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Over the past three decades, youth has been observed to be increasingly disengaged from politics and traditional democratic institutions. Research conducted on the pedagogical potential of games has shown that games can have a positive impact on motivation, support cognitive learning and development of soft skills, and are therefore optimal media for collaborative activities aimed at fostering the civic competencies of knowledge, skills and dispositions. Analog games appear to present advantages over digital games concerning affordability, availability, understanding of complex systems and development of social skills. While there has been growing interest in the design of civic board games, most are designed with the aim of preparing players for political advocacy, and some scholars have affirmed the need for more games fostering ethical deliberation, as a foundation for critical citizenship. The present study investigates the process of designing a civic board game suitable for classroom implementation and meant to cover the three core civic competencies of knowledge, skills and dispositions, while favouring a logic of ethical deliberation over advocacy. In particular, the research examines the challenges that arise when incorporating game mechanics for 1. fostering the understanding of socio-economic systems (knowledge), through system modeling and simulation, 2. fostering competencies of collaborative decision-making (skills), through collaborative game mechanics, 3. eliciting meaningful debate (dispositions), while 4. adapting to classroom settings. The study was project-based and methodologically applied game design to design-based research. A collaborative civic board game, Original Position, intended for application in the classroom as part of social studies class, was developed iteratively over four versions, each tested through internal and casual tests. The game aimed at eliciting reflection and debate on the subject of distributive justice, and draws on

Halloped.fi, named according to the Finnish translation of “student representative”, is a web-based information system (website) of Student Representatives in Administration. Project Halloped aims to improve the non-intuitive user experience (UX) and redesign the obsolete user interface (UI) of Halloped.fi. According to a great deal of literature, storytelling, as an effective means, especially reveals potential to be applied to the process of user experience design. Following the UCD (User-Centred Design) process, the thesis aims to investigate the feasibility of applying storytelling to UX design and propose the design solution for the new Halloped.fi. Therefore, the main research question of this thesis is how to design for user experience through storytelling, particularly in the context of UX design for a website. The thesis analyses the essential components of user experience, discusses the interrelation between user experience and storytelling and summarises the storytelling approaches through a literature review. Based on the literature review, the thesis builds the theoretical framework for implementing Project Halloped. Leveraging the theoretical framework, the project identified the pain points of the user experience, proposed the design concept and evaluated the design solutions through various kinds of storytelling approaches. The overall project preliminarily validated that storytelling is a practical and efficient method for the UX design of a website. In practice, UX design through storytelling should follow three principles: 1. Following the UCD process. This is the basis of UX design through storytelling. 2. Utilising the narrative framework of user experience. This principle supports the designer to capture and create the holistic picture of a user experience. 3. Applying storytelling approaches to collect and share information, which considers the function of storytelling in terms of analysing the detailed elements of a user experience.

This thesis presents the development and analysis of Global Warning, a physical computing game designed for a music festival audience. The game employs an arcade style because coin-operated games have a rich history of entertaining crowds in the public forum. Based on defining characteristics of games in this tradition, five design pillars were established to guide Global Warning’s development – Attention Grabbing, Simple and Accessible, Quick and Exciting, Replayable, and Social. Cooperation mechanics and asymmetric player roles provide a foundation for gameplay, while unique hardware controllers, dazzling lights, and a novel wooden display are focal points of the construction. The project emerged from a workshop at Aalto University called Alt+Ctrl+Aalto, where students were invited to create handmade, physical computing games for Flow Festival, a popular arts and music festival based in Helsinki. This thesis begins with an introduction to the game, its designers, and the motivations behind its development. It then presents a brief history of the arcade, from early coin-operated amusements to modern indie experimental games. Next, it comprehensively examines the game design process, analyzes the game’s successes and failures based on data collected at Flow Festival, and suggests improvements that are implemented into a second iteration of the game. This thesis concludes with a discussion of key learnings and offers some recommendations to future developers.

