Contemporary society is rapidly changing. The emergence of social inequalities and the use of new technologies to access communicates produce and exchange information among others deeply affects citizens and the complex interactions among citizens businesses and governments. This thesis explores how might technology in the future enable better communication with governments and higher participation of citizens in decision ma ing processes? It showcases a designerly way to approach this question while designing for interactions with an explicit intention of placing value in citizen participation in decision making processes with an aim towards plurality. The design outcomes showcase the possibility of employing technology to achieve greater levels of democratic citizen participation but that which would require major restructuring of government organisations and new ways of working with data.

Promoting trading of locally produced food is one way to challenge the more conventional way of producing food while contributing to a more sustainable consumption. Through empirical research and design practice closely related to its users, this study has explored the motivational aspects behind trading within the platform and concept of REKO-ring Malmö. An analysis of the existing service in relation to its producers and consumers has been made to formulate problems related to how the platform works today. The study results in a design proposal of a new digital platform that shows improvement in meeting the needs and expectations of the consumers found during the empirical research.

A picture is worth 1000 words. Great visuals can enhance, dramatize and even bend the narrative. From historical photos to modern-day digital images made of millions of pixels, images have always been instrumental in shaping our visual understanding of the world around us. As much as they have been instrumental in shaping reality, easy access to image manipulation has also resulted in wide spread misinformation. When anything can befaked, honest representation of reality in images has become a hard problem to crack. After multiple design explorations, I realized a need for a fundamental change in our interaction with images. The thesis resulted in building an alternate landscape for digital imagery called SHIFT, where images are connected entities that become an access point to multiple perspectives and alternate realities. It is not an attempt to challenge image manipulation technology but to use images as a means to develop a more informed understanding of the reality they represent.

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By investigating the existing prototyping tools and emerging technological paradigms, this thesis contributes a new flow-based visual programming software called Glue which makes prototyping physical interactions and connected experiences easier for designers without a strong technical background. With overwhelming new technologies and interconnected disciplines, more designers learn technical know-how and build technical prototypes to better explore and evaluate concepts. However, most existing prototyping tools are still engineering-oriented and their ways of introducing programming and electronics can be intimidating for non-specialists. The aim of this thesis project has been to rethink prototyping tools and to bridge the gap between design tools and the new physical and digital hybrid design context. As a result, Glue is proposed and developed to offer an alternative way to create a program by manipulating logics graphically. With visible flows and real-time feedback, designers can learn, understand and create program intuitively. The smartphone integration allows beginners to set up flexible architectures and mimic connected experience easily. Glue also provides powerful ways to explore invisible behaviours across time and possibilities.

Through online activities, we produce a large amount of personal data traces every day. Many people acknowledge the significance of protecting personal data online but they might not act accordingly. This thesis project seeks to make these often hidden traces visible and thus understandable through a data physicalisation. This is to increase awareness and knowledge as well as spark reflection on how and if certain data should be protected. Six design activities with a focus on the active involvement of participants were conducted to create the concept of “OODOOLL”, a reversed voodoo doll that has the purpose of protecting users from any potential harm in relation to online activity and sparking reflection around the topic of data privacy. While some of the potentials of a data physicalisation, such as initiating conversations or increased levels of self-reflection, could be realised, there were several limitations to the concept, i.e. technical limitations or breaking down the complexity of aggregated data use. Especially in terms of the increased use of digital devices and the rise of emerging technologies, it is important for general users but also for interaction designers to be aware and have an understanding of data collection, data use and data protection.

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The project aimed to understand how collaboration during the planning of work among care workers at an elderly care home can be supported with a digital tool. This topic is essential, especially considering Sweden's e-Health Vision 2025 to become a global leader in implementing welfare technologies. With rapid technological changes, it is crucial to understand the experiences and perspectives of the individuals using these technologies. The project conducted a literature review, user research, and user testing with care workers in Lund municipality established in design criteria. The design proposals focused on utilizing Welfare Technology to foster collaboration and were evaluated through a prototype created in Figma. Four design proposals were formulated as a result of the project: a large shared viewing screen, enhanced task information and clarity, task ownership, and providing an overview.

