dr. J.L. Sturge (Jodi)

I am an Assistant Professor in the Interaction Design (IxD) group within the Department of Design, Production and Management, Faculty of Engineering Technology.

As a health geographer and design researcher, my work takes a human-centred, geographically informed approach to the design of care environments and systems. I explore how built, social and technological environments can be designed to support meaningful interactions that contribute to positive health outcomes. My research interests include transdisciplinary and mixed-method research, evaluation frameworks, and policy alternatives for inclusive, accessible and socially sustainable design.

My current research focuses on the intersection of the built, social and technological environments in healthcare, with a particular emphasis on Hospital at Home models and care design practices.

I currently supervise one postdoctoral researcher and two PhD candidates.

• Dr. Christian Wrede is the postdoctoral researcher on the Dutch component of the ARC project, which focuses on hospital-at-home care for older adults.
• Naomi van Stralen’s PhD research investigates how design can improve health-technology literacy and health outcomes for people with a lower socio-economic status; this NWO-funded project is in collaboration with Prof. Dr. Geke Ludden.
• Carmen Heuvelmans’ PhD project examines how design can enhance human–building interaction for women with psychiatric illnesses.

In addition, I supervise IDE Bachelor and Master’s students on health related topics including interaction design, trauma-informed design and well-being. Further, I have developed an academic community of practice for design students working on products, services and systems for people experiencing homelessness and poverty.

Previous Master Projects

Designing for Reassurance: Co-creating Inclusive Hybrid Care for Post-Surgical Oncology Recovery Floor Lieverse · June 2026 · Industrial Design Engineering ·  University of Twente

Digital technologies are increasingly being embedded in Hospital at Home. While these technologies offer substantial benefits, they also risk worsening health disparities when they are not aligned with patients’ needs. To address this gap, this thesis explored how inclusive hybrid oncology healthcare can be co-created to support patient self-management during post-surgical recovery. A participatory approach – following the Double Diamond Model – was employed, involving a literature review, ethnographic field studies, and various rounds of co-creation sessions to define, iterate and evaluate design directions. https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/110596

Project Blindestraat Charlotte Persijn, Lynn Wens & Noor Fleerackers · June 2026 · Master of Architecture · University of Antwerp

For this project, the students worked on revitalising a vacant plot on the Blindestraat in Antwerp. What started as an architectural research project gradually evolved into a collective journey that would never have been possible without the support, expertise and trust of several stakeholders. This short film documents their research. It tells the story of the site, the people they met, the interventions they organised and how their understanding of public space evolved throughout the year. https://youtu.be/Ou4BcwoR3QU

Leafe

Marc Harinck, Sarah Jansen, Tim van der Kooi, Inge Mengerink & Mitchell van Poecke (Biaani Cabrera Benitez, Inge Lak, Giorgia Intrivici & Ruben Oosterhuis)· October 2025 · Multi-sensory Design · University of Twente

Leafe was designed by a group of IDE, ITECH and Robotics students as a part of the multi-sensory design course. LEAFE is a multi-sensory handrail system designed for dementia-friendly spaces, combining texture, light, and projections to promote intuitive navigation. It gently guides residents with dementia toward outdoor areas, supporting their orientation, comfort, and independence. This project was also selected for the exhibition at Dutch Design Week 2025 by a few students from the original design team. https://app-api.ddw.nl/en/programme/archive/2025/leafe-a-guide-to-the-outside

My administrative tasks include serving as a member of on the Industrial Design Engineering programme committee (since 2023) and act as the University of Twente representative for the 4TU Health in the Built Environment DAT.

Outside academia, I am co-founder of Healthscapes, a platform dedicated to sharing research on health environment design. Healthscapes connects international, interdisciplinary researchers working on architecture and design research, evaluation and education to improve the design of homes, schools, healthcare facilities and workplaces. Together with Elke Miedema, I help to mobilise this research through summaries, guest lectures, network-building and podcasts.

Expertise

• Social Sciences

  • Older Adults
  • Decision Making
  • Sweden
  • Content Analysis
  • Public Health
  • Co-Design

• Nursing and Health Professions

  • Scoping Review
  • Decision-Making

Organisations

Publications

Research profiles

I am the coordinator and principal lecturer of a master-level course on how multi-sensory design can improve health outcomes in healthcare environments.

In design, there is a lot of emphasis on the visual aspects of products. However, people experience the world around them and products and services through all of their senses, which can influence their well-being. In order to design for all modalities, designers need to understand how people perceive products through the different modalities, how the different modalities interact and how, in the end, a complete product is experienced. In this course, we explore “multimodal design” or “multi-sensory design” (designing for all of our modalities) in healthcare environments. The course includes applying scientific research to design (evidence-based design) and theoretical concepts, which are illustrated with examples from design research and design practice. 

Affiliated study programs

Courses academic year 2026/2027

Courses in the current academic year are added at the moment they are finalised in the Osiris system. Therefore it is possible that the list is not yet complete for the whole academic year.

Courses academic year 2025/2026

My research focuses on the intersection between the built, social and technological environments in healthcare with an emphasis on healthcare transformation, citizen science and at-home hospitalization practices. 

Current projects

Address

University of Twente

Horst Complex (building no. 20), room W254
De Horst 2
7522 LW Enschede
Netherlands

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Organisations