Issue 16 April 13, 2015

The New Black with Fredrik Ausinsch Article A Startup’s Plans for a New Social Reality TED How equal do we want the world to be? Opportunities Ställverket Logo Competition + Braun Prize 2015 + Remus Technologies + Rotellando – Design Summer School Stay in the Loop Weekly TED Video Opportunities

APD 1 Project 2: Strategic Design Dan Ariely: Kitchen Cleaning IDI How equal do we want the world to be? You’d be surprised… logo APD 2 Degree Project STÄLLVERKET

Workshop Cleaning BA 2 The news of society’s growing inequality contest makes all of us uneasy. But why? Dan Ariely TD 1 Design Project 2: Strategic Design reveals some new, surprising research on

what we think is fair, as far as how wealth is It’s time for Ställverket to update the old logo and we would like to ask for distributed over societies... then shows how your help TD 2 Degree Project it stacks up to the real stats. BRAUN PRIZE 2015: What is your Extra in the Ordinary? Use whatever media you want Open to students, professionals and enthusiasts. The 19th edition of the BraunPrize chal- and send your submission to IDI Design Communication [email protected] lenges creative minds to envision the extra in the ordinary. It can be something that changes or put it in the provided box the quality of your life or the world, simple or complex, big or small, physical or virtual…

PS. There will be a prize for the winner! IxD 1 Project 2: Service Design We are looking for the solutions that are better by design and ideas that appear obvious and even extraordinary in hindsight. Our everyday is becoming an artifi cial environment of ar- chitecture and technology and while it seems that the quantity of products around us is con- stantly increasing, their level of quality, both in execution and thinking, is not. We surround IxD 2 Degree Project ourselves with things we don’t really value, instead of focusing on fewer but better solutions that contribute to our lives. With this in mind, the BraunPrize 2015 is looking for product ideas that are extraordinary.

31/08 - 06/09 2015 BA 1 Design Presentation 1 Application deadline April 30th Rotellando Learn more http://www.braunprize.org/en/ summer school

Watch the talk here BA 2 Design Presentation 2 https://www.ted.com/talks/ Experience dan_ariely_how_equal_do_we_ Empathy want_the_world_to_be_you_d_be_ Design for all BA 3 Degree Project surprised?language=en Interactive exhibition design

Follow Us Credits Design thinking design outside the classroom, tractor on the field, to create Remus Technologies: meaningful solutions. Are you a student with an innovative digital business idea? www.facebook.com/uid Thanks for your contributions. Future articles & photos can be sent to: Remus Technologies is an innovation company based in Umeå dedicated to developing inno- [email protected] vative products, services and companies. by Friday evenings. #lifeatuid Between February 20–April 20 we host our annual digital innovation call for students at We love hearing from you! Umeå University. The call involves the opportunity to compete for an innovation summer grant spanning June #lifeatuid to August, which includes SEK 20000 per month to further develop an innovative digital idea Editor Jessica Williams @wozzop or prototype. The innovation grant also includes a possible continuation in the form of a full- Graphic Designer Thuy Nguyen scale development project backed by venture capital. Contributions Johan Grönskog, Maria Göransdotter, Martijn van den Broeck vimeo.com/uid vimeo.com/ixdumea Application deadline April April 20, 2015 Find more information at www.remustechnologies.se vimeo.com/groups/apdumea ©2015 UID The week that was #lifeatuid UID Interview

Bilgi Karan: Local Fredrik Ausinsch

“Great School, great lecture”

http://www.bilgikaran.com/ blog/2015/4/9/great-school-great- @deedeecarlson lecture Inspiring day at fröbytardag with Matthias MFA Transportation Design 1 and Isabel interviewing people exchanging seeds #lifeatuid Yesterday, I was in Umeå Institute of Design If I had any general observations from this work more than selling themselves as poten- for a lecture about UX and ID. I talked about experience, it would be that there is a new tial employees. the relationship between these fi elds and the generation of designers on their way who 10 words or less about yourself The New Black in DESIGN future of design in this context. care deeply about the impact their work I owe a big big thanks to Pernilla Sandberg Car junkie during daytime, superhero during Lets see at the Design Talks! As always, I was very impressed by the might have on this world. So much so that and Marije de Haas for arranging the whole nighttime, that’s why I’m so morning tired. creativity oozing out from every inch of most of the questions posed after the lecture logistics and accommodating my last minute The New Black in RANDOMNESS the school and its students, as well as the were concentrated on how to deal with situ- requests, Thomas Degn for his amazing hos- Something most people don’t know When a Swede has bad news they simply say competence of the staff . I spent almost 3.5 ations that might potentially be unethical or pitality and constant stream of chocolate and about you “ah den är ju sur” meaning “oh that sucks” hours before and after the lecture, reviewing too profi t focused at the expense of the user coff ee appearing on my desk as well as the My last name has nothing to do with Ger- and when you agree, say “ah menar ju det” student portfolios. Amazing work and great or environment. timekeeping, Niklas Andersson for inviting many… now you know… and I use to be it’s like the German “genau” skills all over. The depth of the content and It was delightful also to see that many me over as a speaker and of course, all the pretty good at innebandy (fl oorball). the research, together with the topics cho- students in the portfolio review were more students for making my day. The New Black on the WEB sen, made every minute worthwhile. focused on getting relevant feedback on their An interesting fact from your country Google… type in whatever you want and If you go near the Stockholm archipelago you will fi nd it… awesome stuff ! Your imagi- you might spot a submarine. nation sets the limits.

Testing Felix’s HAL9000

The New Black in TV/MOVIES Gold Rush on Discovery… really good! It’s about fi nding the glory hole… where the gold’s at.

