Applied design researchers engage in complex projects that have diverse forms of impact on multiple stakeholders. One could think, for example, of the dementia simulator by, amongst others, Wina Smeenk (2022). The project, aimed at improving the public’s understanding of the experiences of—and empathy with—people with dementia, yielded results for different groups at different levels and timelines. The resulting simulator helped informal and formal caregivers, societal stakeholders such as police and supermarkets, and the general public understand dementia. Moreover, the work on the simulator involved improving empathic design methodology (i.e. Smeenk et al. 2018, Smeenk 2019), which inspired and informed design researchers designing for such sensitive situations worldwide. Moreover, all kinds of stakeholders around dementia, such as care organisations, government bodies, and the health(care) industry, changed how they thought about the dementia problem because of the existence of and their experience within the simulator, and discussions later on (Spek, Sleeswijk & Smeenk, 2024). If so, many stakeholders are involved and their learnings’ are so diverse and often implicit, how do we establish the societal impact of such a project?
