Fundamentally, interaction design is about getting in between: Between people and what is important to them. While it often makes sense to make mediated interactions explicit, implicit interactions can integrate harmoniously into the here and now and happen almost unnoticed. In this master’s thesis, I explore different approaches to harmoniously integrate interactions with mobile and wearable devices into cycling. Cycling can be treated as a modality. It can influence the behaviour of the operating system or provide considerations for the design of applications. Rather than adding to the existing flow of signals, I propose to tap into that flow and even take it a step further: I explore ways to add meaning to what people are already doing as if there were no interface. Wearable devices, such as the current Apple Watch, can provide comprehensive insight into ongoing activities. The name "smartwatch" suggests that this device is meant to be attended to, but the greater opportunity lies in sensing and adding meaning to what is already happening. This allows people to immerse themselves in their ‘natural’ environment with their heads up and their hands free.

No description available.

More-than-human design represents a paradigm shift that decentralises the human in relation to the rest of the living world. As part of this movement, scholars call for a new worldview that recognizes the interconnectedness between human and non-human beings. Prior studies have focused on the experience of human-human connections, leaving the more- than-human largely unexplored. Addressing this gap, this study explores design strategies for fostering feelings and reflections of interconnectedness towards the more-than-human world and associated emotions. With a research-through-design methodology, two workshops were conducted, resulting in six key design strategies and an "interconnectedness experience framework". The strategies were evaluated through a prototype in partnership with AquaPrint, a Swedish company that up-cycles fishing nets into designer furniture. Future research should evaluate the strategies individually and in combinations as well as in a field setting. The presented framework and strategies are intended for practitioners as inspiration in design projects to promote noticing the more-than-human world, and encouraging a posthuman perspective.

We increasingly move through and with technology in our homes. One could, using a dance metaphor, view our home as a stage where we become unintentional performers to an audience of digital devices. Still, the way we interact with our devices is mostly based on us, as humans, adapting to the technology – leading to technology-driven products rather than humanistic. By involving dancers and learning from choreographic approaches, the project aim is to consider the body in the design process to form more humanistic interactions where the technology adapts to our personal ways of moving.  Through interviews, autobiographical research, recurring workshops with professional dancers, and prototyping, the realisation came digital devices make us unlearn how to move creatively at an earlier stage but that feedback on our movements together with how a space is designed can encourage it. Furthermore, that when designing for movement one has a lot of power, since while claiming what is the right movement one is at the same time deciding what is the wrong movement– which might lead to exclusion. This led to the outcome of the project which suggest a way in which we might evaluate Choreographic Interfaces based on how open for personalisation they are. From this a concept is proposed where what role digital devices should have in our home is redefined.  Instead of using conventional ways of interacting with digital devices (e.g., buttons, phone, voice assistant, motion sensors), this project takes the shape of a system which lets the user configure and manage devices using existing “choreographies” and routines that naturally develop over time when people live together. The system learns how people move at home during different times and manifests it in contextual ”zones”, which, through visual feedback, allow users to change the appearance of their space, such as setting the room up for play mode, meditation, or a morning stretch. The suggestion is that future movement technologies might enable us to redefine how we live our lives at home through eliciting joy, play, and wellbeing while we interact with our digital devices.  This project aims to contribute to the field of interaction design through suggesting a shift away from designers creating each interaction and the users just adapting to them. Instead, the suggestion is the approach of Choreographic Interfaces where the designer empower the user to utilise their personal way of moving and encourages an active relationship with their devices at home.

Emotions play a critical role within the workplace, impacting employees' well-being, motivation, productivity, colleague relationships, and overall workplace culture. As a designer, my objective was to address emotional issues in the workplace by developing a tool capable of recognizing and effectively managing emotions. Through a comprehensive research process involving workshops, interviews, and surveys with employees, I identified self-awareness as a fundamental and essential aspect in addressing emotional issues within organisations. Building upon these findings, I created a design tool named "How are you feeling now?" which prompts employees to reflect upon their emotions while providing resources for their effective management. This service incorporates features such as emotion recording and the presentation of emotion history, facilitating users' self-reflection on their emotional states. I dedicated efforts to visually represent the various elements associated with emotions in this tool, aiming to enable individuals to scrutinise their emotions with greater attentiveness and depth. It is my intention that this visualisation process captivates users' interest and encourages them to momentarily embrace and acknowledge their emotions. Furthermore, by visually displaying the historical record of emotions, my goal is to assist employees in understanding that emotions constitute an ongoing accumulation of valuable data. Ultimately, I aspire for this heightened self-awareness to yield positive behavioural transformations by enabling individuals to regulate and transform their emotions effectively.

