I am full professor and head of the Interaction Design chair at the Department of Design, Production and Management. I am also a fellow of the DesignLab.

I am editor of the Journal of Design Research and co-editor of the book 'Design for Behaviour Change' published by Ashgate. I study how the design of products and services influences people’s behaviour and motivation with a specific interest in how products and services can support healthy behaviour and in how technology (interactive devices and wearables) can engage people in therapy at home.

In this video made by CLICKNL I explain more about my work and motivation (in Dutch).

In this lecture for Universiteit van Nederland I explain how we design technology that influences healthy behaviour (in Dutch).

Expertise

  • Psychology

    • Economic and Social Development
    • Mental Health
  • Computer Science

    • Case Study
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Robotics
    • Mental Disorder
  • Social Sciences

    • Product Service System
    • Design Methodology

Organisations

Design influences in many ways and can offer innovative and effective ways to address the myriad of challenges that our society currently faces. Most of the projects I contribute to are aimed at supporting people to make positive changes in their physical or mental health: Design for Healthy behaviour. The different topics within this domain relate to the often used categorisation in healthcare of primary prevention (health promotion), secondary prevention (treatment) and tertiary prevention (management of disease).  

Publications

2026

Designing for Dignity: A Method to Explore Emotional Lived Experiences of Stigma and Dignity in Perinatal Mental Health Environments (2026)In DRS2026: Research Papers (DRS Biennial Conference Series; Vol. DRS2026). Design Research Society. Heuvelmans, C., Günay, A., Ludden, G. D. S. & Sturge, J.https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.1463Affordances and Constraints of Child-Voice Agent Interaction: A Scoping Review (2026)International journal of human-computer interaction (E-pub ahead of print/First online). Çakır, E., Karahanoğlu, A., Ludden, G. & Reidsma, D.https://doi.org/10.1080/10447318.2026.2658256When Darkness Brings Light: Framing Healing Experience through Nature Paintings to Stimulate Negative and Positive Emotions (2026)International journal of design, 20(1), 19-35 (E-pub ahead of print/First online). Kim, C. M., van Rompay, T. J. L., Cupchik, G. C. & Ludden, G. D. S.https://doi.org/10.57698/v20i1.02TOYS4THERAPY: Designing Playful Smart Toys to Support Home-Based Hand Therapy for Children with Cerebral Palsy (2026)[Thesis › PhD Thesis - Research external, graduation UT]. University of Twente. Pinos Cisneros, T. V.https://doi.org/10.3990/1.9879036570510Why we should stress about stress scores: issues and directions for wearable stress-tracking technology (2026)Interacting with computers, 38(1), 1-10. van den Berg, M. K. N., Karahanoğlu, A., Noordzij, M. L., Maeckelberghe, E. L. M. & Ludden, G. D. S.https://doi.org/10.1093/iwc/iwaf036

2025

Designing personal informatics to support setting and changing health goals (2025)[Thesis › PhD Thesis - Research UT, graduation UT]. University of Twente. Ekhtiar, T.https://doi.org/10.3990/1.9789036569125The AI-Therapist Duo: Exploring the Potential of Human-AI Collaboration in Personalized Art Therapy for PICS Intervention (2025)International journal of human-computer interaction, 41(23), 14709-14722. Yilma, B. A., Kim, C. M., Ludden, G., van Rompay, T. & Leiva, L. A.https://doi.org/10.1080/10447318.2025.2487859Empowering Lifestyle Changes and Health Identity: A transdisciplinary design methodology (2025)In 14th Relating Systems Thinking and Design, RSD 2025: Arch of Impact, Relationality in Complexity. Systemic Design Association (Accepted/In press). van Stralen, N., Sturge, J., Gouveia, R. & Ludden, G.Digital future-self interventions to promote physical activity: Perspectives of minimally active middle-aged and older adults (2025)Journal of Imagery Research in Sport and Physical Activity, 20(1). Article 20250014 (E-pub ahead of print/First online). Penfornis, K. M., Nooren, N., Meijer, E., Gebhardt, W. A., Janssen, V. R. & Ludden, G. D. S.https://doi.org/10.1515/jirspa-2025-0014Designing Compassionate Experiences for Mental Health and Wellbeing: A Scoping Review (2025)Behaviour & information technology (E-pub ahead of print/First online). Lusi, B., Karahanoglu, A., van Lotringen, C. M., Klaassen, R., Noordzij, M. L. & Ludden, G. D. S.https://doi.org/10.1080/0144929X.2025.2559290

Research profiles

My research is organised in larger and smaller projects many of which are collaborations with researchers from other disciplines (health, computer science, etc) and with industry and public partners (including Philips VitalMinds, Zorggroep St Maarten, Dimence).

Find all projects on the website of the Interaction Design group

Address

University of Twente

Horst Complex (building no. 20), room W243
De Horst 2
7522 LW Enschede
Netherlands

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Organisations

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