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.

I denna uppsats jämförs designförslag för visuell korrigerande feedback via projektor i hemmatränings miljö för att se vilken design och vilka design kombinationer som skulle vara användbart och tydligast att förstå för en användare. I och med covid 19 har det lett till att det är mer aktuellt att träna hemifrån istället för på gym för att minska smittrisken. Men i och med att det ofta inte finns samma stödjande verktyg hemma som på gym (ex. speglar och instruktörer) så kan det leda till att övningar utförs fel och kan leda till skador. Tidigt inne i utforskandet av digitala verktyg för hemmaträning kunde man se en kunskapslucka. Forskning och förslag finns runt området men få verktyg för just hemmaträning. Genom att använda tidigare forskning och tidigare kurslitteratur som bas till designförslagen så skapades det tre olika designförslag. De förslagen användes i kvalitativa intervjuer för att bedöma och kritisera de förslagen som presenterades. Efter intervjuerna evaluerades designförslagen för att landa i ett användbart och tydligt designförslag av visuell korrigerande feedback via projektor.

Syftet med denna undersökning är att undersöka hur glanceable feedback kan implementeras i aktivitetsenheter för hundar för att skapa en bättre användarupplevelse och minska den teknologiska störningen i kommunikationen mellan människa och hund. Tidigare studier visar att utvecklingen hos aktivitetsenheter för hundar är långt ifrån lika framgångsrik jämfört med den för aktivitetsenheter för människor (Ramokapane, van der Linden & Zamansky, 2019; Väätäjä et al. 2018; Zamansky; et al. 2019). Väätäjä, et al. (2018) har påpekat vikten av att teknologin bakom aktivitetsenheten, så som mobiltelefoner, inte ska komma mellan hundägaren och hunden. Den får inte agera som ett störningsmoment som distanserar kommunikation eller interaktion mellan hund och människa (Väätäjä et al. 2018). Detta är idag oundvikligt i dagens aktivitetsenheter för hundar då användaren är helt beroende av mobiltelefonens tillhörande applikation (Väätäjä et al. 2018).

Genom frågeställningen (Hur kan glanceable feedback appliceras i aktivitetsenhet för hundar för att ge hundägaren direkt information om hundens aktivitet?) undersöks hur glanceable feedback kan appliceras i aktivitetsenheter för hundar och undvika att kommunikation mellan hund och ägare störs med tekniken. Resultatet är aktivitetsenheten Good Boy. Enheten är försedd med en display och ett mekaniskt hjul som byter mellan de olika kategorierna distans/steg, puls/kroppstemperatur, info/kontaktuppgifter och led/lampa.

Spelindustrin förändras och nya former av spel och upplevelser utvecklas. Från brädspel till datorspel till de nyaste AR och VR spelen. Just nu arbetar utvecklare med att skapa nya upplevelser där det virtuella kombineras med verkligheten till en fulländad och trovärdig mix. Detta skapar utrymme för nya möjligheter at implementera teknologi i klassiska artefakter. Inom kontexten av brädspel finner vi många fysiska spelobjekt och tärningen är vald som huvud-karaktären för den här studien. Placerad mellan brädspel och digitala spel kommer nu AR spel. Tidigare forskning inom brädspel och teknologi gav intressant information inom kontexten och agerar som riktlinjer och som grund för ny design. Tärningen är världskänd så siktar den härstudien mot att ta reda på hur det här objektet kan utvecklas med hjälp av teknologi. Genom att arbeta med konceptdriven design och i nära relation med en AR spelstudio, designades den nya AR tärningen och det nya AR spelet DiceFold. En kvalitativ metod användes där experter inom industrin diskuterade de nya möjliga upplevelser inom AR spel och funktionaliteten hos AR tärningen, som kanske kan bli en ny del inom spelvärlden i en snar framtid. Denna studie resulterar i tre olika saker, den nya spel komponenten AR tärningen, det nya AR spelet DiceFold och mer information inom forskning av AR spel. 

Målet med denna studie är att undersöka hur de stadsboende generation Z påverkas av den ständiga tillgängligheten av mobila enheter och internet, för att ytterligare skapa förståelse för målgruppen. Detta görs genom att med hjälp av begreppen JoMO och FoMO avtäcka vilken sorts beteenden generation Z drivs till som följd av nämnda utveckling. Drivs de till att undvika för att kunna vara lyckliga (JoMO) eller drivs de till olycklighet på grund av att de inte kan delta nog? (FoMO). Därefter analyseras dessa beteenden för att skapa förståelse kring hur generation Z agerar, kommunicerar och tänker i relation till de mobila enheterna: för att vi ytterligare ska förstå dem och i framtiden kunna skapa framgångsrik design för dem. Resultatet och kunskapen från denna studie ämnar därmed börja undersöka samhällsproblemet vilket är avsaknad av förståelse kring generation Z:s relation till internetuppkopplade mobila enheter.

Vad är BYOD (Bring Your Own Device)? BYOD är en relativt ny trend som går ut på att anställda på ett företag får möjlighet att ta med sina egna elektroniska produkter såsom smarta telefoner, surfplattor och bärbara datorer. Det dyker upp rubriker om fenomenet BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) i diverse tekniska nättidningar och under utbildningens gång har det funnits lärare som berört ämnet lite löst. Detta väckte en nyfikenhet för att gräva djupare i ämnet, eftersom det verkade vara en trend på uppgång. Detta är en så pass ny företeelse att många företag inte vet hur de ska hantera detta i sitt nätverk. Företagen har också fått omvärdera sina säkerhetspolicys.

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.

Människor använder sig allt mer av digitala hälsoplattformar, vilket gör att det genereras mängder av hälsodata från användarnas digitala aktiviteter. Syftet med detta examensarbetet är att med hjälp av en konceptdriven designforskning framställa ett designkoncept för att hantera denna stora mängd hälsodata. Målet med konceptet är att det ska skapa en möjlighet för individer att själva hantera och få tillgång till sin hälsodata som genereras, för att i sin tur även kunna utnyttja det till något meningsfullt. 

Med hjälp av en metodologisk guide har konceptet utvecklats, för att ta fram teoretiskt förankrade egenskaper och sammanställa dem till ett koncept i form av en modell. För att få in extern kritik av konceptet involverades tio användare, vilket i sin tur ledde till revidering och kontextualisering av HealthLab. I resultatet presenteras slutgiltligt koncept av Healthlab. Konceptet ska fungera som en multiplattform vars syfte är att samla in externa hälsodata, för att användarna ska få in flera aspekter i deras träning, som ska i sin tur hjälpa till att bidra till en bättre träningsupplevelse. Det slutgiltiga resultatet av HealthLab är tänkt att vara en framtidsvision för att vägleda och väcka nya tankesätt hos forskare och 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.