A large part of Sweden?s green, urban landscape is covered by lawns. Approximately 80 000 ha of maintained grass lawns are part of public courtyards, schoolyards, parks, golf courses, sport fields and traffic environments. Beyond this figure, the lawn is also an essential element in most private villa-gardens. Lawns have become a universal phenomenon through the dispersion of landscape aesthetics from the Western world.

This is a heuristic evaluation of Umeå university library?s Online Public Access Catalog (OPAC). It makes use of four of Nielsen?s ten heuristics, flexibility and efficiency to use, match between the system and real world, visibility of system status, and aesthetic and minimalist design. The evaluation was done by having 3 evaluators inspect the interface individually, as per Nielsen?s (1990) recommendation of 3-5 evaluators.

The objective of this graduate work is to gain a better understanding in how pre-school educators are able to work with music in their pre-school activity to promote child development. We also want to enlighten possible factors for the development of children based on music and to form our own ideas of whether teachers choose to apply music in their didactic practice or not.The point of this essay has been to attempt answering on what importance music makes for children's development and learning in pre-school, and how teachers could work with music in pre-school in order to promote children?s development. Our data consists of six interviews and two observations realized at a pre-school in Södertälje.We took heed from the theories laid out by Lev Vygotsky's which describe four different levels of development that includes educational development in social interaction between teacher and child. Our choice of this theory is inspired by our seeking deeper understanding of Vygotsky's theory´s application to the aesthetic approach in the interaction in meaning making and learning.The result of our study confirms previous theory and research in that music as a form of expression has a major impact on children's development.

The aim of this study was to search for a link between the subject pictorial studies in means of expression and the ability to communicate in written and spoken language. To do so findings in relevant literature and a few complementing theories was addressed to cast light on interviews made with teachers dedicated to the subject pictorial studies in a subject-integrated curriculum.Interviews were conducted with nine teachers and all but one were teachers in the subject pictorial studies, spread across all of the nine grades in compulsory school. Informants were located in areas of socioeconomically high as well as low status, in central and densely populated areas as well as areas less densely populated. The diverse theoretical background consisted of semiotics, constructivist theory, social constructivist theory and genre theory. Theories and literature partly both contradicted and supported each other, depending on situation and circumstance.No evident conclusion could be made that discriminated one affecting cause from another on speech or writing skills.

The aim of this Master?s thesis is to examine how the literature criticism are in the Swedish media in the reception of the novel Mosquitoes and tigers from 2007 written by the Swedish author Maja Lundgren. A second aim is to examine how master suppression techniques have been used by the literature critics in the newspaper debate. This qualitative study is based upon a total of 52 articles and reviews from five big Swedish newspapers. The theoretical approach, literature criticism, mainly originates from the Swedish professor in Literature Science Tomas Forser and the literature scholar Gunnar Hansson.

The purpose of this essay is to examine how out-pedagogy, drama and art can be used as means of promoting language development of bi-and multi-language learners, and to show what benefits these three methods offer to children of year three of an elementary school in Stockholm City. This is a small survey of work-style and the results are based on observations and interviews with five teachers which included three class teachers, one resource teacher and one other language teacher and it was carried out two full days of observations in both classroom and outdoor environment. In this work, I note how out-pedagogy, drama and art can help bi- and multilingual children develop language. My study shows, in accordance with the respondents interviewed, as well as research in general that out-pedagogy, drama and art is language development practices. They argue that out-pedagogy and the aesthetic elements promote language development of bi- and multilingual children in different ways and complements the traditional approach.

The final stage of a designers work is always a bit tricky. Design is an abstract phenomenon and no one can tell when a design is really finished. The design process that designers work within has been thoroughly studied but cannot be truly mapped with strict constraints which the designer can follow to succeed. Therefore, in this paper we take a look at the final stage in the design process. The main goal is to get more knowledge and highlight key factors about what designers face when they are about finish their design or what forces them to leave a project that can stay in development for eternity.

