Colloquia

Summary

The aim of this master's thesis is to develop a new packaging for an RFID reader manufactured by

Nedap Identification Systems (IDS) that is demonstrably more sustainable than their previous

packaging solution. This involves researching methods to make sustainability measurable within

packaging design, as only then can it be demonstrated that one packaging is indeed more sustainable

than another. Given that packaging is physically interacted with by users and often forms their initial

impression of a product, it is crucial not to overlook the user. Therefore, the research also explores

how users can be engaged in the entire sustainability process.

This thesis begins with an introduction that examines the relevance of the issue, provides an

overview of Nedap IDS as a company, presents the problem statement, research questions, and the

methodology of this thesis. Following the introduction, the literature review section entails reading

various articles to address the majority of the research questions and establish a foundation to aid in

the design process. The literature review concludes with a conceptual framework that enables the

measurability of sustainability.

The design process for this thesis follows a Human-centered design approach, which consists of four

steps. These four steps are sequentially addressed within this thesis. The first step is the discover

phase, aiming to investigate the problem and understand it from the user's perspective. Initially, the

focus lies on gaining a better understanding of how Nedap operates to gain insight into the process.

Subsequently, the products they sell are examined, followed by an extensive stakeholder analysis to

uncover all pain points surrounding the problem. In the define phase, all this information is clustered

to determine the functionalities the packaging must fulfill to solve the problem. This forms the basis

for the design process, where numerous ideas are sketched and developed to ultimately arrive at a

few concepts that could potentially work. These concepts are then transformed into prototypes,

allowing them to be tested with users. User feedback is used to improve the prototypes, eventually

leading to a working final product. In addition to user testing, the prototypes are also evaluated for

their sustainability using the conceptual framework developed from the literature review.

In addition to the standard steps of the HCD process, there is also a detailing phase, which focuses on

how this packaging can be applied to multiple products within Nedap. This is achieved by creating a

general brand guide for this type of packaging and by developing examples for other products.