By investigating digital maps with an inclusive- and research through design approach, this research project aims on answering the research question: how can a digital map convey accessibility information of a route before the journey without the need of special adaptation?The research question involves two issues, how digital maps can convey information about a route and what accessibility information of a route is.With Rätt från början and the Swedish Agency for Accessible Media as stakeholders, a recruitment of participants with different capabilities, preference, characteristics, and needs was completed to explore how the participants use digital maps and perceive accessibility of the physical world by using the methods of interviews and design probes.The design process resulted in prototypes of a digital map that affords exploration without displaying normative standards of accessibility by using a design strategy of presenting the world as it is through audio-haptic and visual communication.

Product personalization is rising and with it, new choice architectures are required. It offers a new medium for identity expression, especially in the make-up case. Regarding the interactions involved, the research and industry explored the efficient choice. The current research dug into how to bring the development of individual taste and creativity through choice architectures, in case study of personalised lipsticks. Moreover, the makeup wearer is now savvy and creative, which calls for an alternative path. The subject has been explored through the lens of design probes which led to the prototyping of two experimental user interfaces. As a catalyst for personal expression, 3 considerations have been tested: the wearer as ambassador, the wearer as a creator, and the effect of the surprise. The exploration within the interaction brings users out of the boundaries of their style. Additionally, the dissociation of the color picking and vivid trying out, coupled with the effect of surprise and letting the participants mirroring themselves with other wearers, contributed to this effect. / Produktanpassning ökar och med det krävs nya val-arkitekturer. Produktanpassning erbjuder ett nytt medium för identitetsuttryck, särskilt vid fall inom smink-industrin. När det gäller de interaktioner som ingår, undersökte forskningen och industrin det effektiva valet. Den nuvarande forskningen undersökte hur man kan få utvecklingen av individuell smak och kreativitet genom val-arkitekturer i fallstudien. Dessutom är smink-bäraren nu kunnig och kreativ, vilket kräver en alternativ väg. Ämnet har utforskats genom linsen av design-prober som ledde till två prototyper i form av experimentella användargränssnitt. Som katalysator för personligt uttryck har tre överväganden testats: smink-bäraren som ambassadör, smink-bäraren som skapare och effekten av överraskningen. Utforskningen inom interaktionen leder ut användare från de gränser de vanligtvis har i sin still. Dessutom bidrog dissociationen av färg-plockningen och livligt att prova till denna effekt, tillsammans med effekten av överraskning och att låta deltagarna spegla sig med andra smink-bärare.

This thesis aimed to investigate ways to conduct participatory research practices that would gain knowledge of participants' relationships and experiences with/in their physical home environment by using a design probe. Through the probe, a new approach to participatory design research was formulated. This approach gives agency to participants through elements of auto-ethnography, thus shifting the traditional power structures that often exist between participants and designers. This new type of research could yield greater intimacy and mutuality between designers and their participants. Due to this, it has the potential to be meaningful when designing for the home environment, and therefore can be used for research and design within the Internet of Things.

The need for humanity to lessen its impact on the ecologies we’re a part of is becoming increasingly clear.  While there are many technically advanced solutions in the makings, one of the most straightforward ones is to simply use the objects we surround ourselves with longer. We can make them more durable and repairable but what happens when the needs of the user changes? How can we really know what needs the future will bring? I’m searching for a design approach that embraces this unknown. A process where the designer doesn’t have to be the enlightened figure that knows everything in advance. Because if we accept the complexity of the social and ecological reality where our objects end up, we never can be. I want to make objects that can grow and change with the user. A fertile soil for future needs. I’ve used the design process of three different objects to develop these thoughts.  An open ended loom for the weaver Vega Määttä Siltberg, a table made with designer Julie Amira that is disassemblable without tools, and lastly a piece of furniture that changes function without moving parts. The goal of this project is not to produce a solution to a specific problem or to create an object that communicates an idea as well as possible. Rather it’s the reverse. By the process of designing and building I’ve been able to explore the questions that my project is composed of. The thoughts expressed here come from this experience.