Environmental destruction is a growing problem in our world. Almost every day there are new reports concerning that we have to do something about the greenhouse gasses. Simultaneously is the human constantly more eager to have a life with higher standards and therefore uses more energy. The environment is a question that is highly up-to-date and more people try to find solutions on how to save our planet. One way to decrease the energy demand is to build passive houses, where the houses don?t have any active heating.

This thesis is about how the front-staff in two service companies experience empowerment. Competition for business in today's society is becoming increasingly fierce, which means that they must find a way to differentiate themselves from competitors. Service has become a way to compete. Front-staff competence and ability to offer a good service is a crucial factor when the company's success is being measured.Empowerment in business is used as a tool to create motivation and satisfaction of individuals at work. Companies using empowerment can create the freedom and opportunities for employees to act at their own intelligence and discretion.

Lumilos is a work investigating the possibilities to use light and color in an interactive design context. I have explored different light sources and compared them to each other and given a short description of the history of light and how it has been developed during the industrialization in the western world. I have also investigated what is currently done in the field and summarized that with examples in the categories passive-, colored-, material- and interactive light. The conclusion is that working with interactive color and light is a hard task. There are many different angles to take into account such as personal likings and earlier experiences that is uncontrollable by the designer. Yet there are many possibilities and light is a material that is moldable in many forms. I have put the knowledge about light and color into practice and developed an interactive light wall that is visualizing energy consumption with the use of different colors of light and animations.

The project was carried out in cooperation with the department of product development IOS at IKEA. The work included improvements of a new existing product that Ikea soon will release on the market, Observatör, a wall bracket for flat screens. The product is supposed to fulfil the needs within this market for IKEA. However, since Ikea was not satisfied with it, our work was to carry out the improvements that were specified in the beginning of the project. Another task in the project was to develop a side-product that is supposed to be used together with Obeservatör for storage of DVD/decoders.The project included labour as problem definition to final technical drawings and a prototype.

The aim of this report is to give a concise description of curtain walls, what it is and why they are used. It is also a description of six different but commonly used design technologies. By giving a detailed description of the different types and there special properties, the pros and cons will be clarified. The three most interesting alternatives were selected to be included in a test, to show the best alternative from a certain point of view.The parameters are:? Environment? Cost? Ergonomics? Isolation against noise and fire? DurabilityThese are important parameters in the planning and design phase.

Granskande av ritningar, tidsplaner och kalkyler för referensprojektet Hus N i Växjö har hjälpt oss kartlägga skalväggars för- och nackdelar. Från intervjuer har vi sedan kunnat se liknelser och skillnader om vad olika yrkesfolk i samma bransch tycker, sedan därifrån dragit slutsatser. Det är inte alltid enkelt att avgöra vilken byggnadsmetod som är att föredra för att projektet ska vara kostnadseffektivt, prefabricerat eller platsbyggd. Faktorer som byggnadens konstruktion, årstid, arbetsmiljö, resurser, tid och kostnad ska ta hänsyns till.Genom att planera bättre, öka förtillverkningen, skapa en bättre samverkan mellan byggherrar, konsulter, entreprenörer, underentreprenörer och materialleverantörer, så anser man allmänt att man kan öka industrialiseringen av byggandet. Då man kan få kortare byggtider och lägre totalkostnader. .

HAFA Bathroom Group has given us the assignment to develop a standardized back panel for their bathroom cabinets. This cabinet is going to be applied to most of their current and future cabinet solutions. To this point, they have constructed unique suspensions-and back panels for most of their cabinet models. They have also been forced to pull wiring and assemble the cabinets differently because of factors like; position of the wall sockets, dimensions of the cabinets and their shapes.The company wants to distance themselves from their current solution, firstly because the cost of having manpower to design each individual suspension solution, secondly because they will save a lot of money when the manufacturing process requires a minimum of components to be constructed. As a result of this, the company can use their resources better to develop future products.The main idea is that the consumer isn?t required to change the suspension or back panel when they decide to buy a new cabinet.

Hudiksvall Municipality will build a new preschool. The goal is that the pre-school should reflect the municipality's environmental goals and meet building regulations. The wall structures that are compared in the report is an insulated wooden frame and a frame of lightweight concrete blocks from H + HWall structures are compared within the areas of U-values, air tightness, thermal storage capacity, fire ratings, moisture, durability, emissions and environment. In these categories the two wall structures will be rated in a scale from 1 to 5 and then the categories are weighted against each other. The weighting is based on Hudiksvall Municipality's assessment of the categories importanse for their final selection.The results of the comparison show that the concrete structure is recommended for the construction of pre-school with 27.55 points against the wooden structures 23.70 points.

