Humanise Music : How can design bring emotions to the center of music consumption?

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Master’s Thesis, 120 Credits | Design Spring 2020 | LIU-IDA/LITH-EX-A--20/042--SE

Humanise music

How can design bring emotions to the center of music consumption?

Sudeep Sharma

Supervisor: Ana Kustrak Korper Examiner: Stefan Holmlid Linköping University SE-581 83 Linköping, Sweden +46013 28 10 00, www.liu.se

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Copyright

The publishers will keep this document online on the Internet – or its possible replacement – for a period of 25 years starting from the date of publication barring exceptional circumstances.

The online availability of the document implies permanent permission for anyone to read, to download, or to print out single copies for his/hers own use and to use it unchanged for non-commercial research and educational purpose. Subsequent transfers of copyright cannot revoke this permission. All other uses of the document are conditional upon the consent of the copyright owner. The publisher has taken technical and administrative measures to assure authenticity, security and accessibility.

According to intellectual property law the author has the right to be mentioned when his/her work is accessed as described above and to be protected against infringement.

For additional information about the Linköping University Electronic Press and its procedures for publication and for assurance of document integrity, please refer to its www home page: http://www.ep.liu.se/. © Sudeep Sharma

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Abstract

In today’s world music streaming is the most dominant form of music consumption. Introducing platform capitalism to music streaming has changed the music commodity and its effects serve as a motivation for this thesis. The role of emotions in music listening is explored and design research is conducted to find unmet latent needs of users in respect to the emotional side of music.

Semi-structured user interviews are used to understand how users relate music to their emotional lives. Co-design workshops are conducted to identify unmet user needs and feelings. The data is analysed inductively and results treated through the theoretical lenses of emotional design (Norman D. (2003)) and psychological ownership theory (Pierce J.L., Kostova T., & Dirks K. Y., (2003)). The main themes generated by the research show that users want -- to know their music and their music service to know them; new ways to feel music, relive the “first time”; to connect music to their emotional and personal lives; to control music more easily. These findings motivate and inform the design of a conceptual artefact.

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Acknowledgment

This work would not have been possible without the help of some people for whom I am deeply grateful.

I would like to thank my supervisor Ana Kustrak Korper for her guidance and support throughout the thesis work. Her insights and knowledge helped me navigate the process easily and effectively. I would also like to express thanks to my examiner Stefan Holmlid for providing a scaffolding for the work and providing clarity.

I would like to thank my parents for providing support and encouragement along the way. Dealing with the thesis and a global pandemic and being on the other side of the world was not easy but their support helped me immensely. Lastly, I would like to thank my girlfriend, Jasmina, for always being excited for my work and listening to my rants about it all.

Thank you everyone! Sudeep Sharma

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1. Introduction

1.1 Background and motivation

Music streaming has become the most common form of music consumption for a lot of people these days (Sinclair G., & Tinson J. (2017)). This has led to a change in their mindset of ownership of music content and shifted the idea of how we identify ourselves with the music that we consume but do not own. The digital consumption has also led to a change in the economics of music and how musicians, record labels and consumers relate to each other. Before digital distribution of music, record labels were the only way to be a legitimate artist but that has changed since (Eiriz V. & Leite F. P. (2017)).

But this change has not come with all benefits. “In their many (justified) laments about the trajectory of their profession in the digital age, songwriters and musicians regularly assert that music has been “devalued.”” “Digital music ecosystems, starting with Apple’s iTunes, reduced recordings down to a stamp-sized cover image and three data points: Artist, Song Title, Album.” Havighurst C. (2015).

“The introduction of Platform Capitalism to the music industry through streaming services and online media brands more or less reoriented the music industry’s function of supply and quality of demand by flooding the market with valueless content in the form of user-uploaded music and evergreen “click-bait” articles. After a decade of imperceptive belief in algorithms and platforms that sell music “wholesale”, the market

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is deflated and can be directly linked to the overall devaluation of music.” Brown D. Jr. (2020).

