This research focuses on the emergence of 'digital walls' that can project images onto almost all or even the entirety of interior (and perhaps exterior) walls, and what implications this might have for how we arrange our rooms. It demonstrates the arrangement, i.e., the way that domestic products are arranged physically, of rooms changes in the domestic environment in a complex scenario when using large screens. Due to the fast-growing demand for large screens, this product could potentially be available to be used by people in their home environments; however, it does not yet exist in reality at this scale. Constructing large screens can be carried out using different production methods. Here, this concept is called the digital wall, a very thin wall-sized interactive screen. The characteristics of the digital wall will vary to be able to create different scenarios. One such scenario is a space in the home where the surface of the wall is covered with screens, which allows multiple possibilities to experience and interact with digital content.  In this research, the social gathering space of homes, nowadays called the living room, is considered as a highly relevant space for installing the digital wall. In this space, the conceptual framework outlines the basic elements of the research and demonstrates the relationships between people’s interactions with the digital wall and domestic products in the domestic environment. I show two examples from design history to understand how arrangement changes impact the home environment: the transformation of the parlor to the living room, and entry of the television into the living room. These two examples are focused on the place in the home where people gather for socializing. The discussion of these examples led to the elaboration of the relationships between the elements in the conceptual framework. I explored relevant design research methodologies to bring this future scenario into the present to understand the relationships between people and the digital wall. I applied research through design and the constructive design research approaches to frame the design research methodology. In this thesis, I set up seven series of design studies in two cluster groups: Supportive studies and Main studies. All of the design studies were conducted in the Design Research Lab, the actual space for carrying out the design experiments, prototyping the digital wall, and the setting of the experiments for user participation. The Lab was fully equipped with relevant technology and allowed me to use multiple methods to collect data while people were experiencing the design study sessions. The Lab was useful as a platform to understand user experiences, barriers for interactions as well as people's experiences in a simulated space of a domestic environment.  The main contribution of this research is to understand the forms of arrangement changes when people use the digital wall in homes. The research demonstrates two significant implications that are seen in two forms of arrangements: tangible arrangement and imperceptible arrangement. These findings are useful for both designers and users of the elements of domestic contexts and the relations that can be shaped by the presence of a digital wall in home environments. This understanding may provide design guidelines in future scenarios in which the digital wall is used in homes. The findings are also beneficial for designing the domestic environment, improving the arrangement of space, and raising the requirements for designing domestic products.

The challenges faced by mathematics education reflect the more immense difficulties of the schooling system as a whole. This thesis investigates such challenges in the light of an ethical learning foundation and aims for a transformation through the use of technologies as learning tools.  Interaction design methods are used to craft constructivist learning kits that aim to move mathematics students from passive receivers of knowledge to active learners. The proposed tools modify new technologies by adapting them to teachers’ and learners’ needs to be best suited for mathematics classroom adoption. Additionally, social, political, and economic issues that may hinder the adoption of constructivist learning are presented and critically discussed.  Finally, this thesis paves the way for future designers who aim to design mathematics educational kits by providing a design framework based on the learning theory and the design process presented in this thesis.

Building Information Modeling (BIM) is becoming imperative across building disciplines to improve communication and workflow from the first blueprint. Maintenance and facility management is however lagging behind in adoption and research of BIM. Utilizing research-through-design, this study explores BIM-enabled facility management and the critical practice of decision-making at the Celsius building in Uppsala. Contextual design and inquiry were applied to identify and suggest important design features that support decisions related to the task of establishing maximum room occupation. Results show that facility managers can make use of fuzzy multicriteria decision-making and expert heuristics to independently reach conclusions. Important design features were found to heavily rely on the existing building models, where context-view filtered to room capacity data in the existing BIM-system effectively supported the users’ assessment of data. The filtered, aggregated information presented in a simplified mobile format was insufficient for decision-making, suggesting that the building model was more important than initially perceived.

The current prevailing take-make-waste economy has caused the global climate crisis, operating outside the Planetary Boundaries of our planet (Rockström et al., 2009), disrupting nature's balance and affecting all life on earth (WWF and Global Footprint Network, 2019). Both the European Commission and the European Environmental Agency (EEA) sees the transition to a circular economy (CE) within the product category: textiles, apparel and fabrics as a priority to address the climate impact of the textile and clothing industry (Manshoven et al., 2019). Even though there is much research done on how design and products can help companies transition to a CE, there is still an unexplored dimension of the role that consumers play in this transition. Thus, this master thesis aims to fill this research gap by exploring consumer behaviour in different consumption phases as well as the role of consumers in the circular textiles economy and investigate how sustainable clothing companies can design to engage consumers in a circular behaviour and role. By doing so, it is hoped to contribute to a better understanding of the dimension of the consumer in the circular textiles economy and to identify ways to fulfill the CE principle - keep products and materials in use. The study was conducted through a novel implementation of Research through Design in combination with Interactive Research by using the Design Thinking framework as a research process. The research was executed in close collaboration with the Swedish outdoor clothing company Houdini Sportswear.  The results show that a number of Circular Consumer Behaviours are desired to be acted out in four identified phases of a Circular Clothing Consumption Process: Lifestyle Creation, Product Acquisition, Product Use and Product Dispossession. Furthermore, it was found that the role of the Circular Consumer is very complex and consists of various sub-roles on four layers: Functional, Emotional, Life Changing and Social Impact. On the basis of this knowledge, the theoretical concept of Design for Circular Consumers was developed. On the basis of this theory, the Design for Circular Consumers Tool was created as the key contribution of this thesis. This tool facilitates the design of experiences that engage consumers in the circular textiles system and subsequently support clothing companies in their transition to circular business models as a way to address the climate impact of the textiles industry.

