The intention of this final thesis is to examine how to create a schoolyard that inspires children at the age of 6 ? 12 years to play and give them possibility to develop. To get a lot of knowledge in this subject, I have combined studies of literature with practical studies at Hosjöskolan in Falun. During my practical studies I have done interviews, walks in the area with the children and visited other schoolyards. I have based a design proposal for the schoolyard of Hosjöskolan on these studies.

The purpose of this thesis was to examine if users of digital music games may acquire skills from the games that may be of use in learning to play a real instrument, that is a non-digitally simulated instrument like an acoustic piano. We have used Gee?s theory regarding a possible interconnection between different semiotic domains, and how this connection may enable a transfer of skills between related domains. In this thesis we examine possible skill transfer between the domains ?digital games? and ?non-digital instruments?. To examine our question formulation we chose to conduct a pilot study from which we collected both quantitative and qualitative data.

People play games now more than ever before. While the digital gaming industry dominates the market, boardgaming has been living in its shadow. Board games offer a physical tangibility and a social experience that can be found in few digital games. How do we create a tool that further builds upon those strengths? The purpose of this study is to examine the possibility of developing a service that consists of an mobile application and board game events to promote social face-to-face interaction. Focus has been on the social face-to-face interaction in the context of a board game session.

In today's society we are used to regularly visit the sport arena to cheer for our favorite team, we go to the cinema to enjoy a good movie or maybe to the theatre to experience a grand performance. It has become far more common in the last years to buy tickets to these kinds of events online. To make sure that the customer will keep on buying their tickets from the online booking companies the booking experience itself has to be hassle-free and easy to understand. The customer will most likely, if possible, avoid the website if the booking itself is experienced as having problems and insecurities.  The purpose of this study is to determine some of the most fundamental designs and functions of online booking websites today as perceived by the general public.

Online Behavioral Advertising betyder att man spårar användares beteende över Internet för att kunna skapa skräddarsydda annonser till användare baserat på deras internetaktiviteter. Det är kostnadseffektivt och ger möjlighet för företag att skapa relevanta annonser för internetanvändare. Online Behavioral Advertising möts ofta av motstånd eftersom att företag inkräktar på den personliga integriteten när man samlar in information om människor för att skapa annonser. Samtidigt har användandet av så kallade blockeringstjänster ökat, det vill säga tjänster som gör att internetanvändare kan ta bort annonser från hemsidor. I denna uppsats undersöks hur unga människor i Sverige ställer sig till Online Behavioral Advertising och blockeringstjänster samt vilka samband som finns mellan dem.I denna studie har vi använt oss av både en enkätundersökning och av intervjuer för att se hur människor resonerar kring Online Behavioral Advertising och blockeringstjänster.

The main purpose of this study was to examine how social work can be performed online, by a case study of Korrespondensgymnasiet that pursues distance education. The intention was to determine the possibilities and limits with the online communication between the school counsellor and the pupils. The study was based on qualitative semi-structured interviews with one school counsellor and five pupils and document analysis of three descriptions of the school counsellor?s profession. The theory that has been used in this study is the communication theory: Shannon and Weaver?s Model of Communication and non-verbal communication.

Thesis purpose: The main purpose of this study is to empirically verify the applicability of Kozinets´ model on an interest, activity or lifestyle based online community, in order to develop an adaptive segmentation approach for segmenting online communities. Methodology: This research is deductive by nature, cross-sectional by design and undertakes a quantitative approach using self-completion questionnaire as a part of a web survey to collect the empirical data needed. Theoretical perspective: The main theories guiding our work and supporting the findings of this study include: market segmentation (descriptive and behavioural) and communities (consumer communities and online communities). Empirical data: A web survey with self-completion questionnaire used to gather empirical data from members of interest, activity or lifestyle based online communities. Conclusions: This study took the specific characteristics of online communities into more consideration than previous research and literature has done and also recognized that an adaptive segmentation approach is needed, depending on the communities of study.

Since the beginning of the new millennium, China has opened itself to the outside world and in an enormous pace increased its contacts and relationships with other countries. The trigger to these dramatic changes of economic and foreign policies is the insight that China can no longer sustain its rapid economic growth, largely based on industrial production, on energy and raw materials from China alone.Good relations with African countries have been of highest priority in China?s strategy of ?Going global?. The new African policy is based on the two principles of mutual benefit and non-interference in internal affairs ? as opposite to the West?s strategy of structural adjustment programmes (SAP), which include massive interference in internal affairs.

