This dissertation, titled Interactive Music Composition, is a practice based Ph.D. thesis in the field of Musicology. The purpose is to explore if and how one can compose computer based interactive music, that is musically satisfying for an interacting audience, consisting of both laymen and skilled musicians. The text describes the design and reflection in two interactive music installations: Do-Be-DJ, open-air installation in a public park, and, Mufi, with modular and moveable interface. Based on methods and per­spectives in Musicology and Interaction Design, a composition model for interactive music is developed. The model investigates the experience di­mensions listen, explore, compose and collaborate. It also investigates the design dimensions of interaction, narrative structure, composition rule and sound node. The conceptual approach is to apply improvisation and composition methods from jazz, pop and groove based music on interactive music. It also uses the concepts of openess in musical structures and interpretation, musical mediation of actions and meaning and everyday use of music, when composing interactive music. The dissertation contributes to an understanding of how to create composition techniques for interactive music, such as: Direct, varied and shifting response. It reflects on the change in meaning of the musicological terms composition, improvisation, musical work, listener, musician and audience. And on the interaction design terms interaction, gameplay, system and user. The term co-creator is used to describe an actively, interacting and collaborating person, to complement traditional terms like audience, performer and user.

Our voice and body are important parts of our self-experience, and our communication and relational possibilities. They gradually become more important for Interaction Design due to increased development of tangible interaction and mobile communication. In this paper we present and discuss our work with voice and tangible interaction in our ongoing research project RHYME. The goal is to improve health for families, adults and children with disabilities through use of collaborative, musical, tangible media. We build on the use of voice in Music Therapy and on a humanistic health approach. Our challenge is to design vocal and tangible interactive media that through use reduce isolation and passivity and increase empowerment for the users. We use sound recognition, generative sound synthesis, vibrations and cross-media techniques to create rhythms, melodies and harmonic chords to stimulate voice-body connections, positive emotions and structures for actions.

Our voice and body are important parts of our self-expression and self-experience for all of us. They are also essential for our way to communicate and build relations cross borders such as abilities, ages, locations and backgrounds. Voice, body and tangibility gradually become more important for ICT, due to increased development of tangible interaction and mobile communication. The voice and tangible interaction therefore also become more important for the Universal Design field. In this paper we present and discuss our work with voice and tangible interaction in our ongoing research project RHYME. The goal is to improve health for families, adults and children with disabilities through use of collaborative, musical, tangible and sensorial media. We build on use of voice in Music Therapy, knowledge from multi-sensory stimulation and on a humanistic health approach. Our challenge is to design vocal and tangible interactive media that are sensorially stimulating. Interactive media that through use reduce isolation and passivity and increase empowerment for all the users. We use sound recognition, generative sound synthesis, vibrations and cross-media techniques, to create rhythms, melodies and harmonic chords to stimulate voice-body connections, positive emotions and structures for actions.

Our voice and body are important parts of our self-expression and self-experience for all of us. They are also essential for our way to communicate and build relations cross borders such as abilities, ages, locations and backgrounds. Voice, body and tangibility gradually become more important for Information and Communication Technology (ICT), due to increased development of tangible interaction and mobile communication. The voice and tangible interaction therefore also become more important for the fields of Assistive Technology, Health Technology and Universal Design. In this paper we present and discuss our work with voice and tangible interaction in our on-going research project RHYME. The goal is to improve health for families, adults and children with disabilities through use of collaborative, musical, tangible and sensorial media. We build on use of voice in Music Therapy, knowledge from multi-sensory stimulation and on a humanistic health approach. Our challenge is to design vocal and tangible interactive media that are sensorially stimulating. Interactive media that through use, can reduce isolation and passivity and increase empowerment for all the users. We use sound recognition, generative sound synthesis, vibrations and cross-media techniques, to create rhythms, melodies and harmonic chords to stimulate voice-body connections, positive emotions and structures for actions.

