This thesis examines participatory Urban Planning as an emerging application area for Participatory Design. Through testing and analysis traditional methods and concepts from Interaction and Participatory Design demonstrate how Participatory Design can contribute to current practices within participatory Urban Planning. Literature research provides a base on which to analyze the designer’s roles acting within Urban Planning. Research findings concerning the redevelopment of the RAW-arena in Berlin suggest the adjustment of traditional Participatory Design operating principles, such as user-centeredness into citizen-centeredness. The Participatory Designer’s traditional roles of a facilitator and translator extend by the role of a mediator, advocate, connector and activist when acting in the context of Urban Planning. The research presents a thorough description of the design process, workshops and interventions on-site.

This thesis is a design study of how everyday objects with embedded digital emotionality can be expected to be accepted into peoples lives. Through the design and evaluation of a chair and a stool with digital emotional features, the project explores the way these objects are given presence, and let into peoples lives. By placing them in the homes of volunteers for a shorter time, the project zooms in on the initial meeting with more emotional everyday objects. The project defines the creation of personality and narratives around the objects as being good design assets in designing for emotional relations. Further it states, and discusses, how balancing detailing and open/ended design features are important in both a general design perspective and when creating personality and narratives.

Services constitute an ever growing part of the western economy. A lot of people are employed in the service sector and almost every day most of us come into contact with a service of some kind. A special kind of service is the self-service concept that leaves the customers to manage on their own. At IKEA, the international home products retailer, customers choose, pick up, transport and assemble the products themselves. This makes it important to give special attention to store layout and how things in the store are organized.Connections were made between the preparations customers do at home and the actions they perform in the store. To create a more positive shopping experience by making it easier for the customers to find their way in the store and pick up the products they want, focus was laid on a digital map based on an electronic shopping list.

Study of a relationship is a 10-week Research by Design project that explores the space of intersection between Design and Machine Learning. It is a series of design engagements and experiments, heavily grounded in the present time and simple technology, that produces a semi-abstract knowledge on relationship that can be established between human and Machine Learning artefacts. This research strives to propose an alternative designerly approach towards Machine Learning, one that would promote evoking positive emotions, usage for personal purposes and understanding of basic principles behind technology, thus putting the human in the position of control.

Information Visualization technics has been widely used in exploring complex data space. In the area of network visualization, the extreme complexity and professional requirements of IT engineers make it hard to design visualization strategies facilitating their daily works. This paper introduces an interactive visualization tool kit for managing network systems. It starts with the research of different visualization technics and existing visualization systems, follows with the concept development process, including user research and the evolution of mockups. A final prototype is proposed, evaluated by discussion with users.

This thesis is a research on how people can create a stronger connection to a place through the music that they are listening to in the specific place. It is about making a place’s identity stronger through social interactions based on people’s musical choices. A theoretical research on social interactions in public places and on the field of urban computing and urban interaction design has contributed to the formation of this thesis. Additionally, a study of design examples that have already been implemented by others and are possessed with common characteristics to the subject, as well as a set of design methodologies in terms of Research through Design process, all lead to the design of the final concept of MusicFootprints service.MusicFootprints focuses on the design quality of “imageability” and on the experimental techniques of the Situationists “dérive and détournement” in order to show that it is the way of interactivity and the position of the system in the outdoor environment that matters. Finally, it leads to the creation of a music-living archive interactive system and opens a discussion about a connection between past, present and future’s peoples’ music choices.

Statistics show the prevalence of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), a developmental delay disorder, is now 1 in 110 children in the United States (Rice, 2009), nearing 1% of the population. Therefore, this study looked at ways modern technology could assist these children and their families. One deficit in ASD is the inability to respond to gaze referencing (i.e. follow the eye gaze of another adult/child/etc), a correlate of the responding to joint attention (RJA) process. This not only affects the way they appear to society, but it also affects social development, communication skills, and play skills later in life (Whalen & Schreibman, 2003), making early intervention of RJA is an integral part of a successful social skills program. This study developed design guidelines, as well as offered and evaluated a design framework, adding to the limited literature regarding technology and ASD intervention. The game was developed within behavior analytic framework, undergoing several iterations, developing a functional prototype that was analyzed in three parts. The first part identified which elements needed redesign in light of the study population. Second, a collaborative prototyping participatory design group was formed in which the elements from the previous part of the study were assigned guidelines. The final part of the study included an evaluation by those with ABA experience, evaluating if the game correctly encompassed and mirrored traditional face-to-face ABA interventions. The study's contributions were the finalized design guidelines and design framework, as well as additional research on harnessing technology in ASD interventions. / Master of Science

The purpose of this project is to improve parents experience in the NICU through design, technology, communication and storytelling. A series of shadowing appointments were conducted to gain empathy and a greater understanding of the environment the design would be in. Next 15 user interviews were conducted. The qualitative data was then analyzed and a needs analysis for the application was determined by identifying patterns in the qualitative data. The design then went through three phases of design, testing and iterating, before the final prototype was complete. This study found that design, technology and storytelling could improve communication and the experience of parents in the NICU. / Master of Fine Arts

This research aims to contribute to knowledge about the design of interactive systems sited in public spaces. In particular, the study concerns "optional interactions" where systems invite interaction from passers-by. These systems are action-orientated ratherthan goal-oriented, are designed to encourage engagement, and offer positive and rewarding experiences through the activity of interaction. This is in contrast to systems that provide functional services that are actively sought out by people, such as ticketvending machines or cash dispensers. This thesis asserts that this kind of optimal, designed experience can be examined and understood through comparisons with approaches taken by new-media artists working in interactive, technological media. Artists have different priorities, and use different methods to those employed by Human-Computer Interaction researchers, and this study aims to further understanding of the potential of these artistic approaches for interaction designers. The setting for these optional interaction systems is any public or semi-public environment, including museums, galleries, shopping centres, foyers and urban settings. As well as understanding the public and social context of these interactions, the experiential aspects of interaction are of primary importance in this study. The work is conducted with the aim of providing practical and theoretical resources to interaction designers tasked with creating engaging interactive systems that initiate and sustain experiences that are highly regarded by the participant. The thesis presents a designframework titled the Optional Interactions Design Framework.

Interaction designers for mobile phones mainly focus on displays but have only little knowledge about sensor characteristics. Beside multitouch input, mobile devices provide versatile possibilities to interact in a physical, device-based manner due to their built-in hardware. Even though such interactions may provide many advantages in everyday life, they have limited visibility in interaction design. Interaction designers are seldom experts in gesture and pattern recognition and even prototypical implementations of simple mobile-based interactions need advanced technical knowledge. Hence, the potential for designing mobile device-based interactions is often not fully exploited. To contribute to a common knowledge of mobile device-based interactions, this paper proposes Mobile Spaces. This model aims at supporting designers of mobile applications to broaden their view on interaction possibilities with one or more collocated devices which go beyond the screen. We discuss the applicability of Mobile Spaces by means of several examples from research.