This constructive design research dissertation aims to understand how design can be used as part of a composite research approach to generate knowledge about how complex phenomena are composed through their interactions and relationships with various actors, both human and non-human. It has done this by investigating a single phenomenon, the patient experience of radiotherapy. Through the purposeful selection and application of methods, theories, and existing research from design, nursing, and STS, this thesis utilizes a mixed-method approach comprised of qualitative, quantitative methods, and design experimentation, across multiple research sites and patient populations, in three research projects – PERT, DUMBO, and POIS – to generate rich and layered knowledge of the patient experience. Experience prototypes are used to challenge, through intervention or provocation, the relationships between the various radiotherapy actors identified through the empirical methods. Together, the research generated in PERT, DUMBO, and POIS construct a map of the networked, interdependent actors which shape the patient’s emotional experience of radiotherapy: the staff, technology, information, environment, and institutions. It also calls attention to the problematic relationship between radiotherapy patients and the technologies used to treat them, which can lead to anxiety, worry, and fear. This thesis offers contributions related to both improving patient experience and designing for complex social issues. First, this research suggests that individuals, other than primary users, need to be acknowledged in the design of medical technologies. It proposes calling attention to patients by naming them as interactors in their relationships with the aforementioned technologies, removing them from the role of implicated actor. Second, this thesis problematizes treating the actors within a network as independent entities, which medical research and user-centered design often does, and calls for a new type of design practice which attends to these networked relationships. Third, this thesis suggests two ways in which design research practice should be shifted methodologically if it wants to engage with and design for complex social issues like patient experience; widening the researcher’s perspective on the issue through the use of a composite methodology, and having the researcher maintain this scope by remaining closely connected to their research context. The implications of this work concern how design research, design education, and design practice might shift their approaches to fully acknowledge and attend to the complexity of systems like healthcare.

Visible light communication (VLC) is a novel complement to Radio Frequency Communication (RFC) and has many applications in wireless communication, indoor positioning and where RFC is not applicable. The problem is that the technology is black-boxed and therefore hard to apply in today’s design process. For designers to be able to use VLC in their creative process, this study uses the Inspirational Bits approach to expose the materiality of VLC by asking the question: How can we design artefacts that allow designers to engage in a conversation with Visible Light Communication as a material? Through Constructive Design Research, the technology was studied in iterations by building prototypes and reflecting on them. The prototypes are evaluated in two design workshops through observation and gathered feedback from 11 participants. As a result, seven artefacts were constructed to expose seven potential material properties of VLC. The observations and collected feedback show also that the artefacts help designers to gain tacit knowledge about VLC. The artefacts use the Arduino platform and standard electrical components. A by-product of this study is the "lumoino" toolkit for tinkering and prototyping with VLC. Eventually, strengths and weaknesses are discussed, and future work sections show the potential extensions of the artefacts and expansions of the toolkit. / ”Kommunikation med synligt ljus” (VLC) som ett design material är ett komplement till ”radio frekvens kommunikation” och har många applikationer inom trådlös kommunikation, Inomhuspositionering, och situationer där RFC inte är applicerbart. Problematiken med teknologi är att den ofta inte är synlig, och därför är svår att inkludera i dagens design processer. För att designers ska kunna använda sig av VLC i deras kreativa process, utgår denna studie från ”Inspirational Bits” förhållningsätt till design, och ämnar utforska följande frågeställning: Hur kan vi designa artefakter som tillåter designers att engagera sig i en konversation med ”kommunikation med synligt ljus” (VLC) som ett design material? Genom ”konstruktiv designforskning”, studerades prototyper av teknologin följt av analys. Processen upprepades med ett flertal modeller. Prototyperna utvärderades i två design-workshops, genom observation av och respons från 11 deltagare. Som resultat, byggdes sju stycken artefakter för att belysa sju stycken potentiella materiella egenskaper av VLC. Observationerna och den samlade responsen visade också att artefakterna hjälpte designers att få taktil kunskap om VLC. Artefakterna baserades på ”the Arduino Platform” och elektriska standard komponenter. En biprodukt av denna studie är ”the lumoino toolkit for tinkering and prototyping with VLC”. Eventuella styrkor och svagheter diskuteras och stycket framtida arbete visar potentiella utvecklingar och expantioner av ”the lumoino toolkit”.

