Niclas Lundberg

Source for inspiration: I believe in advertising

http://www.ibelieveinadv.com/2011/12/swiss-life-lifes-turns-in-a-sentence/

There are some really cool advertising examples popping up in Ibelieveinadv once in a while. It’s mostly traditional advertising, but no less inspiring.

April 15, 2013  Comments Off

Calamity Jane Explained – A Cross Media Audio Experience

Old post for tie in http://niclaslundberg.se/wordpress/?p=223

In the course Storytelling in Cross Media, we had an assignment to create a cross media campaign for a fictive museum in Stockholm. We were assigned a historically prominent person, in our case Calamity Jane.

We were 4 people in our group, and sat down to discuss the different issues and possibilities with different media, ex: TV is great for linear non-interactive storytelling, and a smartphone has mostly more personal and connected (online) properties. We decided on creating something around an audio experience, as opposed to a mostly visual one, which at the time felt (and still do) very over-represented. We are very over stimulated in terms of visual communication in general, and as such, an audio experience felt more interesting and unique to explore.

We wanted it to live on Spotify, as accessibility felt important and Spotify is available on a very large scale for people that were in our target group (younger women in Sweden, ages 14-30). It was more or less an audiobook that was available as a whole on Spotify, but was accessed and discovered throughout Stockholm via subway posters, window shoppers etc.

For the stories sake, it terms of likeability of the characters, we “re-designed” the actual protagonist (Jane) into a more Hollywood-ish style. We expected that the target group would have an easier time connecting with and enjoy the different adventures if the character was more “2011/12″, but still true to the atmosphere and nature of the “wild west in America”.

Ironically, during our presentation, one of the external reviewers (a woman of ~40 years) had complaints about our character being the protagonist and a bad-ass, as she perceived her our being too “able” to take care of herself, and that we had created a picture of her being unrealistically potent or something. It was an interesting dilemma that we did not think about, while at the same time, I believe her reaction and feelings was of a very particular niche.

April 9, 2013  Comments Off

Pictures of people scanning QR codes

http://picturesofpeoplescanningqrcodes.tumblr.com/

At the beginning of this program, almost every single person in our class wanted to implement QR codes in some way, in as good as all concept projects being developed. I think that QR codes is pretty much like big touch screens in public places; you’d have to specifically tell someone what it is for and how to use it, in order for it to be useful. People dont use QR codes like the people working at a convenience store use bar codes. And people dont use big public touch screens like they use their smartphones. I think that it’s a difference that not many artefacts explicitly communicate at first glimpse.

April 9, 2013  Comments Off

Masters thesis!

I am currently writing my masters thesis, and have been doing so for a couple of weeks. I think the idea of it being a thesis in itself makes me feel stressed out and confused, when in the end, its not really that different from lets say a traditional PM. I am writing about how our physical connections and relationships with people in the physical world are affected by our digital interactions/use of mobile devices, as we are using them. It sort of sounds strange, but its more or less about how you affect someone you are hanging out with when you are using your phone.

I ended up with this topic after some collaboration with David at North Kingdom and Mikael, my tutor for this course. My initial ambition was something far more abstract and futuristic, but it was not particularly viable from a methodological perspective. So instead, I ended up with something that was more connected to “today”.

I am working on my thesis from the office at North Kingdom at the moment, which feels great. Its a really nice environment and enjoy being here, especially with all the friendly people hanging around. It also gives me an opportunity to get some inspiration from the work they are doing, which I must say, is really cool.

Not much else to say. We are trying to present our program for more bachelor students, in order to get in some more applications for next year. Sebastian and Linus from North Kingdom was in Umeå this week talking to the students at the cognitive science (?) program, and apparently they were well received. Niklas Odén is going to Umeå to talk to the students over at DMP, BIT and SYS, I believe. There will also be some kind of presentation for the computer game developers (???, sorry dont know all the names, hehe) here in Skellefteå next week, the 26th.

March 21, 2013  Comments Off

Recap post #2: Creative entrepreneurship in cross media

In this course, me and Sebastian developed a concept for a mobile application, with focusing on delivering a viable business model. Our value proposition was based on delivering personal pictures and memories in physical form via a digital application. This was something we identified as unexploited and at the same time hard to deliver. It was an overall nice process of trying to figure out where design and innovation is applicable in valuable sense from a business perspective.

March 21, 2013  Comments Off

Recap post #1: Kulturväven

I was struggling with a lot of stress for a long time, and am still working to get stuff done, but here are some posts recapping what I’ve been up to recently!

Kulturväven was a success in its own way, and we ended up with nice concept based on the proximity of the users, rather than the physical input. We saw this a proper way of designing the interaction, since the “promise” of huge interactive and public displays are not really viable as a long-term solution. Especially in this case, but also with regard to the particular culture we are living in here etc.

Here are some screens and my individual design reflection on this project

March 21, 2013  Comments Off

Second year: Go!

The second year of the Cross media interaction design master has begun! 2 great courses have started, and 2 new students have arrived!

The first year of CMID was really interesting and inspirational, and second year have already begun! At the moment, we are taking 2 courses: Cross media concept development [Link] and Methods in Cross media interaction design research[Link]

Our tutor for both these courses is Mikael Wiberg and he has a lot of experience in many aspects of how to treat design in different areas and contexts. My first impression is very positive and I am getting a good feeling of the way he is talking about treating problems and examinations!

In the concept development course, we are supposed to create a concept for a digital communication service/product/layer of the new cultural building that is being built in Umeå.  At first we had a somewhat open approach and attitude towards the assignment, but a couple of days ago, we found out that the architect that have designed the building had a few ideas that we should build our concepts around, so back to square one. Either way, me Sebastian and Christer are going to Luleå tomorrow morning to do some design research for the project, at Kulturens Hus Luleå. We are looking for some insight in the general atmosphere and feeling there, as well as some more rational/ethnographic facts, like who are visiting their building and what kind of activities that are being practiced there.