Most music streaming apps divide music into easy to consume packages - Album, Track, Artists and then Genre, Playlists, Charts and Hits, etc. The platformatisation of music has come with problems. Fleischer (2017) argues that the commodity that is being sold on a music streaming service is the access to it, rather than any individual song or album. The music streaming services cannot grow their revenue by charging for more music, so they have to get as many customers as they can on their platform. This means that most music platforms’ biggest aim is to serve as many people as possible. Thus, the music streaming services employ design techniques that should serve the masses. Things which get prioritised are ease of use over depth of connection. Metrics which make sense from the surface point of view, when examined deeper can be limiting. For e.g the fact that when you search music, the album art is postage stamp sized, means that the emotional impact that an album cover can have has been reduced, and the search results are now a list of names with low impact art form. This limits the artist’s ability to convey expression from the intent it was meant to have. This is just one example in a series of issues that make music streaming platforms perpetuate passive listening and emotionless interaction. The purpose of this research is to explore design methodology to come up with solutions that can allow listeners to connect emotionally to the music they listen to.

“...these playlists have fundamentally changed the listening experience. Spotify prides itself on its personalised recommendations, which work by connecting dots between “data points” assigned to songs (from rap, indie, and so on, to infinite micro-genre

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permutations) to determine new music you might like. Its model doesn’t code for surprise, but perpetuates “lean-back” passivity. There is no context on the platform, merely entreaties to enjoy more of the same: “You like bread? Try toast!”” (Thomas B. & Snapes L. 2018).

1.2 Research question

The main research question for this thesis is:

1. How can we bring emotions to the center of the music listening experience while designing streaming platforms ?

a. How can design help in increasing the emotional connection of music to its listeners?

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2. Theoretical framework

2.1 Emotional processing (and design)

Norman (2003) states that emotions come from three levels of processing in the brain: visceral level - the prewired and automatic layer, the visceral level is fast and makes quick judgements of what is good or bad; behavioural level - processes that control everyday behaviour; and reflective level - the contemplative part of processing which can think of its own operations, the resulting emotions, interpretations and understanding is the reflective level.

These three levels of emotional response and corresponding design side as shown in table 1.

Visceral level

Prewired and automatic layer of processing

Visceral design

Initial impact, feel, sensations

Behavioural level

Part which controls everyday behaviour Behavioural design Utility, usability, function, performance Reflective level

Contemplative processing, which can think of itself

Reflective design

Interpretation, understanding, reasoning, consciousness

Table 1. The levels of emotional response and the design functions corresponding to them.

The visceral and behavioural levels reside in the present moment whereas the reflective level resides longer in time: by remembering the past or envisioning the future. Norman argues that reflective design is about the long term relationship with the product or object and it is on the reflective level of emotions that a person’s self identity is situated.

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I used this emotional processing framework to analyse the data collected during user interviews (chapter 3.1) and ideas generated during co-design workshops (chapter 3.2). The answers received during the interviews were analysed and interpreted as coming from one of the three levels of processing. The themes synthesised from the ideas generated during the co-design workshop were also interpreted as coming from one of these three levels.

This is a new way of looking at the data generated during user research design methods. This new way of interpreting and classifying data has potential to be used in other user research oriented projects. The resulting emotional maps can be used to inform design decisions while thinking of how to bring emotions to the center of the designing experience and gives the designer a new tool for doing it.