Our voice and body are important parts of our self-expression and self-experience. They are also essential for our way to communicate and build relations cross borders like abilities, ages, locations, backgrounds and cultures. Voice and tangibility gradually become more important when developing new music technology for the Music Therapy and the Music and Health fields, due to new technology possibilities that have recently arisen. For example smartphones, computer games and networked, social media services like Skype. In this paper we present and discuss our work with voice and tangible interaction in our ongoing research project. The goal is to improve health for families, adults and children with severe disabilities through use of collaborative, musical, tangible sensorial media. We build on use of voice in Music Therapy and studies by Lisa Sokolov, Diane Austin, Kenneth Bruscia and Joanne Loewy. Further we build on knowledge from Multi-sensory stimulation and on a humanistic health approach. Our challenge is to design vocal and tangible, sensorially stimulating interactive media, that through use reduce isolation and passivity and increase empowerment for all the users. We use sound recognition, generative sound synthesis, vibrations and cross- media techniques, to create rhythms, melodies and harmonic chords to stimulate body- voice connections, positive emotions and structures for actions. The reflections in this paper build on action research methods, video observations and research-by-design methods. We reflect on observations of families and close others with children with severe disabilities, interacting in three vocal and tangible installations.

Over the last decades there has been a dramatic change in the design agenda within the field of IT design. With the increase of mobile and wireless devices and the massive expansion of Internet availability the classic object of design - is about to vanish. Even if we conceive the setting where information technology is used as a 'system', this system can hardly be seen as the outcome of a system design process. Arguably, IT design is today guided by new design agendas. Ubiquitous computing and from the user side information ecologies seem to be more appropriate labels for the emerging technology. The objects of design has correspondingly been changing from systems to devices, tools or information appliances. This radical opening of the question of what to design has led to an apparent confusion on how to design. Just as the field of information systems is about to mature with a broad and widely accepted repertoire of design approaches and methods, ranging from workflow analysis to user involvement, this battery of approaches is loosing ground in favor of more techno-centric explorations, such as Tangible Computing. In our view there seem to be a growing divide between mainly North American contributions to IT design emphasizing new information technology concepts such as ubiquitous computing, tangible interaction and augmented reality, and mainly European contributions emphasizing the role of particular information technology applications in the light of in-depth studies of the potential contexts of use.

n this article we present a novel approach for the understanding and the design of interactive health improving music technology, what we call Musicking Tangibles. The Musicking Tangibles approach represents an alternative approach to the traditional instrument, interface and switch-oriented music technology perspective. Our approach combines a humanistic, resource and empowerment oriented health approach with an aesthetic and culture based design approach towards music technology. We present four empowering and health improving qualities for the Musicking Tangibles. These qualities emphasize to: 1) Continually evoke interest and positive emotions relevant to diverse users’ interpretation of the tangibles and the situation; 2) Dynamically offer the users many roles to take, many musicking actions to make and many ways to express themselves; 3) Offer the users aesthetically consistent responses and build relevant cross-media expectations and challenges over time and space, consistent with their character; 4) Offer the users many relations to make: to people, things, experiences, events and places. Further we present and argue for some design solutions of the Musicking Tangibles ORFI, WAVE, REFLECT, and the POLLY World from the RHYME-project. In developing POLLY we have tried to put together as many design qualities as possible, to exemplify our view and current understanding.

The seven principles of Universal Design, such as ”4. Perceptible Information” and ”5. Tolerance for errors”, are formulated from the design’s or system’s perspective. The principles focus on the qualities of the system or design, not on the value of use, the long time experience and use by many different people. Nor do the principles embrace a cultural and social understanding of the value of things, designs and situations. In this paper we argue for the necessity to broaden this narrow system or product design perspective, when designing to empower diverse users. Our field of study is musical and cross-media Tangible Interaction Design, where multimedia computer capabilities are included in everyday objects. Our goal is to motivate social and musical co-creation for families with disabled children to improve their health and quality of life. To extend our design thinking, practice and understanding of a design’s value, meaning and empowering potential, we build on a humanistic health approach, resource-oriented thinking, Positive psychology and Empowerment philosophy. In the paper we present and discuss how we design cross-media, interactive, tangible and musical things to motivate and empower a variety of users in our on-going RHYME project.