Today many buildings and it´s nearby surroundings are designed to achieve some kind of environmental goal.The issue concerning energy consumption is currently at focus and it is relevant that we start increase the share of renewable energy. Solar energy is an infinite resource and should therefore be considered when selecting an energy supplier. Uppsala University hospital is facing major restructuring when parts of the existing buildings will be refurbished and a large new building will be constructed. White Architects have developed a study concerning the new building and for some of the existing buildings on the hospital campus. Uppsala County requires tough energy measures and wants the new building to be classified as an eco-building in Whites following work. The classifications will involve high energy source requirements. This work has been conducted to see if solar power can be envisaged as a supplementary energy source for the University hospital and also to investigate the aesthetic impact of solar cells on the new building.

This report examines the relationship between usability and subjective judgmentsabout aesthetic and emotional aspects of users of a web production. Through thedevelopment of two prototypes that reflects different aspects of usability and subjectiveassessments examined the consequences of a differentiation of the concepts andUsability and Likeability. Thereafter, an evaluation of the two prototypes are madethrough user testing. Finally, the results of the evaluation is presented and are relatedto the concepts of usability and likeability. .

Water constructions - as a design element in public spaces is the title of this Master thesis, with a focus on waters function and meaning in the urban environment. By way of introduction, mans relationship to places is described and the factors that contribute to the reality that we prefer some places more than others. A good place to stay is open but well defined, gives protection, offers a good view and is varying in topography and vegetation, together with contents of single landscape elements like visible water. This study then continues to discuss mans relationship to water and its means for our wellbeing. Despite the fact that people have a different relations to water due to personality, background and age, it?s an element that raises positive feelings, interest and aesthetic pleasure for most people.

Authenticity and The Public Space, the paradoxical relationship between them. There focus is put on the need to create a new contextualization for my aesthetic practice, and to make be possible incorporating critical views, questioning both the format and the scenic heritage of the west. ! ! ! I do not believe in authenticity in terms of the more individualistic relations of power but in terms of vulnerability, interdependence and mutual care. Also a way to question how capitalism has shaped and created the way of how we understand ?the? art or the value or the way that it is enjoyed..

Vi presenterar vårt examensarbete i form av projektredogörelse med tillhörande estetisk gestaltning i form av en barnbok. Vi har genomfört kvalitativa intervjuer med fyra förskolepedagoger som arbetar aktivt med hållbar utveckling. Syftet med intervjuerna var att samla in material om deras arbetssätt gällande motivations och inspirationsarbete om hållbar utveckling. Resultatet tillsammans med litteratur och teorier presenterar vi i en barnbok. Barnbokens syfte är att motivera och inspirera barn att arbeta med hållbar utveckling..

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) proposes vibration standards for the evaluation for machine damage due to vibration in rotational machines, where some vibration parameters are given to measure the vibrationgrade. This work evaluates the relevance of the vibration standards in hydro plants that are proposed by the ISO, and also investigates if there are methods used in other countries could have greater importance. Through statistical analysis of collected data we got a better understanding of relation among different vibration parameters, and also the importance of correct choice of the parameters for the evaluation of vibration. We have found that the vibration standards available today in hydro plants are not reliable for the judgment of vibration?s grade.

I den här uppsatsen undersöker jag musikelever på gymnasiets estetiska program i Västerås, och vilken effekt undervisningen har på deras musikpreferenser. Resultaten baseras på två enkäter, en till elever och en till lärare. Undersökningen visar att eleverna till största delen är positiva till den musik de möter i skolan, men bara en mindre del av dem lyssnar på den musiken privat..

The aim of this thesis is to model my artistic practice on an adaptation of Joseph Campbells monomyth and, using this model, investigate challenges of performativity in art (in public spaces). The overall themes are personal, aesthetic and ethical sovereignty and an uncompromising search for a deepening of the artistic practice. More than anything else it is a map and a story of an artist?s expansion out into an artistic field that is little developed in Sweden. It is my hope that this thesis, by using a thoroughly subjective tone, will contribute to the milieu of performative arts in Sweden as well as widen the ?how? regarding the making of a written thesis..