The post-doc will contribute to the project 'Healthy Storytelling for eHealth: Storytelling as a persuasive eHealth element to motivate people with low literacy skills for obesity prevention'. This is a 3-year project financed by ZonMW. The Healthy Storytelling project is strongly interdisciplinary, including the creative industry, healthcare communication organisations, and scientific researchers of design, storytelling, eHealth, and obesity. To warrant user and healthcare relevance, the project is structured as a co-creative research-through-design project involving user groups from the domains of obesity treatment, obesity patients, and people with low literacy skills. The aim of the project is to develop a theoretical model on persuasive interactive storytelling, a set of evaluated demonstrators and a method for applying storytelling as a design element for eHealth solutions. Together with two researchers from the DA section at the TU Delft (working part-time on this project) a serious game company, and in cooperation with our other project members, the post-doc will work on user research and translate its insights into design concepts. A principle task of the postdoc will be to design interactive healthy storytelling concept, prompts and demonstrators, for and with, our target group, i.e. people with low literacy skills and medical obesity experts. The design challenge will be to motivate the target users by creative eHealth design for long-term interactive storytelling aimed to enhance health literacy and prevent obesity.

The post-doc holds a master degree, and preferrably a PhD, in design, has excellent communication skills, is creative and flexible, and has experience with design-related user research, which means that he or she is familiar with the application of qualitative and generative user research methods and design, such as context mapping, observations, interviews, shadowing, cultural probes, game design methods, etc.. Furthermore, the candidate has the knowledge and skills to creatively communicate insights to the project stakeholders. Since the research will be performed in the Dutch context, the post-doc needs to speak and write Dutch fluently. Experience and knowledge regarding culture sensitivity and/or game design are considered strong advantages.

Interviews will take place in week 51.

Fixed-term contract: 3 years.

The TU Delft offers a customisable compensation package, a discount for health insurance and sport memberships, and a monthly work costs contribution. Flexible work schedules can be arranged. An International Children’s Centre offers childcare and an international primary school. Dual Career Services offers support to accompanying partners. Salary and benefits are in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities.

For more information about this position, please contact Valentijn Visch, phone: +31 (0)15-2784951, e-mail: v.t.visch@tudelft.nl. To apply, please send a detailed CV along with a letter of application by 13 December 2017 to A. Klumpers-Nieuwpoort, afdelingID-personeelszaken-IO@tudelft.nl.
When applying for this position, please refer to vacancy number AT/IO-0749.

Delft University of Technology

Delft University of Technology (the TU Delft) is a multifaceted institution offering education and carrying out research in the technical sciences at an internationally recognized level. Education, research and design are strongly oriented towards applicability. The TU Delft develops technologies for future generations, focusing on sustainability, safety and economic vitality. At the TU Delft you will work in an environment where technical sciences and society converge. The TU Delft comprises eight faculties, unique laboratories, research institutes and schools.

http://www.tudelft.nl

Industrial Design Engineering

The Department of Industrial Design is world leading in various design research domains, including human-centred design, design for experience, design methods and techniques, and product ergonomics and useability, and has been very successful in obtaining external research funding in recent years. The departmental and educational strategy will be to remain a powerful hub integrating research and teaching, acknowledging the increasingly necessary contribution of research to the development of industrial design engineering as an adaptable and versatile profession.

The staff of the Design Aesthetics (DA) section focuses on aesthetics, emotion, and meaning as the three main phenomena that can be studied to understand people's experiences with products (and depending on the context). Researchers in DA are interested in the many manifestations of products and the explanations of these manifestations in terms of their social and cultural effects. A distinctive focus of the section is research and education in the field of sensory modalities in relation to product design and persuasive game design for behavioural change. These fields of attention generate universal and culture-sensitive design knowledge and methods that enable designers to design products and services that contribute to the quality of life.