Finding the line between time investment in pre-designing product architecture instead of creating it only when needed is complex; if the foundation is rashly defined, it results in a high chance of failure. On the other hand, strict planning means time away from production, and thus, the postponement of a product launch. Moreover, a restricted foundation can make responding to future changes challenging. Modular design architecture, together with modular product architecture, enables companies to design, iterate, and push their products faster to the markets. Since the building blocks for agile product design and development are readily available, approximately all robust products are modular nowadays. This thesis addresses and inspects how modular design architecture can accelerate product design and development processes when creating new web-based products. The researched literature presents insights and theoretical frameworks regarding modularity, software development, and product design. It additionally addresses teamwork and best practices found in product development. The research was conducted based on the grounded theory methodology. Its primary data collection method was benchmarking, and it applied the grounded theory data coding methods to scrutinize and categorize the acquired data. This thesis coins a novel framework based on the research findings to address interrelationships amidst various definitions, elements, and categories found within modular design architectures., Täydellisen linjan löytäminen siinä, kuinka paljon aikaa tulisi investoida tuotearkkitehtuurin suunnitteluun etukäteen sen sijaan, että sitä luotaisiin vain tarvittaessa, on hankalaa; jos tuotteen pohjatyö määritetään liian harkitsemattomasti, se luo suuremman riskin epäonnistumiseen. Toisaalta, liian yksityiskohtainen suunnittelu vie aikaa pois tuotannosta, lykäten tuotteen lanseerausta. Tämän lisäksi liian rajoitettu tuotearkkitehtuuri voi tehdä reagoimisen tuleviin muutoksiin haastaviksi. Modulaarinen suunnitteluarkkitehtuuri yhdessä modulaarisen tuotearkkitehtuurin kanssa mahdollistaa yritysten suunnitella, iteroida ja lanseerata nopeammin tuotteitaan markkinoille. Koska kaikki ketterän tuotesuunnittelun ja kehityksen vaadittavat osa-alueet ovat jo saatavilla, ovat melkein kaikki pitkälle kehitetyt tuotteet modulaarisia. Tässä työssä tarkastellaan, kuinka modulaarinen suunnittelu- arkkitehtuuri voi nopeuttaa tuotesuunnittelu- ja kehitysprosesseja luotaessa uusia verkkopohjaisia tuotteita. Työssä hyödynnetty kirjallisuus tarjoaa näkemyksiä ja teoreettisia viitekehyksiä modulaarisuudesta, ohjelmistokehityksestä ja tuotesuunnittelusta. Edellä mainittujen lisäksi se käsittelee myös ryhmätyötä ja tuotekehityksen parhaita käytäntöjä. Tutkimus suoritettiin grounded theory -metodologian pohjalta. Sen ensisijainen tiedonkeruumenetelmä oli vertailuanalyysi, ja se hyödynsi grounded theory:n eri koodausmenetelmiä hankitun tiedon tarkastelemiseen ja luokitteluun. Tämä tutkimus luo tutkimustuloksien pohjalta uuden viitekehyksen tarkastelemaan modulaarisen suunnitteluarkkitehtuurin eri määritelmien, elementtien ja luokkien keskinäisiä vuorovaikutussuhteita ja -tasoja.

