AbstractThe intention of our study was to examine the meaning of home of elderly women and men and how they experience their getting older. We also wanted to see how elderly women and men experience to receive home-help-service in their own home. The study was based on qualitative interviews with elderly women and men. The informants were five women and four men between the ages of 60-84 years. They all had everyday help from the home-help-service.

Abstract This essay is written to answer the questions of why, how and against who employees in the service sector use humour, charm and flirt in the interaction with their customers. The service management research is quite extensive, but despite this the research partly misses studies around why employees tend to act in certain ways while interacting with their customers. To understand the reasons of why they act in these particular ways, we need to know which factors that can be crucial when it comes to the employees? behaviour in these situations. By knowing the underlying reasons of using a special way to communicate with customers, it is much easier to achieve a clearer overview of the subject.

Vattenfall AB is a large producer of electric energy where approximately half of the energy comes from hydropower. Vattenfall Hydropower has got almost a 100-year old history and the company has developed a lot since 1909. After that the number of power plants increased and the competition got more intense, there were higher demands on the reliability. One way to secure the reliability with a good satisfaction at the power plants is to implement a maintenance method named Reliability-Centred Maintenance. RCM is a result of the introduction of the complex aeroplane Boeing 747 in the 1960?s.

The purpose with this thesis is to understand the relationship between a square?s design and its function as a public meeting place, were Sundstorget in the city of Helsingborg is used as a study object. The architect Jan Gehl developed a theory of people?s outdoor activities in his book Livet mellem husene (1996). He divides the activities in three categories; 1) necessary activities, 2) optional activities and 3) social activities, which are differently affected by the place?s design.

In the aftermath of three high-profile honor killings the social service administrators became strongly criticized for their lack of skills and knowledge when it comes to dealing with honorrelated cases. In order to fix this lack of knowledge and to respond to the criticism from the society, the Swedish government allocated resources to train administrators in social services to improve their knowledge of honor-related violence and know how to handle clients who are victims of honor-related crimes.The aim of this study is to examine how social service administrators perceive their professional knowledge regarding to their work in honor-related cases. How they perceive their competence and discretion in relation to the work of honor-related problems and their perception of what resources the organization has to provide training and skill development in this area. The study shows that the social service administrators experience that there has been a development of knowledge in some areas regarding their work with honor-related cases but that there still exists an uneven distribution in terms of knowledge between small and large communities in Sweden..

Denna studie berör områdena participatory design, speldesign samt idégenerering och syftar till att undersöka hur spelföretag interagerar med sina slutanvändare vid speldesign samt om participatory design kan användas i speldesign för att främja känslor av delaktighet och ägandeskap. Studien har genomförts med intervjuer och undersökningar i form av en analys av fyra svenska spelföretags hemsidor och sociala medier för att se på deras interaktion med sina slutanvändare vid speldesign, samt en participatory designworkshop. Resultaten från litteraturstudien och workshopen visar på att participatory design kan användas för att främja känslor av delaktighet och ägandeskap hos deltagarna. Vidare visar undersökningen av de svenska spelföretagen att interaktionen med sina slutanvändare över lag är låg. De slutsatser som studien visar på är att genom att erbjuda sina användare möjligheten att bli delaktiga och att interagera med spelföretaget så får man en aktiv och stimulerande miljö vilken gynnar både spelföretaget och deras slutanvändare. Vad gäller participatory design så visar studien att det är ett förhållningssätt som går att använda inom speldesign. Vidare så visar det också sig att, om behovet för att välja ut mellan flera olika metoder och tekniker inom participatory design uppstår, så är ett ramverk ett mycket användbart och hjälpsamt verktyg..

The character of a pattern carries through to the context in which it is placed. Each pattern tells a story. By interpreting our surroundingenvironments we become inspired, and the patterns in turn can become part of our own narratives. This project was fuelled by my fascination and desire to explore patterns. My method of exploration was based on prior knowledge of patterns and interior design.The question became how can I apply my knowledge of interior design to pattern design and how could I best translate the brief intoa language of colour and shapes? The aim was to develop my knowledge of pattern design as well as to use this opportunity to combine my design methods with those of a professional designer.

Det ha?r arbetet syftar till att underso?ka hur man integrerar sin slutanva?ndare i designprocessen fo?r att go?ra dem delaktiga i slutresultatet. Hur man kan fra?mja ka?nslan av delaktighet, stolthet och engagemang fo?r sin ort genom ett gemensamt skapande..

Vi lever i ett mångfaldssamhälle där alla medborgare ska ha rätt till lika service från förvaltningen. När förvaltningen utformar sin lagstadgade serviceskyldighet måste man beakta mångfalden som ska genomsyra hela verksamheten. Men frågan är om det skett en anpassning för invandrare för att servicen ska omfatta denna grupp ? vilket vi undersöker. Kan man i anpassningen se att demokrativärden fått stå tillbaka för ekonomiska värden?I en normativ och empirisk studie undersöker vi vilka anpassningar förvaltningen, specifikt Försäkringskassan, gjort för att möta invandrare.

The company Sound Precision has developed a new Line Array loudspeaker system (VHA-40). When using this system, their customers need computer aid to get the best possible sound-quality and control of sound levels for the whole audience. The aim of this thesis is to develop a truly useful sound quality simulator for the VHA-40. The system will help the sound engineers to position the loudspeakers for optimal sound by simulating loudspeaker configurations and visualizing the resulting sound quality and quantity. To solve this a human-centered design (HCD) approach is taken to implement a system that is truly useful for the users, meaning that they will use it more and hence deliver better sound for the audience.

The company Sound Precision has developed a new Line Array loudspeaker system (VHA-40). When using this system, their customers need computer aid to get the best possible sound-quality and control of sound levels for the whole audience. The aim of this thesis is to develop a truly useful sound quality simulator for the VHA-40. The system will help the sound engineers to position the loudspeakers for optimal sound by simulating loudspeaker configurations and visualizing the resulting sound quality and quantity. To solve this a human-centered design (HCD) approach is taken to implement a system that is truly useful for the users, meaning that they will use it more and hence deliver better sound for the audience.

The master thesis has been constructed together with Scania, who had a wish to develop their training for newly employed design engineers. The purpose of this thesis is to examine how a company's introduction process can be shaped, as the introduction is the key to success for the individual as well as the organization. With a focus on how the productivity among newly employees can increase and how the introduction becomes meaningful to the individuals and the organization, the objective of this work is to develop concepts applicable for an introduction.The work was conducted using qualitative interviews with several different individuals at Scania and other companies. Along with the interviews a survey was constructed and sent out to newly employed design engineers at Scania to get a view of their opinions on the present training. During the first period of a job there are several factors that affect the employee based on the result from the interviews, previous research and theories.

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.

The purpose of this essay is to find out what experiences three preschool teachers, two preschool directors and a social worker (BSc) from the social service have of reporting suspicion of child abuse done by preschools. What perceptions do these individuals have of each other, what experiences do they have regarding cooperation and how do they perceive their responsibilities regarding filing reports on suspicion of child abuse? This investigation is based on qualitative interviews with open ended questions on the basis of an interview guide. The theoretical approach of the essay lies in the phenomenology philosophy, which revolves around the individual?s experiences and perceptions of a phenomenon.

The essay explores how the category ?religion? occurs and functions in the regulatory documents governing the Swedish public service companies. The study also highlights Swedens changed religious demographics and the changing media landscape. The material that is under investigation is the external and internal policy documents for Sveriges Radio, Sveriges Television and Utbildningsradion. The study is done by a qualitative content analysis which results are carved out by search units in relation to the category religion and then discussed and analyzed.