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Since the introduction of the Walkman in the 1980s, an increasing amount of people are using mobile music devices in our urban environments. The research on the sociological aspects of this phenomenon has become known as the ‘iPod culture’. It describes people aestheticising these noisy urban environments by replacing them with mobile music listening, which presents obvious benefits regarding personal entertainment and wellbeing. However, some studies have revealed several cases of users experiencing social isolation as a consequence of using mobile music devices. Therefore, this study explores the problem of designing a user experience that can provide the appealing qualities of mobile music listening while simultaneously enabling spatial and social awareness of the urban environment. The study explores this problem by applying a methodology inspired by research through design, involving an iterative design process centred around the design of a mobile reactive music prototype application, which was eventually named Reactiscape. To validate and evaluate the success of the prototype design, different stakeholders have been involved throughout the entire design process. The results show that the users experienced a stronger connection to the urban soundscape when using Reactiscape, while still maintaining a musically appealing user experience. In a broader sense, these results indicate that novel mobile technology design has every opportunity to increase real world social interaction, rather than being a source of social isolation.

Vi möter medietekniken genom förståelsen av en assemblage; att medie/a – teknik inte existerar utan relationen som binder dem samman. Medieteknik skapas på så sätt genom interaktioner och samverkan mellan de termer som utgör området och syftar alltid på en praktik. En assemblage är en kommunikation, en pågående process – aldrig statisk, alltid produktiv. Utgångspunkten och metoden blir således att ingå partnerskap, utifrån assemblages, med och genom den medietekniska praktiken – i syfte att befinna oss i mitten, i kopplingen, i mötet. Det första partnerskapet vi utgår ifrån är den i vår rubrik: TRANS–MISSION. Trans- står för det överskridande, det öppna, det osäkra medan mission- står för riktningen, avgränsningen, uppdraget. Vi utgår inte från vad ett medium är eller representerar utan vad ett medium gör och producerar. Vår undersökning syftar till att utmana dualistiska synsätt på medieteknik, såsom form och innehåll, designer och produkt, teori och praktik. Vi ifrågasätter antropocentriska förhållningssätt till teknik och material, samt tendensen att se mediet som en statisk överföringsprocess. Undersökningen tar sin utgångspunkt i Gilles Deleuzes och Félix Guattaris filosofi och begreppsapparat främst från det omfattande verket, Tusen Platåer (1980). Ett arbete i syfte att skapa en ontologi som inte utgår från en transcendental världsbild, utan istället en värld i konstant tillblivelse genom kopplingar och flöden. I fokus står relationerna snarare än punkter, identiteter eller hållplatser. / We approach media technology through the understanding of an assemblage; that media– technology cannot exist without one another. Consequently, media-technology are created through the interactions between and co-evolution of the terms that create the field. An assemblage is a communication, an ongoing process – never static always productive. The starting point and method are thus to enter into partnerships, based on assemblages, with and through media technology practice - in order to be in the middle, in the connection, in the nexus. The first partnership we use is in our title: TRANS-MISSION. Trans stands for the excess, the open, the uncertain, while mission is the direction, the demarcation, and the assignment. We do not depend on what a medium is or represents but what a medium does and produces. Our research aims to challenge dualistic approaches to media technology, such as form and content, designer and product, theory and practice. We question anthropocentric approaches to technology and materials, as well as the tendency to view the medium as a static transfer process. The study is based on Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari's philosophy and conceptual apparatus, mainly derived from their seminal work, A Thousand Plateaus (1980); a work that strives to create an ontology that does not assume a transcendent worldview, but a world in constant becoming through connections and flows. Relations are in focus, rather than points, identities or stops.