The current audio marketplace is full of products and services that promise a variety of benefits for their listeners’ wellbeing and self-improvement. The binaural beat is a phenomenon that is frequently used in these audio applications. It is an illusionary auditory effect created in the human brain when two slightly different sound frequencies are presented simultaneously, one in the left and one in the right ear. Regardless of how it is used, past research results related to binaural beats’ impact on humans are mixed and sometimes even contradictory. Moreover, some of the researchers acknowledge the further need for studies focusing on the practical applications of binaural beats in particular. Motivated by this context, this thesis is an art-based exploration of the creation of binaural beats, their suggested effects on listeners and how they can be combined with music to induce relaxation and meditation. The emphasis is on two types of binaural beats, Theta and Alpha waves. Even though this thesis leans on the past research conducted in the field, it also features a practical, audio-based part that delves deeper into binaural beats and their use in practice. This practical project consists of an album named Hidden, which utilizes binaural beats and was created for a company called Havas, who will feature the album in their employees’ recreational space. This thesis found that in some of the previous research reports binaural beats were associated with having an impact on listeners’ sleep, anxiety, memory, attention and visual perception, and, particularly in the case of Theta and Alpha waves, binaural beats were linked to relaxation and a meditative state of mind. Hidden integrated binaural beats with music by turning them into musical notes and chord structures, and the creation of its pieces was inspired by past research regarding relaxing sounds and music. As a result, Hidden has a relatively slow tempo and predictable rhythm, and it utilizes repetition and, Nykymaailma on täynnä erilaisia äänituotteita ja –palveluita, jotka lupaavat käyttäjilleen moninaisia hyötyjä heidän terveytensä ja itsensä kehittämisen näkökulmasta. Binaural beat on ilmiö, jota usein käytetään näissä tuotteissa ja palveluissa. Se on ihmisaivoissa syntyvä ääni-illuusioefekti, joka saa alkunsa kahden toisistaan poikkeavan äänitaajuuden samanaikaisesta kuulemisesta siten, että yksi äänisignaali kohdentuu ihmisen oikeaan korvaan ja toinen äänisignaali vasempaan korvaan. Ilmiötä käsittelevä tutkimus tarjoaa vaihtelevia tutkimustuloksia, jotka ovat toisinaan jopa ristiriitaisia keskenään. Osa alan tutkijoista tiedostaa binaural beat -ilmiön kaipaavan lisätutkimusta erityisesti sen käytännön sovelluksiin liittyen. Tämä konteksti inspiroi opinnäytetyötäni, joka on taidepohjainen tutkimus siitä, minkälaisia vaikutuksia binaural beatseillä on väitetty olevan ihmiselle ja kuinka niitä voi yhdistää musiikkiin, joka auttaa ihmisiä rentoutumaan tai meditoimaan. Tämä tutkimus keskittyy etenkin Theta- ja Alpha-ääniaaltoihin, jotka ovat erityisiä binaural beatsien muotoja. Opinnäytetyö hyödyntää materiaalina aiheesta tehtyä aiempaan tutkimusta, mutta se sisältää myös ääniteoksen, joka käsittelee ja analysoi ääni-ilmiötä ja sen käytännön sovelluksia Hidden-albumin kautta. Albumi tulee esille Havas-nimisen yrityksen työntekijöille tarkoitettuun virkistys- ja taukotilaan. Osa tutkijoista väittää, että binaural beat -ääniaallot voivat vaikuttaa kuulijan uneen, ahdistuneisuuteen, muistiin, tarkkaavaisuuteen ja visuaaliseen havaintokykyyn. Theta- ja Alpha-ääniaaltojen uskotaan liittyvän erityisesti kuulijan rentoutumiseen ja hänen kokemaansa meditatiiviseen mielentilaan. Hidden yhdistää binaural beatsejä musiikkiin muuttamalla äänisignaalit musiikillisiksi säveliksi ja sointurakenteiksi, ja albumin kappaleet myös hyödyntävät aiempaa tutkimusta rentouttavan äänen ja musiikin ominaispiirteisiin liittyen. Tästä johtuen albumin kappaleissa on suhteellisen hidas tempo ja tas

Visual identities are not what they used to be. The paradigm of the visual identity as a static, top-down, normative monolith does not reflect its current praxis, nor does it help brands thrive in the twenty-first century. In this thesis I will develop two arguments for why a visual identity should strive to conceive motion and interaction at its inception. First, that the visual elements of a brand do not need to be set in stone and can be constantly updated based on needs of its stakeholders, and they can even be actualised at the touch-points with the customers. These are some of the cornerstones of dynamic visual identities, defined here as one that has guidelines flexible enough to preserve consistency while allowing openness and flexibility to adapt to new contexts. Second, that we live in an increasingly digital world, where motion and interactivity are part of our everyday experience. These elements must be incorporated into the core of a visual identity in order for a brand to address and respond to customers where they are and in an idiomatic language. It is not enough that motion and interactivity are created as an afterthought. They need to be built into the very logic of the visual identity. In this thesis I will demonstrate the aforementioned arguments with a survey of the current theory and practice of visual identity. Then I will exemplify it with a few case studies from established brands. Finally I will analyse two components of a visual identity in which I worked, and which has some of the features described in the arguments. The first component is a kinetic and interactive typeface that simulates the behaviour of a variable font, but which was based on an existing static font. The second component is a kinetic and interactive brand visual element and emblem. Both components were created using modern web technologies.

