Aviaja Borup Hansen is an Industrial Ph.D. scholar at Bang & Olufsen. She studies how design might help create a sense of domesticity for people who lead a mobile lifestyle. Her findings will be applied directly in the company and will benefit the design research environment and the company.

By Anna Krarup Jensen

A growing number of people lead a global lifestyle , where they either travel frequently and stay in hotels around the world or have several homes and switch between them. How do they manage to keep a sense of being rooted? Or, as Aviaja Borup, Industrial Ph.D. scholar at Bang & Olufsen, puts it: “How do they get homely?”

Her Industrial Ph.D. project with the working title On the move – creating domesticity through experience design is based on the notion of domesticity and explores how design might help frequent travellers feel at home.

New Concepts at Bang & Olufsen

Aviaja Borup does research through design , which means that she tests theories and methods through design solutions. Thus, during the project, her research findings will provide input for the development of new concepts, product and services at Bang & Olufsen, which manufactures audio, video and multimedia products.
“My research gives Bang & Olufsen a new perspective on something that plays an important role in their company, where their focus is on the home. They acquire knowledge that they would not have had, had I not been associated with the research environment and done user studies in the field,” says Aviaja Borup.

The prototypes and concepts that Aviaja Borup’s research generates belong in the category of experience design . That is, products and services that give the user experiences and foster interaction. The new design solutions at Bang & Olufsen should give the user a sense of “being at home”.

The researchers at the Mobile Home Center study the domesticity of people with a mobile lifestyle. At Bang & Olufsen, Industrial Ph.D. scholar Aviaja Borup converts the research findings into prototypes and new concepts. Illustration: Aviaja Borup Hansen

In the first phase of the project, Aviaja Borup and other researchers base their work on previous field work by cultural sociologist Ida Winther from the Danish School of Education, Aarhus University. The researchers have mapped seven tactics that people use to cope with their mobile lifestyle.

Connected, Separate or Inside a Bubble

Many of the products and services that are designed for people on the move today are mainly aimed at people who apply the tactic of connecting .
“This is the most common tactic for handling the many trips and multiple homes. It involves bringing objects and images from the other homes and making contact often, for example by phone or online chat,” says Aviaja Borup.

Another way of managing multiple homes is to differentiate . This implies little or no contact between the homes. This is a tactic that is often applied by children after their parents’ divorce. The children adapt to each of the two homes and live in the present.

As a third example, Aviaja Borup mentions what is called  bubbling .
The typical business traveller lives in a bubble, taking no notice of the surroundings.
“He speaks on his mobile phone on his way from the airport, and in the hotel room he doesn’t notice the view. He’s present in his business affairs and business associations, and it makes no difference to him where in the world he is. That’s his way of dealing with frequent travels,” she says.

The research project is divided into three phases. Phase One is about people with multiple homes, Phase Two looks at people who spend a great deal of time in hotels, and Phase Three addresses the travel situation as such. Illustration: Aviaja Borup Hansen

Part of a Greater Research Environment

Aviaja Borup’s Industrial Ph.D. project began in spring 2008 and unfolds in cooperation with Bang & Olufsen and the Aarhus School of Architecture, where Aviaja Borup also took her design degree. The project is part of a larger research project, Mobile Home Center , which also involves researchers from the innovation institution the Alexandra Institute and the Department of Computer Science at the University of Aarhus.

Mobile Home Center collaborates with Ida Winther, who in the first project phase carried out the studies of people with an extreme or highly mobile lifestyle that forms the basis for the researchers’ analysis of various tactics.
“Ida Winther’s studies included a child whose parents had divorced, a flight attendant, a business traveller, a city family with a weekend summerhouse in the country, and a long-distance commuter who commutes between Copenhagen and the island of Bornholm,” says Aviaja Borup.

Research Involves the Entire Company

Aviaja Borup has also interviewed staff at Bang & Olufsen, for example about their perceptions of the users of their products and the product development process. She spoke with retailers about the type of customers they have and about the values that motivate the decision to buy a Bang & Olufsen product.
The customer identification that has been generated through Aviaja Borup’s research represents valuable knowledge to the company.

The ongoing first phase of the Industrial Ph.D. project is directed at people with multiple homes, and Aviaja Borup is carrying out user studies in the top segment of Bang & Olufsen’s customer base, the plus customers , in Denmark, Los Angeles and Dubai.
“Bang & Olufsen sees the plus customers as first movers, so there is a considerable potential in having them as a target group,” says Aviaja Borup.

Year Two of the project looks at people who spend a great deal of time in hotels, and here, the emphasis is on the core customers. Year Three is about the travel situation itself, and here, Aviaja Borup will be focusing on potential Bang & Olufsen customers.
“Each phase is to result in prototypes for the customer group in question. My research is also shared with the company through internal workshops and presentations. I believe that the knowledge I generate can lead to new design approaches at Bang & Olufsen,” she says.

Striking a Balance Between Research and Business

Aviaja Borup calls it a bit of a balancing act to be an Industrial Ph.D. scholar, but she considers it a clear advantage that she has one foot in the research universe and another in the business world.
“It is an advantage for Bang & Olufsen, as they develop closer links with the research environment and thus gain access to new knowledge and new research findings. It is also an advantage for the researchers, as I can help them gain access to the company. I feel that I am able to clear up misunderstandings that occur between researchers with their particular mindset and business people with their mindset,” she says.

Occasionally, Aviaja Borup does experience conflicts of interest between research and business. Her research results in new concepts and designs that are useful to the company, and she has to make sure not to make business-sensitive information available to the public.
“Bang & Olufsen is open to research, but they do have their reservations. We have an agreement that I won’t publish findings, for example in conferences, until they have been submitted for patent application,” she says.

She emphasises that overall, the Industrial Ph.D. programme is a clear advantage for her.
“It is sheer luxury to be a part of a large design research environment and at the same time be active in a business context. Sometimes I do graphic design or design the physical form of the prototypes generated by my research. Once my Ph.D. project is completed, that will allow me to choose freely between continuing as researcher in a research institute or as designer in a company,” she says.

Mind Design #14, 2008