Category: Research
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Experiment: Designing an Inclusive Serious Game to Shift Perspectives on Illiteracy – 1st iteration
As a design researcher, I developed a serious board game aimed at helping literate individuals experience what it feels like to navigate everyday life without the ability to read or write. This experiment builds on the outcomes of earlier puzzle-based experiences and contributes to the broader goal of designing for empathy and inclusion (Harbers, 2021).…
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Experiment: Experiencing Illiteracy Through Design – A Perspective-Changing Puzzle
As part of my design research into social inclusion and accessibility, I created an experiment aimed at giving literate participants a first-hand experience of what it might feel like to be unable to read. The experiment was built around the concept of “designing for empathy” (Mattelmäki, 2006), with the goal of encouraging a deeper understanding…
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Interview Maurice de Greef
Design Research, Social Inclusion, and the Role of Co-Creation: An Interview with Maurice de Greef In contemporary design research, the shift from object-centered approaches to socially engaged, human-centered practices has positioned researchers as intermediaries, facilitators, and advocates within complex societal systems. This transition is particularly evident in collaborations addressing illiteracy and social exclusion, where design…
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Interview Koos Vervoort
Changing Roles, Deepening Expertise: Lessons from the Lived Experience of Koos Vervoort for Design Researchers In contemporary design research, the concept of expertise is being fundamentally redefined. Where once the “designer” was positioned as a central authority, recent approaches emphasize shared authorship, participatory methods, and the inclusion of lived experience as a legitimate form of…
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Rediscovering Drawing as a Research Practice: Visual Thinking in Design Research
Creating visuals For many practitioners in design research, creativity is not only a professional tool but also a deeply personal form of expression. However, within the constraints of project deadlines, academic rigor, and institutional demands, practices like drawing and painting—once central to many designers’ identities—often fall dormant. This was my experience as well: having drawn…
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Experiment visual language
New Practices and Evolving Expertise: Co-Creation with People with Low Literacy Reframing Expertise in Design Research Contemporary design research has increasingly moved toward participatory approaches that challenge traditional hierarchies of knowledge. In this spirit, my research sought to investigate whether it was possible to co-create a visual language to translate bureaucratic texts into accessible visuals,…
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Visual Language in Design Research: Between Ambition and Practicality
Research into visual language In the context of socially engaged design research, the quest to make information more inclusive and accessible continues to evolve. This is particularly relevant for groups such as low-literate individuals, for whom visual communication holds significant promise. In this essay, I explore the viability of translating written information into visual language,…
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Definitions
Low-literacyPeople who can read and write a little bit are low-literate. This means that they do not have the language and/or arithmetic level* to participate in society.*Various designations are used for the level of language proficiency. For non-native speakers we use the NT2 Framework (A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2). For Dutch speakers we use…
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What Experts by Experience Can Teach Us: Lessons from Illiteracy for Design Research
Research into illiteracy We, as Design researchers, are increasingly called upon to address complex, human-centered challenges. Among these is the persistent issue of illiteracy, a barrier that affects more than 2.5 million people in the Netherlands alone—and millions more across Europe. Yet in the rush to innovate and intervene, we often overlook the most important…