The aim of this master’s thesis is to explore the implications of using online ethnographic participatory design in studying communication with teenagers in the context of Carbon Dioxide Theatre, a climate action research project. By developing multiple methods, tools and activities, the implications are understood throughout the teenagers’ engagement in collaborating and co-creating using online media. The findings are then organized based on the teenagers activity from three perspectives, by following the medium, the story and the feeling. The medium shows how social media platforms such as Snapchat and Facebook Messenger can be used in order to establish a valuable collaboration with the teenagers, the story presents how the teenagers are expressing their views, thoughts and dilemmas regarding the climate action topic, co-creating one Instagram account while the feeling offers emotions raised during the process. Ultimately, inspired from the study process, the paper suggests a design method for online ethnographic participatory design data collection, consisting of a set of cards and maps that can be utilized as a guiding tool in organizing and understanding the empirical data within an exploratory research context. / Carbon Dioxid Theatre

Researchers have approached the problem of designing context-aware systems, computer systems that can react intelligently to the context in which they are used, from both software engineering and human-centred perspectives. While engineered context-aware systems have found successful application in optimising technical settings without requiring mundane and explicit interaction from humans, challenges remain in furthering their application to more complex environments. In particular, when technical decisions and human actions are intertwined in sophisticated work environments (rather than, for example, the simple act of transferring a mobile phone call to receive a signal from the nearest tower), the problem of designing context-aware systems demands further examination and calls for a new approach. A natural extension of the software engineering approach in more challenging environments is to try to implement increasingly sophisticated algorithms for managing context in the hope that this will lead to autonomous application behaviour. In contrast, research from a human-centred perspective, grounded in the social sciences and philosophy, demonstrates that context is not entirely objective and measurable but rather is dynamic and created through human action. It may not be easily detected through technical sensing systems, and therefore simply employing more sophisticated algorithms within the technical sphere may not be effective. While engineering approaches have continued to evolve, the problem of how to design interfaces to context-aware applications still remains. The research reported in this dissertation investigated the problem of designing context-aware systems for the complex environment of a dental surgery. I undertook, though a participatory design approach (a) to better characterise the problem of designing context-aware systems, and (b) to understand how design methods could be employed to bridge the human and software engineering approaches. The gap in existing research on context-aware systems is evident in the way that the methods applied to designing systems don't provide an insight into how people actively create the context in which they work (in a practical rather than theoretical sense) they don‘t closely examine the behaviours of people, the role and arrangement of artefacts, and the dynamic relationships between people and artefacts. I found that an understanding of how these features of work and human behaviour are realised in practice in a given environment is fundamental to being able to design an effective context-aware system for that environment. The challenge is to design at the boundary between the technical and the social. The contribution of this thesis is an approach that explores context-aware design through synthesis. The synthetic approach leads to design opportunities and guidelines based on an understanding of the processes through which people actively co-create the context in which they work. I have applied and built upon a number of existing user-centred design and participatory design methods, in addition to creating some new methods in order to develop an understanding of how designers can examine the human aspects surrounding the co-creation of context and apply these in a way that progressively informs the design process. The methods collectively represent a novel approach to designing context-aware applications and differ from the more traditional technical approaches of developing software frameworks and infrastructures, and formal models of context, tasks, users, and systems. The techniques presented have focused primarily on developing an understanding of how humans find meaning in their actions along with their interaction with other people and technology. Participatory design methods help participants to reveal potential implicit technical resources that can be presented explicitly in technologies in order to assist humans in managing their interactions with and amidst technical systems gracefully. The methods introduced and the design approach proposed complement existing research on context-awareness from both a human-centred and software engineering perspective. This research builds on the notion of providing resources which allow users to manage their own context and also manage shifts in control while interacting with other people and with a variety of technical artefacts. It does this by examining a complex work environment, in particular looking at the kinds of resources people use and expect to use (and the constraints around these), the form(s) it is appropriate for them to take, and the patterns of interaction they will ultimately be used within.

