Instagram has around two billion registered users at the time of writing. This puts a lot of responsibility on interaction designers as they implement changes to the user experience. This thesis proposes a speculative approach to evaluate how potential futures might alter interactive features on Instagram and in turn, how that might nurture user habits. The thesis presents a framework and model to construct plausible structures of social media platforms and is in this project used to construct four scenarios through which speculative design work is done. The model could also guide future iterations and speculations.

The voice technology today is limited to explicit interaction and does not take advantage of the connotation of voice modalities. Research has shown that it is possible to sense emotions and feelings as well as the context of information based on the tone of voice. Building on existing theory and Research through Design, this thesis aims to speculate the use of whispering in human-computer interaction. It also discusses how this might lead to a more preferred future or cause tensions within addictive technology and the politics of voice assistants. The results argue that whispering has an impact on the relationship and trust between a human and a machine and that it could be used as an active interaction mode with voice assistants. Further research is needed to identify the effect of whispering on different users and the influence of different voice modalities. / Röstteknologin idag är begränsad till explicit interaktion och utnyttjar inte konnotationen av röstmodaliteter. Forskning har visat att det är möjligt att identifiera känslor och sammanhang med information baserad på tonfallet. Med utgångspunkt i befintlig teori och Research through Design, syftar denna avhandling till att spekulera kring användningen av viskning i interaktion mellan människor och datorer. Det diskuteras hur detta kan leda till en mer gynnsam framtid alternativt orsaka konflikt inom beroendeframkallande teknik och röstassistenternas politik. Resultaten menar att viskning påverkar förhållandet och förtroendet mellan människa och maskin och att den kan användas som ett aktivt interaktionsläge hos röstassistenter. Ytterligare forskning behövs för att identifiera effekten av viskning på olika användare och påverkan av olika röstmodaliteter.

The current communicative planning paradigm appears to lack the ability to include the voices of the voiceless and is stuck in practices that continue to confirm the status-quo through technocratic quick fixes, which do not solve underlying problems causing climate change. This thesis is an exploration of how two unconventional methods, storytelling and co-created speculative design, can contribute to a change in paradigm, specifically improve the inclusiveness of coproduction, where nonhumans are involved in the decision-making processes. This thesis takes the reader on a journey through the embodiment of water in Slussen, by an analysis of semi-structured interviews and a critical discourse, a story from the perspective of water with the title Suorssá, and two alternative designs of Slussen if water were in charge. The applied lense in this thesis is a combination of Latour’s perspective on actants, Bell’s studies of the future, storytelling, critical utopianism, and ecocentrism. The methods and lense are embedded in a case study of water in Slussen, which is a major urban development in Sweden where water plays a considerable role. Through this journey an alternative perspective is attempted to be shared with the participants and an increasing openness towards ecocentrism, where all organisms on the planet have an intrinsic value irrespective of humans, is created. The results suggest that a truly inclusive planning paradigm, especially for megaprojects like Slussen, seems to be a utopian thought. Nonetheless, storytelling and co-created speculative designs turn out to be an effective step towards realizing this vision.

The involvement of end users in the design process is gaining popularity, particularly through human-centred design (HCD). This case study addresses two practical issues: the lack of engagement of Swedish public sector office workers in designing their workspaces and the need to prioritize user needs in new meeting places. The research examines engagement at the leadership/ownership level using participatory speculative design (PSD), which goes beyond HCD. Through participatory action research (PAR), users are empowered to question their needs and lead the design process. The study employs PSD in two workshops to explore its contribution to the process and outcome. It focuses on identifying ownership-level engagement indicators and assessing how PSD influences reflecting user needs in the initial prototype of future meeting spaces. The central research question revolves around identifying indicators of ownership-level engagement in PSD and assessing how the PSD methodology influences the reflection of user needs in the initial prototype of future meeting spaces. Data collection involves secondary data, literature review, and design workshops, analysing workshop design and participant behaviour’s impact on engagement levels and organizations. The study aims to provide practical solutions and bridge knowledge gaps in participant engagement. Findings demonstrate the practical implications of involving end users at the highest level, including fresh insights, broader perspectives, and the democratization of the design process. PSD at the ownership level proves feasible, offering novel insights within the realm of PSD.

In this project, the intersection between animism and smart things is being explored, with a special focus on gaming chairs. Integrated sensors and actuators become an opportunity to create interactivity and autonomous behaviour which creates illusions of life. Gaming chairs are interesting to explore because it’s a piece of furniture that is often and well used, for longer periods at a time, allowing a space to create a personal relationship between the human user and the chair. With the goal to develop design beyond the current norms of interactions and relationships between the user and belongings in their home this project uses Research Through Design, Speculative Design, Animism and Posthumanism. By transferring insights of visual expressions, capabilities of beloved belongings, familiar interactions and behaviours to a non-living entity combined with technology and smart things as a contributor for animistic expression - this project proposes that it is possible to create an illusion of life and for humans to develop a relationship to a non-human entity. The actuators applied on the conceptual gaming chair affected the participants testing it - the participants seemed to care for the chair and perceived it to be an extension of themselves.