2.2 Psychological Ownership

Psychological ownership is conceptually defined as “that state where an individual feels as though the target of ownership or a piece of that target is ‘theirs’ (i.e., it is MINE!).” (Pierce J.L., Kostova T., & Dirks K. Y., 2003). Sinclair et al. (2017) have taken this concept of psychological ownership and used it to examine consumption of music streaming. This thesis uses both the aforementioned papers and psychological ownership as a lens for one of its theoretical framings. Pierce et al. (2003) proposed three main experiences which give emergence to psychological ownership:

1. Controlling the ownership target: The authors show that objects which can be controlled or manipulated by the individual are more likely to be as seen as part of the self with higher levels of control resulting in greater feelings of ownership. Digital music can be seen as giving greater control to the user by

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allowing copying/remixing/sharing of music much easier than analog forms. However, music streaming can take that sense of control away because the digital file is no longer legally or technologically available to be downloaded by the user. 2. Coming to intimately know the target: Pierce et al. (2003) argue that the

“more information possessed about the target of ownership the more intimate becomes the connection between the individual and that target.” This suggests that it can be applied to music consumption as knowing the target or objects associated with the target. Present music streaming services do this by providing more information on the artist or album and higher resolution images of the album art. Sinclair et al. (2017) note that vinyl owners come to intimately know their collection due to the unique scratches and blemishes found in their owned copies, something which is not seen in digital formats till now.

3. Investing the self into the target: Citing Locke (1690), they argue that “we are likely to feel that we own that which we create, shape, or produce.” They show how we see the results of our efforts as representations of the self and the most powerful way to invest oneself in an object is to create it. In music consumption the sense of creation can come in various forms like creating collections of analog music, creating playlists of our favorite songs in music streaming platforms and investing psychic energy (mental effort) into such collections.

Sinclair et al. (2017) state that psychological ownership can be used to study the relationship of a user to streaming services or even abstract ideas. I have used the above explained framework of psychological ownership to categorise the themes generated

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after an analysis of the co-design workshop (chapter 3.2). It helped me classify the themes as motivations to seek a particular type of psychological ownership.

Understanding psychological ownership is important because in today’s streaming dominated world the user no longer owns the object, rather rents it out. Thus their sense of psychological ownership of the music they listen to has changed, which also affects their emotional connection to the music.

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3. Methodology

The research methodology was based on MIT D-Lab’s user research framework ( Smith R., Leith K. (2015) ), and generative research using co-design tools (Sanders L. (1999)). The research was done in two phases. The first phase of the research was conducted using MIT D-Lab’s user research framework as the guideline. The second phase of the research was done with generative research using co-design tools. The data collected was analysed using the theoretical frameworks described in chapter 2. The analysis and results fed into designing the artefact.

User research:

User research aims to bring forward the needs of stakeholders involved in the topic of research. It draws inspiration from the fields of sociology and anthropology with methods like ethnography. Through user research “a rich understanding of people’s behavior, interactions, and environmental conditions is developed: needs are uncovered and new solutions inspired.” (Smith et al. (2015)).

User interviews

User interviews are a common method for conducting user research. “They are usually used to collect information on the user's motivation, life patterns or how they use a product or service.” (User Interviews. Interaction Design Foundation). “Interviewing is an effective technique to collect a wide variety of needs from an individual or group. The varying degrees of structure in interviewing allow you to collect specific sets of information or explore new directions.” (Smith et al. (2015)).

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Generative research and Co-design:

“Generative research occurs very early in the design development process. Its purpose is to discover as-yet unknown, undefined, and/or unanticipated user or consumer needs. It is in the generative phase that we are looking for ideas and opportunities to fill unmet user needs.” (Sanders (1999)). Co-design is “utilised in design context in which designers are involved and the topic of the activity is related to design exploration, envisioning and solution development.” It is “an empowering mindset and it gives voice and tools to those not traditionally part of the design process.” ( Mattelmäki T., Visser F. S. (2011) ). By giving people the tools to envision their possible futures we can uncover what they dream. “Seeing and appreciating what people dream shows us how their future could change for the better. It is another form of tacit knowledge that can reveal latent needs, i.e., needs not recognizable until the future.” (Sanders (1999)).

Figure 1: The overview of methodology leading to results and artefact

These research methods were important for my research question. I wanted to understand the current relation of emotions to music consumption and user research

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through interviews is an effective tool to collect qualitative data. Co-design was

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3.1 Phase 1: User research through interviews

3.1.1 Sampling strategy

I used snowball sampling as my sampling strategy as it was difficult to find participants due to the effects of COVID-19. The initial participants were asked to contact other people they knew. There were a total of 5 participants and they were mixed in gender - 3 females and 2 males.