Att övergå från en linjär till en cirkulär ekonomi är nödvändigt om vi ska nå våra klimatmål. Återbruk och underhåll av redan existerande material och produkter är därför ett måste men sängar återbrukas och underhålls inte i lika stor omfattning som andra möbelgrupper.  I dag är många sängar utformade av en blandning av plaster, stål och trä där materialen är svåra att separera från varandra. Många av delarna är ihoplimmade och möjliggör inte till underhåll vilket medför att produktens livslängd blir förkortad. Andra aspekter som attityder och beteenden kan dock vara en avgörande faktor när det kommer till sängens möjlighet att återbrukas då dessa ofta anses både ohygieniska och smutsiga. Syftet med studien har varit att undersöka hur sängar skulle kunna ingå i den cirkulära ekonomi och därmed undvika att bli till avfall och därför kommer studien att titta på systemet kring sängar i helhet. Genom emotionell design kommer studien att undersöka attityder och beteenden kopplade till återbruk av textilier och sängar. Studiens fördjupningsområden har varit användarcentrerad design, emotionell design, cirkulär design och användarroll i den cirkulära ekonomin.  Studiens kunskapsbidrag är att ge en större förståelse för sängens kontext i den tekniska loopen och då framförallt under återbruk, reparation och underhåll samt fördjupad kunskap i konsumentbeteende, psykologi och drivkrafter bakom återbruk av sängar inom ett område som är relativt outforskat.  Designbidraget är ett koncept för att integrera sängklädseln i själva utformningen av sängramen för enklare underhåll. / To move from a linear to a circular economy is necessary for us to achieve our climate goals. Recycling and maintenance of existing materials and products is, therefore, a must but beds are not recycled or maintained to the same extent as other types of furniture.  Today, many beds are made of a mixture of plastic, steel, and wood where the materials are difficult to separate from each other. Many of the parts are glued together and do not allow for maintenance, which means that the product’s life is shortened. Other aspects such as attitudes and behaviors can, however, be a decisive factor when it comes to the bed’s ability to be reused as these are considered both unhygienic and dirty. The purpose of the study has been to investigate how beds could be included in the circular economy and thus avoid becoming waste and, therefore, the study will look at the system around beds as a whole. Through emotional design, the study will examine attitudes and behaviors linked to second-hand textiles and beds. The study’s main focus areas have been user-centered design, emotional design, circular design, and user role in the circular economy. The knowledge contribution of the study is to yield a greater understanding of the beds’ place in the technical loop, first and foremost reuse, restoration and maintenance. Another area that is relatively unexplored concerning the bed is consumer behavior, psychology, and motivations behind the refurbishing of beds. The design contribution is a concept for integrating the bedding into the actual design of the bed frame.

Process monitoring is a field that can greatly benefit from the adoption of machine learning solutions like recommendation systems. However, for domain experts to embrace these technologies within their work processes, clear explanations are crucial. Therefore, it is important to adopt user-centred methods for designing more transparent recommendation systems. This study explores this topic through a case study in the pulp and paper industry. By employing a user-centred and design-first adaptation of the question-driven design process, this study aims to uncover the explanation needs and requirements of industry experts, as well as formulate design visions and recommendations for transparent recommendation systems. The results of the study reveal five common explanation types that are valuable for domain experts while also highlighting limitations in previous studies on explanation types. Additionally, nine requirements are identified and utilised in the creation of a prototype, which domain experts evaluate. The evaluation process leads to the development of several design recommendations that can assist HCI researchers and designers in creating effective, transparent recommendation systems. Overall, this research contributes to the field of HCI by enhancing the understanding of transparent recommendation systems from a user-centred perspective.

This master thesis focuses on enhancing the user interface experience for Airborne Early Warning and Control (AEW&C) system operators in a military context. Collaborating with Saab, a defense sector company, the study employs the research through design and a user-centered design approach to investigate user needs and how they interact with the interface. The research reveals that despite the unique nature of the defense industry, operators respond poorly to a difficult-to-use interface, leading to frustration and underutilization of functionalities. The study identifies contextual factors such as information overload, user interface design and personalization, task difficulty and lack of help systems, stress, and cognitive load. Through the development and testing of a new interface prototype, incorporating design feedback sessions and iterations, the thesis addresses these contextual demands. The findings highlight the significance of introducing user experience in military environments, where complex system engineering and functionality have been traditionally preferred over simplicity and usability.