<p>Avhandlingen tar sin utgångspunkt i det av Vinnova finansierade projektet »Mobilen idemokratins tjänst» även kallat [demos], vilket drevs av Interactive InstitutesStudio[12-21] under perioden 2002 – 2004. De nya mediernas växande betydelse förungdomars vardagsliv var en viktig faktor bakom [demos]-projektet. Persondatorer,mobiltelefoner, digitala kameror, MP3-spelare och andra digitala verktyg är idagsjälvklara för de flesta ungdomar i västvärlden. Dessa verktyg, liksom Internetsmångfald, har snabbt blivit en given del av såväl deras skolarbete som deras fritid.Detta har fått effekt på ungdomars sätt att leka, kommunicera, arbeta och skapasociala gemenskaper. Ungdomars självklara förhållningssätt till digitala media gör attde ofta utvecklar oväntade och innovativa användningsområden för tjänster ochverktyg, genom vad som skulle kunna kallas ett kreativt »missbruk».I [demos]-projektet var ambitionen att i arbetet med morgondagens vuxna relaterafrågor kring teknik- och konceptutveckling till frågor som har med vårt samhälle ochnya former för demokrati att göra. Den övergripande målsättningen i projektet var attundersöka vad som händer om man använder mobila tjänster som ett hjälpmedel ochen utmaning i skoldemokratin.En prototyp baserad på sms-tekniken utvecklades och testades inom projektets ram.Prototypen utvecklades utifrån två huvudspår, dels representantens behov attundersöka mandat i medlemsgruppen och dels de enskilda medlemmarnas behov attpåkalla ledarna och övriga medlemmars uppmärksamhet och skapa opinion kring enviss fråga.I avhandlingen presenteras en fallstudiebeskrivning av [demos]-projektet. Avsiktenmed denna är att tillföra området en beskrivning av och reflektioner kring ett praktisktexempel på en implementation där man haft avsikten att använda sig av vardagstekniki form av sms för att stödja demokratiska processer. Avhandlingen belyser ochdiskuterar former för användarmedverkan i spontan design. I fokus är området digitalamedia och viljan till medskapande som understöds av den interaktiva potentialen idigitala verktyg och medier. Dessa ger möjligheter att själv eller tillsammans medandra skapa nya sociala sammanhang, filmer, bilder, musik.Ytterligare ett viktigt led i beskrivningen och analysen av projektet har varit attundersöka de tekniska och organisatoriska dimensioner vilka ligger till grund förprojektets resultat. Särskilt studerades hur man genom att utgå från nyttjandet av smssom en »vardaglig teknik» kan utforma ett system som ett stöd för demokratiskaprocesser. Den fråga som behandlas här är vad som händer då vi tillför de efterfrågadetekniska möjligheterna. Ökar engagemanget att delta i demokratiska processer dådeltagarna själva fått välja redskap/teknik? Blir designprocessen mera demokratisk?Slutligen diskuteras den övergripande problematik som ligger i att bedrivaforskning och praktik parallellt.Avhandlingen tar sin utgångspunkt i det av Vinnova finansierade projektet »Mobilen idemokratins tjänst» även kallat [demos], vilket drevs av Interactive InstitutesStudio[12-21] under perioden 2002 – 2004. De nya mediernas växande betydelse förungdomars vardagsliv var en viktig faktor bakom [demos]-projektet. Persondatorer,mobiltelefoner, digitala kameror, MP3-spelare och andra digitala verktyg är idagsjälvklara för de flesta ungdomar i västvärlden. Dessa verktyg, liksom Internetsmångfald, har snabbt blivit en given del av såväl deras skolarbete som deras fritid.Detta har fått effekt på ungdomars sätt att leka, kommunicera, arbeta och skapasociala gemenskaper. Ungdomars självklara förhållningssätt till digitala media gör attde ofta utvecklar oväntade och innovativa användningsområden för tjänster ochverktyg, genom vad som skulle kunna kallas ett kreativt »missbruk».I [demos]-projektet var ambitionen att i arbetet med morgondagens vuxna relaterafrågor kring teknik- och konceptutveckling till frågor som har med vårt samhälle ochnya former för demokrati att göra. Den övergripande målsättningen i projektet var attundersöka vad som händer om man använder mobila tjänster som ett hjälpmedel ochen utmaning i skoldemokratin.En prototyp baserad på sms-tekniken utvecklades och testades inom projektets ram.Prototypen utvecklades utifrån två huvudspår, dels representantens behov attundersöka mandat i medlemsgruppen och dels de enskilda medlemmarnas behov attpåkalla ledarna och övriga medlemmars uppmärksamhet och skapa opinion kring enviss fråga.I avhandlingen presenteras en fallstudiebeskrivning av [demos]-projektet. Avsiktenmed denna är att tillföra området en beskrivning av och reflektioner kring ett praktisktexempel på en implementation där man haft avsikten att använda sig av vardagstekniki form av sms för att stödja demokratiska processer. Avhandlingen belyser ochdiskuterar former för användarmedverkan i spontan design. I fokus är området digitalamedia och viljan till medskapande som understöds av den interaktiva potentialen idigitala verktyg och medier. Dessa ger möjligheter att själv eller tillsammans medandra skapa nya sociala sammanhang, filmer, bilder, musik.Ytterligare ett viktigt led i beskrivningen och analysen av projektet har varit attundersöka de tekniska och organisatoriska dimensioner vilka ligger till grund förprojektets resultat. Särskilt studerades hur man genom att utgå från nyttjandet av smssom en »vardaglig teknik» kan utforma ett system som ett stöd för demokratiskaprocesser. Den fråga som behandlas här är vad som händer då vi tillför de efterfrågadetekniska möjligheterna. Ökar engagemanget att delta i demokratiska processer dådeltagarna själva fått välja redskap/teknik? Blir designprocessen mera demokratisk?Slutligen diskuteras den övergripande problematik som ligger i att bedrivaforskning och praktik parallellt.</p>