In this paper, design for visual corrective feedback through projection in at-home-exercising environments is compared to see what design and what design combinations would be usable and most understandable. With the Covid 19 pandemic it has become more actual to start exercising from home instead of going to gyms and increase the infection risk of the virus. However, with most homes not having all the helpful tools that the gyms might have (eg. mirrors and instructors), leads to practitioners not exercising the correct way which in turn might lead to the practitioners receiving injuries rather than the desired results. Early on in the research on digital tools for at home exercising, a knowledge gap came to view. Research and drafts do exist but solutions for at home exercising were rare to nonexistent. With the help of previous research and course literature as a base for design, three proposals were made. Those proposals were used in qualitative interviews to judge and critique the presented proposals. After the interviews, the presented design proposals were reevaluated to give a usable and understandable design proposal of visual corrective feedback through projection.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how glanceable feedback can be implemented in activity units for dogs to create a better user experience and reduce the technological disruption in human-dog communication. Previous studies show that the development of activity units for dogs is far from as successful as activity units for humans (Ramokapane, van der Linden & Zamansky, 2019; Väätäjä et al. 2018; Zamansky et al. 2019). Väätäjä, et al. (2018) have pointed out the importance of the technology behind the activity, such as the mobile phone, unit not coming between the dog owner and the dog. It must not act as a disturbance that distances communication or interaction between dog and human (Väätäjä et al. 2018). This is inevitable in today's activity units for dogs as the user is completely dependent on the mobile phone's associated application (Väätäjä et al. 2018). 

The question (How can glanceable feedback be applied in an activity unit for dogs to give the dog owner direct information on the dog's activity?) Investigates how glanceable feedback can be applied in activity units for dogs and avoid that communication between dog and owner is disturbed by technology. The result is the Good Boy activity unit. The unit is equipped with a display and a mechanical wheel that switches between the different categories distance / step, pulse / body temperature, info /contact information and LED/lamp.

The gaming industry is changing, and new games and gaming experiences are being developed. From board games to video games, to the latest AR and VR games. Right now, developers are trying to develop experiences that combine the real and the virtual into one wholesome and believable mix. This gives new opportunities to implement technology in classical artifacts. In the context of board games there are several tangible pieces, and the dice is the chosen main character for this study. Placed in the middle, between board games and digital games, AR games comes now. Previous research of board games and digital technology gives interesting information on the activity and provides a foundation for new design. The dice is world famous, so this study aims to find out how this piece can evolve with the help of technology. By working with concept driven design, in relation with an AR game studio, the AR Dice and the AR Game DiceFold was invented. A qualitative method was used in which experts of the industry got together to discuss the new experiences of AR games and the functionality of the AR Dice which might become a new part of the gaming world in the near future. The findings of this study lead to three promising discoveries. A new gaming component, new AR game and further answers regarding research in the scopes of AR games.

The aim of the current study is to investigate the city-living generation Z, and how they are affected by the constant availability of mobile units and the Internet, to create further understanding of the target group. This is executed by usage of the notions JoMO and FoMO, to uncover which sort of behaviour generation Z is driven to as a consequence of said development. Are they driven to evasion for happiness (JoMO) or are they driven to miserability from not being to participate enough? (FoMO). Hereinafter, these behaviours are analyzed to create an understanding concerning how generation Z acts, communicates and thinks in relation to the mobile units: to create further understanding of them and to be able to create better designs for them in the future. The results and knowledge from the current study therefore aims towards starting to examine the societal issue which is lack of understanding of the relation to internet connected devices among generation Z.

What is BYOD (Bring Your Own Device)? BYOD is a relatively new trend in which employees in a company has the opportunity to bring their own electronic devices such as Smartphones, Tablets and Laptops. On the Internet you can find some information about the phenomena BYOD and during our education some teachers has gone in to the subject loosely. This awoken a curiosity to dig deeper in the subject, because it seemed to be a trend in the rising. This is such a new phenomenon that many companies doesn’t know how to handle this in their network. The companies also has to reevaluate their security policies.

