing. There
are more signs: for instance, the developments in parametric
design. What will be the ‘definition’ of a new developed
product? Is it a kind of digital framework that is personalized
using scan data? This is a fascinating theme, whose design
and design research implications are still entirely unclear.
At the same time, the question remains whether, after forty

years, there is anything that has changed. After all, there
are still so many poorly designed products, such as all those
that have simply disregarded the specific requirements
and wishes of women. For example, seat belts and bicycle
helmets must have been designed by men, for men. That
does not mean that men cannot design for women, but
there is still a lot of room for improvement. A great challenge
for the new generation of designers and design research-
ers who will take over from me, is the focus on design and
research ‘responsive to the true need of man’. Because it
solves something, not just because it is possible.
238
Karin
van Beurden
Saxion Academie Life Scienc
Ir. Karin van Beurden is a Professor of Product Design at the
Industrial Design research group, part of Saxion Academy
Life Science, Engineering & Design. She has over twenty
years of corporate experience in product development and
new business creation for consumer and technical products.
Since 1999, she has had her own consultancy firm Kompane.
She was the director of Kompani BV, a supplier of innovative
fire blankets. She has been awarded various GIO awards and
patents. Karin also leads Fablab Enschede, an easily acces-
sible digital workshop that is part of the research group. In
addition, the research group has several labs, including a
concrete and metal printer and a Design Thinking/Usability
Test lab. The Kenniskring consists of approximately fifteen
researchers, designers, and project leaders. In 2014, Karin
won the SIA Award for the ‘Materials in Design’ project. She
239
is the initiator and, since 2016, chair of NADR, the Network
Applied Design Research platform.
240
_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ________________________________ Jeroen van den Eijnde
A letter
from the
future
An attempt at good ancestry
To:
Aapeli van den Eijnde
Circular Road
3748 XL Sustainaville
Arnhem, 18 January 2046
Dear Aapeli,
How nice of you to ask me to tell you about applied design
research because you are considering training in this field.
As your loving grandfather, I will gladly write a letter on this
subject, hoping that next year – can you believe it is already
2046 – you can make a well-considered choice.
As you know, around the year 2020, I was intensively involved

in the Network Applied Design Research (NADR): a rather
curious, quirky but inspiring group of people, who worked
on applied design research on a daily basis in their positions
as professors at universities of applied sciences. At the time,
I was a professor at an art college. This position no longer
exists; there are only HESPE professors now.
Back in 2020, higher education was still separated. There

