LJUNGBLAD
Future Applications Lab
Sara at SICS
CV
Since June 2008 I no longer work at the Viktoria Institute, but at SICS in Kista, Stockholm. The Future Application Lab is now associated with SICS.
My personal web page at SICS is: www.sics.se/people/sics
Keywords
Interaction design, experience-centred design, ubiguitous computing, human robot interaction, LIREC ethics, tangible interfaces, ambient displays, digital photography, Context Photography, Informative Art, Pin&Play, Glowbots, Autonomous wallpaper.
Abstract Dec 2008
I have a Ph.D. in Human-Machine Interaction at the Department of Computer and Systems Sciences at Stockholm University, and I work at the Future Applications Lab at SICS (Swedish Institute of Comptuer Science). My current work focuses on robots in everyday environments. I also conduct research at the Mobile Life Centre, and have done an internship at the Socio-Digital Systems group at Microsoft Research in Cambridge, UK. During my Ph.D work I was affiliated with the Viktoria Institute in Göteborg and conducted academic activities the IT University of Göteborg.
My research interests lies within the challenges related to create innovative HCI design. How can we design future products based on existing needs, and how can we learn about needs beyond those we alreay are familiar with?
My Ph.D, focused on how to take design inspiration from specific experiences that are "analogous" to what a potential technology design could achive. Instead of learning from merely potential users, other people that share a practice that is relevant for the design are involved in the design process. investigating how existing meaningful experience can guide future designs. For example, I have been working with an idea of sensor-based photography, where sensor data would visualy affect pictures as they were taken. To understand how to design for a meaningful and engaging digital photographic experience, we learned from a specific type of amateur photographers called Lomographers. Their specific interest in analogous photography could guide our design, but our result was still a novel photography experience. I have also been working with robotic and agent applicatons in a similar manner, focusing on peoples existing experiences of having pets to learn about potential interests in robot designs. Overall, my research appraoch is related to design techniques such as "extreme users" and "analogous experiences", for example used by the design consultancy firm IDEO. My overall research interest lies in understanding how people create meaning in the everyday, and how we as designers and researchers can learn from this to support innovative design of technology.
Contact:
Sara Ljungblad
saral (at) sics (dot) se
+46(0)73-733 48 93
Isafjordsgatan 22/Kistagången 16
164 40 Kista
Sweden