This Master Thesis is a product development project that has been carried out in cooperation withSvea Teknik AB. The company has developed an apparatus for attachment of a keel to a hull base ofa boat. The purpose for this thesis has been to compare a new concept of keel attachment incomposite material to thetraditionaldesign solution. This new keel attachment minimizes thedamages that may arise on the keel and the hull of the boat in shape of stresses impacts at grounding.Today it is a problem, relating to keel attachment on sailing boats having a fin keel or a bulbous keel.The manufacture focus on developing larger draught and shorter keel blades. The overall purpose isto increase performance of the sailing boat.The task for this thesis was to develop a concept of keel blade in composite material and investigateattachment to a sheet-shaped element.

"What's feminine about the Women's library?" This library, Kvinnobiblioteket, is abranchoffice at Björkskatan in the city of Luleå, and the introducing question is thestartingpoint of this essay. To find some possible answers is its object.One way of describing what's feminine about Kvinnobiblioteket is through presenting itsobjective, ambitions and methods of working. That is done mostly in a chapter headlined"Kvinnobiblioteket", and shows how the women's perspective concerns for exarnplepurchase of books and magazines, displaying of books, the opening hours, design etc.Although the focus in the survey is not in the former kind of description, but in the interviewsbeing made during a two week long period of time with ten women at Kvinnobiblioteket(both library user and personnel) at spring 1995. The results of the interviewsthen have been compared with theories from psychological-, feminist-, literature- andlibrary and information sciences, as we11 as to former surveys and essays.The material together leads to some keywords that seem to be important when trying tofind out what's female about the women's library.

Detta arbete består av designen av ett gränssnitt för webbplatsen whatismykidplaying.com. Designen var tänkt att ge hög användbarhet för målgruppen och testades av användare i ett think-aloud test. De fick testa och utvärdera hur väl gränssnittet fungerar och  deras feedback utvärderades och resultaten låg till grund för förslag på förändringar i gränssnittet, vissa som sedan blev implementerade. Studien har utgått från de olika stegen i en användarcentrerad utvecklingsmodell, analys - design - utvärdering - återkoppling, och en iteration har genomförts.Som utgångspunkt, för att öka användbarheten i webbplatsens gränssnitt, användes diverse regler och riktlinjer för hur användbarhet bäst kan uppnås, när designen gjordes. Hur väl dessa regler och riktlinjer fungerat tillsammans, i detta projekt och design, blev således en del i think-aloud testest utvärdering.

The study addresses the field of design as a profession and examines the views on strategic management in a design project among nine selected graphic designers. The graphic designers who participate in the study are permanently employed at design companies in Stockholm. The study has a qualitative approach and the method is based on face-to-face interviews. We have chosen to examine this subject due to the opinion among professionals that strategic management in the design industry has increased during the last decades. There is a belief that strategic management in some cases are used too extensively as a way for design companies to make more money.

Web 2.0 represents the next generation of creating interactive applications on the Web. The purpose of this thesis was to develop a service tailored to Web 2.0 technology, where users can post ads for free. The platform is an advertising system specially designed for animals. Surveys and interviews have been done; the result is that today?s advertising services on the Internet are not interactive and user-friendly.The users have the possibility to adapt different part of the system to their needs, such as choice of themes.

The largest project at the AICG lab at Linköping University, Cognitive models for virtual characters, focuses on creating an agent architecture for intelligent, virtual characters. The goal is to create an agent that acts naturally and gives a realistic user experience. The purpose of this thesis is to develop and implement an appropriate learning model that fits the existing agent architecture using an agile project methodology. The model developed can be seen as an online unsupervised reinforcement learning model that enhances experiences through reward. The model is based on Maes model where new effects are created depending on whether the agent is fulfilling its goals or not.The model we have developed is based on constant monitoring of the system.

The aim of this Master's thesis is to investigate the library needs of distance students. This user study has a student perspective and concentrates on the main question of which way library needs might be expressed by distance students. Associated topics addressed by this study include; the problem of learning centres lacking their own library support, how distance students look upon library support as a concept and whether distance students prefer public libraries or university libraries, and why they make this choice. These questions may give the answer to how distance students deal with information literacy. Theories chosen by the study are in the fields of pedagogical and library science, the social cultural theory by Roger Säljö and in Tom Wilson's theories on user studies and information needs.

