Anton Löf
I’m a senior designer at frog, Stockholm. I studied interaction design at Umeå Institute of Design. I’m a fan of user-centered design, sketching, and prototyping.
Generating & Manipulating sound
Umeå Institute of Design - 2017
Music making and technological development has always been connected. The digital revolution has made advanced music production, writing, and distribution tools universally accessible. New intelligent tools built on machine learning are entering the market potentially changing how we create music and interact with creative content.
The project aimed to explored borderland between man and machine. To find alternatives to existing interaction models manifested in modern DAWs (Digital Audio Workstations). The outcome consists of three concept videos proposing changes to three moments in the workflow of songwriters and producers.
Method
To understand how songwriters and producers work the subject were investigated through contextual interviews. The different ways of working were mapped out and potential opportunity areas were identified. Experts within machine learning were consulted through interviews and literature.
Sketches, mock-ups and simple video prototypes were created and evaluated in multiple iterations with expert and novice music makers.
Result
The project outcome is three concepts focusing on three different moments in the workflow of songwriters and producers. It is taking these three moments, look at how to perform a specific task and change—not what you do—but how you do it. The concepts consist of three short videos. They are presented together with a similar look and feel but focuses on a specific task and concept. The concepts should propose alternatives to existing interaction models manifested in modern DAWs.
1. Create
Automating parts of the songwriting process and create a collaborative workflow between a you and a computer—through a conversational user interface.
2. Tune
A pressure sensitive touch-surface that let you manipulate sound. It is an adaptive system that automatically detects active controls in your DAW—it maps these active controls from your computer screen down to a touchpad
3.Find
Changes the way you organise and look for sound files. It is a automatised process where a software helps you compare different sounds to each other. It takes away most labels and focuses on mapping sound according to its auditory profile.
Micro Mobility
Ericsson - 2017
Micro mobility was a speculative design project, done by a small multidisciplinary team at Ericsson. Creating a scenario, use case, and prototype for a future parcel delivery system. Mainly secured and made possible by a high speed 5G network and blockchain technology. Think of it like post in combination with über and cryptocurrency.
The challenge
In most cities around the world trucks and lorries are the default means of transporting goods and while good logistics is a necessary part of any city the trucks are at the same time causing reduced quality of urban life.
This concept is an attempt to show how a community-based system could reshape the last mile logistics by using technology and connectivity as means of a decentralised protocol.
Scenario
In a decade Stockholm has shifted focus into a city built around communities rather than business. With the goal of setting new standards for quality of life and sustainable living the municipality have introduced new alternative methods of transportation. First no one was sure if it would work to cut away motorised transportation, together with the local public transportation the municipality developed a people driven goods transportation system open for anyone to use.
By introducing portable containers in connection with the public transportation grid, the city could ask its inhabitants to send goods with the help of each other's daily commutes. A economic layer was necessary to motivate people to participate but it also allowed small businesses or entrepreneurs to use the system and develop new services.
Stockholms high level of digital infrastructure allowed every part of the system to keep track of itself, minimising the loss of goods and keeping the system secure. Though the technical security layer of the containers were high, it took a long time for people to trust the system. A lack of transparency made many mistrust the containers and few were willing to transport unknown goods for other people.
This is a decentralised system. Using the power of the Blockchain, the concept tries to disrupt how the logistics business is done nowadays. In this concept, there is no responsible company or agency that controls what is happening. Every transaction, and every action (sharing, transporting, requesting and offering goods) is managed and taken care of by the agents of the systems. These agents may be citizens, drones, or companies.
Monster
Freelance - 2020
Monster was a freelance project made for my brother Joel Löf. He creates simple but highly effective software plugins for his work as an audio engineer. I was asked to help him create a visual language and a set of components he could use to create a coherent expression in his software.
The challenge lied in creating a flexible system that can scale, uses the right type of controls for expert users, and can be created by my brother within a very small timeframe.