The topic of this essay is the expected effects that can come during and after a mega event and how the local impact may affect the local community and the citizen. This essay concerns a forthcoming mega event, the Olympic Games that will be held in London 2012. The area that the Olympics will be held in is Stratford that is located about twenty minutes from the central of London by the underground. The Olympic Games is one of the largest mega events with its millions of visitors. The purpose of this essay is to study what is expected after the mega event has taken place in London.

Denna rapport behandlar utvecklingen av den spelmotor samt spellogik som används i speletSteam Tale utvecklat under projektnamnet Project Steam Age av gruppen StormBound. Speletutvecklades i första hand för mobila enheter, och i rapporten ingår även en kort undersökningav mobila spel i ett historiskt perspektiv. Även spelets genre, JRPG, en förkortning avJapanese Role Playing Game, kommer att förklaras som hastigast med referenser till andraspel inom genren.Spelet programmerades för Android OS version 2.3 och framåt i språket Java. En avsvårigheterna som påträffades, såsom beskrivs i rapporten, var att säkerställa att speletfungerar för den varierande prestanda som mobila enheter utgör, inklusive aspekter såsommed eller utan hårdvaruacceleration av grafik, varierande mängd lagringsutrymme ochprocessorkärnor samt storlek på skärmar. Därtill bör man vid skapandet av en applikation avdenna typ beakta resurshantering, framförallt beträffande grafik och ljud, ett ämne sombehandlas i denna rapport..

Title: Playing techniques of the eight-keyed traverso in Irish and Breton traditional music. The dissertation examines basic aspects of playing techniques of the eight-keyed traverso, as it is used in Irish and Breton traditional music. The background material consists of four interviews with four professional flute players as well as literature that considers the subject from different perspectives. The results reveals a consensus between those of the informants that are mainly playing Irish music while the informant that is mainly playing Breton music has a different approach to several of the technical aspects examined.Examensarbetet behandlar grundläggande spelteknik på åttaklaffig traversflöjt inom bretonsk och irländsk folkmusik. Studiens underlag består av intervjuer med fyra professionella flöjtister samt av litteratur som belyser ämnet från olika perspektiv.

Aim and research questionsThe over-all aim of this study was to gain insight info how two male coaches of a specific soccer team behave in a practice environment with regards to educating the players.More specifically, the study sought to map the extent to which said behaviour matched two specific methods of learning; these being Teaching Games for Understanding (TgfU) and Enhanced Guided Discovery (EGD). Research questions: (1) Do the coaches employ the methods and guidelines, which are outlined in the educational plan provided by the soccer association? If so, what form does this application take in practice? (2) To what extent and in what ways do the coaches utilize feedback and questioning techniques in the education of players? (3) What similarities and differences in behaviour can be identified between the chosen soccer team?s two coaches?Method: The data for the study was collected through field observation. The subjects were two youth elite soccer coaches and observation of these coaches took place during five regular practice sessions on the soccer field. All data gathering and analysis were carried out using a modified version of the Coach Analysis and Intervention System (CAIS).

This thesis addresses online marketing within gaming industry. Some customer identifying methods and website development were introduced as well as examined over the Internet. An empirical study focusing on two gaming companies has been carried out. The purpose has been to describe the use of internet by online gaming companies for online marketing. The thesis will focus on finding out how online gaming companies identify their target groups on internet and how they use internet to reach out to their consumers.

My aim in this case study has been to create a method for creature design to test this method in a production and evaluate the results. To achieve this I studied and analyzed the methods of three concept artists and illustrators named James Gurney, Neville Page and Iain McCaig. From the analysis of these artist´s methods, combined with my own personal experience, a new method was formed. To test this method a creature was designed based on directives given by a game design group in the process of creating a table top role playing game in a fictitious world. These directives where given for the creature´s role and its living conditions.

E-commerce is becoming more common in Sweden and many Swedes buy clothing and sporting goods online. Online fashion retailers offer a visually pleasing range of products, which places greater emphasis on the aesthetic design of the online retailer. This paper examines how the perceived credibility of an online fashion retailer is influenced by the aesthetic design through a first impression. This study was conducted through ten interviews where the informants observed, assessed, and then discussed the online fashion retailers that were used in this study. Results show that recognition of an aesthetic design and a perception of usability and professionalism affects the perceived credibility in a positive way.