3.1.2 Qualitative research method

Figure 2: User interview overview

Individual interviewing which “allow you to get a deep and rich view into the behavior, reasoning and life of a person” (Smith et al. (2015)) was chosen as the first phase of research. Every interview was one-on-one and semi-structured in nature. The interview was preceded by a survey which quantitatively captured how the user listened to music. Survey questions were quantitative and multiple choice. I used the online tool Google Surveys to conduct the surveys. The survey was done just before the interviews and the aim was to get a basic understanding of how the participant listened to music on a daily basis.

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After the survey (which took 5-10 mins to fill out) the semi-structured interview was conducted. Every interview lasted around an hour. The aim was to understand what feelings were involved when a user listens to music, interacts with musicians and uses their music listening services. The questions were categorised into 6 sections:

- Meaning of music - Musical creativity - Helping musicians - Musician connect - Emotional insights - User experience study - Practical Task

The practical task at the end of each interview was to use their favorite music streaming platform and find a song they really liked, would be willing to listen to from start to finish and possibly recommend to a friend. The practical task was to observe how users interact with their music listening services and what strategies were used to find a music of their liking. This was an extension of the user experience study.

3.2 Phase 2: Generative research and Co-design workshops

The next phase of the research was done using generative research and co-design methodology. I chose to conduct co-design workshops to bring out hidden user needs that relate to the emotional aspects of music consumption. I conducted two workshops with two participants each with the first workshop done online using a video conferencing application.

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3.2.1 Sampling strategy

Here again a snowball sampling strategy was used to get participants for the workshops. There were 4 participants in total with 3 females and 1 male participant. The workshops were done in groups of two participants and me facilitating them. This was done due to limitations posed by Covid-19 (Covid-19, Wikipedia) and the Swedish government recommendation (Folkh ä lsomyndigheten - The Public Health Agency of Sweden) to not meet large groups of people as well as the difficulty in recruiting more participants. The first workshop was done using an online video conferencing software where each participant was in different locations. The second workshop was conducted at one participant’s home with the other participant joining us there.

3.2.2 Structure

Figure 3. Structure of co-design workshops

a. Introduction: The participants were explained the aim of the workshop, the structure and time schedule. For the video conference workshop they were previously asked to bring a few pages of paper and writing stationery. For the

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in-person workshop I provided post-its, pages and writing instruments. The aim of the workshop was explained as to bring out the emotional side of music.

b. Brainwriting: Each participant was given 5 mins and asked to write as many ideas as they could think of for bringing out emotional connection towards the music they listened to. Then they were asked to tell their ideas but only exactly as

written and with no more explanation. After both participants recited their ideas they were given 1 min each to copy/modify their ideas if they got some

inspiration from the other participant. This was done to promote idea generation and creativity.

c. Idea discussion: After the brainwriting session the participants were asked to explain their ideas in detail and elaborate on motivations.

d. Idea grouping and selection: The ideas generated were then grouped together based on their perceived affinity to each other. For the video conferencing

workshop I used a digital tool to create virtual post-its and wrote their ideas there in real time. The tool allowed for free movement of the post-its and I shared my screen to show this to the participants. This was an adaptation done for the online workshop and it worked out fine for the purpose of the workshop. Figure 4. shows the ideas generated and grouped in both workshops. After the ideas were grouped each participant was asked to select one idea that they would like to explore in the next round of sketching and concept development. In both the workshops none of the participants chose the same idea for the next round.

