Designing for Wellbeing Toolkit

Orcun and Desmet developed a toolkit that can be used to create spaces that support wellbeing, which is available at the web address noted below.  As Orcun and Desmet report “The current project adopted a humanistic perspective, which starts from the idea that all people have a natural drive for personal growth, and that the ultimate goal of living is to realize one’s full potential—to be all one can fully be (see, Tay & Diener, 2011). Central to this perspective is that all human activity is (directly or indirectly) motivated by innate needs, and that there is a strong association between need fulfillment and subjective well-being. For the current project, we adopted a typology of 13 Fundamental Psychological Needs developed by Desmet and Fokkinga (2020) to provide a practical understanding of psychological needs as a resource for user-centered design practice and research with a focus on user experience and well-being. These 13 needs are universal and form the basic requirements for a person’s survival, optimal functioning, and well-being.”

The 13 fundamental psychological needs identified by Desmet and Fokkinga are:  autonomy, beauty, comfort, community, competence, fitness, impact, morality, purpose, recognition, relatedness, security, and stimulation.

S. Orcun and Pieter Desmet.  2022. “Positive Design During a Pandemic:  Rediscovering Enjoyment Through Daily Activities.”  Base Diseno e Innovacion, vol. 7, no 6, pp. 12-29, https://revistas.udd.cl/index.php/BDI/article/view/776/608