The pension system in Sweden today is a very simple system. Taxed incomes generate pension incomes, paid out monthly after retirement. Yet the topic seems riddled with emotions; guilt, shame and anxiety over what you should or should not do. Increasing inflation, population age and climate change are projected to pose big threats to pensions in the coming decades. By 2060, pension incomes are projected to diminish substantially. Yet the future brings hope too; the gender gap in pension incomes is today at 30% and is projected to go down to 4% by 2040 as the changing view on women in the workplace and policy making is evening the (occupational) field. To learn about pension on the personal, professional and societal layers, I conducted conversations with professionals working for the pension agency, banks, savings solutions and researchers at economics and sociology departments at universities, as well as with individuals with pension planning on their minds (or not). The professionals argued that financial literacy teaches how simple the system is while the individuals feel overwhelmed and confused, showing that the system is not complicated but feels complicated. This dissonance became the space for designing. I propose to look at money as an actor we have a relationship with, to scale away guilt, shame or anxiety and leverage the positives. Through the strategic use of reflection, we learn about our ongoing relationship with money; formed in childhood, and shaped by everyday life planning towards the future. Thus, we grow towards a life where money serves us by investing in our values, hopes and dreams. As we change our financial behaviour today, we change our relationship in the future. The value of money does not start with the currency, but with the intention of use, in the hopes and dreams of a person that wants to spend their time with families and hobbies, not with stocks and funds. Looking at financial planning more holistically shows how the established system is biased, rejecting those that do not speak the language. We as designers can be mindful of this and make more inclusive tools to learn this financial language. Insofar the system can be changed is what I examine through speculative futures methods and designs.

This study has a phenomenographic starting point that aims to investigate prospective preschool teachers' perceptions of their conditions and opportunities to meet digitization in the education at preschool. The target group for the study is prospective preschool teachers with previous experience of working in preschool, who are in the last semester of an experience-based preschool teacher program at a university in Sweden. By using two research methods, interviews and questionnaires, we have been able to get hold of and clarify the participants' perceptions, which has also enabled the identification and interpretation of areas of development. This answers the study's two questions which are: What do preschool teacher students' perceptions look like regarding their conditions and opportunities they are given both in the workplace and through the preschool teacher education to meet digitalization in preschool, in line with the curriculum goals? What possible areas of development can be deciphered based on the participants' descriptive perceptions of their conditions and opportunities to meet digitization? The result presents the variation of the participants' perceptions in the form of categories consisting of codes interpreted based on the participants' statements. Furthermore, it is shown that there are different and unequal conditions and opportunities in workplaces and that the digitization content of preschool teacher education is not sufficient for a preschool teacher to be able to meet digitization in education. In order for the digitization content in education to be in accordance with the curriculum goals, the results reveal areas of development that, among other things, require an increased implementation of both practical and theoretical digitization content in preschool teacher education. In terms of workplaces, there is a demand for skills development, spaces for reflection and an increased range and variety of technologies. / Denna studie har en fenomenografisk utgångspunkt som syftar till att undersöka blivande förskollärares uppfattningar om deras förutsättningar och möjligheter att möta digitalisering i utbildningen på förskolan. Målgruppen för studien är blivande förskollärare med tidigare erfarenhet av arbete i förskola, som går sista terminen på ett erfarenhetsbaserat förskollärarprogram vid ett universitet i Sverige. Genom att använda två forskningsmetoder, intervjuer och enkäter, har vi kunnat få fatt i och tydliggöra deltagarnas uppfattningar, vilket också har möjliggjort identifiering och tolkning av utvecklingsområden. Detta svarar på studiens två frågeställningar som är: Hur ser förskollärarstudenters uppfattningar ut gällande deras förutsättningar och möjligheter de ges både på arbetsplatsen och genom förskollärarutbildningen för att möta digitaliseringen i förskolan, i linje med läroplansmålen? Vilka eventuella utvecklingsområden kan tydas utifrån deltagarnas beskrivande uppfattningar om deras förutsättningar och möjligheter att möta digitaliseringen? Resultatet presenterar variationen i deltagarnas uppfattningar i form av kategorier som består av koder tolkade utifrån deltagarnas uttalanden. Vidare visas att det finns olika och ojämlika villkor och möjligheter på arbetsplatser och att digitaliseringsinnehållet i förskollärarutbildningen inte är tillräckligt för att en förskollärare ska kunna möta digitaliseringen i utbildningen. För att digitaliseringsinnehållet i utbildningen ska överensstämma med läroplanens mål synliggör resultatet utvecklingsområden som bland annat kräver en ökad implementering av såväl praktiskt som teoretiskt digitaliseringsinnehåll i förskollärarutbildningen. När det gäller arbetsplatser efterfrågas kompetensutveckling, utrymmen för reflektion och ett ökat utbud och mångfald av teknologier.