In the domain of access control, the notion of zone is still ambiguous. The zone demands clearer contextualization that resonates with the security operators in their workplace. Through interpretive research, this project aims to investigate intuitive ways to monitor the overview of security through visualisation and propose a groundwork that can facilitate discussion around future possibilities of zones in physical access control. Based on the sense making process, this project presents three visualisation models: textual, physical, and abstract. Each model explores various representations of zones to communicate zone-to-zone relationships to improve usability. Also, the design work demonstrates diverse expressive qualities interacting with spaces that are physical, conceptual, and logical. In the most practical sense, the zone means groups of doors, however, the zone also embodies an abstract layer of interpretation that is not strictly connected to a physical space.

Det blir allt vanligare att bo i mindre bostäder med mindre ytor. Mindre bostäder bidrar till mindre kök. Syftet med studien har därmed varit att utforska hur små utrymmen kan optimeras, detta genom att undersöka problemområden kring arbetsytor i små kök. Studien är designdriven genom forskning genom design och har utgått från ett användarcentrerat förhållningssätt med teorier som användarcentrerad design, ergonomi och kompakt boende. Problemområden har identifierats genom metoder som observation och intervju. Problemområdena har sedan används för att ta fram en funktionsanalys samt kravspecifikation. Med hjälp av föregående metoder har dessa funktioner samt önskemål från användaren tillämpats på ett designförslag. Resultatet blev en mångsidig skärbräda som ska kunna användas vid behov av mer arbetsyta i köket. Designförslaget fungerar som ett exempel på en lösning av design för små utrymmen och kan bidra till förenklad användning av ett litet kök. Kunskapen från studien kan hjälpa köksdesigners samt personer med mindre kök som söker en lösning. / It is becoming increasingly more common to live in smaller homes with smaller areas. Smaller homes contribute to smaller kitchens. The aim of the study has therefore been to explore how small spaces can be optimized, this by exploring problem areas around workspaces in small kitchens. The study is design-driven through research through design and has been based on a user-centered approach with theories such as user-centered design, ergonomics and compact living. Problem areas have been identified through methods such as observation and interview. The problem areas have then been used to produce a functional analysis and requirements specification. Using the previous methods, these functions as well as requests from the user have been applied to a design proposal. The result was a versatile cutting board that can be used when more workspace is needed in the kitchen. The design proposal serves as an example of a design solution for small spaces and can contribute to simplified use of a small kitchen. The knowledge gained from the study can help kitchen designers as well as people with small kitchens looking for a solution.

Sömnsvårigheter har blivit allt vanligare i takt med att samhället blir mer skyndsamt och teknologi-drivet. Även om orsakerna kan variera, finns det några allmänna faktorer som kan hjälpa kroppen att varva ner innan läggdags. Det här projektet syftar till att lindra det utbredda problemet med sömnbrist och de vanor som hindrar fysisk och mental beredskap för sömn genom att utveckla en prototyp som integrerar både fysiska och digitala element. Soma design valdes som metodologi, driven av ett Forskning-genom-Design tillvägagångssätt. Genom den explorativa designprocessen vidgades möjligheterna för att förbättra sömn genom enkla och icke-påträngande teknologier. Processen resulterade i fem teman som informerade de efterföljande materialutforskningarna och erbjöd riktlinjer för framtida insatser inom gränsområdet mellan design och sömn, som tillåter öppenhet och flexibilitet. Slutligen levererade projektet en första version av en prototyp som inkorporerar de insikter och kunskaper som erhållits under processen genom att använda ljud och ljus för att försiktigt guida användaren till en långsam andningsrytm som förbereder kroppen för sömn. Framtida iterationer kommer att informeras av återkoppling från användare och möjliggöra högre grad av anpassningsbarhet, vilket säkerställer att prototypen kan anpassas till individuella användares unika behov och preferenser. / Sleep-related issues have become more prevalent as our society becomes increasingly fast-paced and technology-dependent. While the causes may vary, some universal factors can help unwind before bed. This project aims to alleviate the widespread problem of sleep deprivation and associated habits that impede physical and mental readiness for sleep by developing a prototype incorporating physical and digital elements. Soma design was chosen as the methodology, driven by a Research through Design approach, combining a first-person perspective and collaboration with other designers and somatic connoisseurs. Through the exploratory design process, possibilities for enhancing sleep through seamless and non-intrusive technologies were expanded. The process further resulted in five themes that informed the subsequent material explorations and offered guidelines for future endeavors in the intersection of design and sleep that affords open-endedness. Ultimately, the project delivered a first version of a prototype that embodies the insights and knowledge acquired throughout the process by incorporating qualities of sound and light to gently guide the user to a slow breathing rhythm, preparing the body for sleep. Future iterations will be informed by user feedback and allow for a greater range of adaptability, ensuring that the prototype can accommodate individual users' unique needs and preferences.