Delft Design Stories

Let there be light! How to design your own lamp in 1, 2, 3

Are you tired of seeing the same old lamp designs everywhere you go? Have you ever dreamed of designing and creating your own original lamp? With a material of your choosing? Then good news! Thanks to former IDE student Dino Liao and the rise of AI you can. Discover how in this Student Story.

27 January 2022

Why doesn't it work and can it be fixed?

Everyday annoyances: the hoover that suddenly stops working, the washing machine that refuses to spin. Or, a small disaster for the at-home worker, the coffee machine that refuses to give you fuel. And yes, of course you can order a new one, but if you want to contribute to a circular economy, you might also want to see if there is anything that can be repaired. PhD researcher Beatriz Pozo Arcos studied how easily defects in household appliances can be diagnosed, and how design can help users do this.
Richard Goossens on the podcast episode #24 cover

11 December 2021

Out of the Blue #24: Clashing Disciplines in Healthcare - Richard Goossens

A design researcher and a doctor sit together for a coffee in a hospital café. They discuss and draw on a napkin what a joined education programme for designers and medical students could look like. What if doctors understood design for healthcare, and designers the healthcare world?
Maaike Kleinsmann podcast episode cover

11 December 2021

Out of the Blue #23: A Designer walks into a Hospital - Maaike Kleinsmann

How can design research improve our health, and is it better to design for prevention or for the cure? We kick off our triptych on Design & Health with Delft Design Professor Maaike Kleinsmann. Ianus and co-host Marc talk with her about working with healthcare professionals as a design researcher, what all this new remote-sensing health-tech for consumers means for personal health challenges and the issue of health data and privacy. And dealing with Strava-men in tight lycra suits.

11 December 2021

Out of the Blue #21 – Generative Design

Maximum functions, minimum amount of materials. That needs to be part of the sustainable future of design. What technologies might be helpful for both the design and production process? We talk with Delft Design researcher Jun Wu about possible technological solutions using 3D printing for what he calls generative design: using algorithms to print the most sustainable product possible. Also in this episode: how to create more problems with your solutions, growing bridges with metal or tree vines and bicycles.

29 October 2021

A better environment from the comfort of your chair

A modular chair made of blocks in which CO2 has been stored and that can be converted into other pieces of furniture. With his special design - Unito - Riel Bessai, who recently graduated from the Faculty of Industrial Design, wants, above all, to tell a story. “With my chair I am making the global CO2 problem tangible and I hope to encourage people to view our consumer society from a different perspective.”
Marco Rozendaal photographed in the AI factory

19 October 2021

How do you design objects with an intention?

Designing smart objects for everyday life demands a new approach: no longer focused on a single object and a single user, but on an ecological system of countless objects and users. This approach is central in the new Delft Design Lab for Expressive Intelligence and the recently published book Designing Smart Objects in Everyday Life.

19 October 2021

Design for Deaf culture and health

Patients failing to take their medication in the prescribed manner is a widespread problem across society. But a combination of social barriers, discrimination and difficulty with written language mean that the Deaf community has a greater struggle. This medication non-adherence can be dangerous for patients, prolong sickness and strained healthcare systems. Ph.D. researcher Prangnat Chininthorn wanted to find ways to improve this and help Deaf people better manage their own health.

Delft Design Stories

Read the stories of researchers and students at the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, and discover the scientific questions on which they work and the solutions they present.

‘Service design without technology is no longer an option’

Dirk Snelders is professor of Organising Product and Service Development. At IDE his research focuses primarily on the future of service design. In 2011 he published articles with PhD student Fernando Secomandi about the essence of service design in the academic journal Design Issues. The article was received with moderate enthusiasm internationally. But as it turns out, Snelders was years ahead of his time.

'Internet of Things is all about valuable data'

As professor Internet of Things at the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, Gerd Kortuem specialises in the interaction between humans and computers, smart cities and data-enabled design. Kortuem is originally a computer scientist, but above all else he views the technology of the Internet of Things as an instrument. For him, it’s all about making sensible use of data.

Design for a circular economy

How do you keep a product that has minimum impact on the environment but high economic value in circulation for as long as possible? For that, you have to look beyond just the design and start looking at value drivers and business models. After working at Philips for two years, Ruud Balkenende has now been professor of circular product design since 2015.

Passengers at the centre for enhancing flight experience

Summer has started, and so has the holiday season. The further away the better, seems to be the motto nowadays. As a result, increasingly more people are choosing to go on holiday by air, often resulting in long queues, delays and annoyed passengers. Although we must guard against the fallacy that science can solve all problems with overcrowded airports, researchers from the Faculty of IDE are certainly doing their bit.

'Medical consultations should be like a symphony orchestra'

It took IDE alumnus Jesse Beem some time to get used to being the only Delft engineer among the doctors and medical researchers at VU University Medical Centre Amsterdam (VUmc). He designs and modifies special meeting rooms in which doctors from various medical specialisms can consult with each other as efficiently as possible before deciding on a patient's diagnosis and treatment.

Innovating innovation

What exactly is innovation, and how do you innovate an innovation process? These fundamental questions have occupied associate professor Frido Smulders’ mind for years. He and Unilever-funded doctoral candidate Eva Frese are working on a research project to help Unilever Research & Development in Vlaardingen to innovate in a new and complementary manner. He hopes this will also provide answers to his fundamental questions.

A firm foundation for designing for positive moods

Despite all good intentions, the influence that design has on our moods remains a great scientific mystery. Yet our moods have a significant influence on our general well-being and health. Thanks to funding in the form of a Vici grant (€ 1.5 million), Prof. Pieter Desmet now intends to provide a firm theoretical foundation for designing for well-being.