were universities, originally intended to train researchers,
and universities of applied sciences, preparing students for
specifically described professional profiles. This distinction
241
was already outdated at that time. Formulating professional
profiles for an art college was a problematic matter anyway.
A letter from the future _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _______________________________________________________
This is not very interesting for you, now that Dutch higher
education has been integrated in its entirety into HESPE
(Higher Exploring and Scientific Practice-Based Education),
including both research and vocational training. However,
you might benefit from some historical context, especially to
better interpret the term ‘applied’. But I will first explain to
you something about the concepts design and research.
Figure 1
NEFFA (Aniela Hoitink),
About industrial and
MycoTEX©, a seamless
production method that
form-giving designers
helps create custom-made
clothing from compostable I’ve told you that your granddad trained as a designer at an
mycelium (photo: NEFFA).
art academy. Even back then, it was a challenging profession
to describe. We were not allowed to call ourselves industrial
designers because that was only for those with a university
education – indeed, those institutes that at the time trained
people to be researchers, not for a profession. There was
also the Academy for Industrial Design, but that was for
form-giving designers and not industrial engineers. The
difference? Long discussions were devoted to this topic, with
the industrial designers accusing the form-giving design-
ers of superficial beautification and form-giving designers
criticizing the industrial designers for their mostly technical
and economical approach. Designs at an art academy were
considered a form of applied art. Yes, there is that word
‘applied’ again. Sometimes I think that if something is not
quite what it should be, they put the term applied in front of
242 it: applied research, applied art, and in my time, there was
even a school for applied philosophy.
_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ ________________________________ Jeroen van den Eijnde
At the Art Academy, almost all design students read the book
Design for the Real World by American designer Victor for the Real World. Human
Papanek. 1 Papanek introduced his book with a real dig at (St. Albans: Paladin, 1974).
every design student: ‘There are professions more harmful
2. Papanek, Design for the
than industrial design, but only a very few of them’. 2 So, in Real World, ix.
fact, we were quite lucky that we were not allowed to call
3. Papanek, Design for the
ourselves industrial designers, but just (product) designers. Real World, 3–4.
Pananek even managed to get in a second provocation in his
book: ‘All men are designers. All that we do, almost all the
time, is design, for design is basic to all human activity’.
According to Papanek, every planned and organized ‘act
toward a desired, foreseeable end’ – from writing a poem and
composing a concert to raising children and baking a cake – is
all part of the design process. 3 This also applies to this letter:
my aim is to create a text that teaches you something about
applied design research. But I would say that when something,
design for instance, represents all human, targeted actions, it
basically means nothing. Everything always disappears in the
nothingness of the unseen, the unseparated. It is everything
and therefore not recognized and acknowledged. Moreover,
this broad definition may explain the jumble of eccentric
members of the NADR network: it included researchers on
food, health, biomaterials, innovation networks and
co-creation.
Tacit knowledge
Papanek forced me to think (a form of real or applied philoso-
phy?) about what design meant to me at that moment. Based
on what I learned at the Art Academy, I concluded that design
primarily represents a form of knowledge that you cannot
express in language. It is knowledge that you use and acquire
by using your body and all your senses: the taste of porce-
lain, the smell of rosewood, the touch of wool, the sound of a
knob turning, the visual perception of something you can use.
I learned only much later that this is called tacit knowledge:
implicit knowledge that is not text-based, such as intuition
and physical routines. Just explain how you learned to ride a
bicycle. Someone can show you how, someone can explain it,
but in the end, you learned it through falling and getting up:
learning by doing. A design process is characterized by trial
and error, two steps forward, one step back. That is what we
call iteratively. It’s not fast, but you learn a lot from it.
243
Language has always been our main knowledge base for
4. Ludwig Wittgenstein,
Tractatus Logico- research. Illustrating this is the fact that I am writing you a
Philosophicus (London:
Kegan Paul, Trench, letter to transfer my knowledge about applied design
Trubner & Co, 1922).
research to you. However, language is available in different
5. Michael Polanyi, The variants. Not every language is suitable for transferring
Tacit Dimension (New York:
Doubleday Anchor, 1966): 4. knowledge. This is mainly due to the type of knowledge and
the degree to which the language used can be interpreted
differently by the reader. That is why the philosopher Ludwig
Wittgenstein claimed that ‘whereof one cannot speak,
thereof one must be silent’. At school, you know that mathe-
matics and physics use a completely different language than,
for example, history or economics. Mathematics is seen as
the ultimate formal language, in which subjective interpreta-
tions are not possible. With his Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus,
Wittgenstein tried to write a book that can be unambigu-
ously interpreted as a mathematical formula. 4
Despite my college-prep diploma (with Mathematics and

Algebra), completed higher professional training and aca-
demic courses, and a doctoral degree, I must confess that
Wittgenstein’s booklet is still incomprehensible to me.
Wittgenstein himself concluded that although his formalized
language could transfer certain knowledge objectively, there
is also a lot that cannot be said with it. Or, as scientist
Michael Polanyi, a contemporary of Wittgenstein, formulated
it in 1966: ‘I shall reconsider human knowledge by starting
from the fact that we know more than we can tell’. 5 He
called this the ‘tacit dimension’, in which unconscious
knowledge, based on tradition, inherited practices, implicit
values and prejudice or judgments, constitutes a crucial part
of scientific knowledge that is considered objective.
Within academic and political circles, sometimes the distinc-

tion is made between ‘knowledge’ and ‘applied knowledge’
(ergo no real knowledge?), with knowledge representing a
scientific, objective ‘truth’ that can or cannot be applied suc-
cessfully to practical environments within society. However,
Polanyi states that this true knowledge – or perhaps it is
better to speak of ‘useful’ knowledge, as do the pragmatists
who pursue it – cannot be acquired without interference
from unconscious knowledge from the practical environ-
244 ment. In short, if we do not want to merely explain the

world, but above all understand it well, we need not only
_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ ________________________________ Jeroen van den Eijnde
the academic knowledge that is established in the scientific

Figure 2
lab, but also the experiential knowledge that is part of the NEFFA (Aniela Hoitink) and
with Karin Vlug, MycoTEX©
complex, everyday practice and that, in my time, was mainly jacket, designed as part of
the ArtEZ Future Makers
researched through so-called living labs. project The Future of Living
Materials, 2018 (photo:
NEFFA).
Research the future

