Eindhoven Engine - Kempenhaeghe

How can we enhance social cohesion in a neighborhood where people with and without intellectual disabilities live, so that people are willing to help each other with accessible (care) tasks?

📍Kloostervelden

Empathic research, listening to someone's story without assumptions and with understanding, and learning from different people. Through this research, I have learned about how complex and demanding the care sector in the Netherlands is, how people think about their neighbors, and the interaction between people with and without disabilities.

Specifically, this meant conducting a thorough stakeholder analysis, observing, prototyping, creating personas, interviewing (a lot), and holding co-creation sessions.

Street interviews in The Hague

Co-creation sessions

By organizing and facilitating co-creation sessions, we were able to bring different opinions and perspectives to the table to come up with opportunities and solutions. These creative sessions provide an opportunity to create support within the target group by listening to them and motivating them to speak up.

Social design

After the ideation sessions, we developed 3 different concepts into prototypes and storyboards. We were able to use these to test and iterate.

After testing, we selected one concept and continued iterating on it. We took the feedback into account and arrived at a solid concept.

Conversations during the research revealed that the biggest problem was that neighbors were unclear about what people with intellectual disabilities might need. Conversely, it was unclear what neighbors could offer. To bring this together, we designed an app that encourages neighbors to help each other.

Realization and implementation

To see if this concept will have an impact, we established measurement indicators to assess the social impact. Additionally, we calculated the benefits in the business case to provide the client with an indication of the costs that would be saved if the app were to be used.

This project has provided me with a lot of theoretical knowledge and valuable experience as a social designer.

As a social designer, I have learned a great deal about creating support, making an impact, empathic research, co-creation, and all the obstacles of busy (care) organizations that need to be overcome.

This project has shown me that I gain a lot of energy from designing for people and groups that are not always prominent or visible in society. These are issues that are often discussed but still too little addressed with them. The care issue we worked on will only continue to grow, and that left an impression on me. It was incredibly fulfilling to look at this problem from many different perspectives with energy and come up with a solution.

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