“How to impact one billion people”

Take up the challenge to design a speculative innovation for 1 billion people for the year 2055.  Use your creative thinking and process skills to influence future social, cultural, technological, and ecological conditions. Just think of all the possibilities that could become reality by taking up this challenge.

This programme invites you to move beyond solving today’s problems and start speculating about what could be. Through Speculative Design, you will explore alternative futures, challenge dominant narratives, and create radical concepts that respond to global cultural, social, and technological shifts.

In this transformative one-semester programme, you will work through thematical weeks on Speculative Trend Watching, Design Psychology, Cross-Cultural Design, Creative User Research, Concepting, Business Modelling, and Exposition Design. You will learn how to navigate uncertainty, complexity, and cultural diversity while designing meaningful futures for a global audience.

From problem-solving to sense-making
You will draw on logic, imagination, intuition, and systematic reasoning to shift from traditional problem-solving design to sense-making design (Bannon, Kolko). By gaining deep insights into users, cultures, and stakeholders, you will learn how to reframe challenges, question assumptions, and design alternative futures that are more inclusive, ethical, and impactful.

Design across cultures, contexts, and futures
Through methods such as cultural hunting, trend watching, cultural probes, non-human personas, extreme user scenarios, speculative scenarios, journey mapping, and business model canvassing, you will develop strong cross-cultural competencies. These skills enable you to design innovations that resonate across borders, value systems, and socio-cultural contexts, essential for global-scale impact.

Radical innovation through a Network of Interpreters
The programme is grounded in Speculative Design, Cultural Design, Value Sensitive Design, and Innovation Design. To create radical innovations, you will actively build and engage your own Network of Interpreters (Verganti): a diverse group of experts, cultural insiders, creatives, and stakeholders who help you generate new meanings, challenge dominant perspectives, and enrich every stage of your design process. This approach supports the Rotterdam mindset: innovative, socially engaged, entrepreneurial, collaborative, and results oriented.

Impact one billion people
Your final challenge is to design a speculative innovation and corresponding prototype(s) that are meaningful to no less than one billion people. The semester concludes with a student-curated exposition, where your speculative concepts and tangible outcomes are shared with a wider audience.

Curious?
The programme runs from August/September to January. All classes are taught in English and include expert input, coaching, workshops, and feedback from senior lecturers at Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences and international guest speakers.

Would you like an impression of the speculative innovations created last year? Have a look at last year’s projects!

And of course, you can follow us on Instagram. 

Are you the student we are looking for?
We’re looking for curious minds with a passion for human behavior, design, and technology. This programme is open to exchange students from partner universities worldwide and students from Dutch Universities of Applied Sciences who are eager to explore, question, and imagine new possibilities.

You’ll be part of a truly international learning community, studying alongside students from all over the world, each bringing their own cultural perspectives, skills, and educational backgrounds. Diversity is not just welcomed, it’s essential. Together, you’ll learn from one another and co-create knowledge that goes far beyond a single viewpoint.

Learning doesn’t stop in the classroom. As a group, you’ll organise field trips, cultural lunches, social events, and shared experiences that strengthen your network and broaden your worldview. You’ll also step outside the academic bubble by visiting exhibitions, design events, museums, and inspiring places such as Antwerp, Brussels, Cologne, Düsseldorf, Amsterdam, and Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven.

If you’re open-minded, internationally oriented, and ready to learn from the world, this programme is for you.

Content and Program
The programme contains of 4 modules:  

• Design Driven Innovation 1: 7 ECTS
• Design Driven Innovation 2: 7 ECTS    
• Convince the World (practice): 8 ECTS
• Make it Happen (practice): 8 ECTS  

Two of the modules are practice-based, giving you the opportunity to develop and implement your own speculative innovation project.

The other modules focus on the transfer of knowledge and skills in key areas, including Speculative Trend Watching, Human Behavior, Intercultural Communication, Business Modelling, Innovation Theory, Prototyping, and Design Methods and Tools.

This combination of hands-on practice and theoretical learning ensures that you not only gain practical experience but also a deep understanding of the concepts, frameworks, and methods that drive meaningful innovations for the year 2055.