But how do you research knowledge that cannot be
expressed in words within such a living lab? I think that is
best done by emulating the everyday complexity as closely
as possible, not with language, but in the form of artifacts
that people can experience through seeing, feeling, smelling,
tasting. This is an aesthetic experience in the original sense of
the word: the doctrine of sensory perception. It is mainly the
designer who is trained in the sensory qualities of artifacts.
The designer does not use language but prototypes that give
a sneak peek into the desired future because design is ‘any act
towards a desired end’, as Papanek rightly pointed out.
A prototype is nothing more or less than an aesthetic mani-

festation of this future. They are knowledge carriers who act
as stepping stones towards a desired future situation. That
makes applied design research such an interesting domain:
you’re not researching what already exists but how something
better could exist. Most scientists reflect on existing phenom-
ena; applied design researchers investigate potential futures 245
by making them tangible by using prototypes. It is a kind of
science fiction, but with design as the most essential instru-
ment. So, design fiction, but with the intention of making the
fiction a reality.
But what future do we want? In my time, we started realizing

that the earth was in crisis due to two phenomena that the
human mind can hardly comprehend: long-term thinking and
exponential growth. To give you an example of the latter: if
the number of drops of rain above the Ajax soccer stadium
(which you know very well) would increase exponentially
every second (i.e., one drop in one second, two drops in two
seconds, four drops in three seconds, eight drops in four
seconds, etc.), how long would it take for that whole Arena to
be filled with rainwater? It would only take about one hour!
With regards to the first phenomenon: can we determine, for

the next fifty years, the consequences for man and the envi-
ronment of our everyday activities, such as frequently eating
meat, buying new clothes every season and regularly booking
an air trip for work and holiday? Since about 1850, the world
has experienced exponential growth in prosperity. What we
were unable to see, for over a century, is that this also has a
substantial negative impact on our planet. The climate crisis
proved not to be a conspiracy theory devised by a bunch of
weird scientists and environmentalists. Instead, it caused an
irreversible change that became physically tangible, directly
or indirectly. For example, you have never been skating on
natural ice, something that granddad frequently did in winter
in the previous century.
Figure 3
Frank Kolkman, the interior
of the ‘Objects for the
Sharing Economy’ model,
designed as part of the
ArtEZ Future Makers project
Designing for Precarious
citizens. Building upon the
Bauhaus Legacy, 2020.
(photo: Juuke Schoorl)
246
Research into a 6. Roman Krznaric, The

Good Ancestor. How to Think
sustainable heritage Long Term in a Short-Term
World (London: Penguin
Group, 2020).
When I was a lecturer, the Netherlands aimed to have a
completely circular and climate-neutral economy by 2050. It is
2046 now, and you see how far we have come. At the time, it
was my ambition to be a part of this effort. A philosopher
from that era thought the most crucial question you had to
ask yourself was ‘are we good ancestors?’ 6 Or, in other words,
are we now acting in a way that guarantees a good future for
our grandchildren (you, in this case)? I leave the judgment to
you, but you should know I did my best.
Back to applied design research. Based on what I have told

you, I consider it to be research into a desirable future using
design in the form of prototypes, which are applied as best
as possible to everyday practices. As a professor in Tactical
Design at ArtEZ University of the Arts, I have tried to shape
it as well as possible. NADR’s strength was that we were
close to these everyday practices through our well-organized
networks of companies, societal organizations, and author-
ities/governments. Changing from a complex practice to
the desired situation requires good collaboration between
scientists (for the necessary fundamental knowledge), policy
makers (for the decisions to be taken), and designers (for the
creation of the required solutions).
I will give you two concrete examples of applied design

research that we worked on and show you some prototypes
that contributed to some significant changes. One study
focused on a new kind of textile made from fungus mycelium:
the spores of a mushroom. At the time, the fashion and textile
industry was one of the most destructive systems for man
and the environment. Back then, it was expected that by 2050,
if nothing changed, this system would be responsible for 25%
of our CO2 emissions. Our newly developed textile could grow
locally at a large scale, based on organic waste streams, could
be seamlessly formed three-dimensionally, had no added
toxic substances, and saved huge amounts of water in the
production process (the production of one cotton T-shirt costs
2500 liters of water, compared to 12 liters of water for a myce-
247
lium T-shirt). After use, the material was entirely naturally
degradable and did not create waste (Figures 1 and 2). In my
Figure 4
Frank Kolkman, photo
impression of the outer
facade of the ‘Objects for
the Sharing Economy’
model, designed as part of
the ArtEZ Future Makers
project Designing for
Precarious citizens. Building
upon the Bauhaus Legacy,
2020 (photo: Juuke Schoorl).
time, we would generate 17.5 kilograms of clothing waste

