A group of five students involved in the research chair Interaction Design participated in the Design Marathon Eindhoven 2019. One Blossom, as the group is known, is a colorful mix of students from ICT Open Innovation, ICT Data Driven Business Lab and ICT English Stream Software. The students got many positive reactions and compliments and even ignited some discussions amongst the jury members about the taboos on work related stress. It was the first time that Fontys School of Information and Communication Technology joined the DME design challenge competition.
Within the framework of The Vitality living lab the students designed a personal flower that reflects the overall well being of a company employee. Initial research showed that organisations tend to deny or ignore work related stress issues until employees are sick and at home for a longer period of time. The One Blossom flower aims to counter this tendency. The flower uses input signals from common office devices like keyboards, mouses and webcams. A physical model was presented to the jury (photo).
The student team consisted of Stefania (Open Innovation), Marius (English Stream) and Koen, Léna and Caroline (minor DDBL). The group was coached by lecturers Bart van Gennip and Ferry Wonders. See also: https://designmarathon.nl/