This thesis is about participation in IT design. The problem background that I have outlined is that information technologies have far reaching consequences for societies and for individuals, and that the design of information technologies is one among many practices that shape the world in which we live. From a democratic point of view it is crucial that also women should be involved in these reality producing practices. In relation to this there are at least two stories about women’s participation in IT design; one about their absence from IT design, and one about their inclusion therein. Based on this problem background the purpose of my research is to critically explore participatory IT design practices, with a special focus on gender, power and knowledge. In order to fulfil the purpose I have three research questions: Who participated in the IT design practices? How did knowledge come into being in these practices? How was responsibility enacted? My frame of reference is based on two research fields. One is Participatory Design (PD) with its focus on practitioners as co-designers in IT design practices, and the other is feminist technoscience which focuses on theories, methods, approaches, knowledge processes, and gender in technoscience practices. These two frameworks shares an interest in power relations and democratic participation in IT design. My empirical material was gathered with the help of ethnographic methods, and comes from a large IT design project in a Swedish government agency. The project was an eGovernment project, and a central objective was to rationalise the business. My focus was some (women) administrative officers who participated as business process analysts. This material was analysed with the help of feminist technoscience methodologies, foremost agential realism and diffraction. My thesis is based on five research papers, and the results of these are discussed and related to the research questions and the purpose. Based on an expanded notion of IT design and of participation in IT design, I argue that the administrative officers in the IT design project participated as central actors in the project. These administrative officers were able to participate within the context provided by various entangled sociomaterial practices, such as the project method, boundaries between business and IT, gendered divisions of labour, eGovernment, rationalisation, the project objectives, and an innovation practice. I also argue that in the project knowledge did not simply exist, but came into being as a result of entanglements of these sociomaterial practices, foremost the project objectives and the method. As a result of the reconfigured knowledge the administrative officers were removed to the periphery of the project. An additional argument is that with participation comes responsibility, and that responsibility is related to agency. Responsibility was enacted in and as a result of entangled sociomaterial practices. In this project the administrative officers were given and took a lot of responsibility within the boundaries provided by the sociomaterial practices, but they also worked to widen their agency and thus extend their responsibilities in the project. In relation to gender my argument is that the administrative officers in the project – who were women – participated as central actors, but they were also marginalised and made invisible. Thus in this IT design project women were included as central actors. As one of my contributions to PD and to feminist technoscience I want to underscore the importance of sociomaterial practices in IT design, such as IT design methods, and project objectives. These may act to restrict actors’ possibilities to act and to exert influence. Another is that knowledge in IT design practices come into being and are reconfigured as a consequence of intra-acting sociomaterial practices. Reconfigurations of knowledge might shift the power balance among actors in IT design projects and marginalise previously central actors. Responsibility too comes into being, or is enacted, in entangled sociomaterial practices. Furthermore responsibility in IT design is closely related to agency and participation, and widened agency might lead to extended possibilities to take responsibility. Additionally if positions in IT design are understood as fixed, they might make invisible more shifting and intricate professional relations and activities, and once these become visible, more women may become visible as central actors in IT design. A further contribution is that an expanded notion of IT design and participation might make women visible as central participants in IT design and in eGovernment. However, also central participants may become marginalised, as happened in this project.

