This paper presents an exploratory work on using Large Language Models (LLM) in User Experience (UX) design. Previous research shows that UX designers struggle to envision novel designs and to prototype with AI as a design material. We set out to investigate the question of how designers can be sensitized to LLMs, and their implications for the professional role of UX designers. Using autobiographical design, we develop a prototype of a digital workspace (the “PromptBoard”) for designing and prototyping chatbots utilizing ChatGPT. A design sprint workshop with six participants is performed, in an effort to answer the research questions by working with the PromptBoard. Discussions and participant-designed artifacts are analysed using thematic analysis. Findings include that participants are able to express design ideas and successfully create chatbots using the tool but express a conflicting sense of lacking creativity or ownership of the results. Implications to the field of UX design are discussed.

This work explores the design of domestic Media Spaces by introducing and studying FamilySong (FS), a system that allows the synchronous playback of music between two remote households. FS does not share live audio or video, yet our studies show that FS provides a context for increasing serendipity as families integrate it into their ecology of communication practices and devices. Through three design iterations involving Autobiographical Design, Research-Through-Design, and qualitative research methods, we study six Latin American migrant families (with parents and children in the United States, and grandparents in Ecuador and Mexico), and one from the U.S., interact with FamilySong. We have found that, individually, family members have differing motivations and reactions to using the system. However, participants felt that the shared experience was meaningful to them and that they could use FamilySong to communicate important intentions, values and emotions as well as musical experiences. In the most recent iteration, the main interactions empowered very young children's participation in music selection. This has been met with joy and excitement by all but also with occasional behavioral dilemmas.This work explores and expands the design space of Media Spaces to include a set of artifacts that forgo its central definition yet provide similar emergent qualities including enhanced mutual awareness, connection, and communication. FS design explores the intersection of family practices and values---of togetherness and longing, parent-child dynamics at all ages, kinship, identity and culture---, and divided versus focused attention in the home. It also enriches our understanding of designing technology for meaningful interaction that supports loved ones and their values. / Doctor of Philosophy / Telecommunication technologies have improved the lives of migrants by allowing them to maintain connections with far-away loved ones. Although the opportunities to have a conversation have increased drastically with inexpensive video-chat systems, the quality of these connections leave families wanting for more meaningful experiences. FamilySong was designed to help far-away loved ones sustain significant interactions over time by playing music at the same time between two connected homes. The music acts as a medium for a shared-experience between parent and children's homes, and their grandparents' home. As participants went about their daily lives, music would begin playing making them feel together. Music also allows for a range of interactions that our participant families have come to describe as communication. People choose to play songs in the system that could be interpreted as "I love you," "I am thinking of you," "good morning," "this is my/your favorite song," "we are home," "are you available to talk," "we are dancing," "happy birthday!" These messages have the potential for being more influential to a developing relationship than merely asking for a "hi" or a "smile" on a video-call. Such calls are typical when interacting with very young, pre-verbal children. Other researchers have promoted focused activities that would capture a young child's attention, in order to provide a moment of connection at a distance with them. Some of these approaches include playing games and reading books. Our proposed method of sharing music is aimed at a similar objective, developing participants shared interests, but also facilitating an opportunity for a long sustained experience through the day with music as the background for everyday home activities. FamilySong is a design for the home and for the family, we build upon the family's communication and cultural practices in order to augment their experience through the day, and the video-calls they typically hold where they might now have found new reasons to connect (talk about music or sing together). In this dissertation we have used design to extend our understanding of what constitutes a significant interaction between family. Three large steps were taken, culminating in the design and creation of a high-fidelity prototype for a system to facilitate synchronous-playback of music between homes. A total of twelve copies of the final prototype were created and deployed at the homes of participants, for a total of six families using the system for over six months at the time of publishing. An additional three devices were created to begin exploring future work opportunities. In exploring these interactions between people we have found that family members have differing motivations and approaches to enjoying the system communicating. However, the opportunities for increased connection was received with joy by most of our participants who expressed to us deep feelings of longing for togetherness, identity, and culture. These significant aspects of enduring human and family values provide meaningful motivations for designing for the home.