Elders usually experience high levels of loneliness in the society as they have retired from work and less of a center within the family. There are many interaction design work that target elder’s loneliness and aim to solve the problem by connecting elders with other people through distance. Digitalization’s connectedness is a helpful factor that can combat elder’s communication issues. At the same time, there are many already existing digital services that embed communication functions such as email, texting, and video call. Still, elders find themselves have difficulties using existing technology. The thesis focuses on why current digital technologies cannot help elders connect and communicate efficiently and how to re-design to help elders feel their willingness to communicate by current technologies. Empirical research in the thesis project has shown that elders lack trust towards digital systems due to lack of transparency and findings of specialized contexts. The project is in two parts: qualitative research and prototyping. Through qualitative research, the thesis shows that there is a lack of transparency and control from digital applications that elders experience. Prototyping outcomes suggests enabling personalization within digital services for elders by implementing slow user interactions and simple graphic elements.

Gym har historiskt sett vart något som setts som manligt och varit till för bara män, men nu har även kvinnor tagit plats på ytan. Gym är fortfarande mansdominerat och det går att se en uppdelning hur kvinnor och män använder gymmets yta, där männen brer ut sig runt de fria vikterna och kvinnorna håller sig oftast till gruppass eller maskiner. Till en följd av detta kan kvinnor och tjejer känna sig obekväma när de tränar på gym. För att lösa detta erbjuder vissa gym i nuläget tjejgym, vilket är en separat avdelning för bara kvinnor och tjejer att vistas i. Tjejgym tillåter kvinnor att delta i träningsaktiviteter som dem annars hade undvikit, men det löser inte den faktiska frågan och förstärker bara könsfördelningen på gym. Den här studien undersöker kvinnors perspektiv på gym, deras upplevelser och hur det påverkar deras träning. Studien har resulterat i en lösning, i form av ett designförslag, som är menad att förbättra kvinnors upplevelser av gym. Genom metoder som litteraturstudier, intervjuer, workshop, enkäter, wireframes, prototyper och användbarhetstester blev resultatet ett designförslag på ett gränssnitt för en app. Lösningen är framtagen från ett användarcentrerat perspektiv, då användarna har vart involverade under hela designprocessen.  Problemet som den här studien har upptäckt, är större än att kvinnor känner sig obekväma på gym och slutsatsen är att gymkulturen behöver förändras. Att ta fram lösningar som hjälper kvinnor att få mer trivsamma besök på gym, kan vara en bra början till ett problem som behöver förändras på en samhällsnivå. / Gyms have historically been something seen as masculine and for men only, but now women have also taken a place on the surface. Gyms are still male-dominated, and you can see a division in how women and men use the gym's surface, where the men spread out around the free weights and the women usually stick to group workouts or machines. As a result, women and girls may feel uncomfortable when working out at the gym. To solve this, some gyms now offer women only sections, which are a separate section only for women and girls to access. Women only sections allow women to participate in exercise activities that they would have otherwise avoided, but this does not solve the actual issue and only reinforces the gender division in gym. This study will explore women's perspectives on the gym, their experiences and how it affects their work out. The study has resulted in a solution, in the form of a design proposal, which is meant to improve women's experiences of gyms. Through methods such as literature studies, interviews, workshops, surveys, wireframes, prototypes and usability tests, the result was a design proposal for an interface for an app. The solution is developed from a user-centered perspective, as the users have been involved throughout the design process. The problem that this study has discovered is bigger than women feeling uncomfortable in gyms and the bottom line is that gym culture needs to change. Developing solutions that help women have more pleasant visits to the gym, can be a good start to a problem that needs to change on a societal level.