The Sound Support Box: personal advice and musical tools for better care at home.

TU Delft - Project Proposal for Design Power & Transitions “The Sound Support Box!”

The Sound Support Box: personal advice and musical tools for better care at home.

Collaboration with: Dr. Valentijn Visch (Associate Professor in the Department of Human-Centered Design at TU/D), Dr. Veronica Janssen (Associate Professor at LUMC), Rotterdam Popular Music Studies, and others.

The Sound Support Box: personal advice and musical tools for better home care is a proposal from TUD (lead institution) in collaboration with other knowledge institutions and Rotterdam Popular Music Studies, and the chair as a project partner, aimed at supporting the shift to home care by 2030, in response to the increasing pressure on healthcare systems.

The tool is intended as an extension of an existing eHealth platform and aims to make medical information more accessible, helping patients and informal caregivers better manage their health at home. Additionally, the proposal explores the use of music to strengthen the caregiver-patient relationship and reduce stress. Key questions include how eHealth can be designed to meet user needs, how remote care can be supported, and how the role of music in emotional regulation can be understood. The project is in development, and policymakers are being sought to join the initiative.

The interest in this project from the chair lies in mapping the needs of informal caregivers and patients through design research. Design research, supported by participatory mapping and cultural probes, is particularly suited to understand the less obvious aspects of this care relationship on a deeper level, allowing them to be optimized through design.