Med en ökad användning av digitala enheter i samhället ser vi också att fler drabbas av hållningsrelaterade hälsobekymmer. Ungdomar är särskilt drabbade även om de i många fall är omedvetna om det, men knappt ingen forskning fokuserar på den här målgruppen och deras behov. Den forskning som tagits fram är inte heller överens hur man på bästa sätt löser problematiken med hållning. Syftet med studien är därför att göra ungdomar mer medvetna om sin kroppshållning samt ta reda på hur digital design på bästa sätt kan motivera ungdomar att förbättra sin kroppshållning. För att ta reda på detta ställdes följande fråga: ”Hur kan en digital designlösning utformas för att skapa medvetenhet kring ungdomars kroppshållning, samt hjälpa att förbättra deras kroppshållning på ett underhållande och icke störande sätt?”. Studien genomfördes med metoden Konceptdriven Designforskning som inkluderar skapandet av en konceptuell prototyp förankrad i tidigare forskning. Prototypen består av en bärbar sensor som mäter hållning och en applikation i form av ett spel där användaren kan se sin hållning i realtid samt aktivt träna sin hållning. Prototypen värderades sedan genom en digital enkätundersökning. I resultatet framgick att designlösningen kunde tänkas användas av deltagarna, samt hjälpa att förbättra deras hållning eftersom den gjorde användaren mer medveten om sin kroppshållning. Många deltagare trodde att spelet kunde bidra med motivation och göra hållningsträningen mer underhållande men att fler spel-funktioner krävs för att behålla användarens intresse under en längre tid. Deltagarna ansåg att konceptet i sin helhet inte var störande men att mer tydlig feedback krävs för att indikera bra/dålig hållning. Utifrån detta resultat kan slutsatsen dras att konceptet i teorin kan skapa medvetenhet kring ungdomars kroppshållning och hjälpa de att träna den på ett underhållande sätt som inte är störande, men att mer studier och designarbete krävs för att komma fram till det bästa sättet att ge användaren feedback om sin hållning samt göra konceptet mer attraktivt att använda ur ett långsiktigt perspektiv. / With the increased use of digital devices in society, we can see that more people are affected by posture related health issues. Adolescents are especially affected although in many cases they are unaware of it, but hardly any research focuses on this group and their needs. The research that has been done also does not agree on how to best solve the problem with posture. The purpose of this study is therefore to make young people more aware of their posture and to find out how digital design can be used in the best way to motivate young people to improve their posture. To find this out, the following question was formed: “How can a digital design solution be formed to create awareness about young people's posture and help improve their posture in an entertaining and non-disturbing way”. The study was carried out with the method Concept driven design research which includes the creation of a conceptual prototype grounded in previous research. The prototype consists of a portable sensor that measures posture and an application in the form of a game where the user can see their posture in real time and actively train their posture. The prototype was then evaluated through a digital survey. The results showed that the participants could consider using the design solution and that it helped to improve their posture as it made the user more aware of their posture. Many participants thought that the game could contribute with motivation and make posture training more entertaining, but that more gaming features are required to keep the user's interest for a longer period. The participants felt that the concept as a whole was not disruptive, but that more clear feedback is required to indicate good/bad posture. Based on this result, it can be concluded that the concept in theory can create awareness of young people's posture and help them to exercise it in an entertaining way that is not disturbing, but that further studies and design work is needed to come up with the best way to give the user feedback on their posture and to make the concept more attractive to use from a long-term perspective.

This study investigates if gameplay in an audio-only puzzle game differs when the player is feeling stressed or calm. This was done by conducting a test where 14 participants played an audio-only, puzzle game with two levels. One level containing stressful ambience and the other level containing calm ambience. The players were timed during the playtest and the results were analyzed. The results showed a significant decrease of played time in the level containing stressful ambience. The study has also investigated whether the participants preferred the level with the stressful ambience or the level with the calm ambience. This was done by asking the participants a series of questions. The participants' answers for these questions were analyzed by coding their answers and extracting keywords. The results showed no significant difference in player preference.

