The purpose of this study was to follow a research-oriented design process and to develop a design draft for a digital service that supports users to make more environmentally conscious choises in their everyday life. By following an interaction design process from start to final delivery, the study aims at creating a broad understanding of the process. Therefore, many userrelated activities were implemented in the study: eg. personas, scenarios, sketching and user testing. The project resulted in digital wireframes for an iPhone application using embedded GPS to identify and locate environmentally friendly businesses.

The aim has been to investigate and describe how gender-neutral design, concerning typefaces and colours, can be created. Based on my results I?ve designed a cover for a recipe-book to make it appealing to both women and men. I have been doing my research based on questions such as; Does feminine and masculine design, concerning typefaces and colours exist? And if so what characterizes it? Does gender-neutral design, concerning typefaces and colours exist? And if so what characterizes it? Is it possible to design a cover for a recipe-book in a gender-neutral way, concerning typefaces and colours? The first part of my research consists of a literature study based on keywords such as gender, graphic design, gender theory, typeface, androgynous, visual communication, colour, shape, feminine, masculine, and book design.

Through a case study at an IT company we have attempted to ascertain how a company's organizational culture affects its designers' way of working. By examining what ?type? of designers the employees are and how this is reflected in their work, we hope to have correctly determined what their organizational culture looks like and thereby have achieved a plausible result in our study.Aside from two interviews with the company's CEO, we also performed eight observations at the company, where we tried to blend in with the employees, to better determine their way of working together.We have found that the designers' trust in their own instincts has led them to rarely act on feedback from clients ? they only pick out the proposals which have a ?mainstream? potential. We have also discovered that their design approach is something they don't feel inclined to discuss amongst themselves. As it is often ?indescribable?, they go with their intuition and unspoken design conventions..

This study concerns design thinking and how to achieve usability when designing applicationsfor smart watches. The study's focus is on interaction and design for online auctionapplications such as Ebay and Tradera. After studying usability and design for devices withsmall screens, guidelines and design principles for interactive systems, we developed apaperprototype for an auction application. The prototype was used for testing our intervieweeswhile observing and asking questions. After collecting the data we analyzed the responses andfeedback on our prototype and combined the results to previous studies.

This essays purpose is to accentuate the meaning of the knowledge of the design elements color, formand texture in the hair design education. Both the Bauhaus school and Pivot Point educationcampaign close knowledge in color, form and texture. In my study of the literature I compared theBauhaus school with Pivot Point International Inc, study material for hair design education. From thesimilarities in this material I develop a project in color, form and texture. This was a teaching test forstudents in the hair design education at the upper secondary.

The purpose of this study was to examine how local producers in the food and confectionery segment in Västernorrland, Sweden, working to communicate that the product is locally produced through its packaging design. We have chosen to look at how they work with the right packaging design because it is such an important part of the product marketing. A further aim was to examine how consumers perceive the packaging design of the locally produced products and how they consider that the packaging design communicates the product as locally produced. We have also analyzed the graphical elements contained in the locally produced product packaging through a semiotic analysis.The theoretical framework is based on theories in brand communication and Visual Communication, specializing in packaging design?s visual elements.The method used in this study is a qualitative method.

This study presents an alternate viewpoint to the strive to overcome the gap between research and practitioners within paper prototyping in interaction design. Earlier research identifies three aspects of this gap, which is:Practitioners being unaware of interaction design methods and theoriesPractitioners being aware, but choosing not to apply these methods and theories, due to time, budget and constraints of labourPractitioners and research having different perspective on similar design issuesOur study was done by carrying out qualitative interviews with interaction designers based on two digital design bureaus. One of the bureaus has an expressed link to research: the other has not. Our hypothesis is that the gap would manifest as a difference in work practice between the two bureaus.Our study shows that the two bureaus have similarities in work practice and that this work practice is based on scientific methods and theories, but is adapted to fit the client and/or the project. We conclude that the overcoming of the gap might not be necessary.

This degree project contains a theoretical and a practical part about magazine design. Literature aboutthe subject?s typography and magazine design has been studied and put into practice on the professionaljournal Ingenjören. Besides of that a study about the history of magazine typography for the lastfifty years has been done.Typography and other design factors are important for the magazine to be readable and gives at thesame time the magazine an identity of its own, which has become more and more important throughoutthe last decades.The result of this degree project is a new design for Ingenjören, a design that agrees more with howthe journal want to be considered. A new template, a dummy and a manual have been produced.

