Mobile Life VINN Excellence Centre : 10 years of innovation and growth, 2007-2017
In: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:ri:diva-32384
Our overall vision for Mobile Life has been to create a society where happiness, playfulness and creativity are factors in peoples' everyday lives. Through the ten years of research, the centre has become a strong voice advocating a human centred focus on digitalisation – focusing on what makes a good life for all. More importantly, we have provided a path to how this can be done – in our design processes, in our tools, in new business models, and in how we approach studies of life styles in change. The Mobile Life Way that is, our way of engaging in design-led exploration of novel technology, based on social science, art, design thinking, aesthetics and value-based concerns, is a unique approach that has rendered results that will continue to inspire. Our design work has often been many years ahead of the commercial front and today we see many of the design concepts from the earlier years of Mobile Life being provided as commercial products. This includes, for example, our work on wearable biosensors for wellbeing and health and tools for amateur video production. To address the vision of a good life, the centre has initiated and developed unusual and evocative research topics such as: integrating digitalisation with the fashion industry; connecting back to nature and engaging animals in interaction; designing with felt life and bodily engagement; pervasive games; or studying the life style changes that follow from the sharing economy. These research topics have changed the academic frontiers of our field. Taken together these explorations paint a broad picture of a whole society in change. A consumer-oriented Internet of Things society is no longer a prospect, but a reality. This enables a future where disruption could potentially create conflict, inequality, decrease inclusion and directly harm the success of Swedish companies and way of life. As a reaction to this negative view we have instead envisioned a positive world where digital technologies causes disruption that enhances engagement, creativity and enjoyment. In doing so, we have not shunned from the political and ethical implications of our work, dealing with topics such as the importance of empowerment of all to be makers and participants in a highly technologically-infused society. These results continue to be important – to our partners, to academic research in our field, as well as to the whole society. Ultimately, both the history of Mobile Life and the way forward can be captured in our credo: Always Explore! Always Create! Always Enjoy!