In this essay we discuss the broad area of website usability from a tourism perspective. Our goal was to investigate the usability in smaller and bigger tourism websites. We have declared what website usability means and the importance of involving the users when designing a user interface. In a pilot study, we conducted three interviews with people who work with usability and then used the information we got to form questions to use in a focus group interview. In this focus group, we asked three people to assess two Swedish tourism websites, one bigger and one smaller, to find out if they were considered usable and if there was any difference in usability depending on the size of the site.

The aim of this master thesis is to gain greater knowledge of interpersonal communication. This study explores on one hand how interpersonal communication can be used as an important part of reference work in a Swedish electronic synchronous reference service, and on the other how interpersonal communication affects the relationship between user and librarian. By using communication theory and establishing a positive relational contact with the user in the electronic environment, the outcome of the reference encounter can be successful for both the librarian and the user. Furthermore, the importance of recognising relational barriers is of great relevance to the relational contact. The scope of this master thesis is to find what relational factors are used and can be used in the interaction between user and librarian.

A home for elderly is planed to be built at Zakrisdal, Karlstad, Sweden. The heat source for the building was at the time not determined. In order by the local government of Karlstad this report is meant to examine if the need of heat could be provided only by solar heat combined with a seasonal heat storage. The problem to solve is, if the need of heat from the home for elderly is provided from only solar heat, whitch dimensions of the solar collectors and the storage is needed?.

The overall purpose with this study was to examine the influence elderly people have over their granted home help. Specifically, the aim was to examine in what extent the image of the elderly as a unique individual emerges in the plans where the home help is described [?genomförandeplaner?]. A plan which is personally designed is used as an indicator of personal influence. A text analysis inspired by Michel Foucault?s discourse concept, was carried out and the study adopts the concepts standardization and categorization as well as the theory of ?Sense of coherence?.

The purpose of this essay was to examine what consequenses of alcohol and narcotics that youth magazines describe and how the user and addict is described. My porpose was also to examine what situations the magazines claim that alcohol and narcotics are related to.The questions for my studie was:1. How is an alcoholic/drug addict /user described in youth magazines?2. What situations are related to alcohol/narcotics in youth magazines?3.

The purpose of this study was to understand what the care recipients considering as care quality in their long-term eldercare. Our intention has been to contribute a bit to the development of the care work. Previous studies show that user surveys are carried out regularly but there is very few studies that are based on care recipients own opinions and experiences. The main questions in the study have been to examine what is considered as good elder care from a user perspective. Even to understand the characteristics of a good meeting with the care staff and also examine how the elder care in Nybro municipality can improve.

As new ways of using computers are constantly being developed, other ways of interacting are made possible. One of the most desired types of interaction with computers is a touch-screen where the user can actually organize everything simply by using the fingertips. The purpose of this project is to enhance an existing framework with an application that works with a touch-screen device. The application is to be used as a tool for presentational usage. The result is an application where the user by simple means can use a touch-screen to hold a professional presentation.

AbstractHomework is often debated in the media today. The question is about the meaning of homework and whether the students benefit from it or if homework is just a remain from an old educational system.The research made on the subject disagrees on what positive/negative effects the homework has on the students.For my essay I chose to find out what attitude junior-level teachers have towards homework. Why give students homework? How do you work with home assignments?My research is based on interviews with six junior-level teachers that either have or do teach in the lower grades (1-3).The result I reached was the all of the teachers used homework in their education.The purpose of the home assignments is partly to give the students the possibility to rehearse and fortify their knowledge, especially when it comes to learning how to read.Another purpose of the homework is that it helps to maintain a good connection between the home and school. It is also a good way for the parents to get an insight and be a part of their children?s work.The conclusion of the research that I made is that if homework should exist in the educational system they ought to be well prepared by the responsible teacher..

Researchers today anticipate that in the near future, the majority of the owners of a smartphone will use it as a wallet, i.e. for contactless payment. The technology that enables contactless payment today is ?Near Field Communication? (NFC), which is increasingly embedded in smartphones. Applications like mobile payment between a phone and a terminal use NFC.

AbstractTitle: The first thing I do when I wake up is to log on to Facebook. A study regarding how users of Social Networks experiences the User Generated production. (Det första jag gör när jag vaknar är att logga in på Facebook. En studie om hur användare av de sociala nätverken upplever den användargenererande produktionen.)Number of pages: 37 (39 including enclosures) Author: Per MagnussonTutor: Christian ChristensenCourse: Media and Communication Studies CPeriod: Fall semester 2010University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science, Uppsala UniversityAim: The ambition with this essay is to examine how the online users of social networks experience the development of the Internet towards Web 2.0, and the enormous User Generated Content emerging from it. How do we receive User Generated Content from other people, and particularly what do we think about our own production.Material/Method: In order to obtain a deeper understanding of the attitudes and perceptions amongst people regarding this subject I used qualitative interviews with 9 people.

The transition from paper to electronic journals in induces a major change in academic libraries. The library must focus on customising the service to meet user needs in order to compete with other actors on the market. This situation entails the need for a marketing and management approach in library organisations. Linda Ashcroft has in previous research focused on marketing of electronic journals. She has stated the importance of simplifying the user environment of electronic journals and the importance of regaining control over electronic journals from publishers and vendors.

A study around some fourteen and fifteen year old boys, who are interested in reading. It is about their reading and library habits, what has created their interest and where they acquire access to literature. A certain amount deals with the habits of the boys? school-friends in this subject. The result compares with earlier made reports.

Abstract Back ground: Home based care is a meaningful activity giving patients and their families a chance to live their lives as close to normal as possible. Advanced palliative care is today provided at home, although geography does play a role in shaping that care. A rural setting can mean that conditions for such care differ from those in urban areas.Purpose: To describe the experiences of district nurses in palliative home care settings in a rural community.Method: Semi structured interviews with seven district nurses. The interviews were recorded digitally and transcribed in a precise fashion. A method of qualitative analysis of the contents, inspired by Burnard, was used to analyze the material.Results: Palliative care places high demands on the competency and experience of district nurses.

The purpose with this study was to investigate how parents experience their situation in life, having personal assistance at home to support their small children with disabilities. Different areas were investigated. What made them apply for personal assistance? How does the support affect the family and their parenthood? What would it mean if their children would not have personal assistance? The study was made using a qualitative method and the material was gathered through interviews. A combination of symbolic interactionism and system theory were used as theoretical perspectives.

This report describes the work process to an interactive movie addressed to children with neurodevelopmental disabilities, where Jippieserien is the client. The aim is to explore how multimodal media can convey Jippieseriens message to children with neurodevelopmental disabilities and their parents, by taking the users needs into account.It is important to focus on the people who will use the system when designing interactive systems. This project is therefore using the designprocess human-centered design for interactive systems. The process includes four basic elements and provides guidelines for user-centered design. These parts are analysis, prototyping, implementation, and evaluation (Johansson.