This research focuses on the emergence of 'digital walls' that can project images onto almost all or even the entirety of interior (and perhaps exterior) walls, and what implications this might have for how we arrange our rooms. It demonstrates the arrangement, i.e., the way that domestic products are arranged physically, of rooms changes in the domestic environment in a complex scenario when using large screens. Due to the fast-growing demand for large screens, this product could potentially be available to be used by people in their home environments; however, it does not yet exist in reality at this scale. Constructing large screens can be carried out using different production methods. Here, this concept is called the digital wall, a very thin wall-sized interactive screen. The characteristics of the digital wall will vary to be able to create different scenarios. One such scenario is a space in the home where the surface of the wall is covered with screens, which allows multiple possibilities to experience and interact with digital content.  In this research, the social gathering space of homes, nowadays called the living room, is considered as a highly relevant space for installing the digital wall. In this space, the conceptual framework outlines the basic elements of the research and demonstrates the relationships between people’s interactions with the digital wall and domestic products in the domestic environment. I show two examples from design history to understand how arrangement changes impact the home environment: the transformation of the parlor to the living room, and entry of the television into the living room. These two examples are focused on the place in the home where people gather for socializing. The discussion of these examples led to the elaboration of the relationships between the elements in the conceptual framework. I explored relevant design research methodologies to bring this future scenario into the present to understand the relationships between people and the digital wall. I applied research through design and the constructive design research approaches to frame the design research methodology. In this thesis, I set up seven series of design studies in two cluster groups: Supportive studies and Main studies. All of the design studies were conducted in the Design Research Lab, the actual space for carrying out the design experiments, prototyping the digital wall, and the setting of the experiments for user participation. The Lab was fully equipped with relevant technology and allowed me to use multiple methods to collect data while people were experiencing the design study sessions. The Lab was useful as a platform to understand user experiences, barriers for interactions as well as people's experiences in a simulated space of a domestic environment.  The main contribution of this research is to understand the forms of arrangement changes when people use the digital wall in homes. The research demonstrates two significant implications that are seen in two forms of arrangements: tangible arrangement and imperceptible arrangement. These findings are useful for both designers and users of the elements of domestic contexts and the relations that can be shaped by the presence of a digital wall in home environments. This understanding may provide design guidelines in future scenarios in which the digital wall is used in homes. The findings are also beneficial for designing the domestic environment, improving the arrangement of space, and raising the requirements for designing domestic products.

The recruiter’s first impression of a candidate is often formed through the candidate’s CV, and the CV plays a vital role in recruitment processes for convincing the recruiter to proceed with an applicant to a first interview. Thus, it needs to catch the recruiter’s attention and show whether the candidate is an ideal match for what the recruiter is looking for. With the aim to explore web-based CVs with interactive elements and examine users’ habits and requirements in IT consultant recruitment processes, this study asks the question: How can the user experience of an interactive CV page be improved to help facilitate the recruitment process of consultants? By applying an iterative, user-centered design approach, utilizing the Constructive Design Research framework, the study results in a prototype and proposes design suggestions drawing on knowledge generated from the prototype. Further, three characteristics essential to improve the user experience and help facilitate the recruitment process of consultants are suggested. / En rekryterareres första intryck av en kandidat bildas ofta genom kandidatens CV. Vidare spelar CV:t en avgörande roll i rekryteringsprocesser för att övertyga rekryteraren att gå vidare med en kandidat till en första intervju. Detta innebär att ett CV måste fånga en rekryterares uppmärksamhet och visa huruvida kandidaten är en idealistisk match för det rekryteraren letar efter. I syfte att utforska webbaserade CV:n med interaktiva element och undersöka användares vanor och krav i rekryteringsprocesser för IT-konsulter, ställer denna studie forskningsfrågan: Hur kan användarupplevelsen av en interaktiv CV-sida förbättras för att underlätta i rekryteringsprocessen av konsulter? Genom att tillämpa en iterativ användarcentrerad designstrategi där konstruktiv designforskning tillämpas, resulterar studien i en prototyp och föreslår dessutom designförslag utifrån kunskap genererad från prototypen. Vidare föreslås av studien tre attribut som anses vara väsentliga för att förbättra användarupplevelsen och hjälpa till att underlätta rekryteringsprocessen av konsulter.