Some argue that we live in an “information age”; others claim that we live in a “knowledge society”. This research suggests we live in an era of adaptable and customizable widgets in which users are no longer passive receivers of ad hoc technological solutions, but active agents controlling the behaviour, content modalities, and multiple technological layers transforming the representation and interpretation of information. This study adopts a critical perspective and examines the meaning of access to information and the pertinence of customization. Specifically, it analyzes how the ISO standard AccessForAll (ISO/IEC 24751, 2008) conceptualizes the customization of e-learning environments. A qualitative approach and discourse analysis are used as a methodological strategy. The research analyzes responses to ten interviews conducted with a diverse group of participants. This foundation provides for a discussion about the challenges of customization design and recommendations for the future development of adaptive and flexible learning environments.

Some argue that we live in an “information age”; others claim that we live in a “knowledge society”. This research suggests we live in an era of adaptable and customizable widgets in which users are no longer passive receivers of ad hoc technological solutions, but active agents controlling the behaviour, content modalities, and multiple technological layers transforming the representation and interpretation of information. This study adopts a critical perspective and examines the meaning of access to information and the pertinence of customization. Specifically, it analyzes how the ISO standard AccessForAll (ISO/IEC 24751, 2008) conceptualizes the customization of e-learning environments. A qualitative approach and discourse analysis are used as a methodological strategy. The research analyzes responses to ten interviews conducted with a diverse group of participants. This foundation provides for a discussion about the challenges of customization design and recommendations for the future development of adaptive and flexible learning environments.

The conditions for the third, non-profit sector, such as grassroots organisations and trade unions, have changed dramatically in recent years, due to prevailing social trends. Non-profit organisations have been seen as early adopters of information technology, but the area is, at the same time, largely unattended by scientific research. Meanwhile, the field of information systems development is, to an increasing extent, recognising the importance of user involvement in the design process. Nevertheless, participatory development approaches, such as Participatory Design are not suited to the context of entire organisations, and new, networked organisational structures, such as those of non-profit organisations. This reasoning also applies to the theoretical framework of Activity Theory, whose potential benefits for systems development have been acclaimed but less often tried in practice. This thesis aims, first, at extending Participatory Design to use in large, particularly non-profit organisations. This aim is partly achieved by integrating Participatory Design with an Argumentative Design approach and with the application of Activity Theory modified for an organisational context. The purpose is to obtain reasoning about and foreseeing the consequences of different design solutions. Second, the thesis aims at exploring information technology needs, solutions, and consequences in non-profit organisations, in trade unions in particular. The case under study is the Swedish Trade Union Confederation (LO) and the design of an information system for its 250 000 shop stewards. The thesis is based on six related studies complemented with data from work in a local design group working according to the principles of Participatory Design. The first study was aimed at investigating and comparing trade union management’s view of the new technology and the actual needs of shop stewards. The second study investigated the situation, tasks and problems of shop stewards, as a pre-requisite for finding information technology needs. The third study merged the previous findings into an argumentative design of an information systems design proposal. The fourth study collected the voices from secondary user groups in the organisation, and presented an Activity theoretical analysis of the union organisation and a modified design proposal in the form of a prototype. The fifth study presented an Activity theoretical framework, modified for organisational application, and used it for producing hypotheses on possible shop steward tasks and organisational consequences of the implementation of the information system. The sixth paper was aimed at the initial testing of the hypotheses, through the evaluation of information technology facilities in one of the individual union affiliations. The complementary data was used to propose further modifications of the integrated Participatory, Argumentative, and Activity Theory design approach. The major contributions of the study are, first, a modified Participatory Design approach to be applied at three levels; in general as a way of overcoming experienced difficulties with the original approach, in the context of entire, large organisations, and in the specific non-profit organisation context. The second contribution is generated knowledge in the new research area of information technology in the non-profit, trade union context, where for instance the presented prototype can be seen as a source of inspiration. Future research directions include further development and formalisation of the integrated Participatory Design approach, as well as actual consequences of implementing information technology in non-profit organisations and trade unions. / On the day of the public defence the status of article V was: Submitted.