This paper aims to map and contrast the research front and theresearch base of Library and Information Science (LIS) inScandinavia during 1980-1989 and 2003-2013 from articlespublished in Web of Science.The research questions are:1. How is the research base and research front in LIS inScandinavia between 1980-1989 and 2003-2012 structured?2. What differences can be observed between the two time periods1980-1989 and 2003-2012 with regards to the research base?3.

Jag kommer i denna uppsats beskriva den designprocess som pågått vid skapandet av en webbaserad informationsplattform från koncept till slutprodukt.Mitt uppdrag har varit att effektivisera en webbyrås nuvarande sätt att hantera och sprida information på, som bestod av en blandning mellan digital och analog information, och skapa en ny webbaserad informationsplattform. Den nya webbaserade informationsplattformen ska kunna samla all information på en plats och skapa ett effektivare informationsutbyte mellan de anställda på företaget.Jag har använt mig av två teoretiska ramverk; Nielsens tio heuristics samt Krugs visuella design hierarki.Jag har arbetat nära beställaren för att kunna skräddarsy webbplatsen till deras behov.Resultatet efter ett omfattande arbete med designmallar och front-end kodning blev grunden för webbyråns webbaserade informationsplattform, utvecklad för att effektivisera spridningen av information på företaget..

We have the tradition in Sweden to build villas and houses with a wooden framework. It has become natural for us because we have so much forest in our country. Building with wood has advantages, it is easy to process, but also disadvantages, as it is sensitive to moisture.Finland has long made use of the thermal blocks to build villas. It is a type of bricks that are a bit like a sandwich element, with a core of EPS and concrete on both sides of the core material. The concrete is hollow, so that after the walls has been bricked up you pour concrete into the hollow bricks.The issue of this report is to find out if concrete can be an alternative to wood as framework material in villas.

This is a booklet with information and inspiration about precast retaining walls. The three chapters contain information about concrete as a material, how the surface of the wall can be altered, and a chapter with ideas for a new precast wall. I have obtained information through books, interviews, lectures and fairs. The retaining walls on the market do not correspond to the requirements of the Landscape Architects I have interviewed. I have therefore considered their opinions in the chapter containing my new ideas for new retaining walls.

Denna uppsats behandlar första fasen i produktutvecklingsprocessen, det vill säga Fuzzy Front End (FFE). FFE är perioden från att det finns en möjlig idé och företaget anser att den är värd att utforska ytterligare, till dess att idén är godkänd och företaget är redo för att börja utveckla samt investera i projektet. I litteraturen anses denna fas som kritisk därför att den är problematisk samt avgörande för företagets fortsatta aktiviteter inom FFE. Forskningen har visat att det finns ett samband, att om företaget effektiviserar FFE bidrar det till framgång för den nya produkten. Det finns liten förståelse vad som verkligen försiggår i FFE fasen och i denna Litteratur Review har 12 stycken teman identifieras för att redogöra för FFE.

This report compares two different types of insulation with regards to fire and moisture. The materials were tested for the company Fiskarhedenvillan AB, for a wall and a roof construction that the company currently uses in the establishment of Sweden's first certified passive house for international standards.Their current material, Rockwool, is compared to a relatively new material on the Swedish market called SEALECTION Agribalance sold by the company ISO Green AB. The material is a type of polyurethane insulation. This insulation material would result in a more efficient execution of the construction as it provides waterproofing and is applied more easily than Rockwool. From a fire standpoint, literature studies and discussions with fire experts led to results.

We have the tradition in Sweden to build villas and houses with a wooden framework. It has become natural for us because we have so much forest in our country. Building with wood has advantages, it is easy to process, but also disadvantages, as it is sensitive to moisture.Finland has long made use of the thermal blocks to build villas. It is a type of bricks that are a bit like a sandwich element, with a core of EPS and concrete on both sides of the core material. The concrete is hollow, so that after the walls has been bricked up you pour concrete into the hollow bricks.The issue of this report is to find out if concrete can be an alternative to wood as framework material in villas.