<p>The Ethiopia Commodity Exchange (ECX), like many other data intensive organizations, is having difficulties making full use of the vast amounts of data that it collects. This MSc thesis identifies areas within the organization where concepts from the academic fields of information visualization and visual analytics can be applied to address this issue.Software solutions are designed and implemented in two areas with the purpose of evaluating the approach and to demonstrate to potential users, developers and managers what can be achieved using this method. A number of presentation methods are proposed for the ECX website, which previously contained no graphing functionality for market data, to make it easier for users to find trends, patterns and outliers in prices and trade volumes of commodieties traded at the exchange. A software application is also developed to support the ECX market surveillance team by drastically improving its capabilities of investigating complex trader relationships.Finally, as ECX lacked previous experiences with visualization, one software developer was trained in computer graphics and involved in the work, to enable continued maintenance and future development of new visualization solutions within the organization.</p>

The impact of digital (new) media has caused both challenges and threats to newspapers’ continuing existence as a profitable and influential mass medium. While this is not the first time in history that new media appear to be challenging the future of the newspaper medium, from one perspective digital media offer not only direct competition, or alternative ways to produce and deliver news, but also possibilities for convergence, for making new media part of the traditional newspaper, inducing whole new possibilities for publishing. From another perspective, the newspaper medium is an old concept; a powerful mass medium with very profound consumption patterns, strongly associated with its traditional output medium: ink-on-paper. The purpose of the present work has been to examine the impacts digital media have on the old, well-established newspaper medium, and what consequences these impacts have for the future of newspaper as a mass medium, that is, is the medium the message? In order to achieve this aim, the present work has been carried out from three different angles: digital media, publishing and reading behaviour and presentation factors. The areas have been examined using several methods: instrumental experiment, eye-tracking experiment, secondary analysis, and case study design. Newspapers’ ’to be or not to be’ depends, in a theoretical sense, on what media constitute. The medium is the message in the sense that, in the definition of a mass medium, the strength of the newspaper message is that it is recognized as the newspaper concept. It is not, in that the message per se is dependent on the medium it is reproduced on, as a newspaper can be considered a newspaper even if presented on a digital medium, yet the specific way the content is presented will always depend on the technology and characteristics of the chosen output medium. Thus, while defusing the output medium’s significance for the concept, the strength of the newspaper, and its industry, lies in what hitherto constitutes the message: accurate, credible, serendipitous, and diverse content, but which is continuously adapted to the technology of the output medium, thus benefiting from it and further strengthening the developed, digitalized newspaper concept, or what will become of it. The newspaper industry has great potential to differentiate itself in a world where news is becoming increasingly commoditized, though it must further emphasize its power, which lies in the long-defined ‘old’ newspaper concept. Moreover, the industry must be aware of the fact that this refashioning and adaptation is a slow process. / QC 20100804

<p>The web has evolved much through the years. From being a place where author and reader were clearly distinguished, it now invites everyone to take part in the development of both content and technology. Social services are central in what is called Web 2.0. Wikis, blogs and folksonomies are all examples of how the users and their communities are key to the development of services. Collaborative writing, tags and API:s are central. Social services are given an extra dimension through integration. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether it was possible to integrate an encyclopedia with a photosharing service. The issue was whether it was possible to find relevant images to the article they were connected to. The method for examining the issue was to create a service which functions was investigated through user tests. Wickrpedia was created, which is an integration of Wikipedia and Flickr. Wikipedia is an encyclopedia in the shape of a wiki, while Flickr is used to store, organize and share photos. The result shows that the images added someting to the encyclopedia; it became more entertaining and pleasant and the users’ knowledge was increased. The relevance of the images was good. The service can and should be improved. The conclusion is still that the service worked well and was seen as an improvement by the users.</p> / <p>Webben har förändrats mycket de senaste åren. Från att tidigare haft en tydlig uppdelning mellan läsare och författare inbjuds nu alla att delta i utvecklingen av både innehåll och teknik. Sociala tjänster är det centrala i det som benämns Web 2.0. Wikis, bloggar och folksonomies är alla exempel på hur användarna och deras gemenskap är nyckeln till utveckling av tjänster. Kollaborativt skrivande, taggar och API:er är centrala. Sociala tjänster får en ytterligare dimension genom integrering. Denna studies syfte var att utreda hur det gick att integrera ett uppslagsverk med en fotodelningstjänst. Frågan är om det gick att göra på ett sådant sätt att bilderna hade relevans för de artiklar de kopplades till. Metoden för att utreda frågan var att skapa en tjänst vars funktion undersöktes med hjälp av användartester. Wickrpedia skapades, vilket är en intregrering av Wikipedia och Flickr. Wikipedia är en encyklopedi i form av en wiki, medan Flickr används för att förvara, organisera och dela med sig av bilder. Resultatet visar att bilderna tillförde något till uppslagsverket; det blev roligare och trevligare och användarna fick en ökad kunskap. Relevansen hos bilderna var god. Tjänsten har brister, och den går att vidareutveckla. Slutsatsen var ändå att tjänsten fungerade och var en förbättring för användarna.</p>