The New Black in BOOKS/MAGAZINES “Omgiven Av Idioter” (surrounded by idiots) Do you have any interesting websites, mov- honestly really interesting book about diff er- ies, or good reads that you’d like to share @anderselis @merkeloffi cial ent kinds of personalities and human with the rest of the school? Send them to: Wow such Friday!! #lifeatuid The view from my computer screen UMA Pub Deutscher Techno behaviours. [email protected] Article

A Startup’s Plans for a New Social Reality

AltspaceVR is building virtual hangouts that it hopes you’ll use to watch a movie with friends or play a game of life-size chess.

Read article http://www.technologyreview.com/ news/536366/a-startups-plans-for-a- By Rachel Metz new-social-reality/

We know what social networks are like on AltspaceVR is among a growing number of on the phone. “That nonverbal part of com- puter mouse gave me some simple controls fade away and I got used to interacting with video games and films are thought of as the the Web and in apps, but what will they be companies trying to figure out what, exactly, munication is really lost in any other medium (I could inch forward, turn, and select things him this way. main applications for virtual reality, simply like in virtual reality? While Facebook, the we’ll do with these devices when they get other than being together, and that’s some- in virtual space—but couldn’t back up). communicating with others could turn out owner of Oculus VR, is surely pondering here. Facebook, which owns Oculus VR, said thing we feel can be replicated to a great We started out in a bright, sparse, wood- to be important. Communicating via avatars this behind the scenes, a startup called Alt- in March that virtual reality gaming will be extent in virtual reality,” Romo says. paneled room with tidal-wave paintings on could become more effective than by talking spaceVR is already offering a few clues about coming this year, while Philip Rosedale, the That nonverbal part the walls. Once I had figured out navigation via video chat or even face-to-face, he says, how we may connect with each other in a creator of the online virtual world Second So far, AltspaceVR has been testing out its a bit, Wooden took me to several more as software could help us do things like simulated world. Life, is building a virtual-reality universe virtual experience during weekend sessions of communication is spaces, like a Japanese garden-type space tailor our appearances and attentiveness to AltspaceVR is building social virtual environ- called High Fidelity (see “The Quest to Put with groups of users, holding events like a really lost in any other located on the edge of what appeared to be whomever we’re speaking with. To make ments, ranging from a Japanese-style garden More Reality in Virtual Reality”). House of Cardsmarathon night and a Super a calm lake. social interactions really effective in digital to an amphitheater to a dark, sleek lounge. Bowl viewing party within its virtual rooms. medium other than be- AltspaceVR amplifies the reality of its digital spaces, though, sensors will need to track The hope is that headset-wearing users will Romo hopes to make AltspaceVR available creations by automatically adjusting the facial expressions and body movements well hang out together in these places in the form through an open “beta” test in the next ing together, and that’s sound in its virtual spaces to correspond enough to render them realistically, he says. of avatars that display real body language couple months, along with its SDK. The something we feel can with your avatar’s distance from others’ and thanks to motion sensors, and do things like company aims to have a consumer product any content that might be playing aloud.+ watching movies, playing games, or shop- available at the time of the launch of the be replicated to a great A small color-changing dot that I controlled ping together using a shared virtual Web HTC Vive; so far, it has raised about $5.5 .extent in virtual reality. with the mouse let me know where the browser. AltspaceVR also hopes developers million in funding from investors including boundaries of the virtual rooms were, and will use the software development kit it’s Google Ventures to help it down this path.+ clicking on a little plus sign near the bottom building to bring all kinds of applications—a In its Redwood City, California office, devel- The Oculus DK2 tracks head position, so of my field of view opened up a sort of con- giant chess game, for instance, or a 3-D oper relations head Bruce Wooden guided every time Bruce nodded or cocked his trol panel with an array of options in front of model viewer—to its social, virtual world. me through several of the virtual spaces Alt- head to the side, I’d see his virtual head me that only I could see. Virtual-reality technologies aren’t yet con- spaceVR has already built, both of us floating move. And while my demo avatar had only As intriguing as the experience was, it’s sumer ready, but they’re coming. Oculus VR, above the ground as simple, mostly white hands, his had arms and hands that were unclear how compelling it would be as a way Sony, HTC, and others are working on head- robot avatars that looked somewhat similar tracked with a Kinect motion-sensor. His of interacting socially. AltspaceVR still has For now, AltspaceVR is focused intently on sets; and the HTC Vive is planned for release to EVE from the animated movie WALL-E. I avatar’s upper-body motions, combined to figure out how avatars will interact with inspiring developers who will come up with late this year. Devices aimed at developers wore headphones with an attached micro- with his voice, gave virtual Bruce a sense of these virtual spaces and with each other. It new uses for its social environments. “We are already on the market—one example is AltspaceVR CEO and founder Eric Romo phone and an Oculus DK2 headset . A Leap personality despite the fact that this legless, also seems like a lot of effort to go through think that will allow people to say, ‘These the Gear VR, a $199 virtual-reality headset wants to develop ways for people who are Motion sensor affixed to the front of the expressionless pile of pixels looked nothing just to watch a video with a distant friend.+ use cases don’t resonate with me, but maybe developed by Oculus VR and Samsung that physically far apart to interact that are more DK2 showed my hand and finger motions in like the real Bruce. It was strange, but as the Jeremy Bailenson, head of Stanford’s Virtual this other one does, and I’ll create it,’” uses a Samsung smartphone as the display. engaging than, say, video chatting or talking the AltspaceVR world, and a plain old com- minutes ticked by, the unreality started to Human Interaction Lab, says that while that Romo says. 15 April 2015 15.00 UID Green room

Håkan Wallin Senior Lecturer Computer Graphic Arts, Skellefteå

Presenting education in visual arts for film/TV and games at LTU, Skellefteå. Showing student work in set design, prop making, visual effects in film and computer game graphics.