Learning goals
Upon successful completion of the Designful Innovation programme, you will be able to:

• Apply a range of design research methods to translate insights into speculative and design driven concepts.
• Analyse how speculative innovations are developed and map relationships between innovations, contexts, and meanings.
• Create and strategically engage a Network of Interpreters to formulate a vision for new speculative concepts.
• Define and apply design principles that underpin speculative design driven innovation.
• Design in and for cross-cultural contexts, demonstrating cultural awareness and sensitivity.
• Develop and communicate credible speculative prototypes that embody a design driven innovation concept.
• Present, defend, and critically evaluate speculative design driven innovation concepts individually, using well-reasoned arguments and reflective judgment.

Various Educational Methods
The course offers a comprehensive, practice-oriented programme designed to develop a design driven mindset. A variety of educational methods are employed, including (guest) lectures, tutorials, workshops, pressure-cooker sessions, co-creation activities, Dragons’ Den sessions, pitches, field trips, and international excursions.

You will receive input, coaching, workshops, and feedback from leading experts in the field, senior lecturers from Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences, and international guest lecturers.

Students are expected to conduct research thoroughly and critically, applying both theoretical knowledge and practical skills across all modules. All classes are taught in English.

Suitable for studies
1. you have successfully completed your internship.
2. You have obtained a minimum of 90 credit points from the main phase of your study programme.

English skills: You have sufficient oral and written English language skills (level B2). Preferably you are a third- or fourth-year bachelor student.

The programme welcomes curious and creative students from a wide variety of backgrounds. In previous years, participants have come from fields such as Communication and Multimedia Design, Interaction Design, Communications, Leisure and Tourism Management, Informatics, Business Design, Innovation Management, Architecture, Social Work, Product Design, and Entertainment Design.

No matter your background, if you are eager to explore human behavior, design, and technology, this programme offers the tools, methods, and inspiration to develop your skills and create meaningful speculative innovations for a global audience.

Mandatory Literature  

• Boeijen van, A., & Zijlstra, Y. (2020). Culture sensitive design. BIS Publishers.

• Kerr, J., Cheers, J., Gallegos, D., Blackler, A., & Kelly, N. (2023). The art of co-design: Solving problems through creative collaboration. BIS Publishers.

• Lutz, D. (2021). Future scouting: How to design future inventions to change today by combining speculative design, design fiction, design thinking, life-centered design, and science fiction

• Verganti, R. (2016). Overcrowded: Designing meaningful products in a world awash with ideas. The MIT Press.

 Classes are scheduled on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.

Assessment
In this programme, learning is hands-on and collaborative. Most assignments are completed individually, but students often work in small teams to brainstorm, exchange ideas, and gain new insights.

You will put theory into practice through exciting, real-world tasks. In the Design Driven Innovation 1 & 2 modules, you will be assessed on assignments, presentations, reflections and the planning and execution of workshops together with your peers.

The practice-focused modules, Convince the World and Make it Happen, are assessed through pressure cooker weeks, organising and presenting the final exposition, fieldtrips, classroom participation and producing a final reflection report.

There are no written exams, assessment is based on your creativity, practical skills, teamwork, and ability to turn ideas into meaningful speculative innovations.

Minor Choice Week | 2–5 March 2026

Online minor information sessions
Attend an online information session for this minor! View the programme and register here.

Minor fair
This minor will be present at the minor fair. Will you join us? View the programme and register here.

Date: Thursday, 5 March 2026
Time: 4:00–7:30 p.m.
Location: Kralingse Zoom

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APPLICATION PROCESS (KOM)

Are you a student from another educational institution and would you like to follow a minor at Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences? If so, you must apply in two steps:

Step 1

• Register for the minor of your choice via the blue Apply button. You can find this button at the top right of the minor’s page.
• Download the learning agreement and complete it.
• Submit this learning agreement to the examination board of your study programme.

Once the examination board has granted approval, register for the minor in Step 2 no later than 01-07-2026 at 9:00 a.m.

Step 2
After approval, register via OSIRIS Application of Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences using the link below (first create an account).

Apply

Part of the application process is uploading the following documents:

• The learning agreement, signed by you and by your institution;
• A scan or photo of your passport or ID card.

You will be informed by Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences whether your application has been approved.

In OSIRIS Application, you must also upload the Proof of Paid Tuition Fee (BBC) for the academic year in which you wish to follow the minor. This can be done from 01 May 2026 onwards. You can request the BBC from your institution after you have signed or issued an authorization for the payment of the tuition fee for the relevant academic year. You may also choose the option for your institution to send the BBC directly to collegegeld@hr.nl.

You will receive a notification from Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences once your application has been approved.