We have seen a connection between the ritual dances us humans have been engaging in for a huge part of our evolution and the rave-culture of today. How they both use music and the moving body as a vehicle to access states of being beyond the everyday life. By diving head first in the world of dance and trance we have discovered even more similarities that we today share with the humans 10.000 years ago than we ever could have imagined. We have with the help of interviews and our personal experience tried to capture what the trance means for the human today, and with our research we want to illustrate the similarities and differences between in digital world we live in today compared to the world we have lived in for thousands of years before the digital technology’s advance. This text has been our vehicle to analyse and discuss the things we still hold on to as humans even though the world around us has changed. / Vi har sett ett samband mellan de rituella danserna som människan har ägnat sig åt under en stor del av vår utveckling och dagens rådande rave-kultur. Hur de båda forumen använder musik och kroppen i rörelse som ett fordon för att ta sig till andra sinnesstadier bortom det vardagliga varandet. Genom att djupdyka ner i dansens och transens värld har vi stött på ännu större likheter vi idag delar med människan för 10.000 år sedan än vad vi någonsin hade kunnat ana. Vi har med hjälp utav intervjuer och egna upplevelser försökt att skapa oss en bild om vad transen har för roll hos människan än idag, och vill med denna undersökning belysa de likheter och skillnader i den digitala världen vi lever i idag gentemot den värld människan levt i under tusentals år innan den digitala teknologins frammarsch. Denna text har varit vårt fordon för att undersöka samt diskutera de som vi har hållit oss kvar vid som människor även fast omvärlden har förändrats.

<p>This dissertation extends our knowledge of digital affordances in communicating complex scientific information by building and testing a climate change adaptation website for the Colombian coffee sector, <a href="http://www.climaycafe.com/">www.climaycafe.com</a>. This project offers both a practical component (scholarship of engagement) and theoretical component (extension of our understanding of the objective/subjective nature of affordances). Practically, it seeks to create a collaborative and tailored science communication solution for improved information access to support climate change adaptation. Theoretically, it extends our understanding of affordances in a digital environment through a qualitative assessment, specifically how occupational identity influences the subjective nature of affordances. Data is gathered through an iterative qualitative assessment of users’ interpretation of the perceived affordances on the website. The results demonstrate that occupational identity has an influence on perceived digital affordances, particularly influenced by (1) Perceived Social Status of Occupation, (2) Perception of Value Based on Occupational Demands, (3) Occupational Influence on Perceived Reliability and (4) Usability Preferences Based on Occupation. We additionally found that as creators we can set general goals for digital tools and achieve general success in obtaining them, but ultimately the users will dictate their needs within this broader framework. Lastly, there is a self-identified need for more practical knowledge and information access for coffee farmers in these regions of Colombia around climate change adaptation.</p>

