In this project we introduce an approach to possibility-driven design in which personal anecdotes about happy moments are used as a main fuel for the design process  

Possibility-driven design

Project in collaboration with Anna Pohlmeyer, Pieter Desmet (TU Delft), and Gerjan Huzen (BMA Ergonomics)

Full-paper presented at the 9th international Design and Emotion conference: The Colors of Care, in Bogota. Colombia. 

KEYWORDS: Possibility-driven design, experience design, methodology, design case, subjective well-being 


We are firmly convinced that design can do more than simply solve everyday problems. And our approach is based on this: that possibilities can be a valuable direction for design, and that they can be designed (for). However, the relevant question for designers is less whether design can create new or support existing possibilities, but rather how. How do we design for possibilities? And how does an approach focusing on the introduction of possibilities differ in its process from one focusing on the reduction of problems?

In our structured approach we suggest using elements borrowed from ‘positive role models’ (i.e. positive phycology), and experience design methodology to innovate based on possibilities.

The process consists on five distinctive stages:

1. Identifying possibilities

Learning from positive role models to find moments of happiness in people’s daily lives

2. Selecting possibilities

Focusing one’s attention upon significant elements of human experience, and choosing rich elements for design

3. Aggregating a personal experience to a general pattern

Inferring experiential specifications from a personal anecdote to create a general experience pattern

4. Conceptualization

Materializing and shaping the experience and its meaningful elements by the material designed

5. Evaluation

Testing the intended qualities of the experiential intention by ‘Experiencing’ the material designed 

Fig. Structure Design Process

Fig. Structure Design Process

This project was a follow-up of my graduation project which you can find under Gibbous Chair. If you would like to know more about this approach you can read the complete publication below: