The aim of this paper has been to examine personas role in the development phase and whether or not some of the criticism that have aroused against personas is valid or not. In this paper we examine the benefits as well as the downsides of working with personas both from a scientific point of view but also from the experiences of a small company located in the north of Sweden. Since personas much like many other powerful tools have pit falls aswell as do's and don'ts this paper looks to clarify what role personas should take aswell as how to minimize risk and maximize the usefulness of personas..

The company Sound Precision has developed a new Line Array loudspeaker system (VHA-40). When using this system, their customers need computer aid to get the best possible sound-quality and control of sound levels for the whole audience. The aim of this thesis is to develop a truly useful sound quality simulator for the VHA-40. The system will help the sound engineers to position the loudspeakers for optimal sound by simulating loudspeaker configurations and visualizing the resulting sound quality and quantity. To solve this a human-centered design (HCD) approach is taken to implement a system that is truly useful for the users, meaning that they will use it more and hence deliver better sound for the audience.

This study was based on a quantitative method to examine gender-related attitudes towards leadership styles among employees in trade union organizations in Sweden. The aim of the research was to investigate and understand how gender relates to attitudes regarding leadership within these organizations. The study was based on research questions related to preferences for different leadership styles and the impact of gender on these attitudes. The study incorporated previous research and relevant theoretical frameworks such as leadership theories, gender theories, and theories on prejudice against female leaders to contextualize our findings. Data were collected through a survey using a convenience sampling method, targeting employees of trade union organizations in Sweden.

SammanfattningLångvarig smärta orsakar stort lidande för individen och belastar samhället ekonomiskt. Syftet med denna uppsats var att undersöka om en exponering in vivo-behandling inspirerad av Dialektisk beteendeterapi (DBT) för människor med långvarig ländryggssmärta var görbar samt om behandlingen gav effekt på smärtrelaterad problematik. Designen var en single case experimental design vilket är en beprövad design för att testa nya terapimetoder. Studien bestod av sex deltagare, alla med hög grad av smärtrelaterade katastroftankar, något som litteraturen visat predicera sämre behandlingsutfall. Behandlingen var DBT-inspirerad och indelad i tre faser; en första valideringsfas, en andra färdighetsfas och en tredje exponeringsfas.

To find competencies on a workplace with flex office structure.Companies today, 2012 are facing new opportunities and challenges. Information technology develops, competition is bigger today than ever, increased environmental requirements will be added and new patterns of life and values are occurring. This means that people who work in offices feel strong pressure of conversion, which is something that people experience differently. Therefore it is essential how the working environment is designed in an office. Working in an office means a lot of information processing and we can see large changes taking place.

The thesis presents an optimally designed kinematic structure for a new 6-DOF haptic devicebased on TAU configuration. The configuration of the TAU-2 proposed by Suleman Khan andKjell Andersson [1] was modified and its mobility was verified by using Grübler criterion tohave a 6 DOF. Analytical kinematic models for the inverse and forward kinematics weredeveloped for the haptic TAU configuration to determine a set of optimal design parameters.Kinematic performance indices such as volume of the workspace, kinematic isotropy and payload index, were defined based on the singular values of the Jacobian matrix. The Jacobianmatrix was scaled to homogenize the physical units. The Jacobian matrix dependent on theposition and orientation of the end-effector gives local isotropy and pay load index, so globaldesign indices were defined, which represent the performance of the mechanism in the wholeworkspace.

Denna examensrapport redogör för en utvecklingsprocess av en webbasserad släktforskningsapplikation, där resultat från släktforskning kan delas av flera aktiva släktforskare. Genom att grundligt undersöka olika datamodeller och befintliga applikationer försöker arbetet säkerställa grunden till en unktionell webbapplikation. Arbetet ledde till en betaversion med begränsad funktionalitet som skall vidareutvecklas i framtiden till ett GNU/GPL projekt med öppen källkod för gratis användning och nerladdning. Målet med arbetet uppfylldes i stora drag, det frångicks dock lite på grund av tidsbrist som uppstod i samband med prototypprogrammeringen..

This research aims to investigate the effects that dredging may have on benthic fauna. The dredging took place in the stream Ireån on northern Gotland during the early summer 2010. My area of research was taking place in a scenic area downstream in Ireån close to the Baltic Sea. I chose this area due to the dredging that started just upstream of this area and continued further upstream. Thus it is not the direct impact of the dredging that is the focus for this paper but the side-effect the dredging may have on the area downstream.

This bachelor?s degree thesis was conducted in mechanical engineering at Halmstad University during spring semester 2010 in close collaboration with the company Gremo AB, located in Ätran, Sweden. Gremo AB produces, developes and sales forest machines in both Sweden and on the international market.Gremo AB belongs to one of the market leaders in forest industry, especially with their forwarder. In order to become a market leader even with their harvester, the company decided to change the harvester to have a swivel and a leveling driver cabin.The aim with this bachelor?s degree thesis was to develop a design concept for the harvester driver cabin, which Gremo AB can apply on the new harvester.

This thesis is about developing a design that provides improved vacuum seal between a lead coating and a plastic coating during plastic extrusion processes of cables. This report is a part of the course MSGC 17 for Bachelor Engineers in mechanical engineering.The work is performed at Nexans Norway AS in Halden where they have a production of high voltage cables for sea-, and offshore industry. A problem they face is that they do not get enough good seal at the attachment to the plastic extrusion machine. They want to achieve a vacuum between a lead coating on the cable and a plastic coating of the cable for plastic extrusion, which is something they do not achieve today. The thesis is thus to come up with a design that provides better sealing against the cable.The work involves a construction part with the phases of product development processes.

 This report will describe a project between two students from Karlstad University and Markus Norström from Hovercraft solutions. The project aim was to develop a cabin for the hovercraft 380TD. The project was divided into two sub parts; one concerning the design of the cabin and one concerning the engineering. Throughout this rapport you can follow the engineering part of the project. The project has followed a systematic product development process resulting in optimized results for material selection and engineering solutions.

The purpose of this study is to do a research about some pedagogues? perceptions of the social phenomenon of bullying, about the roles that can occur and how these pedagogues consider themselves to work accordingly. Our research questions are therefore:What beliefs about the social phenomenon of bullying has the pedagogues?What roles emerge in different bullying situations according to the pedagogues?How do the pedagogues work with bullying and the roles that emerge?The study provides insight into how different approaches to bullying can contribute to various pedagogical implications in anti-bullying work. In our theoretical part we present general issues and the roles that different writers describe.

This thesis describes the redesign ofequipment designed for drying bags thatis used in Fresenius Kabis´manufacturing of their nutritionmedicine in Uppsala. The need of thistask arise during the start of thedevelopment of a new packaging line werethis equipment were meant to be used. Anevaluation of the bagdryers capacity andcapability was necessary.The work started with gathering ofinformation from suppliers of the usedcomponents and from the responsibleengineers for this equipment. Aneducation to learn how the equipmentworked and how to operate it were taken.That was followed by the creation of astudy plan were the tests were plannedto test different parameters effect onthe drying result and to see if thebagdryer managed to handle the bags ofthe correct format in the pace that theequipment should be designed for.The test results detected a need ofdesigning a unit with a function thatholds the bags in place while passingthrough the dryer in order to attainhigh quality results. The results werelater used for optimization of thedesign.

Technological developments have affected many different areas. Something that has undergone major changes in this respect is gambling. Because of technology, the accessibility to games has never been greater. Using smartphones, tablets and online casinos makes it possible to play virtually any time of day no matter where you are. This development has caused that more people, got stuck in a gambling addiction which have become an increasing problem in the last decade.

Denna kandidatuppsats är en uppsats gjord på Programmet för Pedagogisk Mjukvaruutveckling vid Högskolan i Halmstad år 2004. Uppsatsen tar upp problemet med att presentera stora mängder text på små skärmar samt vad tidigare forskning framför om design mot dessa. Syftet med uppsatsen var att undersöka effekter som kan påverka läsförståelsen och läsbarheten vid läsande på handhållna datorer. Den litteratur vi använde bestod främst av artiklar inom området för design, framförallt design mot små skärmar. Den primärdata vi fick fram insamlades genom ett läsförståelse test med efterföljande djupintervju angående läsbarhet.