Many of us have grown up hearing or using words meant as insults or negative adjectives that were in fact names for social groups. Most of them have gone unquestioned in the mainstream consciousness, but the term Gay in the generally negative meaning has in the past years been given attention as offensive and homophobic, with debates emerging in response over whether or not this is true, particularly on the internet. It is the articles and forum threads from these debates that make out the empirical material for a qualitative study as I ask what these people?s thoughts are about this term and how it is perceived.After a qualitative coding and analysis of these texts, and interpretation of the results based on Erving Goffman?s theory of Phantom acceptance and stigma terms, Judith Butler?s theory of performativity, Ferdinand de Sassure?s theory of signifier and signified and how it connects to the community and Baudrillards theory of simulacra, this is the principal conclusion that I have drawn:For some of the people in this debate, the term Gay and its use is about homophobia and heterosexism, though mostly it?s not overt but a subconscious part of the continued dehumanization and stigmatization of homo- and bisexual people. This is a position I callThe socially focused skepticism.

Den här rapporten redovisar produktionsprocessen för en re-design av en webbsida. Kommunikations-byrån Åkesson & Currys webbsida har funnits i över fem år. I dagsläget tycker inte företaget att webbsidan representerar vilka de är, därför var ett led i produktionsprocessen att undersöka hur de ser på sin identitet. Målet var att med en ny vision av Åkesson & Currys identitet producera ett designförslag över en webbsida som presenterar dem på ett representativt sätt. Re-designen ska möjliggöra att användaren blir intresserad av byrån och gärna initierar till en ny kontakt med Åkesson & Curry efter ett besök på webbsidan.

I got interested in this subject when I came in contact with Västtrafiks new paymentsystem myself during my visits in Gothenburg. I suspected problems with the informationmaterial regarding it and others seemed to share my opinion that the payment system wasdiffcult to understand. When I contacted Västtrafik and asked them about the paymentsystem they confirmed that some understanding diffculties had occurred. With thatconfirmation I decided to make it my project to look in to the matter.Some methods were used to identify the problems. The methods could again confirm thatthere were some problems with the payment system and that the information material wasa vital reason.

Portable IT devices such as laptops, smart phones and computer tablets are becoming ever more ubiquitous. At the same time, the population of the Western world is growing older, with aging bringing about changes with regards to individuals' physical and mental capabilities. These facts raises important questions about how well suited these devices are for use by elderly people. This study focuses on the cognitive aspects of the devices' usability, using the concept of mental models to analyze the users' understanding of a computer tablet. It also draws upon theory of graphical user interfaces in its analyses.

This thesis has examined the Tekla Structures modeling software and answered the question of whether it could act as a suitable modeling program for the design department at Bjerking AB in Uppsala. The method used in this work is a case study of a previous project with existing basis to work form. The demarcation of the study was to examine only the usability of the foundations of in situ concrete. The work examined three main areas within the design process. The first was to model the concrete elements then to model the reinforcing and ultimately production of the drawings. Because Autodesk Revit was the existing modeling program in the Department conducted the evaluation as a comparison between the two programs.

Auditor independence is a subject that has been discussed frequently over the past decade. The meaning of auditor independence is complex and contains both independence of mind and independence in appearance. The environment must perceive the auditor as independent if the audited information is to have any value for the users of the audited statements. The aim of this Master?s thesis is to examine how auditors can manifest their independence.

During the late twentieth century, political and societal changes gave rise to an increased interest in performance evaluation in public organizations. This development also affected libraries in the public sector. The main concern for this master thesis is performance measurement in libraries. In this study two different types of libraries are investigated, one public and the other academic. My aim is to find out if and how performance measurement appears in the libraries annual activity reports.

The aim of this thesis is to, through an empirical study ofthe social tags in the City of Stockholm libraries? OPACwith critical discourse analysis, examine the social tags?linguistic design, usability, and communicative potential? all in relation to the context. It is a linguistic study andit is important to take into account that the tags are extremelyshort texts ? single-word-texts. My starting-pointis that the tags are a form of utility texts.What I find is that a clear majority of the tags are nounsand function as index terms, but that there are differencescompared to authorized index terms.

The aim of this Masters thesis is to investigate the notions and use of non fiction literature of children 9-11 years old. Moreover, this study tries to dissect the underlying concepts that exert influence over the target groups notions and use of non fiction literature. The method and empirical basis of this study is qualitative, with interviews of eight children within the target group. We use a theory of reading exchange to highlight the different areas of usability of non fiction for children. To emphasize how children use non fiction as representative for actual facts, or as non fiction with fictional content, we use a four-field correlation model.