Personal memories shape individuals’ identities and inform their decisions. Since the beginning of time, technology has been used to aid human’s natural recall capabilities. The tools which are used to record them, have inevitably shaped and influenced not only how people remember, but also what they save. Digital media have provided great opportunities and power of handling personal memory collections, but have also introduced several controversies. The accumulation of huge unsorted digital archives is becoming inevitable: selecting pictures and files is now work rather than pleasure. Companies are starting to address this issue with new products and features, but this raises the question whether something so important as memories should be left in the hands of private corporations. This thesis addresses the need to find motivation to curate memories from my past with a personal and artistic approach. It argues the importance of defining a strong objective to encourage such hard work. I achieved this through the realization of a physical and interactive project: Amarcordi. It consists in modular magnetic embroideries, each one representing a cherished story from my past. The visual and tactile language I designed represents not only people and facts, but also emotions and moods. Findings show the effectiveness of the project in inspiring me to recollect and reflect, giving me the opportunity to look at events through different perspectives. A surprising benefit was also creating an innovative way to share those cherished moments with dear ones.

In the wake of post-colonial theories within globalized economies, tourism industries have been redefined to accommodate ethically aware travelers. The thin line between well-intended interest in hosting communities and recapitalization of indigenous knowledge pledges for reinspection of motives and actions maintained by the post-tourist in consumption and production of local narratives. This thesis sets intersecting agencies and misunderstandings between the traveler and collaborators from Kolar Gold Fields (India), utilizing rapid prototyping as a method to expose class struggles and problematize their representations. The characterization of democratized 3D scanning and additive manufacturing processes as liberating technologies that disrupt social oppression is questioned through efforts to assemble relationships between artisans and narrators in positioning souvenir production as a political action. Finally, produced objects are situated in-between the collaborators and the traveler as a materialization of the uncertainties in their dialogs. Scanned, printed, and moulded gaps of missing information stand as shared experiences of skills and knowledge, rather than enforced normalization and capitalization of one gaze on top of the other.

Video art is largely invisible online, and often exists in archives, repositories and screening websites that have been specifically intended to showcase it. For example, the most popular online video sharing platforms do not have designated categories for contemporary video art, even if some artists make use of these platforms and other online services in their praxis. What do professional contemporary visual artists think about the online video services and publishing platforms they currently use? What kind of a critical new media design would support artists online? To answer these questions and to uncover details about online video art, the history of video art is reviewed, along with some of the currently available online platforms. Notions about exhibiting art online in general are also made. In order to gain in-depth knowledge on artists’ views and experiences with technology and the internet, four artists were interviewed for this study. All of the participants are Finnish contemporary visual artists with an academic art background and interest towards working with video art. The interviews were conducted with unstructured interviewing as the chosen method. The main discoveries of artists’ experiences on working with the medium of video as well as online services are divided into four categories: issues, needs, motivations and desired features. This study suggests that the internet is a befitting environment to continue the traditions and attitudes of artists’ video. More attention should be paid to features with which artists can collaborate with others and interact with audiences, as these encounters also make up a part of art’s future role and place in society. In its conclusion, this study takes these findings into consideration and presents a design proposal for an online artists’ platform in order to bring art closer to existing and potential online audiences., Internetistä löytyy paljon videotaidetta, mutta lähinnä vain sille varatuista arkistoista ja internetsivuilta, joilla esitetään videotaidescreeningejä verkossa. Suosituimmista videoiden jakamiseen keskittyneistä palveluista ei löydy erillisiä kategorioita nykyvideotaiteelle, vaikka taiteilijat käyttävätkin työskennellessään verkon monia eri alustoja ja palveluita. Mitä nykytaiteen ammattilaiset ajattelevat tällä hetkellä käyttämistään videopalveluista ja julkaisualustoista? Millainen kriittinen uusmedian muotoilu voisi auttaa taiteilijoita verkossa? Vastatakseni näihin kysymyksiin ja esitelläksi verkosta löytyvän videotaiteen ominaisuuksia, teen tutkielmassani katsauksen videotaiteen historiaan ja tutkiskelen tämänhetkisiä verkosta löytyviä alustoja. Samalla teen yleisiä huomioita taiteen esittämisestä verkossa. Syväluotaavan kokonaiskuvan aikaansaamiseksi haastattelin tutkimustani varten neljää taiteilijaa. Kaikki haastatteluihin osallistuneet ovat akateemisesti koulutettuja, Suomessa työskenteleviä nykytaiteilijoita, jotka ovat sisällyttäneet videot osaksi taiteellista työskentelyään. Haastatteluissa on käytetty laadullista, ei-strukturoitua syvähaastattelemisen menetelmää. Tutkielmani tärkeimmät löydökset taiteilijoiden kokemuksista videotaiteen parissa työskententelemisestä on jaettu neljään kategoriaan: ongelmiin, tarpeisiin, motivaattoreihin ja haluttuihin toimintoihin. Tämän tutkielman löydösten perusteella internet on oivallinen ympäristö videotaiteen perinteiden jatkamiseksi. Lisää huomiota tulisi kiinnittää toiminnallisuuksiin, joiden avulla taiteilijat voivat tehdä yhteistyötä ja olla vuorovaikutuksessa yleisön kanssa. Nämä kohtaamiset vaikuttavat myös osaltaan taiteen rooliin ja yhteiskunnalliseen asemaan tulevaisuudessa. Tutkielman päätteeksi esittelen design-ehdotelman, jossa olen lähestynyt tutkimuksessa tehtyjä löydöksiä taiteen ja designin välimaastossa sijaitsevan kriittisen muotoilun keinoin. Lopputulos on taiteilijoiden verkkoalusta, jonka ajatuk