per person per year worldwide. Just imagine how many
garments that represents on average! Think of the impact
our material could have on this system. Unfortunately, the
fashion system has not yet started using this material on
a large scale. But fortunately, we have already made a big
difference in singular use work clothing and hotel textiles. I
think that had a significant impact.
Another study focused on vulnerable people in society,

partly due to the vastly increased technological possibilities.
The so-called platform or sharing economy led to companies
such as Airbnb and Uber that, using advanced technology,
digitally offered their services, which were then carried
out by private parties. This included renting out rooms or
offering taxi rides. The government has since put a stop to
this. And rightly so, because these companies did not take
responsibility for their ‘employees’, whom they did not for-
mally employ, but who were entirely dependent on them for
their income.
One of the applied design researchers devised a concept in

which low-income individuals, using smart technology, could
offer services for a fee, such as the use of a coffee machine,
refrigerator, microwave, and washing machine. The solu-
248 tion was a new type of building facade, where the resident
can use these appliances both inside and outside the house
(Figure 3 and 4). This building facade was never realized, but
the discussion that led to the plan made the government
decide to impose stricter rules on these businesses.
My dear Aapeli, these were two attempts to answer the most

crucial question at the time (although it is still very current):
How can I as an individual, and how can we as a community
be good ancestors? I think that applied design research is the
best answer. I am therefore looking forward to you continuing
my work by training in this area. I hope this letter will posi-
tively contribute to your choice.
Your loving granddad Jeroen
Jeroen
van den
Eijnde
ArtEZ University of the Arts
Dr. Jeroen van den Eijnde studied product design at the Arnhem
Art Academy and art history at Leiden University. He obtained his
PhD with a study into the theory and ideology in Dutch form-giv-
ing education. Since 2016, he has worked as a Professor of
Tactical Design at ArtEZ University of the Arts. Van den Eijnde was
co-founder and board member of the Design Platform Arnhem.
As a consultant, he worked for the Fonds Beeldende Kunst,
Vormgeving en Bouwkunst (the Fine Art, Design and Architecture
Foundation, now the Stimuleringsfonds Creatieve Industrie – the
Foundation for the Creative Industry) and the Raad voor Cultuur
(Culture Council). He is currently a core member of NADR and
249
a member of the program council for CLICKNL, the innovation
network of the creative industry’s top sector.
IN
CONCLUSION
250
“To be able to ask a question
clearly is two-thirds of the
way to getting it answered.”
~ John Ruskin
251
Epilogue _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _______________________________________________________
Epilogue
Of course, we are not the first to write about design research.

The multitude of perspectives in this publication reflects an
academic discussion about the how, what and why of design
research. These articles cover an overwhelming collection of
concepts, ranging from generative research 1 to action design
research. 2 This sometimes culminates into a bit of wordplay,
for example, if a distinction is made between practice-led
design research 3 and design research through practice. 4 For
outsiders, the differences addressed are far too subtle to be
understood. In this book, this discussion manifests itself in,
for example, the many reflections on research for/in/
through/by design.
It is tempting to conclude this search for the meaning of

applied design research with a ‘final’ definition, but we will
not do so. Another definition, another pigeon-hole, does not
add to the lively discussion. Instead, we want to contribute by
mapping the rapidly developing landscape of applied design
research. We embrace and appreciate the pluralism that
manifests itself. Or, in the words of Richard Buchanan, “one
of the great strengths of design is that we have not settled on
a single definition. Fields in which definition is now a settled
matter tend to be lethargic, dying, or dead fields, where
inquiry no longer provides challenges to what is accepted as
truth.” 5
The pluralism that manifests itself in the landscape also

shows that (applied) design research is not a variant of some
research method, or that it is reserved for UX / service / expe-
rience design, etcetera. On the contrary, the richness arises
because inspiration is drawn from the many different forms
of research, such as anthropological field research or action
research. And because the subject of design has become ever
broader, with the introduction of new forms such as legal or
systemic design. As such, applied design research effectively
252 bridges the world of research with the world of design.

_ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Peter Joore, Guido Stompff, Jeroen van den Eijnde
Its bridging capabilities may justify its existence, but at the

