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A strategic design approach for attracting and retaining Generation Z: Redesigning Yonderland’s fading loyalty programs into a paid membership service that is tailored to Gen Z
No full textThis Master’s thesis investigates strategies for Yonderland, Europe's largest premium outdoor retailer, to attract and retain Generation Z, a demographic not previously targeted by the company. Through extensive research, including qualitative and quantitative methods, a literature review, interviews with stakeholders, and multiple creative sessions, a comprehensive strategy was formulated for Yonderland and the focus subsidiaries — Bever, A.S Adventure, and Cotswold Outdoor — to appeal to Generation Z's unique preferences and behaviors. Key findings reveals Generation Z, born between 1995 and 2010, as digital natives who value social consciousness, authenticity, and transparency in their brand interactions. This demographic heavily relies on social commerce and peer recommendations, incorporating digital seamlessly into their lifestyles, which influences their loyalty and purchasing decisions. Despite an interest in premium outdoor products, Yonderland initially overlooked the potential of engaging with this demographic, missing significant sale opportunities. The research suggests a strategic pivot towards building authentic connections with Generation Z by emphasizing environmental and social values, and utilizing digital platforms like TikTok for effective engagement. Highlighting the role of over a million Gen Z creators on social media, the strategy focuses on leveraging these influencers to foster genuine interactions and product discovery, emphasizing the importance of authenticity and relatability in marketing efforts. The research critiques Yonderland's existing loyalty programs for their transactional focus, which fails to resonate with Generation Z's values of self-expression, inclusivity, and personalization. It further identifies issues such as a one-size-fitsall approach, lack of meaningful customer journey integration, and underutilization of customer data for personalized experiences. This misalignment underscores the need for a strategic overhaul of Yonderland’s loyalty programs to resonate with Generation Z’s values of self-expression, inclusivity, and personalization. To address these challenges, the thesis suggests an overhaul of these programs to better align with Generation Z's expectations, needs and values. It proposes a shift towards a premium paid membership propositions that emphasizes customer engagement, community building, and personalization through the introduction of a Customer Data Platform, Atelier Café, and Membership App. The new strategy aims to enhance customer engagement, loyalty, and community building, positioning Yonderland to better meet Generation Z’s sophisticated needs while redefining retail customer experiences through connectivity and a focus on sustainability. The Customer Data Platform is designed to enable Yonderland to play a more relevant role in their customers’ digital lives, transitioning from fragmented customer insights to a comprehensive understanding of customer needs and behaviors. This marks a shift towards more relevant digital engagement. The Atelier Café is introduced as a community hub for member events, circularity, and craftsmanship, serving as a focal point for community engagement, workshops, and events that resonate with Generation Z’s values focused on sustainability and craftsmanship. Meanwhile, the Membership App enhances discovery, community, and personalized experiences across its Discovery, Shop, Service, and Community Pages, revolutionizing Yonderland’s engagement and diverging from conventional retail practices towards embracing sustainability and community. This integrated approach signifies a move away from traditional retail models, fostering a more connected and personalized customer experience. This approach, along with leveraging TikTok as the primary marketing channel and launching the Member Days, aligns closely with Generation Z’s preferences, aiming to boost brand visibility, loyalty, and growth by fostering authentic connections. To seamlessly integrate this new paid membership proposition into Yonderland’s offerings, a futurestate service blueprint has been developed alongside a strategic roadmap. The thesis concludes that Yonderland can successfully attract and retain Generation Z by aligning its strategies with the demographic's preferences for authenticity, community-building, and environmental and societal values.Strategic Product Desig
Social Engagement in Children-Robot Interaction Over Multiple Sessions
No full textWith the advancement of technology and the integration of Large Language Models, interactive robots are entrusted with more significant tasks that contribute to human well-being. This transition is particularly significant in educational settings, where social robots assume diverse roles such as teacher, tutor, and instructional tool, aiming to enhance learning experiences. Engagement emerges as a central theme in Human-Robot Interaction studies, especially within pedagogical contexts, where it has a significant impact on learning outcomes. However, optimizing engagement rather than maximizing it may yield superior learning results. This thesis investigates the correlation between the employment of engagement strategies and learning outcomes in prompt-driven discussions with robots, focusing on facilitating self-reflection and understanding personal values among children. Due to limitations with the target population, a total of 55 university students conversed with the robot in two different sessions, where they discussed different situations, how they would react in each, and the reasoning behind their behavior, using the Schwartz values as a basis for the choices. The participants were divided into two conditions, to examine the effect of techniques such as motivational interviewing, cues to images, feedback, and the use of a memory model on the quality of their arguments and their ability to recollect the interaction. Results suggest that the strategies lead to significantly more reflective arguments for the first session, but they equalize in the second interaction. No significant effect was found between condition and participants' identifying their value profile which led to an examination of the assumptions made by the robot. Participants who agreed with the assumptions were more likely to identify their values correctly, but, generally, the value model was unable to fully capture the intricacies of human motivation. Participants found the robot equally likable, a possible result of the novelty effect. On recollection quality, the data shows that the effect of the session is too strong to allow room for the condition. Overall, this study contributes valuable insights into the influence of engagement strategies on learning outcomes in educational interactions, offering guidance for designing more effective and engaging interactions in the future.ePartners4AllComputer Scienc
