E-handel är ett problem för miljön som ständigt ökar samtidigt som det öppnar upp för nya svårigheter. Det störst växande problemet är hur enkelt det är att handla online. Detta leder till andra konsekvenser, såsom underpackning. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka framtida lösningar för att minska E-handel genom att försvåra processen och minska mängden underpackning som sker.   E-handeln är ett ständigt ökande problem för miljön som bidrar med flera problemområden. De största problemen är den låga fyllnadsgrad som sker men framför allt hur man kan motverka enkelheten att handla online (Hellström & Olsson, 2017).  Studien undersöker dessa problem för att komma fram till en spekulativ lösning som är framtidsanpassad.   Projektet har förhållit sig till Ceschin & Gaziulusoy (2016) teori kring design för hållbart beteende för att bygga en förståelse hur man kan påverka individen till en förändring inom hållbar utveckling. Detta arbetades med i en spekulativ designprocess som tog utgångspunkt i en djup litteraturstudie för att hitta designöppningar.    Litteraturstudien togs sedan vidare och utvecklades till fyra scenarion som sattes mot varandra i en polarity mapping för att belysa varje scenarios problem och kunna väga dessa mot varandra (Futures Design Toolkit, 2021).   Dessa scenarion användes i en generativ idégenereringsworkshop för att se hur användare hanterar de olika framtidsscenarierna. Resultatet av detta blev ett intressant utfall där återanvändning av emballage sågs som mest intressant och passande för framtiden då det motverkar nyproduktion. Dessa idéer arbetades sedan vidare med i en skissprocess där det togs fram ett koncept som även blev en del av kunskapsbidraget.   Kunskapsbidraget till designbranschen är en ny approach som belyser dagens problem som även visar upp vägen för att kunna påbörja en positiv förändring på området som börjar i att minska E-handeln. / Online shopping is a problem for the environment that continuously gets worse and opens up for other areas of problems. The largest growing problem is the simple process in order to shop online. This leads to other problems, such as underpacking. The purpose of this study is to explore future solutions in order to reduce online shopping by making it more difficult to order and reduce the underpacking that occurs.    The project has revolved around Ceschin and Gaziulusoy´s (2016) study regarding design for sustainable behavior in order to build an understanding how to make an impact on the individual to make a change regarding online shopping. This was then used in a speculative design process that started in a deep literature study that was used to find design openings.   This study was then developed further into four scenarios that were put up against each other in a polarity mapping in order to find the problems within each scenario. The scenarios were then used in a generative idea generation workshop in order to see how different users would act in order to find a solution for each scenario.    The result of this was an interesting case where the most interesting scenario was reusable packaging. This was seen as the most interesting and best suited for the future due to it minimizing production of new packaging. The ideas were continued in a sketching process that resulted in a concept of a new packaging.

Creative artificial intelligence (AI) is often explored in terms of machine intelligence on a philosophical basis. As a counter-reaction, there have been calls for user-centered creative AI. This thesis aims to make visible creative practitioners’ needs, values, and ethical perspectives that might inform us on the construction of future creative AI tools. It also discusses the need for pragmatic aesthetics as a holistic design approach. Five artists of different backgrounds were invited to a co-speculative workshop where they expressed their thoughts and imaginings regarding creativity, creative tools, and AI. The results suggest that we need to be mindful of virtue ethics, N-creativity, exploration, intuition, trust, and agency when designing creative AI tools. Furthermore, the findings were used to propose design sensitivities aimed at AI researchers and designers. Future research is needed in order to make conclusions about the practical value of the proposed design sensitivities. / Kreativ artificiell intelligens (AI) undersöks ofta i termer av maskinintelligens med filosofiska grunder. Som en motreaktion har det förordnats mer användarcentrerad kreativ AI. Denna avhandling syftar till att synliggöra kreativa utövares behov, värderingar och etiska perspektiv som kan informera oss om hur framtida kreativa AI-verktyg bör konstrueras. Den diskuterar även behovet av pragmatisk estetik som en holistisk designstrategi. Fem konstnärer av olika bakgrund deltog i en samspekulativ workshop där de uttryckte sina tankar och föreställningar om kreativitet, kreativa verktyg och AI. Resultaten pekar på att dessa verktyg bör designas med begrepp som dygdetik, N-kreativitet, utforskande, intuition, tillit och datainverkan i åtanke. Vidare användes resultaten för att föreslå designkänsligheter riktade till AI-forskare och designers. Vidare forskning krävs för att kunna dra slutsatser kring designkänsligheternas praktiska nytta.