This article discusses the understanding of the design process in research projects by taking specific tools from project management into account. Explorative and creative design projects often run the risk of loosing focus on project goals during the process. This article aims to provide a novel approach to the ongoing discussion of the clash between creativity and efficiency during the creation of artifacts. By discussing the self-conducted case study – project „Yu‟ – this article reflects on the design process as well as the relationship between the designer and the user. The model created and presented includes two techniques; the active user dialogue and the goal and user needs definition. Both are inspired by similar approaches in project management, which illustrate the importance of the designer's responsibility for the final design outcome. The article identifies and discusses similar approaches in design theory and is aiming to emphasize the positive possibilities for an elaborate design approach. / YU project at the Mobile Life Centre

This thesis focuses on the design of interactive paper interfaces for supporting musical creation. Music composition has been deeply influenced by the computational power brought by computers but despite the use of software to create new sounds or work with symbolic notation, composers still use paper in their creative process. Interactive paper creates new opportunities for combining expression on paper and computation. However, designing for highly individual creative practitioners who use personal musical representations is challenging. In this thesis, I argue that composers need personal and adaptable structures on paper in which they can express and explore musical ideas. I first present three field studies (Chapter 3) with contemporary composers that examined the use of paper and the computer during the composition process and how linking the two media supports exploration of musical ideas. I then describe a participatory design study that investigates the use of formal musical representations (Chapter 4) for creating new paper interfaces that extend computer-aided composition tools. I introduce Paper Substrates (Chapter 5), interactive paper components that provide modular structures for interacting with personal representations of computer-based musical data. I detail tools that we created to develop paper applications with the Paper Substrates approach. Several examples illustrate the creation of personal structures and musical content that can still be interpreted by computer-aided composition software. I then describe a structured observation study with 12 composers who used Polyphony to compose a short electroacoustic piece (Chapter 6). Polyphony is a unified user interface that integrates interactive paper and electronic user interfaces for composing music. The study allowed us to systematically observe and compare their compositional processes. Finally, I report on a research and creation project with the composer Philippe Leroux during the composition of his piece Quid sit musicus (Chapter 7). Several work sessions with the composer and a musical assistant lead to the design of new paper- based interfaces for generating composition material, synthesizing sounds and controlling the spatialization from handwritten gestures from calligraphic gestures over an old manuscript.

Aquesta tesi està constituïda per diverses activitats de recerca, entre les quals trobam principalment articles i capítols publicats. Es descriu el disseny d'una joguina robòtica que facilita la metacognició dels nens. Es detallen els nous mètodes de disseny participatiu desenvolupats per donar suport a aquest procés, com també els resultats de les experiències dins l'aula que varen validar la seva eficàcia. Aquestes experiències varen fer servir l'especificació Unit of Practice d'Apple, la qual posibilita la descripció normalitzada de de les activitats pedagògiques amb els recursos d'ensenyament tecnològics. L'enfocament de la investigació llavors se centra en les especificacions de IMS, que representen recursos i activitats pedagògiques en un format que els ordinadors poden processar. S'analitzen les eines necessàries per treballar amb aquestes especificacions. Es fa una distinció entre processos de disseny en móns tancats (dirigits a grups limitats d'usuaris) i oberts (dirigits a un grup obert o universal). Es descriuen els processos participatius de disseny en ambdós casos. Es tenen especialment en consideració les eines necessàries per treballar amb l'especificació IMS LD, i es desenvolupen models conceptuals per clarificar la tipologia de les eines i els seus usos.Es proposa la participació en les comunitats de pràctica com una metodologia per avaluar les necessitats, les eines, i l'ús de l'especificació. / This thesis is composed of a number of related research activities, which are principally represented by means of published papers. The design of a robotic toy to provide support for children's meta-cognition is described. The new participatory design methods developed to support this process are detailed, together with the results of field trials which validated its effectiveness. These trials make use of Apple's Unit of Practice specification for the consistent description of pedagogic activities with technological teaching resources. The investigation of IMS' machine readable representations of pedagogy, their use, and the tooling they require, then becomes the focus for the inquiry. A distinction is drawn between closed world design processes, addressed at a circumscribed user group, and open world design addressing a wide or universal user group. Participatory design processes in both contexts are described. A particular focus is tooling for the IMS LD specification, and conceptual models are developed to clarify its tooling and use. Engagement with communities of practice is proposed as a means of addressing open world design challenges, and this methodology is used to assess user needs, tooling and use of the specification.