Simulation–optimization configurations for real-time decision-making in fugitive interception
No full textSimulation–optimization models are well-suited for real-time decision-support to the control room for search and interception of fugitives by Police on a road network, due to their ability to encode complex behavior while still optimizing the interception. The typical simulation–optimization configuration is simulation model optimization, where the simulation model describes the system to be optimized, and the optimizer attempts to find the combination of decision variables that maximizes the interception probability. However, the repeated evaluation of the simulation model leads to high computation time, thus rendering it inadequate for time-constrained decision contexts. To support police interception operations in real-time, timely calculation of the solution is essential. Sequential simulation–optimization, where the simulation model, with its rich behavior, constructs (part of) the constraints of an optimization problem, could decrease the computation time. We compare the computation time for two configurations of simulation–optimization (typical simulation model optimization and sequential simulation–optimization) for various problem instances of the fugitive interception problem. We show that sequential simulation–optimization reduces the computation time of large instances of the fugitive interception case study ten-fold. This result illustrates the potential of sequential simulation–optimization to mitigate the expensive optimization of simulation models.Policy Analysi
Elevating the Design Capability of Organizations: Embedding Design Thinking within ktc's Marketing Practices
No full textFollowing the increasing appreciation for Design Thinking’s methodologies and its positive impact on businesses’ success and competitiveness over the past decades, many organizations have attempted to establish a design capability of their own. This surge in interest is rooted in the recognition that Design Thinking offers a systematic approach to solving complex problems and fostering innovation, ultimately enhancing the value delivered to customers and stakeholders. It emphasizes empathy with users, a collaborative cross-disciplinary process, and a culture of prototyping and testing, making it an attractive proposition for businesses seeking to differentiate themselves in crowded markets.However, the journey to successfully integrate Design Thinking into organisations is filled with challenges. Many firms encounter obstacles in translating Design Thinking’s principles into actionable strategies that align with their business models and operational workflows. One of the critical hurdles is the need for a cultural shift within the organization to embrace failure as a learning opportunity, encourage creative risk-taking, and foster an environment where multidisciplinary teams can thrive. Additionally, organizations often grapple with integrating design thinking with existing processes without causing disruption to the workflow or diluting the methodology's essence.Moreover, building a sustainable design capability requires not just an initial enthusiasm but a long-term commitment to training, mentorship, and the development of infrastructure that supports design practices. This includes the creation of dedicated spaces for collaboration and ideation, access to tools and resources for prototyping, and establishing metrics to measure the impact of design initiatives.In the context of these challenges, this thesis report examines ktc’s efforts to integrate design thinking methodologies into its digital marketing operations. In the context of an evolving marketing landscape, ktc aims to innovate and adapt by incorporating design thinking methods into its operations.To start building a design foundation, a series of workshops based on the phases of the Double Diamond model: Discover, Define, Develop, and Deliver, were designed to equip the ktc team with knowledge of design thinking processes and to encourage the application of these methods to marketing challenges. However, the transition from theory to practice highlighted uncertainties among team members about integrating design thinking seamlessly into their daily tasks.In response, a pilot design project was launched to apply design thinking methods within ktc's marketing strategies actively. This project sought to showcase the concrete benefits of design thinking while identifying and overcoming obstacles to its application.The findings from creating this design initiative at ktc shed light on the challenges and successes of implementing design thinking in organizations not traditionally focused on design. It discusses how design thinking can revolutionize ktc’s marketing practices by adopting a more innovative, user-centered approach. Additionally, the report and its deliverables offers guidance for similar organizations, underlining the need for ongoing learning, adaptability, and strategic integration of design thinking with business objectives.Strategic Product Desig
Physical science research needed to evaluate the viability and risks of marine cloud brightening
