Hide menu

729G22 Interaction Design

Project Work


Purpose and Organisation

The aim of the project is to create a prototype of a new system, or further develop an existing system, given an initial brief, by following a design process, described here.

Every group will be assigned a project by the first lecture.

The timetable contains a number of sessions described as "Independent project work". These sessions are for the project group to use as they see best for joint work, planning, communication etc. It is very important that you make use of the sessions during the first week to kickstart the work and get the research phase planned and going. The schedule is tightly set.

The group will show and discuss their work at the end of each step of the process. This is done in smaller groups together with a teacher. This is an opportunity to receive feedback, but also to plan for the following stages.

Make sure everyone in the group contributes to the project. If there are any problems in the groups you must immediately contact one of the course teachers.

For the project work to work some time needs to be allotted for planning of the following work package and start reading the course literature for it. Before some work packages it is necessary to recruit people to interview and observe. This is also something that takes time. It is recommended that one or two project members explicitly take responsibility for the detail planning of the following phase and there do less work in the present phase. This needs to be managed explicitly and stated clearly in the project plan and communcated to the teachers.

The time budget for the course is about 16 hours per week for each student including class attendence, reading and individual report work.

Group reports

Here you can find report templates for first two stages of the project. The reports are sent to teachers in conjunction with each stage deadline. The final reports will need to be customized for each client, se also Examination.
  1. User research
  2. Concept design

Projects and Groups

Students will be assigned to one of the following design briefs with external clients by the start of the course.

Group 1. Promoting the desire to drive safely, Autoliv
Car drivers should feel the need to drive safely, but driving is for most people only a flexible means to an end (e.g. to get somewhere or get something from one place to another). Your challenge is to design a way to convey the message about road traffic safety to the average road user, in a way that can promote the desire to drive safely by means of modern communication and interaction platforms such as smartphones, social media etc. The goal is to devise a strategy for an ideal scenario, i.e. irrespective of demographics and cultural difference to reach every road user. Your work would include evaluating methods currently employed in this regard, devising and testing an innovative new approach to:
- Identify the different platforms to convey the message of road traffic safety to have the greatest and impactful reach
- Develop method/means to convey this message through the chosen platform in a simple and clear manner
- Evaluate the effectiveness of the chosen strategy, highlighting the strengths and weaknesses learnt.
Contact: Tejas Chandran, tejas dot chandran at autoliv dot com
Members: Ida Backman, Magdalena Haglund Holst, Moritz Mergheim, Alma Savander, Marc Zeller

Group 2. Booking system, FOI (Swedish Defence Research Agency)
FOI needs a booking system for meeting- and conference rooms. The vision includes tablets (or similar) devices outside rooms that show the availability of the room. You should also be able to book the room as you stand outside it. Requirements on synchronisation with other systems should be considered, as well as possible security issues, and the possibility to request support and report errors.
Contact: Ove Jansson, ove dot jansson at foi dot se
Members: Simon Berglund, Henrik Holmberg, Daniel Kulander, Martina Odéen, Emil Strandberg, Nina Eliasson

Group 3. Personal alarm and security services, Indentive
Personal alarms and remote telecare services is one area of application for IoT (Internet of Things) applications. The purpose of the service is to provide safety for both elderly residents and for family members. They are based on various sensors that can detect if you have fallen, gotten out of the bed, stopped moving, made tea or coffee, left the oven on, and so on. It could also include smart locks so that you remotely can unlock the door for the neighbour. These kinds of systems typically send alarms by making loud noises or messaging a family members phone, or a call center.
The design challenge for this brief is two-fold. One is how to set up such a system using if-then-rules. How do you decide what should happen if, this or that sensor reach a certain alarm level? Some kind of editor that elderly or family members themselves can use should be designed. The other part is to decide what kinds of alarms should be given. What happens on the family members' app when an alarm goes off? Due to time constraints, you may have to focus primarily on one of these parts. Important requirements include:
- The elderly persons and family members should be happy to wear and use devices and apps.
- They should be able to use it (eg. change batteries if/when necessary)
- Sensors should not react and sound alarms for other things (eg. cats doing the things cats do).
Contact: John Rönnbäck, jro at indentive dot se
Members: Daniel Holmer, Karl Michael Kullberg, Filippa Lindberg, Amina Suljevic, Robert Hilduson

Group 4. Redesigning a health care system for burn care, Region Östergötland, Centrum för verksamhetsstöd och utveckling
Advanced intensive care of burn injuries is carried out at the university hospitals in Region Östergötland and Region Uppsala; complicated cases from all over the country are taken care of. The burn care units use the IT system BUD to record patient health data, as a quality registry and as a platform for research. The system was developed internally at the burn care unit many years ago. It lacks functionality, it has unused functions, and it is difficult to maintain, and therefore it now needs a total redesign. The new system will use modern web-based interfaces and be built on open standards used in the digitalization platform in Region Östergötland. The system will run on both tablets and laptops.
The student task is to design a prototype of the user interface of the new system. The scope can be reduced to a limited part of the system in order to fit the size of the student project. The project may include visiting a ward to make observations and to learn about the context where BUD is used, which means that the students (at least not all of them) should not be bothered by the hospital environment. The project also includes discussions/interviews with the burn unit personell regarding needs and requirements.
The results of the project (the prototype) is not confidential, but strict confidentiality holds for patient data, for instance when visiting a ward or taking part of the content of existing systems that store patient data. At https://regionostergotland.github.io/studentuppdrag/ you can find suggestions on other possible student projects in Region Östergötland. The page is in Swedish.
Contact: Åsa Skagerhult, asa dot skagerhult at regionostergotland dot se
Members: Johannes Oksa, Wilhelm Brodin, Sebastian Jerreling, Johanna Palmqvist, Erika Vedin, Alma Wärnsäter

Group 5. Find at the library, Linköping University Library
Many students have difficulties finding their way among the shelves in the Campus Norrköping library. The staff have created a map function in the digital library catalogue, placed the books systematically and alphabetically, and also set up signs. Despite this, students often ask for help to find the book. This project aims to explore ways for students to find a particular book, but also to visualize how the books are distributed in the physical space, which makes browsing the shelves possible, and make the layout of the book collections clear. The project has accordingly two parts. The first is to study the conceptions users (usually students) have of how to find and how they would like to find. Based on this, the second part is to develop suggestions for how to design the digital environment, as well as physical environment with its signage, to better suit the users.
Contact: Kajsa Gustafsson Åman, kajsa dot gustafsson dot aman at liudot se
Members: Eliasz Brzeskot Ganning, Hanna Linder, Julia Widerberg, Tjorven Weber, Joakim Åström, Amelie Christiansen

Group 6. Type editor, Saab
Engineers in development and testing of features of systems, as well as operators who train users (e.g. pilots), need to model entities (e.g. products, systems, people) and their components (e.g. wheels, engines), set their their parameters, and create scenarios for simulation. For this they need a tool, here called a "type editor". This tool is also used to pack information packages that goes with the entities and their components. Important requirements include:
- Interdependence graph between entities and components.
- Exporting-importing, for example editing on desktop and then exporting to simulator system application.
- Interdependence check at save so that references to non-existing (unsaved) components or entities causes warnings.
- Plotting/graphing of complex data matrices.
- Support both development of new entities, testing of entities, and documentation of entities.
The goal of the project is to investigate current user needs and create a prototype.
Contact: Anna Kämpe, anna dot kampe at saabgroup dot com
Members: Sandra Jonasson, Alva Lindhagen, Albin Ringertz, Jesper Petterson


Page responsible: Mattias Arvola
Last updated: 2019-09-13