The thesis project underlines the importance of designing calm and subtle technologies, by exploring how mobile communicative technologies, such as cell phones, could notify their users about incoming information in a more natural, and non-intrusive manner. The aim of the thesis was to find a way for cell phones to act more appropriately in public and social settings, where they now often are considered intrusive due to their uninhibited manifestations.The thesis provides a theoretical understanding of how normative expectations of cell phone conduct are constituted and maintained within public and social settings. The theories are further grounded in practical work, where the project employ user centered design methods and techniques to, in a collaborative manner, together with users explore the research field to generate insights. Solutions have further been prototyped and evaluated together with users in their everyday settings.Taking inspiration from calm technology, the project looks into how information can be notified, in a more subtle manner in the periphery of the user’s attention. Users’ own priming abilities have been considered as a personal way to recognize the notification and to further associate it as relevant information.As a solution for intrusive cell phones, the thesis proposes Knot; a signature based notification system, which builds on friends’ abilities to recognize each other’s characteristic traits. The system consists of a notification rope, which is a free standing phone accessory that twists and turns, when new information is arriving to the user’s cell phone. It can present whom the information is from by shaping itself into the sender’s representative Knot-signature. If the user can recognize the signature, it will immediately trigger a meaningful association to the person who sent the information.The solution builds upon the restrictiveness between those who can associate a certain signature to a certain person, and those who cannot. For those who have the ability to associate to the signature, its role as a notifier will become meaningful and informative, while for others, who do not share this ability, the signature would be subtle and meaningless, and hence not interfering. The thesis exemplifies how interfaces could provide users with output in a more natural way, by considering users’ previous skills and knowledge, and primarily their priming abilities.

The thesis deals with health beliefs of adults exercising tai chi chuan. The theoretical part defines basic concepts of the subject and in the practical part with the help of case studies characteristics of respondents and episodic individual interviews explores whether exercise TCC improves quality of the life and health of the respondents in their health beliefs according to my proposed theoretical models of the process of realizing health. The substance of this pilot study is to discover whether long-term exercise TCC helps exercisers respondents to change their attitude to health and lifestyle. And what changes they are experiencing.

Hospital environments are ranked as one of the most stressful contemporary work environments for their employees, and this especially concerns nurses (Nejati et al. 2016). One of the core problems comprises the notion that the current technology adopted in hospitals does not support the mobile nature of medical work and the complex work environment, in which people and information are distributed (Bardram 2003). The employment of inadequate technology and the strenuous access to information results in a decrease in efficiency regarding the fulfilment of medical tasks, and puts a strain on the attention of the medical personnel. This thesis proposes a solution to the aforementioned problems through the design of ambient displays, that inform the medical personnel with the health statuses of patients whilst requiring minimal allocation of attention. The ambient displays concede a hierarchy of information, where the most essential information encompasses an overview of patients’ vital signs. Data regarding the vital signs are measured by biometric sensors and are embodied by shape-changing interfaces, of which the ambient displays consist. User-authentication permits the medical personnel to access a deeper layer within the hierarchy of information, entailing clinical data such as patient EMRs, after gesture-based interaction with the ambient display. The additional clinical information is retrieved on the user’s PDA, and can subsequently be viewed in more detail, or modified at any place within the hospital.In this thesis, prototypes of shape-changing interfaces were designed and evaluated in a hospital environment. The evaluation was focused on the interaction design and user-experience of the shape-changing interface, the capabilities of the ambient displays to inform users through peripheral awareness, as well as the remote communication between patient and healthcare professional through biometric data. The evaluations indicated that the required attention allocated for the acquisition of information from the shape-changing interface was minimal. The interaction with the ambient display, as well as with the PDA when accessing additional clinical data, was deemed intuitive, yet comprised a short learning curve. Furthermore, the evaluations in situ pointed out that for optimised communication through the ambient displays, an overview of the health statuses of approximately eight patients should be displayed, and placed in the corridors of the hospital ward.