No full textMarine cloud brightening (MCB) is the deliberate injection of aerosol particles into shallow marine clouds to increase their reflection of solar radiation and reduce the amount of energy absorbed by the climate system. From the physical science perspective, the consensus of a broad international group of scientists is that the viability of MCB will ultimately depend on whether observations and models can robustly assess the scale-up of local-to-global brightening in today's climate and identify strategies that will ensure an equitable geographical distribution of the benefits and risks associated with projected regional changes in temperature and precipitation. To address the physical science knowledge gaps required to assess the societal implications of MCB, we propose a substantial and targeted program of research-field and laboratory experiments, monitoring, and numerical modeling across a range of scales.Atmospheric Remote Sensin
Nudging the boundaries between public and private space in student housing; scoping TU Delft students’ perception of co-housing
No full textAs the housing shortage in the Netherlands increases, students have a harder time finding living spaces. On top of that, there has been an increase in psychological issues and feelings of loneliness among students. This loneliness can be exacerbated by the focus on building large studio apartment complexes without collective spaces. The proposed solution for both these problems is community housing (co-housing). In this paper we are going to research if co-housing can indeed decrease loneliness among students while intensifying the use of space and we will research the willingness of students to share their space. A boardgame was developed to establish TU Delft students’ attitudes towards co-housing, offering insights to inform the design of future housing compositions. The main question in this research was: How can the spatial, social, and emotional preferences of TU Delft students be systematically mapped to inform design decisions related to their loggings? The literature review on co-housing showed that co-housing can reduce the spatial need per individual and provides strong possibilities for social and emotional bonds which could reduce loneliness. Data gathered from the boardgame revealed that the majority (68.4%) of TU Delft students are willing to pursue co-housing principles to achieve a reduction in rent and climate impact. This makes co-housing a potential typology for student housing to intensify the use of space and create a possibility to reduce loneliness.Adaptive Co-Housing: A Sustainable Framework for Student Residences in Delft’s Campus ContextArchitecture, Urbanism and Building Science
On ice mechanics in ice-induced vibrations
No full textThe imminence of anthropogenic climate change has motivated a global energy transition towards sustainable power generation. Offshore wind—an important contributor to the energy transition—is expanding, not only in turbine size and number of installations, but also into regions with harsher environmental conditions. One of those conditions in places such as the Baltic Sea is drift ice. Offshore wind turbine support structures, with vertical sides at the waterline, must be designed to survive dynamic ice-structure interaction when ice fails in crushing against the structure. For a safe and efficient design of the support structure, dynamic ice-structure interaction resulting in ice-induced vibrations must be considered. Therefore, both an understanding of the problem and accurate modeling for the prediction of the development of ice-induced vibrations are required.Significant progress has been made in recent years on the topic of ice-induced vibrations, and a numerical model for prediction of ice-induced vibrations has been developed based on the principles of velocity-dependent deformation and failure behavior of ice, and contact area variation between ice and structure during interaction. However, uncertainty remains regarding physical mechanisms within the ice which govern ice-induced vibrations. The ice mechanics involved in the development of ice-induced vibrations is therefore the main topic of this thesis.The main objective was to investigate and identify the ice mechanics involved in the development of ice-induced vibrations, especially in the regime of frequency lock-in as historically defined. It was hypothesized that dynamic recrystallization played a relevant role in the ice mechanics involved in ice-induced vibrations. To test the hypothesis, ice mechanics experiments were performed at the ice laboratory specifically developed at Delft University of Technology for this purpose.To identify grain-scale mechanisms in ice, such as dynamic recrystallization, a method was devised to elucidate ice thin section textures and (quarter) fabrics by means of crossed-polarized transmitted light and interference coloration of ice. An attempt was made to apply the method to the laboratory experiments which applied compressive loading to the edge of a thin freshwater columnar-grained ice plate, laterally confined by glass plates. Crossed-polarized transmitted light was shone through the glass plates to observe the grain structure of the ice during cyclic compression with a haversine velocity waveform. The loading and confinement scenario was intended to reproduce a vertical section of the ice edge during frequency lock-in vibrations. The experimental design demonstrated that the grain-scale mechanics of dynamic recrystallization did not obviously contribute to the peak load-velocity relation associated with frequency lock-in vibrations. As expected, fracture initiated on the grain scale was responsible for load drops. But, more interestingly, stress relaxation during periods of low relative velocity between ice and structure occurred rapidly. Following the stress relaxation, when velocity increased, the peak load was higher than previous brittle peak loads. The results indicated that the mechanisms involved in the stress relaxation were occurring on a scale smaller than the grain size. A loading path dependency was also observed with respect to the peak load-velocity relation.Ice penetration experiments at the Aalto Ice and Wave Tank in ethanol-doped cold model ice were performed with a rigid structure, controlled oscillation, and a single-degree-of-freedom structure, and comparison of results showed that the peak global ice loads depended on the amount of time spent at low relative velocities where an ice