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Figure 4. Ideas generated and grouped during online workshop (left) and in-person workshop (right)

e. Individual sketching: After an idea was selected the participants were given 15 mins to think and sketch the entire product/service. They were asked to think of developing the idea towards a more concrete concept and make use of the paper and stationery they had. Freedom to explore any aspect and level of detail was given to the participants and they were told to go as broad or detailed as they pleased.

f. Concept discussion: After the participants finished sketching their concepts they were given 5 mins each to explain their results. They explained their concepts verbally and by showing their sketches. In this part of the workshop, the online workshop had some issues on how the participants displayed their sketches over video. They held the sketches in front of their web cameras but the low

resolution of video call was a barrier in clearly seeing them. Figure 5. shows some of the final concepts generated.

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Figure 5. Some ideas generated during the co-design workshops

3.3 Data analysis

Phase 1: The data collected through the user interviews was analysed inductively through the identification of key themes and patterns (Spiggle S. (1994)). This analysis was then codified using Norman’s (2003) emotional design framework of visceral, behavioural and reflective responses resulting in synthesis of key learnings.

Phase 2: The data generated and collected during the co-design workshops was analysed inductively through the identification of key themes and patterns. This produced four main themes which were treated through Norman’s emotional design framework as well as psychological ownership theory. A visual way of representing the treatment was devised and is shown in the results (chapter 4.2). ‘Merging’ these two theoretical frameworks to help interpret the results is seen as a novel methodological approach for design work and its implications are explained in the discussion (chapter 5).

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3.4 Prototyping the artefact

The results synthesised from the interviews and co-design workshop were taken into consideration as inspiration for the prototype. One of the four themes synthesised out of the co-design workshop was taken as the main motivator for ideation. I did a brain writing and sketching session where I drew ideas on paper mixing pictorial drawings and annotated them with idea phrases and concepts. A starting point was chosen and I moved to a user interface designing software where I further elaborated on the concept. I chose Sketch 1_{as my choice of digital prototyping software. The generated artefact was} discussed with my supervisor who gave ad hoc feedback and I added a feature using her suggestion. The designed artefact was used as a prototype to rethink existing music streaming business models and capture the idea of emotional connection to music and how music is owned. This resulted in the conceptualization of a novel value exchange which supplements the artefact.

1. Sketch :https://www.sketch.com/

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4. Results

4.1 Phase 1: User research through interviews

The interviews were to understand how people connect to music emotionally and make an emotional landscape or emotional map. Norman (2003) states that music affects all three levels of emotional processing. I wanted to find out in more granularity how that connection happens. Thus the first lens through which the data was analysed was Norman’s three levels of emotional processing - visceral, behavioral and reflective.

4.1.1 Emotional response findings

I took two main questions from the interviews and labeled each answer as either a reflective response, behavioural response or visceral response. Table 2. shows the resulting emotional map. Note: the answers in the table are just keywords to show the representation.

_{What does music mean to you?} _{Feeling of new music}

Sylia, F, 26 Nostalgia, home, memories (R) -- not asked --

John, M, 30 Express myself, connect to a feeling (R) “Like building a complete house or library” (R)

Radha, F, 28 Concentration (B) Exciting and curious (V) Gustav, M, 25 “I like it a lot ...I like to listen during

commute”(B) Exciting, “like a new toy on christmas” (V) Natasha, F, 35 “Food for the soul” (R) Exciting and satisfying (V) Table 2. Emotional map [(R) - Reflective level | (B) - Behavioural level | (V) - Visceral level]

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- For most participants the meaning of music lies in a reflective level of emotion. Music holds an important place in their lives and plays an active role in regulating their emotions. It plays a role in helping participants remember the emotional experiences they had in their past. Multiple participants said they are “reminded of home”, “reminded of childhood memories” while listening to music. Participants also report feelings of nostalgia, self expression and connection to their own emotions.

- On a contrast, new music produced a much more visceral level of emotions. Almost all participants reported feeling excited when finding and hearing new music which they liked. “Like getting a new toy on christmas” reported one participant and his sentiment was echoed in similar ways by others. When users find new music they also like to find out more about that artist and add them to their digital music collections.

- Only a minority of participants viewed the meaning of music on a behavioural level - as a utility for their daily lives or simply a source of pleasure. One user reported that music is important for concentration during studies and helps her focus.