Artikeln presenter ett VideoBord med några VideoKort. VideoBordet är ett mötesbord som möjliggör kollaborativ utforskning och bearbetning av videomaterial under designsessioner via ett gripbart gränssnitt för många användare. VideoKorten är papperskort med en stillbild och text som tillsammans representerar viktiga nyckelsekvenser i videomaterialet. Respektive nyckelsekvens kan spelas upp genom att en knapp, som finns monterad på varje VideoKort, trycks in av någon deltagare i design sessionen. VideoKorten kan ligga utspridda på VideoBordet tillsammans med andra fysiska objekt. Därigenom kan mötesdeltagarna blanda "länkade" fysiska representationer av videomaterial med andra fysiska artefakter under brainstormsliknande designsessioner. Därigenom hanteras den utmaning som ligger i att blanda videons lite ogripbara och kortlivade karaktär med fysiska artefakters mer bestående och påtagliga gripbarhet. Implementeringen bygger på passiva RFID-taggar (Radio Frequency Identification) som är permanent monterade på varje enskilt VideoKort. RFID-taggen är dock modifierad så att aktivering enbart sker genom att användarna, via en knapptryckning på respektive kort, explicit ger uttryck för att man önskar få den speciella videosekvensen uppspelad. Preliminära observationer under en design workshop indikerar att den direkta fysiska manipulationen av VideoKorten tillsammans med dess direkta koppling till respektive videosekvens möjliggör den mix mellan fysiska artefakter och digital video som eftersträvades.

The purpose of this study is to explore the possibilities of using auditory stimulation in order to raise somatic awareness of horse riders while riding using Somaesthetic Appreciation Design as a method. In research of Somaesthetics and horse-human relations, a gap in Somaesthetics is being questioned, and a new dimension is suggested. Somaesthetics in the design of technology often surround the self of a user, and Somaesthetics as described by Shusterman is focused on self development, but many of our experiences are in union to other beings. The suggestion of a new dimension is called Centaur Somaesthetics, and it focuses on the relation and communication between two somas in order to understand and improve oneself. 

One example of an experience where the self is dependent to another being is within equestrianism, where the rider is dependent on the horse. Riders, as well as their horses, use their bodies to communicate while riding, meaning that being aware of one's body as a tool for communication is crucial. When horse and rider find harmony within teamwork, the rider may experience a centaur feeling of being one with the horse. This centaur feeling relies on the rider's ability to support and direct the horse, but to do this we need to understand the horse. One of the basics in equestrianism is rhythm and tempo, where a correct rhythm and a consistent tempo in all gaits is desirable as it is a sign of good communication and a well-educated horse. By applying the Somaesthetics principle of raising somatic awareness to understand and improve oneself - this study has explored the possibilities of using audio in combination with the self-tracking application Equilab, using their technology of tracking motion data to determine rhythm and tempo. This has resulted in the concept of using rhythm-adaptive and tempo-flexible music to support the riders to be more aware of their bodies as a tool for communication. The music will present a correct rhythm of the ridden gait as well as it is being played at a consistent tempo of the horse’s natural tempi.

While testing a design of the concept called Hear the Centaur, the conclusion of the music having great signs of a heightened somatic awareness was established. No objective data of a more consistent tempo or a more correct rhythm was found, but all riders who participated in the study articulated that they found a great support in the music. All riders found support in the area that they were currently struggling with, and all riders mentioned that the music helped them with their communication to their horse.

People are increasingly using digital health platforms, which means that lots of health data is generated from users' digital activities. The purpose of this paper is to develop a design concept to manage this large amount of health data, with the help of concept-driven design research. The goal of the concept is to create an opportunity for individuals to manage and access their generated health data, in order to use it for something meaningful. 

