Impact Testing

Organisations and business will want to know their return on investment when investing in design projects. Though not standard practice for designers yet, many designers start to test the impact of their projects. With fuelfor but also for my own projects I have been trying to quantify the ROI of Design Thinking and design projects.

It can be challenging to find the right metrics to measure Design Thinking ROI, how does one measure an organisation its innovation skills? It is easier to test the final product or service. Services can be tested through satisfaction scores but also through measuring the effect a service is supposed to have on the system. With ETE plate, we have been doing exactly that.

For ETE Plate I have been testing its effect on lifestyle change together with the Yulius Academy in the Netherlands and with KK Women's and Children's Hospital in Singapore.
In the Netherlands, ETE was part of a new lifestyle training, called Thin Bizzy, to improve health in young adults diagnosed with ADHD and Obesitas. However, research results were qualitative in nature and did not show the quantitative effect of ETE within the lifestyle training.
Therefore, the impact of ETE on its user’s food intake is currently being measured at KK Women's and Children's Hospital Singapore. Testing has been going on for more than a year now and initial results show users eating from the ETE plate to increase their vegetable intake and decrease their starch intake.
Soon we will post the link to the research paper here.