4.1.2 Inductive findings

Analysis of the other answers received during the interview

- Busking musicians: Most participants liked to stop and listen to musicians play music in the streets. They reported several factors which made them stop but the primary and common reasons were the personality and talent of the musician. Almost all the participants reported that they tipped the musicians less than 20%

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of the times, some saying they rarely tip because they never carry change money with them.

- Participants defined emotional experiences in a variety of ways. Some stated moments of human connection - departures and meetings as emotional whereas some talked about the media they consume as the first thing they think of when asked about emotional experiences.

- The practical task showed half of the users first attempted to find new music using one of the premade playlists or the “radio feature” provided by their music service. The other half went to a genre of their liking and played songs from the available selection. Each participant took about 2-4 minutes to find a song they liked. One notable activity was that every participant played multiple songs before they reached a song they liked. This can be interpreted as the abundance of music increases the threshold for a ‘likable’ song. It could also mean that the perceived speed of playback of each song is fast enough that the users would like to try multiple options before declaring their liking for any particular song. A separate experience study needs to be done to shed light on this observation and more.

4.2 Phase 2: Generative research via Co-design workshop findings

Sanders (1999) shows that by conducting generative sessions and co-design workshops we can uncover latent needs which would otherwise not be revealed using traditional methods of user research. I first did an inductive analysis of the data and synthesized four themes from it. The idea grouping exercise in the workshops also helped in

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synthesis of these themes and they had relations on what the participants felt about the ideas.

As a way to orient the data towards my thesis and research topic also I did a treatment of the ideas generated through two lenses: emotional response lens and psychological ownership lens.

- Users want to know their music and their music service to know them. A number of ideas generated showed users wanted to know more about the music they were listening to - lyrics, history of the artist, background of the genre, etc. The users also came up with ideas for the music service to know more about their needs - emotional or functional and suggest songs and surface relevant music. From the psychological ownership lens this demonstrates the motivation towards “coming to intimately know the target”. These ideas show a motivation to seek a behavioural level of emotional response.

- Users want new ways to feel music, relive the “first time”. Another theme which emerged from the ideas generated was the need to feel music through more senses than just auditory. To be able to hear music for the first time and experience the sensory pleasure of a great new song was another idea. These ideas show a motivation to seek a visceral level of emotional response. From the psychological ownership lens this shows motivation of “knowing the ownership target” more intimately.

- Users want to connect music to their emotional and personal lives. There were some ideas which were directed towards finding ways to connect music to the user’s emotions, memories, and personal connections. This shows a reflective

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emotional response from the users. From the psychological ownership lens this shows motivation to “identify/invest in the target of ownership” with oneself. - Users want to control music more easily. Lastly, another theme synthesized

from the workshop was the need to control music in multiple ways. Users imagined various technologies like projections, virtual reality glasses and even brain to machine thought transfer for manipulating music and music related media. This shows a behavioral level of emotional response from the users. From the psychological ownership lens this shows motivation of “controlling the target of ownership”.

4.2.1 Visual entity to represent the outcomes

After the above synthesis I wanted to be able to visually see their relationships and create a way to simultaneously visualise both the emotional response and psychological ownership aspect of each theme. To achieve that I chose two different graphical elements for each theoretical lense which can be combined to make one visual entity that encapsulates the two. I chose shapes for the three psychological ownership motivations and colors for emotional responses. The resulting entities are shown in Figure 6. A similar shape shows a similar psychological ownership motivation and a same color shows the same emotional response.

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Figure 6. Visual representation of the four themes which incorporates both theoretical lenses.

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4.3 The artefact

The artefact is a music streaming app concept which lets the user attach emotions and memories to any song on the platform. For the medium of technology I chose a smartphone app for the artefact because the survey data strongly suggests that listening to music is a highly mobile activity and most users do it on their smartphones. Also, memory creation can be enabled anywhere if the medium is a smartphone.