With the aid of a methodological guide, the concept has been developed, to create theoretically anchored qualities and to compile them into a concept in the form of a model. To get external criticism of the concept, ten users were involved, which in turn led to revision and contextualisation of HealthLab. In the result, a final concept model is presented of HealthLab. The concept will serve as a multiplatform whose purpose is to collect external health data so that users can get several aspects of their training, which in turn will contribute to a better training experience. The final result of HealthLab is intended to be a vision for the future to guide and awaken new ways of thinking among researchers and designers.

Sketching is a most central activity within most design projects. But what happens if we adopt the ideas of collaborative design and invite participants that are not trained to sketch in to the design process, how can they participate in this central activity? This paper offers an introduction to how design material based on ethnography can be understood as sketching material. It suggests a process where the sketching tools are constructed within the scope of the project. Some practical details of how the design material has been co-authored will be explored. Finally, this paper shows how the design material has been used to co-author possible futures within the scope of design sessions.

The spatial organization of the workplace affects the work going on there. The technology used, changes the work practice. This paper describes a design process where different aspects of workplace design for project-based office work have been combined into one multi-stakeholder project, integrating the spatial aspects, the furniture, the information technology, and the IT-services that are connected to work. To have several different partners with different interests and competencies collaborating in a future oriented design process puts certain demands on the setup of the process and the tools being used. Taking a starting point in existing work practice, we have driven this project with techniques most often used for user-involvement. Scenario building played a crucial role in tying the process together. The concrete result is a completed concept proposal for an actual “office of the future” layout, which integrates advanced information technology and service solutions. The case shows that it is possible to reach innovative consensus-anchored results with the described design method.

Within the Participatory Design community as well as the Computer Supported Cooperative Work tradition, a lot of effort has been put into the question of letting field studies inform design. In this paper, we describe how game-like approaches can be used as a way of exploring a practice from a design point of view. Thinking of ethnographic fieldwork as a base for sketching, rather than descriptions, creates openness that invites collaborative authoring. The concept of playful collaborative exploration suggests certain ways of interacting with material from field studies so that it becomes a design material for an open-ended design process. We have carried out field studies, transformed the field material into design material, and set up a design game for working with it together with the people we followed in the field. The design game builds on an idea about the power of narratives and the benefits of constraining rules. We believe that this framework for collaboration opens for playfulness, experimentation, and new design ideas.

During the last few years personas has become an established design technique within the IT-design field. Using personas has proven itself as a valuable approach for designers to switch between a developer's perspective and a user's perspectivein the design process. The technique is claimed to help designers in keeping a clear focus and shaping a consistent user-interface by making ‘the user’ present in the design work. In this paper we report on a number of projects where we have elaborated on the persona approach for collaborative design. With the goalof creating ‘user presence’ in the design process, we have developed an approach building on a combination of ethnographic exploration, participatory inquiry, and collaborative design. This paper carries two interrelated points: the grounding of personasin existing practice; and the notion that ‘the user’ is created as an ongoing process throughout the design work.

This paper outlines design ideas from a project dealing with different interaction concepts for the design of a computer based navigation system for truck drivers. The incentive for thinking about interaction concepts is that programming of navigation systems often occurs while driving, since that is when the support is needed. We have been working with ethnographical studies of truck drivers driving both over short and long distances. There has been quite a lot of work done in the field of cars and navigation, in this paper however the main theme is not navigation in cars as such, but the truck environment as an example of a high-demanding room for work activities. This lead to a design situation where the artifact and the activity has to go together, the artifact has to ‘melt-in’ to the work practice. We discuss how the design of computational power can melt-in to the work-practice without demanding too much of the attention needed for driving the truck safely.

This position paper outlines design ideas gained from a project dealing with different interaction concepts when designing a computer based navigation systems for truck drivers working over large areas and where the delivery and pick-up points from time to time are unfamiliar to the driver. The extension of this previous project includes more ’untraditional’ technology, but has the same approach and uses the same basic concepts. Both the original design and the new design are based on an empirical study of truck drivers work practice.