Usability is a field within systems development which doesn?t get the attention it might deserve. Above all, it?s considered time consuming and expensive by many people in the industry. The current information regarding low-cost alternatives to achieve a more usable system seems to be almost non-existent.

This paper examines the potential benefits of using augmented reality as a tool for visualizing furniture in a buyer?s own environment before buying it. A simple prototype is developed and tested.  The steps for developing the prototype are described in great detail as well as the tools being used. The prototype is tested both on people working in the furniture business as well as people with experience in buying furniture online. In conclusion the results from the user tests are analyzed and the potential benefits are described.

In relation to the development of IT-products it is very important that the software supplier is aware not only of the target group but also the field of application. Usability should characterize the whole IT-design process as, in relation to this context, design includes more than merely those aspects which are visible to and thus can be interpreted by the naked eye. The study examines the specific qualities and properties that substantiate the usability and the demands that a customer rightfully expects from an IT-product. The user and the customer are highlighted in the same context in order to demonstrate that it is through the customer that an IT-product is defined as being useful. Thus, from this perspective, the user and customer can be considered as being the same person.

This report describes the process of developing a user-friendly and responsive archive website. The website is a Hi-fi prototype and was created for the company JG Communications, to serve as an archive for their customers? style guidelines. To create this website I have used HTML5 and CSS3 to make it responsive for various computer screens. I have also used PHP and some JavaScript to make some of the functions and Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator to make design elements for the prototype.

This diploma work project is a product development project which purpose is to redesign a braking system for a walking frame. The system that was developed diverges the force from the user to braking power, and includes a service brake as well as a parking brake. The most important components of the system are a grip handle on where the user holds on to and a braking handle on which the user operates the brake from. The system also includes a power transmission component, braking package and other mechanical components. All of the components wasn?t developed in this project, several off them has been reused from the existing system.This product has been developed to meet the requirements and standards presented from the principal, Ahlberg Leber.

The city of Kalmar has a desire that their 3D maps of the city should come to a greater use and get residents more involved in Kalmar city. The purpose of this report is to show one way to work with these 3D maps when it comes to presenting information about Kalmar for its residents and tourists in a specific area.  The report also includes information about advantages and disadvantages with the use of 2D and 3D maps in different environments. Various reports and other sources indicate an interest in 3D and a use for this, but even that 2D is still seen as a natural way to read a map. By collecting information from relevant literature, interviews and user testing, the group has obtained sufficient background information to present the results of a web site, where the visitor can navigate in both 2D and 3D in a specific area of Kalmar. User tests and surveys have been conducted in two rounds and the web site has been revised after their results..

This field study examined how elderly and cognitively disabled people used and experienced a social companion robot. The following pages explores the questions: Which are the physical, social and affective qualities during the interaction? The aim was to through observations see how qualities of interaction could activate different forms of behavior. The results show that motion, sound and the eyes together created communicative and emotional changes for users who felt joy and were willing to share the activity with others. The robot stimulated to some extent users to create their own imaginative experiences but often failed to involve user or group for a long time and was also considered too large and heavy to handle..

I detta papper, designas och utvärderas en händelsebaserad Android-applikation. MyWorld är en mobil applikation. Händelser som sker i användarens närhet kan ses på en karta. Genom arbetet används beprövade metoder för att skapa en väldefinierad design. Det tas upp problem och lösningar på designrelaterade problem i en händelsebaserad applikation.

The aim of this master thesis is to describe some general trends and important steps in the Swedish university libraries user-orientation from the implementation of the university college reform 1977 until today. The aim gave rise to four further questions. Literature studies and empirical studies in the form of focusing interviews have been carried out, in order to answer the questions. Of the entire background material I have made a simple form of general analysis. I found that the libraries, during the years have interacted with the following four interested parties, the government, the mother organization, other libraries and the library users.

Design principles are usually used by interaction designers to help creating a user friendly design by making the designer think about the different aspects of the design. These design principles has been further developed since they emerged in the 1990s, and today they're often used in the field of interaction design. By using the design principles, bad design can be avoided and the frustration of the user reduced. Design patterns is described as structural and behavioral characteristics to improve the environment in user interface amongst other areas. These characteristics could make things easier to understand or improve their appearance, they make tools more usable.The purpose with this essay is to identify design guidelinesto be used by developers when designing surveillance systems.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how Digital Signage systems such as public info kiosks can be designed to better fulfill its main use; to enlighten, encourage and influence the public with information. The challenges presented from earlier studies shows that the public interests and goals, together with proper and relevant content displayed in info kiosks have impact on the attention the public have towards public displays. Qualitative methods such as interviews, usability testing and observations were conducted to further examine how a public info kiosk can be designed to draw attention and grow interest amongst students at K3, Malmo University. Usability testing were used on the digital prototypes that were developed to ensure that the gestural user interface meet the requirements of a proper interaction from the users. Important insights were made concerning; the attention and interest to relevant content, the aspects of the gestural user interface along with the placement of the info kiosk in terms of context.

The aim of this bachelor thesis is to describe in part the public library users?process when deciding which books to borrow. Focus is on the library users?experience of the process and how literature exposure can support them intheir choice of book. This study seeks to find out to what extent choices arespontaneously made at the library, which elements of exposure that the userfinds helpful in the process and which factors usually influence the user infinding new things to read.The data was gathered through 100 structured interviews with public libraryusers.

Research is a time-consuming endeavor which requires appropriate tools to manage often vast amounts of information. Militarization 2.0 is a research project aiming to explore Militarization in social media. The aim of this project is to design a user interface for supporting researchers in projects involving large amounts of data in qualitative studies. The project will follow the design process of the first version of the Militarization 2.0 research database interface. The design process involves user studies, interviews and design and testing of paper and digital prototypes.

In Sweden there are 560 000 disabled people over the age of 16, half of those are in use of some kind of mobility device.Living with a disability means that due to injury or illness you are having trouble functioning without devices or assistance in your daily life and has a big impact on the independence of the disabled user.The everyday life for disabled parents with young children are different depending on the type of disability and mobility device.Today there is no alternative to the stroller for the disabled user who use mobility advises. This causes problems when the disabled person on there own have/want to move the child.The following statement have been the cornerstone for this project: How to make it possible for a wheelchair user to move a child, in the 0-2 year, for longer distances with a focus on independence and safety for both adult children?Due the process, of industrial design, this question and problem have been solved during 10 weeks. The process have contained parts as meeting with users, analyzing, concept development, evaluations, mock-up making, testing, shape & color development etc. This in the end have resulted in a full scale model of the appearance of a proposed product.The result is a stroller witch can be connected to the users specific wheelchair due two one time adjustments.

Sufficient and accurate search support is a crucial factor for successful information searching on web sites. This thesis evaluates the search support on the second version of the web site studera.nu with particular focus on how the web site meets up to criteria formulated on the basis of theories from research in information seeking and information searching. The evaluation is a preliminary investigation that may serve as a basis for a future more comprehensive evaluation. The four major questions for my thesis have been: 1. In which different ways can a user search? 2.