The purpose of current paper is to identify the differences (ifany) between Swedish and Turkish consumers in terms ofproduct design perception and to identify the differences toproduct design in relating the four dimensions / characteristics:1.Aesthetical attractiveness, 2.Functionality, 3.Value and4.Quality.The findings of the study indicate the existence of a universal perception of design. Despite the culturally different countries that are examined the empirical material consistently display similarities between the two countries. Both the quantitative and qualitative data point to a very similar perception in terms of design. The possibilities of global design are discussed for companies as well as managerial implications and future research..

This diploma work has been conducted for the consulting company Ramböll inUppsala, Sweden with the purpose to perform a study with the calculation programFEM Design 9.0 made by Strusoft. The aim has been to find out if it is possible to gainadvantage by utilizing more advanced 3D software for design calculations, instead ofthe traditional methods currently used in construction works.The method of approach has been to model an existing warehouse building with theprogram FEM Design, and then compare the results with those attained with FrameAnalysis and hand calculations. These results are then analyzed. An evaluation is maderegarding to what benefits can be achieved using a more advanced 3D-model.The results of the study show that the differences between the methods are not ofany significance with regard to the design of the steel frame. However in morecomplex materials such as reinforced concrete, the differences become more notable.The conclusions drawn by the authors of this study into FEM Design are that theeducation requirements of the program are higher than for simpler programs, whosepurpose are solving predetermined problems.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the existence of the discipline Design Thinking in a project that aims to strengthen Sweden as a brand. The study will generate knowledge about Design Thinking, with the purpose to increase the understanding of how the discipline can be used as a strategic tool in the processes of strengthening Nation Branding. The authors have used a descriptive and qualitative approach where the Shanghai World Expo in 2010 was examined. The theoretical framework contains previous research in the field, data has been analysed in relation to Lockwood's ten principles of how an organization can become more design-minded and Anholt?s hexagon, which features the parameters that creates a country's Nation Branding.

Many design agencies and designers like to see design as a longtime strategic investment for any company. However, knowledge of design as a strategic resource depends on ones professional background and ones knowledge of design as such. It is common today that clients meet design agencies and therefore design with a certain skepticism concerning its role in the company. Within the prodctdevelopment-process the company?s different functions meet.

The purpose of this study was to examine how local producers in the food and confectionery segment in Västernorrland, Sweden, working to communicate that the product is locally produced through its packaging design. We have chosen to look at how they work with the right packaging design because it is such an important part of the product marketing. A further aim was to examine how consumers perceive the packaging design of the locally produced products and how they consider that the packaging design communicates the product as locally produced. We have also analyzed the graphical elements contained in the locally produced product packaging through a semiotic analysis.The theoretical framework is based on theories in brand communication and Visual Communication, specializing in packaging design?s visual elements.The method used in this study is a qualitative method.

The purpose of this study is to examine which aspects of blogs and blog design that are important to blog readers but also to find new ideas for blog design. From a qualitative standpoint we have examined how seven users experience that blogs design, structure and functionalities affects the general experience of the blog. The study also examines how the users wish to interact with a blog. During two design workshops we let seven active blog readers imagine and sketch out the design and functionalities they would like in a blog. We put this in relation to theories about the anatomy of blogs, methods of design, social navigation and virtual communities.The major finding is that the aspects most important to blog readers are navigation, structure and social interaction.

Design management är ett arbetssätt som har börjat tillämpas av allt fler företag de senaste åren, men det kan fortfarande vara svårt att förstå betydelsen av design management. I uppsatsen undersöks det vilken betydelse en design managers kompetens och position har för samarbetet mellan det designköpande företaget och en designkonsult under ett designinköp. Genom ett flertal intervjuer, utifrån både design managers och designkonsulters perspektiv, undersöks det hur samarbetet fungerar mellan dessa parter. En analys av intervjumaterial med hjälp av en teoretisk referensram bestående av design management-teori, design som en integrerad process och beslutsrollsteori har lett fram till ett antal slutsatser om design management. Några av slutsatserna är att design management, enligt teorierna, som arbetssätt inte är så vanligt och att det finns en viss samarbetsbrist enligt de intervjuade designkonsulterna, som i viss mån underlättas om design managern har kunskap om vad design innebär..