Detta examensarbete gjordes i samarbete med det svenska eye tracking företaget Tobii AB, på avdelningen Tobii Tech. Syftet med arbetet var att utforska termen mänsklig teknologi och undersöka hur deras produkt EyeX i högre grad kan skapa naturligare och intuitivare interaktioner med datorn. För att åstadkomma detta har ett explorativt tillvägagångssätt, uppdelat i en teoretisk och praktisk del med sekundära, godtagbara källor och kvalitativ datainsamling. Examensarbetet initierades med den teoretiska delen i syfte att erhålla generell kunskap om eye tracking och dess nuvarande tillämpningsområden. Idag används eye tracking främst i forskningssyften och som kommunikations- och interaktionsverktyg för funktionshindrande. Tvärtemot dess nuvarande användningsområden, är målet med EyeX är att nå ut till konsumentoch spelmarknaden och därmed har examensarbete begränsats till icke funktionshindrande. Den teoretiska delen fortsattes med: mänskliga faktorer och mänskligare människa-dator interaktioner. Detta utgjorde en bas för att skapa en förståelse för hur mänskliga relationer skapas och hur mänskliga emotionella faktorer skulle kunna kopplas till datorinteraktion. Vidare i arbetet gjordes den praktiska delen: tre workshops, för att utreda relevansen av resultatet från litteraturstudien och en kvalitativ datainsamling i form av intervjuer och observationer av EyeX användare. Användarstudien visade att emotionella faktorer är viktiga vid design utav gränssnitt och därmed bör användas vid utveckling av människa–datorinteraktioner. Slutligen, för att undersöka till vilken grad mänskliga aspekter skulle kunna användas, gjordes ytterligare en workshop, där fakta från litteraturstudien användes för att koppla till praktiska tillämpningar av eye tracking och datorinteraktioner. Slutsatserna av arbetet resulterade  iutvecklingen av två utvärderingsmetoder för att analysera mänsklig teknologi: en designguide uppbyggd på frågor för att utveckla mänskligare datorinteraktioner. / This thesis has been done in collaboration with the Swedish eye tracking company Tobii AB, at the department Tobii Tech. The purpose has been to investigate what humanized technology means and how Tobii’s product EyeX can enhance a more natural and humanized interaction with the computer. This work has been conducted throughout an explorative approach; using secondary sources from relevant literature and qualitative studies; divided in a theoretical and practical part. Firstly, a theoretical part was conducted to gain general knowledge about the eye tracking and its different areas of implementation. Currently, eye tracking can be found in various fields of research and communication tools for people with neurological disabilities. Contrary to those application areas of eye tracking, EyeX is aimed for the consumer and gaming market and therefore the work is limited to able-bodied users. This was continued by research concerning: human interactions and humanization in human-computer interaction. The theoretical part of this project created a foundation for how relationships are created and how emotional aspects of human characteristics could possibly be related to computer interaction. It also described how a meaningful and lasting relationship could be created with computers and their various features by the means of habits. Furthermore, the work continued with the practical part: three workshops, performed to further understand the relevance of the results from the related work and qualitative data collection through interviews and observations with EyeX users. By the end of the user study it could be assumed that emotional aspects of human characteristics was essential for the development of interfaces and therefore should be implemented in human-computer interactions. Finally, a supplementary workshop was conducted to clarify how emotional and abstract factors could easier be related to practical eye tracking and computer features. Also, two evaluation methods were created for evaluating humanization and emotional aspects in features/products.

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are digital assets that exist in the blockchain with a unique signature that has been gaining significant attention starting from the early 2021. While NFTs can be anything stored digitally from text to music, since these digital tokens enable artists to democratize their works, there has been a particular rise in using them to promote digital art which has long been undervalued. With NFTs’ potentially holding the power to transform the art world and imminent Web 3.0, the lack of women representation in NFT space and blockchain has started to occupy the agenda of mission-driven artists, sparking conversations around the issue that has led some female artists to begin strategically taking up their space in a male-dominated market with different initiatives and projects. World of Women (WoW) and Women Rise are two separate NFT art projects that aim to diversify and balance the NFT space. They put emphasis on increasing the representation of women while empowering them to participate in blockchain and NFT space by using the tools of Web 3.0 to challenge gender biases and ‘decentralize’ power structures. Herewith, this research by examining these NFT projects will explore how exactly NFT art projects can culminate a more inclusive environment towards Web 3.0, the future of internet. The project will try to uncover the mechanisms and strategies of these NFT art projects through the themes of voice, agency, and representation by using a case-study approach. The project will be analyzing the findings with the guidance of the conceptual framework that is operationalized though Roberts’ ICT4D Intent and Practice Matrix. The data used for this research consists of chosen web pages of the websites of these projects and media texts that feature the projects and the artists who founded these projects. The findings will in the end reveal through what types of practices these projects unlock social change and enable representation based on their conformist, reformist, and transformist inclinations.

This bachelor's thesis explores the integration of digital technology in elderly care, specifically nursing homes, within a medium-sized municipality in Sweden. The aging global population presents significant challenges, notably in elderly care where digital technologies are increasingly being utilized to enhance residents' quality of life and streamline operations. This qualitative study employed semi-structured interviews with municipal employees to examine how digital technologies are utilized, the attitudes of decision-makers towards these technologies, and the challenges and opportunities associated with their implementation. Findings indicate that digital technologies can potentially improve mental health, social interactions, and the overall well-being of elderly residents. However, the study also identifies significant barriers, including insufficient training of staff, procurement issues, and the lack of robust infrastructure, which hinder effective implementation. The results underscore the need for strategic planning and further research to effectively integrate digital solutions in elderly care settings, aligning technological advancements with the practical needs and capabilities of the elderly population.