With the new generation of smartphones the boundaries for what is a mobile phone and whatis a computer becomes more subtle. 2009 the shipment of smartphones with touchscreen morethan double the 2008 figure and the total amount of smartphones is now over 10 % of the totalworldwide shipments of mobile phones. There?s still one problem to solve and that is the lackof web content specifically adapted for smartphones.The purpose of this paper is to identify and analyze from a user and usability perspective howto make a successful migration and design of a user interface for an existing web basedsystem so that it also fit smartphones.The paper starts with a theoretical reference material containing examples of differentapproaches for design and migration of an interface.A case study is performed and prototypes are designed with support from guidelines andrecommendations in the theory part.The conclusion stipulates that in the present situation there are no shortcuts when it comes tomigration of an existing web based system for the mobile web. The recommendation is aspecific interface for each different unit that are going to interact with the system.Research that analyzes differences between all mobile web browsers would be of greatinterest, a research that hopefully leads to guidelines for what level of mobile web standardthey should at least support.

With the new generation of smartphones the boundaries for what is a mobile phone and whatis a computer becomes more subtle. 2009 the shipment of smartphones with touchscreen morethan double the 2008 figure and the total amount of smartphones is now over 10 % of the totalworldwide shipments of mobile phones. There?s still one problem to solve and that is the lackof web content specifically adapted for smartphones.The purpose of this paper is to identify and analyze from a user and usability perspective howto make a successful migration and design of a user interface for an existing web basedsystem so that it also fit smartphones.The paper starts with a theoretical reference material containing examples of differentapproaches for design and migration of an interface.A case study is performed and prototypes are designed with support from guidelines andrecommendations in the theory part.The conclusion stipulates that in the present situation there are no shortcuts when it comes tomigration of an existing web based system for the mobile web. The recommendation is aspecific interface for each different unit that are going to interact with the system.Research that analyzes differences between all mobile web browsers would be of greatinterest, a research that hopefully leads to guidelines for what level of mobile web standardthey should at least support.

With the new generation of smartphones the boundaries for what is a mobile phone and whatis a computer becomes more subtle. 2009 the shipment of smartphones with touchscreen morethan double the 2008 figure and the total amount of smartphones is now over 10 % of the totalworldwide shipments of mobile phones. There?s still one problem to solve and that is the lackof web content specifically adapted for smartphones.The purpose of this paper is to identify and analyze from a user and usability perspective howto make a successful migration and design of a user interface for an existing web basedsystem so that it also fit smartphones.The paper starts with a theoretical reference material containing examples of differentapproaches for design and migration of an interface.A case study is performed and prototypes are designed with support from guidelines andrecommendations in the theory part.The conclusion stipulates that in the present situation there are no shortcuts when it comes tomigration of an existing web based system for the mobile web. The recommendation is aspecific interface for each different unit that are going to interact with the system.Research that analyzes differences between all mobile web browsers would be of greatinterest, a research that hopefully leads to guidelines for what level of mobile web standardthey should at least support.

Studies have shown that library employees often choose not to use readers? advisory tools but to instead rely entirely on their own experience, often doing the library user a disservice. However, very few have looked at why this is so. This thesis looks at to what extent thirty individual employees in thirty Swedish public libraries use readers advisory tools when helping a patron find a good book, with the major focus on what motivates them to use these tools and why some choose not to use them. It was found that readers? advisory tools where not used with any consistency and that many things influence the library employees? use of these tools.

In order to get a better understanding of the interaction between employees and their technical work tools one needs to know what factors influence the interaction. The purpose of this study was to examine if there is a correlation between the personality traits Extraversion (E) and Neuroticism (N), tested with Eysenck Personality Inventory (EPI), and experience of the new Intranet among employees at The Swedish National Transport Administration (SNTA), and also to gather information of employees? opinions about the new Intranet. A survey, containing questions about the Intranet and a personality test (EPI), was posted on SNTA?s Intranet for eight workdays (N = 88, females = 53, males = 35).

I got interested in this subject when I came in contact with Västtrafiks new paymentsystem myself during my visits in Gothenburg. I suspected problems with the informationmaterial regarding it and others seemed to share my opinion that the payment system wasdiffcult to understand. When I contacted Västtrafik and asked them about the paymentsystem they confirmed that some understanding diffculties had occurred. With thatconfirmation I decided to make it my project to look in to the matter.Some methods were used to identify the problems. The methods could again confirm thatthere were some problems with the payment system and that the information material wasa vital reason.