SecRePac is a household appliance that simplifies sorting of packaging such as milk, juice and yogurt containers. By shredding the packages SecRePac reduces its volume uptake both in the home and at the recycling station. This leads to minimization of both transports to the recycling stations and truck transport for emptying the containers at the recycling station.The greenhouse effect deteriorates and becomes worse and worse leading to extreme climate changes and natural disasters such as floods as an example. Carbon dioxide emissions are the major reason for this and at least 30 percent of all these emissions come directly from transports. In the EU carbon emissions has decreased in the past few years.

AbstractWrite the most important things first in text that will be read by a scanning web user. This paper is based upon theories about? how we read? what style in texts is? how texts should be written for web pagesReading from computer screens is about 25 percent slower than reading from paper. This because screens? flicker? have lower resolution than paperAll text with the purpose of being read from a screen should be adjusted to the reader?s physical condition.

The Sister Kenny Research Center is part of the Sister Kenny Rehabilitation Institute locatedat the Abbott Northwestern hospital in Minneapolis, USA. The Sister Kenny RehabilitationInstitute provides rehabilitative services, treating more than 70,000 patients a year.The Sister Kenny Research Center strives to optimize the service to patients by nurturingnew innovations in rehabilitation care and treatment. Research projects are conducted ininterdisciplinary so-called Clinical Innovation Teams. As the Sister Kenny Research Center isrecently started, it did not prior to this thesis project have a design process or structured way ofworking in design projects.The outcome of this thesis project is a comprehensive innovation strategy package with a set oftools to enhance the innovativeness at the Sister Kenny Research Center. The strategy packageconsists of three interlinked parts:?A design process adapted to the work environment at the Sister Kenny Research Centerensuring projects are conducted in a structured and innovative manner.?An Innovation Handbook describing the design process to the Clinical Innovation Teamsand providing step-by-step guidance to designing.

System Andersson AB is a company located in Jönköping that works with developing computer systems for the mechanical engineering industry. As of today, when this report is written, the company is working on the development of a new Manufacturing Planning and Control (MPC) system. This new system aims to create not only a user friendly interface but also a modern, stylish interface. To achieve this, the company has decided to work with a, for them, new application framework; Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF).System Andersson is well known for developing systems for different kinds of touch screens, this project is no exception. For this new user interface the company wishes to implement different types of Drag&Drop functionality.

This thesis presents the question of a possible breakthrough for mobile payment solutions in Sweden. The way payments are made and the way cash is being used in the society is changing. To be accepted as an alternative method, if cash isn't king anymore, the new technology will have to acquire user acceptance. In this thesis a case study of Swish, a mobile payment solution for P2P-payments, is presented. The focus of the study is customer value and technology acceptance of the service.

AbstractConcrete foundation slabs are usually exposed to unilateral drying during the curing process. The unilateral drying causes an axial shrinkage and a concave curvature of the construction. The curvature results from the fact that the upper part of the slab is drying and shrinking faster than the lower part. This is called gradient shrinkage.A problem occurs when the slab is considered fully restrained by adjoining structural parts. The deformations caused by axial contraction due to the constant part of the shrinkage and the curvature caused by gradient shrinkage of the slab are then prevented by the fact that the slab is fully restrained.

This report describes how the process has evolved during the creation of a new web page forthe company Scandinavian Travel Agent DMC. The design methods that have been used aredescribed and also how parts of the webpage have been created by using the design methodresults. Our reflections around design and functionality are explained and how usability hasbeen our main focus during the master thesis. We also describe how it has been to work withan external costumer and how the tasks constantly have changed and been added as theprocess has continued.The background to this work is that AB Scandinavian Travel Agent DMC need to improve theircurrent web page. This to give the clients better needed information about destinations, butalso to stand out in the competitive travel business.

Information about vibration injuries as a preventive measure is beneficial to society as well as the individual. As early as after a few years work with machines that vibrate can cause young sensitive persons to develop vibration injuries.An evaluation has been done on a web page with focus on information about work related vibration injuries. As a part of the evaluation a user observation and interview study was performed with workers who worked in different occupations. The workers all used machine that vibrate as part of the work. A total of eleven workers participated in the study.