strengthening effect developed. This has implications for the so-called velocity effect and compliance effect in design of structures subject to dynamic ice-structure interaction.Overall, the load signals from the ice mechanics experiments on freshwater ice resembled the load signals obtained from the controlled-oscillation experiments from the model-scale ice tank tests. The qualitatively similar velocity and resulting load patterns give confidence in the idea that the mechanisms involved in both types of experiments were similar, even for different ice types and loading scenarios.These similar results demonstrate a link in the ice mechanics across different ice types and loading scenarios, which may be explained with further research on path-dependent constitutive ice behavior, and with scrutiny regarding ice dislocation and grain boundary mechanics. Suggestions for future research are proposed, including the testing of strain rate-varying uniaxial compression of ice and ice penetration experiments with haversine velocity waveforms.Offshore Engineerin
Water renewal and stratification modelling in small estuaries
No full textWater renewal and flushing in small, intermittently open or closed estuaries is receiving increasing attention particularly in light of the climate change induced alterations in run-off, wave and sediment transport conditions along coasts. The challenges of predicting the stratification-circulation state and the balance between tidal or freshwater flushing in response to the mouth dynamics of small, wave-dominated estuaries is the focus of the paper. Such predictions are required for determining estuary freshwater requirements or establishing an estuary's capacity to maintain sound water quality under pollutant discharges. Advances in simulating changes in stratification-circulation over long time scales are limited. Instead attention has focused on generating indices of stratification or water quality state using heuristic methods. In this paper, systems dynamics modelling is applied to simulate the non-linear response of the estuary to changes in river and marine water fluxes. The estuary is modelled as a basin with a specified water volume to water level relationship, connected to the sea by a channel with variable sill height, but fixed width. The direction and magnitude of the flow through the mouth determines whether the sill height erodes or accretes and hence the mouth dynamics (see Slinger, 2017). The tidal flux through the mouth co-determines the volumetric exchange of salt, influencing both the stratification state of the estuary and the degree of tidal or freshwater flushing. This is also influenced by run-off. The resulting dynamic balance is captured in two bulk indices, the Estuarine Richardson number and the bulk densimetric Froude number. Using measured data from the Great Brak Estuary, South Africa, the model is calibrated. Model simulations demonstrate the importance of tidal flushing and concomitant mouth breaching for water renewal as freshwater flushing declines under scenarios of increased water abstraction. Although the estuary remains partially mixed, there is increased average salinity and a more uniform the water column. Water releases and mouth breaching bring about a more natural stratification-circulation state, but these effects are short-lived.Policy Analysi
Rotating Frame Relaxation Times for Off-Resonant MRI Pulses
No full textMagnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is an important imaging modality, since it can create high-resolution cross-sectional images of the human body. In MRI scanners, the nuclear spin magnetization is excited using radio-frequency pulses. Images are created based on the time-evolution of this magnetization, which is characterized by relaxation times (T1,T2,T1ρ,…). These relaxation times change from tissue to tissue, and between healthy and diseased tissue.Rotating frame (T1ρ) relaxation measurements are a promising technique for assessing slow molecular interactions in tissue. This has applications in articular cartilage imaging, and cardiac imaging without contrast agent injection. T1ρ measurements require continuous application of an electromagnetic excitation field. Variations of both the main magnetic field and the excitation field strength cause this excitation to be off-resonant. This in turn leads to contrast loss in the final images.Adiabatic pulses, whose orientation changes slowly in time, are resistant to these off-resonance effects. Their effectiveness is dependent on their parameters, such as the peak sharpness β or the frequency modulation amplitude A. Conventional optimization techniques for these parameters neglect off-resonance effects. In this project Redfield theory was used to create a pulse optimization algorithm that can take this off-resonance behaviour into account. Applied Physic
Goal-adaptive Meshing of Isogeometric Kirchhoff–Love Shells
No full textMesh adaptivity is a technique to provide detail in numerical solutions without the need to refine the mesh over the whole domain. Mesh adaptivity in isogeometric analysis can be driven by Truncated Hierarchical B-splines (THB-splines) which add degrees of freedom locally based on finer B-spline bases. Labeling of elements for refinement is typically done using residual-based error estimators. In this paper, an adaptive meshing workflow for isogeometric Kirchhoff–Love shell analysis is developed. This framework includes THB-splines, mesh admissibility for combined refinement and coarsening and the Dual-Weighted Residual (DWR) method for computing element-wise error contributions. The DWR can be used in several structural analysis problems, allowing the user to specify a goal quantity of interest which is used to mark elements and refine the mesh. This goal functional can involve, for example, displacements, stresses, eigenfrequencies etc. The proposed framework is evaluated through a set of different benchmark problems, including modal analysis, buckling analysis and non-linear snap-through and bifurcation problems, showing high accuracy of the DWR estimator and efficient allocation of degrees of freedom for advanced shell computations.Ship and Offshore StructuresNumerical Analysi
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