1. Elizabeth Sanders
same time, it creates obligations. Pluralism carries the risk and Pieter Jan Stappers,
Convivial Toolbox. Generative
to turn into ‘anything goes’ relativism, making applied design Research for the Front End
research an empty shell without purpose and quality stand- of Design (Amsterdam: BIS
publishers, 2012).
ards. This book offers a compelling picture of the state of
applied design research at the Dutch universities of applied 2. Sein, Maung K., Ola
Henfridsson, Sandeep
sciences. It raises questions, important questions for its Purao, Matti Rossi, and
Rikard Lindgren. “Action
practitioners, as well as for methodologists who focus on Design Research.” MIS
Quarterly (2011): 37–56.
research and/or design; these questions may lead to a new
research agenda. In conclusion, we name some of them: 3. Maarit Anna
Mäkelä and Nithikul
Nimkulrat, “Reflection and
• In design research, knowledge is partly embodied by Documentation in Practice-
Led Design Research,” in
design artifacts, such as prototypes, which raises ques- Proceedings of the 4th Nordic
Design Research Conference
tions about the underlying ontology and epistemology. In (Helsinki, 2011).
design research, what is knowledge, and how do we obtain
4. Ilop Koskinen, John
that knowledge? Zimmerman, Thomas
Binder, Johan Redstrom,
• Applied design research is embedded in local practices, and Stephan Wensveen,
Design Research Through
which means that accumulated knowledge is situational, Practice: From the Lab, Field,
but may also be applicable in other situations, at least to and Showroom (Amsterdam:
Elsevier, 2011).
some degree. How do we distinguish and generalize that
5. Richard Buchanan,
knowledge? “Design Research and the
New Learning,” Design Issues
• Applied design research uses various existing methods 17, no. 4 (Autumn 2001): 8.
and often adapts them to the design context. This has
created various (derived) methods, but which quality crite-
ria must these methods meet to be valid and reliable?
• Applied design research almost always involves several
stakeholders with different interests and power relations.
How do you handle inherent power relationships between
those involved?
• Design research is based on different world views, values,
and standards of involved actors. At the same time, it is
intervening and thus cuts into the practical environment,
into people’s lives. What are the underlying values and
associated ethical standards for applied design research?
These questions are not so much about the added value of

applied design research, its ‘relevance’, but more about the
scientific ‘rigor’. By answering these questions, the quality of
the research will improve, and applied design research will
reach maturity in many more fields of knowledge than we
covered in this book!
253
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Applied

Edited by Peter Joore,

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

This publication is a result of the NADR2 project, executed by the

Part 1: Eyes on the future

Part 2: The urge to

Part 4: Building bridges

Part 5: The task for applied

Design research, a form of research that is highly interwo-

From 2001 onward, at universities of applied sciences in the

Mutual contacts and intense discussions on approach, used

albeit within very different domains. The network has since

Karin van Beurden

8 design, packaging design, branding, and even art. In 2011, he

obtained his PhD in the facilitation of innovation in multidis-

Jeroen van den Eijnde,

Design and research: two areas of expertise, each with its

For this book, we chose the term Applied Design Research.

By asking the members of the network: “What is your defi-

research field. When reading and discussing the articles, we

The envisioning of future realities generates new knowledge,

Daan Andriessen, in “Research Into Research,” describes the

He was inspired by, among other things, the collabora-

This taxonomy echoes in the results of Tomasz Jaskiewicz’s

This taxonomy is also recognizable in “Design Thinking for

In “Dance? Dance!” author Peter Troxler describes the know-

Part 2: The urge to

In every article in this book, the intention of the researchers

14 design to complement each other.

The question ‘what is desired’ is also difficult to answer

This is in line with Anke Coumans’ perspective, who in “The

Eke Rebergen, Sebastian Olma and Wander Eikelboom expand

In her article, “Discomfort as a Starting Point,” Marieke Zielhuis

Part 3: Design and

Applied design research brings a fresh approach, trying to

Some researchers in this book go beyond testing in order to

capabilities so that they can contribute fully to the design

Rens Brankaert is active in the healthcare industry and works

In a way, this challenge has already been tackled by Wina

Co-design is not only applicable to healthcare, as is shown in

Part 4: Building bridges

For example, in “Smart Transitions With Design,” Anja Overdiek

Eveline Wouters also sees herself as the odd one out in

18 arsenal of research methods, with design research taking

a special place. She considers applied design research to

In “Focus on the Practical Question,” Job van ‘t Veer focused

In “Shaping an Empathic Learning Environment,” Masi

Antien Zuidberg describes another area of application in

Part 5: The task

There is a light at the end of the tunnel. The contributions

4. Victor Papanek, Design

In the autumn of 1999, I met my intended supervisor

For eight years now, we have been conducting research

Our research focuses on five issues: 1) How are research

One of the ongoing studies in the research group is the

Design science research as

Soon, I discovered that the design science research trend,

Design science research is, as it were, the social scientific

environment by providing solutions . 5 Design science

Another characteristic of design science research is that the

The starting point of design science research is that in such

Design science research has in common with other forms of

ACTION IMPLE- ESTABLISH