Jasper van Kuijk

Designing for responsible digital transitions

I study how digital information systems can be designed to be useful for individuals, beneficial for society, and effective for the organizations that operate them. My work focuses on user- and human-centered design, sustainability and social responsibility, inclusion, and collaboration between organizations.

My research is mostly qualitative and examines how the design of organizations and development processes shapes the outcomes — for example, in terms of usability, sustainability, and inclusion.

I am appointed at Information Systems and affiliated with the Service Research Center (CTF). This reflects how intertwined services and digital systems are today: almost every service relies — wholly or partly — on digital infrastructure, whether at the front end, the back end, or both.

At present, I am involved in the Re:Value project, which studies stakeholder perspectives in the development of circular trucks. I also supervise two PhD projects: one on developing seamless multimodal travel services combining air and rail, and one on designing public services that both suit individual citizens and align with collective, democratic needs.

Before joining KAU, I worked at the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering at TU Delft, where I earned my PhD and founded the Expertise Centre for E-ticketing in Public Transport (X-CEPT). In this lab, students and researchers collaborated with the transportation sector to study and develop solutions for improving the user experience of public transit ticketing. My PhD focused on how companies address usability in the development of electronic consumer products.

I supervise graduation students and lecture on design and innovation of digital systems and services, with a focus on user/human-centered design and how to align organizations with that. 

I am drawn to research projects that study the development practice of digital systems and services, and that can contribute to improving that practice and to solving societal challenges. The research projects I am involved in tend to feature a collaboration of both academic institutions and industrial or societal partners. I am convinced that achieving relevant and applicable results requires working closely with both research peers and stakeholders in practice. 

• 2025–present: Assistant Professor, Information Systems, Karlstad University
• 2012–present: Assistant Professor, Industrial Design Engineering, Delft University of Technology (parttime)
• 2011: Postdoctoral Researcher, Industrial Design Engineering, TU Delft, The Netherlands
• 2005–2010: PhD Candidate, Industrial Design Engineering, TU Delft, The Netherlands
• 2003–2004:  Junior Strategy Consultant, PARK advanced design management

Non-academic

• 2012-present: Writer-columnist
• 2010-2022: Stand-up comedian

Read more:

• Introductory interview by KAU
• Announcement on the Re:Value project at KAU

Toet, Aniek, Boersma, Klaas, & van Kuijk, Jasper. (2025, June 1). Reimagining the role of hub airports as multimodal transport hubs in a sustainable future. The Journal of Airport Management, 19(3). https://doi.org/10.69554/OWDX1327

van Kuijk, Jasper. (2024). Hoe makkelijk kun je het maken? – Ontwikkel oplossingen die iedereen wil en kan gebruiken.[Translated title: How easy can you make it? Develop solutions that everyone wants to and can use]. Business Contact. 308 pp.

Klip-Veltman, M., van Kuijk, J., & Kleinsmann, M. (2023, October). More than the process: Exploring themes in Dutch public service design practice through embedded research. In IASDR 2023: Life-Changing Design. Tenth Congress of the International Association of Societies of Design Research, October 9–13, Milan, Italy: Politecnico di Milano. https://doi.org/10.21606/iasdr.2023.305

van Kuijk, J. I., & Wever, R. (2023, June). Spinning out of control: Reflections on the (non)sense of repurposing as a circular economy loop. In The 5th Product Lifetimes and the Environment Conference, May 31–June 2, Helsinki, Finland: Aalto University.

Toet, A., van Kuijk, J., & Santema, S. (2022, October). Transforming airport hubs into future-proof multimodal transport hubs. In Relating Systems Thinking and Design (RSD11) Symposium: Possibilities and practices of systemic design, October 3–16, Brighton, UK: University of Brighton.

Veeneman, W. W., van Kuijk, J. I., & Hiemstra-van Mastrigt, S. (2020). Dreaming of the travellers’ experience in 2040: Exploring governance strategies and their consequences for personal mobility systems. In Towards User-Centric Transport in Europe 2 (pp. 225–239). Springer, Cham.

van Kuijk, J., Daalhuizen, J., & Christiaans, H. (2019). Drivers of usability in product design practice: Induction of a framework through a case study of three product development projects. Design Studies, 60, 139–179. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.destud.2018.06.002

van Kuijk, J., Kanis, H., Christiaans, H., & van Eijk, D. (2017). Barriers to and enablers of usability in electronic consumer product development: A multiple case study. Human–Computer Interaction, 32(1), 1–71. https://doi.org/10.1080/07370024.2015.1117373

van Kuijk, J., van Driel, L., & van Eijk, D. (2015). Usability in product development practice: An exploratory case study comparing four markets. Applied Ergonomics, 47, 308–323.

van Kuijk, J. I., & Staats, R. (Eds.). (2012). Design for Usability: Methods & Tools: A practitioner’s guide. IOP-IPCR Design for Usability research project. 142 pp.

van Kuijk, J. I. (2010). Managing product usability: How companies deal with usability in the development of electronic consumer products [Doctoral dissertation, Delft University of Technology].

van Kuijk, J. I. (2010). Recommendations for usability in practice (25-card set) [Companion to doctoral thesis]. Delft University of Technology.

Wever, R., van Kuijk, J., & Boks, C. (2008). User‐centred design for sustainable behaviour. International Journal of Sustainable Engineering, 1(1), 9–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/19397030802166205