The thesis consists of autobiographical soma research-oriented design for bringing somatic attention to the feet by the concept of micro-opportunities embedded in external artifacts to defamiliarize experiences. There is a growing body of work within the HCI community reporting on pressure-sensitive prototypes for raising bodily awareness alongside heat as a positive embodied response. Informed by these, I lead by questioning: How could the feet as the eyes of the body open a space for design estrangement and micro opportunities? Through Research through Design (RtD), I explore where these applications make sense in everyday living. I provide an overview of my somatic explorations within physiotherapy, foot analysis, and physical engagements of materials depicting bodily adjustments, materials, prompts, and objects as tools for estrangement. Lastly, I offer the Soma Design Bodystorming Foot-kit humo encapsulating these insights and drawing on the given premise, seeing feelingly through the feet, to speculate around potential applications and outcomes in everyday living granted by micro-opportunities. Through humo, I provide designers with an open-ended kit for sparking an awakening out of familiar bodily experiences towards somaesthetic (strange) reflections of the being of the feet.

Starting out as a minor form of amusement, the game industry has become one of the most lucrative andsuccessful in the entertainment business competing against giants such as television, movies and music.As the internal competition within the developer community grows companies work hard at discoveringnew ways to attract and keep customers. By having a playcentric approach focusing on user experiencethey hope to achieve that goal. This thesis describes the process of designing a game with focus on theplayer. We apply the concept of flow on game development and investigate through research throughdesign if we are able to create a game that keeps the player in flow. Play tests showed several elements such as control issues and too difficult challenges early in the game,affecting the possibility for players to experience flow while playing. These negative factors came to becalled flowleakers. In the end, based on our play tests, we were able to conclude that we achieved ourgoal of making a game that generated flow.

Short attention spans are a growing phenomenon, impacting users in their daily interactions with technology. While there have been studies in the field of HCI on how to design for directing or maximizing user attention, few have focused on users with short attention spans and their felt experiences. To fill this research gap, this study employed a user-centered design approach involving a pre-study and a workshop concerning web design. A thematic analysis of the data revealed ten themes which, among other things, dealt with web navigation, overwhelming interfaces and distractions. The results showed that attention is an embodied experience and relying solely on quantitative data, such as eye tracking, may not provide a complete understanding of it. Therefore, involving those affected in the design process can assist designers in creating the best possible experience, aligning with the end-users’ own definition of what constitutes a good experience. Additionally, designers should adapt to minimalist design principles to meet the needs of this user group. This paper contributes to research by giving in-depth insights into the felt experiences of short attention spans, and how these experiences may be designed for. / Korta uppmärksamhetspann är ett växande fenomen som påverkar användare i deras dagliga interaktioner med teknologi. Även om det har gjorts studier inom HCI om hur man designar för att rikta eller maximera användares uppmärksamhet, har få fokuserat på användare med korta uppmärksamhetspann och deras erfarenheter. För att bidra med kunskap inom detta område, använde denna studie en användarcentrerad designmetodik som innefattade en förstudie och en workshop om webdesign. En tematisk analys av datan resulterade i tio teman som bland annat handlade om webnavigering, överväldigande gränssnitt och distraktioner. Resultatet visade att uppmärksamhet är en förkroppsligad upplevelse och att enbart förlita sig på kvantitativ data såsom eye-tracking inte nödvändigvis ger en fullständing representation. Involvera de berörda i designprocessen kan därför hjälpa designers att skapa den bästa möjliga upplevelsen, i linje med slutanvändarnas egen definition av vad som utgör en god upplevelse. Dessutom bör designers använda sig av minimalistiska designprinciper för att tillgodose behoven hos denna användargrupp. Denna artikel bidrar till forskningen genom att ge inblickar i de upplevda erfarenheterna av korta uppmärksamhetspann och hur dessa erfarenheter kan designas för.