Physical inactivity has increased significantly over the past years, andthe advancement of technology has contributed to it. Paradoxically,domestic IoT shapes human behavior through human interaction. Aseveryday objects become a part of the Internet of Things (IoT), thisthesis aims to investigate how the IoT devices and everyday objects cancollaborate with humans to address growing physical inactivity.Using a speculative and critical design approach, design proposals in theform of physical and video prototypes are constructed and discussed in aseries of workshops. Participation in the workshops moves theparticipants from being passive consumers of technology to citizens thatactively debate and design their own future.The outcomes of the workshops are themes that critically address theimplications of domesticating technology and its future roles andfunctions. Also, a set of characteristics is outlined to illustrate desirable,undesirable, and preferred characteristics of networked technologies thatmay encourage physical activity.

In his speech during the 2016 Speculative Design Symposium, held at the University of California, San Diego, Benjamin Bratton1 rightly argued that the job of 21st century design is to undo (much of) the design of the 20th.A number of recent controversial designs and practices in the business and public sphere have suddenly made ethical design (design ethics2) a hot topic in the design community.This master thesis is a highly critical and fairly philosophical examination of the design profession in the context of the current socio-technical landscape. It analyses the convergence between the fields of design, ethics and disruptive technology. Autonomous transportation is taken as an example to illustrate what circumstances (should) drive designers’ social engagement. Hopefully, it also accommodates for a productive reflection on the place of ethics in a broader social context. By utilising speculative and critical design approaches, the thesis aims to stimulate, provoke and ideally maintain a public discourse on the direction of development of technology and modern societies, and inspire designers to be more critical to the vocational portrayal of their profession. / <p><strong>The degree project is carried out at the Department of Science and Technology (ITN) at Faculty of Science and Engineering, Linköping University</strong></p>

In an interdisciplinary project, creative concepts for care robotics were developed. To explore the design space that these open up, we discussed them along the common differentiation of physical (effective) and social-emotional assistance. Trying to rate concepts on these dimensions frequently raised questions regarding the relation between the social-emotional and the physical, and highlighted gaps and a lack of conceptual clarity. We here present our design concepts, report on our discussion, and summarize our insights; in particular we suggest that the social and the physical dimension of care technologies should always be thought of and designed as interrelated.

This is a documentation of a programmatic design approach, moving through different levels of an established practice of grassroots activism. The text frames an open-ended, exploratory methodology, as four stages of investigation, trying to find possible ways to shape and increase understanding of, and facilitate a process, of co-designing a practice. It presents the experience of looking for opportunities for counter-narration, as contribution to an activist cause, and questioning the role, purpose and approach of a designer in a grassroots activist environment.

I examensarbetet Det post-antibiotiska köket har samhällsfrågan om antibiotikaresistens undersökts ur ett designperspektiv. Detta för att uppmärksamma och sprida kunskap om problemet med den ökande resistensen och den nutida konsumtionen av läkemedlet. Designmetoden som använts är spekulativ design och syftet har varit att tillverka fem objekt som skall påverka och motivera en publik till att förändra den aktuella användningen av mirakelmedicinen. Genom grundliga efterforskningar om problematiken och om en framtid utan antibiotika har ett scenario formulerats. Detta scenario utspelar sig 30 år framåt i tiden, år 2049, i en värld där det inte längre finns fungerande antibiotika. Hur utförs en vardagsaktivitet, som att laga spagetti och köttfärssås, när ett litet sår kan leda till en dödlig infektion? Baserat på efterforskningar, workshops och samtal kunde köksobjekten fastställas; en kniv som minskar risken för stick- och skärskador, skyddande handskar, halkfria skor, en ansiktsmask och bakteriekryddor. Objekt som kan bli en del av det post-antibiotiska köket och vardagslivet om vi inte ändrar vårt nutida beteende. / In the degree work The Post-Antibiotic Kitchen the societal issue concerning antibiotic resistance has been explored through design. The purpose of the project has been to bring attention and spread knowledge about the growing resistance and current consumption of antibiotics. Speculative design has been the used design method and the goal has been to create five objects that will influence and motivate an audience to change the present usage of antibiotics. Through thorough research on the issue and on a future without antibiotics, a scenario has been formulated. The scenario takes place 30 years in the future, in 2049, in a world where there are no longer any functioning antibiotics. How will a day to day activity, such as cooking a meal, be performed when a small cut could lead to a deadly infection? Based on research, workshops and conversations five objects were created; a knife to prevent cut- and stab injuries, protective gloves, non-slip shoes, a face-guard and bacteria spices. Five objects that could be a part of the post-antibiotic kitchen and the daily life unless we change our current behavior today. / <p>Posten kompletterad 20190813 med uppdaterad version av uppsatsen.</p>