Design systems have become prevalent in the modern software industry as a solution to the issues of product inconsistency and development process inefficiency. For an agile team, establishing a design system alongside other product delivery tasks can be challenging due to limited time and resources. However, the concept of the design system and its design process still remain scarce in existing academic research. From a designer’s point of view, this thesis aims to explore how the design system can be created with agile approaches. From the history of the design system to the practice of agile frameworks, this thesis condenses both academic and industrial knowledge to present a case study regarding the early stage activities and agile methods of design system development. Following a qualitative interview with the case team, this empirical study summarizes the potential merits and demerits of conducting design system within the everyday context of agile teams. This thesis outlines the importance of integrating design thinking and user research in the agile process to form a sustainable design system. Although agile approaches can effectively accelerate team collaboration and product iteration, teams might lose visions of the user experience if they only concentrate on incremental deliveries. Thus, this thesis suggested shifting the organization culture from time-focus to value-focus to ensure design systems evolve with the user needs.

Virtual simulation of human faces and facial movements has challenged media artists and computer scientists since the first realistic 3D renderings of a human face by Fred Parke in 1972. Today, a range of software and techniques are available for modelling virtual characters and their facial behavior in immersive environments, such as computer games or storyworlds. However, applying these techniques often requires large teams with multidisciplinary expertise, extensive amount of manual labor, as well as financial conditions that are not typically available for individual media artists. This thesis work demonstrates how an individual artist may create humanlike virtual characters – specifically their facial behavior – in a relatively fast and automated manner. The method is based on volumetric capturing, or photogrammetry, of a set of facial expressions from a real person using a multi-camera setup, and further applying open source and accessible 3D reconstruction and re-topology techniques and software. Furthermore, the study discusses possibilities of utilizing contemporary game engines and applications for building settings that allow real-time interaction between the user and virtual characters. The thesis documents an innovative framework for the creation of a virtual character captured from a real person, that can be presented and driven in real-time, without the need of a specialized team, high budget or intensive manual labor. This workflow is suitable for research groups, independent teams and individuals seeking for the creation of immersive and real-time experiences and experiments using virtual humanlike characters.