Each song is pre-tagged with 3 emotions from other members or staff. The user can add their own emotion to the song which will remain attached to the song as long as the user keeps it. The user can also attach a photograph to the song as an element of memory. A hypothetical user journey would look like this:

1. The user is listening to a song on this new music streaming platform and walking towards the grocery store.

2. As they turn a corner the user sees a nice view of the street and sunny sky which reminds them of their home.

3. The song being played is a new relaxing and calm song which suits the walk. 4. The user then feels a sense of peace and nostalgia while listening to this song and

decides to capture it.

5. They take out their smartphone, go to the app and add their feelings to the song. 6. They also take a picture of the sunny blue sky and save it alongside the song. 7. The user continues their grocery walk knowing they have saved an emotional

moment with their music and can revisit it next time they want to feel the same peace and nostalgia that they felt at that moment.

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4.3.1 Design

Figure 7: Screens of the artefact

Design features: Figure 7. shows the screen design of the artefact

- Screen 1: Full screen album art for immersive connection to the music and artist - Screen 2: Big, bold and capitalised text to emphasise connected emotions as

central elements for the user to focus on

- Screen 1 to Screen 2: Interaction happens via 'touching the music' - tapping the artwork brings up the emotions. (Also shown in Figure 8: user flow)

- Screen 3: Choose between live memory by using the camera or a previous memory by choosing a picture from the gallery.

- Screen 4: The visual focus has been kept on user pictures and artwork, due to which the other elements are kept color neutral - black/white.

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Figure 8: User flow for adding an emotion and picture to a song.

4.3.2 Novel value exchange

The artefact was used as a way to prototype a new business model/value exchange which can capture the Emotional exchange/contract: Every song which you add a feeling and photo memory to will become yours to download even if the artist is no longer on the streaming platform. This increases the level of control a user has over the target of ownership as well as lets the user invest time and energy into it, thus increasing the level of psychological ownership. Further implications and reasons that led to this idea are detailed in the discussion (chapter 5).

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5. Discussion

In the “post ownership” world users do not own the music they consume, rather rent it out (Belk R. (2014)) in exchange for a subscription fee or even for free in case of advertisement supported plans. This changing relationship with music also affects the perceived position of the ‘self’ and surface new needs enabled or provoked by these changes.

The co-design sessions enabled me to uncover some of these latent user needs and then by using the psychological ownership framework to analyse those needs we can see where the users want to go with respect to psychological ownership criterias. Sinclair et al. (2017) used psychological ownership framework to analyse the interview answers received in their study of music streaming services whereas this thesis analyses the ‘dreams’ of users generated during the co-design workshop using the framework.

Increasing psychological ownership could be beneficial to music streaming services. Citing Jussila, L., Tarkiainen, A., Sarstedt, M., & Hair, J. F. (2015) they state that “an enhanced sense of psychological ownership will lead to long-term loyalty, greater word-of-mouth, customer empowerment, feelings of satisfaction, and the increased likelihood of engaging in behaviours that protect and improve the ‘object’ of ownership” (Sinclar et al. (2017)). However, the authors also note that there is a knowledge gap to know the extent of its application to music streaming.

The three levels of emotional processing - visceral, behavioural and reflective give a systematic way to analyse responses received during interviews, ideas generated during

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co-design and other generative research methods, and provide a clear picture of the ‘emotional map’ for a particular area of interest to the researcher. This enables clear decision making by showing which level of emotion to address through design solutions.

Analysing emotional design gives us the ‘where’ - the level of emotional processing to focus on, understanding psychological ownership gives us the ‘who’ - opportunities to introduce and connect the self to the design direction. Taking both together provides a richer picture for a designer to work with and provides new ways to think of design solutions. It also gives a clear motivating direction to adopt as a designer. To my knowledge there are no frameworks which merge these two perspectives and give a new way to design for emotions.