The second course is more theoretical and we are reading a lot of papers to orient ourselves in the different research areas that can be applied in cross media contexts. This course seems really interesting to me as well. We dont have any group project, but rather some paper examinations in seminar form, as well as an individual project where we are supposed to develop a concept for mobile transactions / practice in the future. This problem will probably include treatment of ID, drivers license, coupons etc, since our creditcards are not the only thing in our wallets, and we have to consider this fact when trying to remove it/create a substitute for the future of transactions.

North Kingdom Showreel 2009 from Designchapel on Vimeo.

In other news, I spend this summer working at North Kingdom as a creative thinker/user experience assistant in some projects. It was a great experience where I learned so many new things about myself, the industry, North Kingdom and the different roles in different teams, and how a creative process look in a more realistic and sharp situation. It was a breath of fresh air from the university and a very important lesson for my future career. I am very thankful that David let me help out and gave my a chance to develop my skills and mindset to an ever changing area of digital communication. We had a brief discussion about my future before I left in late august about me writing my final paper at North Kingdom. That was a great offer for me and I was very happy to get that chance! In the end, my choice/ability to that will probably rest on what kind of subject/question I choose to answer in the paper, and if I write by myself or with someone, or if its a purely theoretical paper or if I will try to develop a product or service (the latter sounds most interesting at the moment!).

We have 2 new students in CMID! The first year students this year is a guy from Spain; Daniel, and guy from the Czech republic (I think); Tommy. It was sort of a bummer that there were not more students this time, but it is none the less very fun and interesting to meet new people with new skills! Since there are only 2 new students, for economical reasons, they will be taking the same courses as us this semester, and take the first semester courses from the first year, next fall.

This was a quick summary of the latest months and I am very excited about getting into the final year of my academic studies! Feels great to be back!

September 13, 2012  Comments Off

First year: Done!

We are rounding up the last courses today, and thus finishing the first year at CMID!

And its been a great year as well! So many projects, so many impressions, so many new ways of approaching problems etc. While some of my expectations have been met, some over-exceeded and some havent been met at all, I feel that the overall impression of the first year is: Great! There are still things which need a little bit of tuning, such as the order of the courses and some of the literature, but its a small ingredient in the academic cake we’ve been enjoying! (Master of Metaphors, or MOM. You can call me that, its ok.)

When I look back at the very first course in Introduction to Cross media interaction design –> http://niclaslundberg.se/wordpress/?p=24 , I can’t help to somewhat laugh at myself for handling a problem in such a overambitious and in-effective way. But at the same time, I think it’s great for new students to just go at it, make a super influencial hyper involving ARG connected to a blockbuster movie. Thats of course a realistic scenario, but the idea is maybe that you don’t build the spaceship before the wheel.

I’ve had a great time meeting a lot of inspirational and creative people, among them (apart from our tutors) are David Eriksson (Twitter@corben_nk) from North Kingdom, Leif Rehnström (Twitter@Postello) at Hello Future, Jonas Persson (Twitter@jonaspersson) also at Hello Future, Paulina Holmgren at Fotograf Paulina (Twitter@FotografPaulina), the guys at Frostware Entertainment, Tomas Westermark at Dreamfield (Twitter@wstrmrk) and many many more. Everyone is very friendly, helpful and inspiring, and I’m looking forward spending more time in the same environment as these people!

I would like to write more, but I’m too lazy and want to start breathing a bit!

In true internet spirit:
TL;DR

First year CMID was great. Apply, it’s a cool program.

June 8, 2012  Leave a comment

Final courses of the first year and North Kingdom

The final courses and internship at North Kingdom.

We are taking the final 2 courses of the first year of cross media interaction design at the moment. The courses are:

Trends in Cross Media Interaction Design Research & Alternative interaction interfaces

The first of the above is oriented around the current research situation in cross media, and the second one is in the field of the complexity / complicated cases of interaction design and user experience. While “the trends course” is very straight forward “read and learn”, the alternative interaction interfaces course is very open to interpretation and exploration in the field of complex interactions. It is a very enjoyable scope of work we are performing, since we can choose to approach problems in a free and open manner.

I think I will be focusing on the local public transport as a kind of case for my PM in that course. I can see a clear need for a better system of travelling, especially since most of the people travelling by public transport here is older or lives outside of the city centre. I’ll probably identify some problems and come up with a re-design suggestion which is supported by the course literature. I’ve already discussed it with our teacher Andreas Lund. Mostly because I felt that the scope of the PM and results would be supported by a weak empirical research, which I would consider needed in a real implementation of a system like this, since there are so many people travelling, during different times of the day and for different reasons. Whatever I will come up with, it might serve as food for thought for someone else (hopefully, hehe!).

The courses are very literature and reading oriented, so I am not spending much time at the actual university at the moment. I am spending most of my un-scheduled days at North Kingdom, as an intern. At this time, I am trying follow the work of Linus here, which is a ux/interaction designer, and will be away this summer, and I am supposed to somewhat be a stand-in while he is away. It is exciting and I’m quite nervous about it, mostly since I have so little experience working in sharp projects. I guess that the time I spend here before that happens, will be centered around adjusting to the patterns and traditions of projects in this environment, so that I can produce/come up with the required work that is expected from me. As I said; it’s very exciting and makes me nervous, but it’s great to be here, and I can’t wait to dig in to the problems that will arise with the projects in the future.

May 7, 2012  Leave a comment