This thesis examines the agency of non-expert knowledge in experimental making processes. It draws upon sociological discourse to question the growing expert-laypeople divide. Non-expert knowledge is any knowledge lying outside commonly understood notions of expertise, i.e. outside hegemonic knowledge structures. This social divide, understood to have a psychological impact, is seen through current research about phenomena surrounding professional anxiety, such as the Impostor syndrome. Within this context, the research explores the agency in non-expert knowledge by engaging in methods that allow for non-expert agency to materialise in the making process. The research employs an assemblage of methods based on existing literature. It draws from jugaad (a cultural outlook to hacking from India), critical making, tactical reuse, embodied tinkering and reflective practices. Through this combination, the method aims to be critical, reflexive and responsive to situated ecology. The agency of objects and material affordances offered by the situation are signs of ecological vitality that the research addresses. Thus, it asks two questions: 1) How does non-expert knowledge exercise agency in the critical making process?, and 2) How does non-expert agency address situated ecological vitality through the critical making process? The research follows a methodology of practice-led research. The methods mentioned above were applied to experimental making processes, which were carried out over the span of one year by the researcher to test the agency of non-expert knowledge. These experiments were recorded using process-oriented autoethnography through self-filming, sketches, texts and images. The results discuss the making processes by introducing the thematic thinking behind them, as a consequence of the non-expert approach. These themes, ‘Rubbery Making’ and ‘What’s going on Cladonia Rangiferina?’ are discussed through case reflections of making processes. Further, the results

Mediataiteen kehitys on ollut suotuisaa Suomessa jo jonkin aikaa, mm. uudet, halvemmat teknologiat ovat tuoneet alalle lisää tekijöitä. Mediataiteen tunnettavuus ja näkyvyys ovat kasvaneet. Tästä huolimatta mediataide on marginaalissa suomalaisella taidekentällä. Alan tuotantokulttuuri ei ole kehittynyt toivotunlaisesti. Mediataiteilijat ovat lähes poikkeuksetta pakotettuja tuottamaan teoksensa itse ja toimivat usein alimitoitetuin resurssein. Mediataidetta tuottavia tuotantoyhtiöitä arvioidaan olevan Suomessa n. 30-40. Suurin osa tekijöistä toimii vapaina taiteilijoina. Tietoa näistä yrityksistä on aiemmin kerätty jonkin verran, ei kuitenkaan kattavasti. Tämän tutkielman tavoite on tehdä selvitys alalla toimivista yrityksistä, tutkia miten yrittäjät selviävät nykyisessä tuotantokulttuurissa, joka ei juurikaan tarjoa näille edellytyksiä kehittyä ja vahvistaa toimintaansa. Tutkimusmenetelminä käytän yrittäjille suunnattua verkkokyselyä, jonka kohderyhmän olen rajannut taiteilija-yrittäjiin, jotka ovat saaneet yrityksille suunnattua tuotantotukea Audiovisuaalisen alan edistämiskeskus AVEKista tammikuun 2015 ja heinäkuun 2018 välisenä aikana. Verkkokyselyn tuloksia syvennän asiantuntijahaastatteluille, joiden kautta tuon esille tekijöiden oman äänen selvemmin. Käytän työssä myös kirjallista lähdeaineistoa mm. yrittäjyystutkimuksesta ja Luovasta taloudesta. Tutkielmani nostaa esille mediataiteilijoiden yrittäjyyteen liittyviä keskeisiä tekijöitä, joilla on selvä vaikutus alan tuotantokulttuuriin.

When we think about the manifestation of New Media in city space, thefirst things that usually comes to mind is bright screens advertising chain stores and services accessible from any part of the world. It is self-evident that our imagination of new media in the landscape is linked to consumption, and that propaganda modality is creating more “places” than any other new media in use. Could it be that such screens (and their low engagement threshold) are more effective than any attention-grabbing installation in sedimenting an idea of place to the citizen? Attention grabbing is different from attention keeping. There’s a gap in literature when analyzing new media enhancements in regarding of city landscapes. Urban design doesn’t necessarily follow the urban advancements of new media and the opposite, new technologies not necessarily are applied with success into designing the cities of now. This thesis asks if it is possible to use new media to facilitate an opposite process, in which New Media contributes to resignify and enhance the sense of place, by tapping into the potential of new media to create meaning, expanding contexts, the pursuit of identity and facilitating new modes of social behavior such as play. The First chapter is for defining for architecture and sociological theories, what defines public space, and its influence. The Second investigates how New Media iterates, its technologies and design in with Smart Cities discourse. The Third chapter is foresighting how identity and other theories play roles in the construction of contemporary cities. The Fourth analyzes my artistic practice through a period of 5 years (2013–2018), combining with perspectives of meaning in resignifying urban landscapes, by creating places. The Fifth is an analysis looking towards the future possibilities in which technology enhancements are in pace together with opportunities for development of urban areas, the importance of new media and urban design perspectives and reflec