The artefact was designed from inspiration from both phases of the research. A main motivating driver was one of the emerging themes from the co-design workshops - “Users want to connect music to their emotional and personal lives”. The merged framework gave me clear motivation to pursue this theme because it showed that the theme had aspects of both reflective level of emotional response and investing the self in the target. These attributes were congruent with the results synthesised in the user interviews and that motivated me to go with this theme. Thus the merged framework provided me with a clearer picture and helped me make an informed choice on which direction to pursue. This challenge presents itself to any designer or team of designers - to decide which of the ideas generated to be pursued further towards design. The merged framework gives a clear way to see what emotional criteria to choose from and by reflecting on the other data collected the designer can make better decisions.

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By keeping in mind these two aspects (emotional response and psychological ownership) I was also able to place the individual features of the artefact as being aligned to/ supporting these aspects or not. For e.g. the central concept of the artefact is a user adding their emotional state and attaching a picture to the song they are listening to. The artefact is asking the user to invest energy into adding their emotional state. Although the ability to later search and play songs based on their added emotion can be thought of as an exchange, I was not satisfied with it and wanted to provide a more concrete form of value exchange. This was the genesis of the novel idea of emotional exchange where the user can download the song on their device and the song will be theirs to keep even if the respective artist is no longer available on the streaming service.

This work shows that using both psychological ownership and emotional design as categorising parameters can help in designing for emotions and give the designer a systematic method to analyse features, ideas or new concepts. This methodological contribution can serve as a knowledge trigger for other researchers who read this study in the future.

This merger of frameworks was an outcome of the thesis work and trying to understand music’s emotional relationship to people. In depth analysis of this new merged framework was out of the scope of the thesis. There needs to be more research in analysing its application in design work which concerns itself with emotional design.

There were some limitations faced in performing this research work. The spread of Covid-19 caused a lot of deviations from the standard ways of performing research. For

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e.g. it was harder to find participants for user interviews or co-design workshops so I had to utilise the snowball sampling strategy and get as many participants as I could. I was also careful in interacting with them given the guidelines of social distancing and so one of the co-design workshops happened online on video conferencing.

There are several opportunities for further pursuing the work initiated in this thesis. The artefact was designed but has not been tested on real users. A detailed user test can reveal how participants would feel towards the novel concept and design of the artefact. Furthermore, the methodological contribution discussed above can be applied in other design problems concerning emotions and emotional design.

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6. Conclusion

The thesis is motivated by the need to examine the place of emotions in music consumption in today’s streaming dominated world. The work explores the role of emotions in its current state and uncovers future possibilities that meet a user’s yet unsurfaced needs or ‘dreams’. User research through interviews and Co-design are the main methodological tools used to conduct the research and gather qualitative data.

The data is treated through the emotional design framework by Norman (2003) and psychological ownership theory (Pierce et al. (2003)). The findings of the user interviews suggest that users place the significance of music in their lives at a reflective level of emotions and link visceral emotions towards experiencing new music. The co-design workshop synthesised four themes which reveal how participants envision the emotional place of music in their lives —to know their music and their music service to know them; new ways to feel music, relive the “first time”; to connect music to their emotional and personal lives; to control music more easily.

These themes were analysed using both the aforementioned theoretical frameworks and creating a visual entity to represent this dual perspective. By combining these two theoretical frameworks a motivating driver of design decision making was formed, a new analytical perspective on designing for emotions is gained. This new perspective was crucial in the design of the artefact and the central concept. The artefact is a concept of a music streaming service which lets users attach their emotions and memories (as pictures) to any song on the platform. This act of investing their emotional energy into the platform is returned by the way of that song being available

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for them to download on their devices even if the artist is no longer available on the platform. This concept is aimed to promote an increase in psychological ownership and give reflective pleasure of real ownership.

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8. Attribution

Finger tap icon in Figure 7. Icon made by Freepik from www.flaticon.com.

URL:https://www.flaticon.com/free-icon/tap_1612636?term=tap&page=1&position=4

Image used in Figure 6. Screen 1 by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash. URL:https://unsplash.com/@timmossholder