This bachelor thesis discusses the conveying power of the audio and visual media in an audiovisual creative process based on the concept of audiovisual dissonance and Circumplex Model of Affect (Russell, 1980) with its key components, valence and arousal. In this design process we use the research key concept of audiovisual dissonance as a design perspective.Dissonance can also be described as a contradiction, with this an audiovisual dissonance can be seen as a contradiction between the audio and visual media. Chion (1994) coined the term audiovisual counterpoint which he describes as when the picture and the sound doesn’t match. In this design process we strived to create dissonance between audio and visual representations of different emotions. To create these dissonances the design process uses the Circumplex Model of Affect (Russell, 1980) which is a way to organize emotions in a two-dimensional coordinate system in relation to each other and their experienced valence-arousal. Valence is the concept that describes if the emotion is positive or negative while arousal is the concept that describes how intense the emotion is. The proximity between each of the emotions is based on their similarities in how they are experienced. This study is based on the idea to get a better understanding of how the audio and visual media affects a person’s emotional experience and how dissonance could be created between these two forms of media. The study resulted in a creative process with a strong connection to previous research in affect and media technology related work procedures. The creation of a matrix based on previous research created a focus and an approach that was beneficial for the creative process. The study deals with questions about effect in cooperation with the audio and the visual medium. New questions have emerged where we question whether it’s the physical properties of the medium or their association in everyday life that determines the experienced affect. / Detta kandidatarbete diskuterar ljud och bilds förmedlande krafter i en audiovisuell skapande process utifrån begreppet audiovisuell dissonans och Circumplex Model of Affect (Russell, 1980) samt dess nyckelbegrepp valence-arousal. Vi har valt att applicera undersökningens centrala begrepp audiovisuell dissonans som designperspektiv. Dissonans kan också beskrivas som motsägelse, en audiovisuell dissonans är då en motsägelse mellan ljud och bild. Chion (1994) myntade begreppet audiovisual counterpoint vilket han beskriver som när det audiella och det visuella mediet inte stämmer överens. Vi har i arbetet strävat efter att skapa dissonans mellan representationer av olika känslor i det audiella samt visuella mediet. För att skapa dessa dissonanser använder sig undersökningen av Circumplex Model of Affect (Russell, 1980) vilket är ett sätt att placera ut känslor i ett tvådimensionellt koordinatsystem i relation till varandra utifrån känslans upplevda valence-arousal. Valence är begreppet som beskriver hur positiv eller negativ en känsla är medan arousal beskriver hur intensiv känslan är. Detta koordinatsystem baseras på att känslor som är placerade nära varandra har mer gemensamt än de känslor som är placerade långt ifrån varandra. Denna undersökning syftar till att kunna få en tydligare bild av hur det audiella och det visuella mediet påverkar en persons emotionella upplevelse samt hur en dissonans kan skapas mellan dessa två medier. Undersökningen resulterade i en skapande process med stark koppling till tidigare forskning kring emotionella stimuli samt medietekniska arbetssätt. Skapandet av en matris genom sammanställning av den tidigare forskningen skapade fokus och ett tillvägagångssätt som lett den skapande processen framåt. Undersökningen hanterar frågor kring emotionella stimuli i samverkan med det audiella och visuella mediet. Nya frågor har framträtt där vi frågar oss om det är de audiella samt visuella mediets fysiska uppbyggnad eller deras association till vardagen som ligger till grund för vilka känslor som framkallas.

Musikmarknaden har förändrats mycket de senaste åren. Många nya streamingtjänster har dykt upp på senare år och tiotals miljoner använder dessa tjänster idag (Borja et al., 2015). Användbarheten är en viktig aspekt för att användarna ska kunna använda dessa tjänster på ett tillfredsställande sätt. Denna studie undersöker två olika musiktjänsters gränssnitt ur ett användbarhetsperspektiv. 20 studenter från KTH besvarade en enkät om deras tidigare användning av musiktjänster. Sedan deltog studenterna i en ”Think Aloud”-undersökning där de fick utföra ett antal uppgifter på tjänsterna och där vi dessutom mätte effektivitet genom att ta tid samt beräkna antalet klick för varje uppgift. Slutligen fick studenterna besvara ett antal frågor i en kort intervju. Studien visade att båda tjänsterna visserligen hade funktioner som fungerade bättre än hos den andra tjänsten, men i slutändan var de mycket lika avseende användbarhet. / The music market has changed considerably in recent years and streaming has become one of the most popular ways to listen to music today. Many new streaming services have appeared and tens of millions of people use these today (Borja et al., 2015). Usability is important in order for users to be able to use these services in a satisfactory manner. This study examines two different music service interfaces from a usability perspective. 20 students from KTH answered a questionnaire about their prior use of music services. Afterwards the students participated in a Think Aloud study where they performed a number of tasks on services and where we additionally measured the efficiency by taking the time, in addition to calculating the number of clicks for each task. Finally, students were asked to answer a number of questions in a brief interview. The study shows that while both services had features that fared better in the study than for the other service, they were very similar when it came to usability.