Recherche par le design / Face à l'impératif de transition écologique, il est essentiel de produire des connaissances et d’imaginer des futurs préférables - écologiques et collectivement désirables - pour faciliter le passage à de nouveaux modes de vie consommant radicalement moins de ressources. Les impacts environnementaux méconnus et grandissants liés à nos activités numériques appellent à repenser cette dimension afin de la conjuguer à des futurs plus écologiques. Alors que la métropole montréalaise rayonne à l’international pour ses artistes numériques et son industrie du jeu vidéo, force est de constater que le développement de la culture numérique y est déconnecté du projet de transition écologique. Ces constats empiriques nous amènent à formuler un nouveau projet : faire de Montréal une «métropole culturelle numérique durable». La formulation de cet horizon inconnu constitue une opportunité de recherche à aborder par le design. Cette opportunité nous a incités à réaliser un projet de recherche par le design visant à explorer les futurs possibles pour faire de Montréal une métropole culturelle numérique durable en mobilisant les approches du design participatif, de la prospective et du design critique. Cette recherche a poursuivi deux objectifs principaux : explorer les futurs possibles pour Montréal en tant que métropole culturelle numérique durable en générant des idées qui enrichissent cet inconnu et étudier le croisement des approches théoriques en situation de projet. Pour atteindre ces objectifs, nous avons d’abord mené une enquête par recherche bibliographique et entretiens semi-dirigés pour définir le «numérique durable» et enrichir nos constats empiriques initiaux. Nous avons ensuite conçu un dispositif participatif et créatif en mobilisant des méthodes de prospective et de design critique, notamment pour produire des artefacts déclencheurs (des scénarios de prospectives accompagnés d’affiches) racontant les futurs possibles de la métropole culturelle numérique durable de 2035. Le dispositif a ensuite été utilisé lors de deux ateliers de codesign. Une interprétation des effets combinés de la prospective, du design critique et du design participatif sur la performance générative et les raisonnements de conception observés en atelier conclut le projet. La recherche fournit à la fois des avenues pour penser Montréal en tant que métropole culturelle numérique durable en esquissant les principes d’une nouvelle politique publique et une meilleure compréhension de l’intérêt du croisement des approches du design participatif, de la prospective et du design critique. / Given the urgent need for a sustainable transition, it is essential to generate knowledge and envision preferable futures - sustainable and collectively desirable - to facilitate the shift towards new lifestyles consuming radically fewer resources. The unrecognized and growing environmental footprint of our digital activities are calling for some rethinking in order to reconcile this dimension with greener futures. While the city of Montreal is internationally recognized for its digital artists and video game industry, it is also clear that the development of Montreal's digital culture is disconnected from the ongoing sustainable transition. These empirical observations have led us to propose a new project: to make Montreal a "sustainable digital cultural metropolis." This opportunity sparked a research-through-design project aimed at exploring possible futures to make Montreal a sustainable digital cultural metropolis, drawing on the approaches of participatory design, foresight and critical design. This research had two main objectives: to explore possible futures for Montreal as a sustainable digital cultural metropolis through the generation of insights that enrich this unknown concept, and to study the interplay of the theoretical approaches in the context of a project. To achieve these objectives, we first conducted an inquiry using desk research and semi-structured interviews to define "digital sustainability" and enrich our initial empirical observations. We then designed a participatory and creative device, mobilizing foresight and critical design methods, to produce "trigger" artifacts (foresight scenarios accompanied by posters) depicting the possible futures of the sustainable digital cultural metropolis of 2035. The device was then used in two codesign workshops. An analysis of the interplay between foresight, critical design and participatory design in relation with the generative outputs and design thinking processes observed in the workshops concludes the project. The research provides new avenues to envision Montreal as a sustainable digital cultural metropolis and drafts the principles of a new public policy as well as it provides a better understanding of the benefits stemming from the interplay of participatory design, foresight and critical design.

Everyday we come up with new solutions for our existing problems. But the solutions of today are tomorrow’s problem. The products we create as designers are often bringing more complexity in our society than it is initially intended for. This thesis aims to give a new perspective on the design practice community. Instead of starting with a problem-solving scope, this thesis intent is to find what is truly meaningful for human life, meaning finding, and to propose how we can envision new ways of meaning making within interaction design. The two processes together of meaning finding and meaning making is how we can aim for concrete results that are relevant for our society. To better understand what truly matters for human life, I collected 14 stories through ethnographic research. These ethnographic stories reveal the nature of human characteristics when people face and overcome big challenges in life. Some of these ethnographic stories highlights the life of a WWII survivor, war refugee, leukaemia child-patient and a widow. Parallel, to the ethnographic work, I explored how I can evoke a deeper connection between people, by making them listen to each-other’s heartbeat.  Inevitably, by exploring the fundamental elements of human life and observing the emotions and behaviour of my interviewees and participants, the thesis find itself often on the playground between philosophy and human life. But by taking a strong interaction design perspective, these insights were manifested in the human design manifesto booklet. This booklet proposes six expressions for designers, with the intention to embrace the fundamental elements of human life when we design:  1. Design attitudes, not solutions. 2. Design the medicine of the mind. 3. Design for relationships. 4. Design for our direct senses. 5. Design for the deep human connection. 6. Design the act of kindness  Later on, for the meaning making part: one statement from the Human Design Manifesto was selected to explore in depth: Design the act of kindness. For this expression project Hidden Figures was created. Hidden Figures is a design proposal which demonstrates that a design creation can be driven by the fundamental elements of human life. In this case proposing the act of kindness as a vision on how our society could be.  In overall, this master’s thesis demonstrates how our design proposals can embody and resonate well between the three levels of design philosophy, a designer’s vision and interaction design practice: How we, as designers, can use meaning-making and meaning-finding to create more relevant impact for our society. Last, I hope this work encourages other designers to think deeply about their own creations and its impact. And help designers reflect on why they create and how they could also alternatively practice design.