In most software engineering project, users are only involved in the beginning of the project as a help to design the requirements specification but users can be involved after this phase too, but is it effective to do so? With this report we would like to investigate how effective it is to involve users after the requirements specification has been written and approved. To find out how effective it is to involve the users we try some fast and simple involvement techniques on a quite far gone project. These techniques include ethnographic studies, prototypes and surveys. We also interviewed a couple of people who work with usability and finally delivered a report with our results to them to find out if they found our result relevant. By also documenting how much time we spent involving users we will show to which degree user involvement is effective. We found out that a couple of fast techniques could get very much result in the form of usability enhancing suggestions to the developers.

Anva?ndandet av internet i mobiltelefonen har o?kat drastiskt de senaste a?ren och detta fenomen inneba?r att ma?nniskor har tillga?ng till internet i sto?rre utstra?ckning a?n fo?rut. De svenska bankerna har tagit tillvara pa? denna trend genom att utveckla mobila bankapplikationer da?r de erbjuder sina kunder mo?jligheten att utfo?ra banka?renden med hja?lp av mobiltelefonen. A?ven om fo?rdelarna med denna tillga?ng a?r ma?nga, finns det a?nda? vissa nackdelar.

Abstrakt Produkten som jag har utvecklat är en mjukvarubaserad 3D-renderare. För att göra en sådan produkt är man tvungen att gå djupt in i området 3D och utföra alla beräkningar på egen hand. Dessa tar annars grafikkortet hand om. Denna rapport förklarar varför jag har valt att göra en egen mjukvarubaserad 3D- renderare och vad den är för något och i vilka områden den används. Här förklaras även min syn på programmering, digitala spel, vad programmering innebär för mig och hur min syn på spel har påverkat mig med tiden. Jag tar även upp mina tankar om spelindustrin och samhällets misstolkade värderingar av spel samt vad för sorts spel jag anser skulle gynna mänskligheten i framtiden. Vad jag tycker om utbildningen Digitala spel nämns också samt hur jag tror att den skulle kunna förbättras. Slutligen följer en kortfattad beskrivning av hur mitt projekt har genomförts. Abstract The product I have been developing is a software based 3D renderer.

Utvecklingen på webben går snabbt framåt och webbapplikationerna blir bara mer avancerade. Samtidigt så har de mobila webbläsarna utvecklats i en snabb takt. Dock skiljer det fortfarande mycket mellan en mobil webbläsare och en vanlig webbläsare, samt att man integrerar med en mobiltelefon på ett annat sätt än vad man gör med en dator. Detta examensarbete undersöker om det är möjligt att skapa avancerade webbapplikationer som, genom att utnyttja de senaste webbteknologierna, kan ersätta vanliga mobilapplikationer.Undersökningen genomförs genom att skapa en lättviktsvariant av en telefonapplikation, Mobile Documents till Symbian S60, som är en applikation som hanterar dokument, mejl och bilagor.Utvecklingen sker till största del i Google Web Toolkit och tekniker så som AJAX och Comet används. Eftersom antalet olika sorters telefoner med tryckskärm är väldigt stort så kommer undersökningen att rikta sig mot ett fåtal telefoner som kör webbläsarna Mobile Safari, microB och Android Browser.Slutsatserna av rapporten är att JavaScript-stödet hos dagens webbläsare är stort nog till att köra avancerade webbapplikationer.

Denna explorativa studie analyserar gemensamma och differentiella mönster för kommunikation och beteende hos användare i Hjälpforum. Målet med studien är att kartlägga aktiva användartyper med syfte att ge SVT kunskap om Hjälpforumets användare. Om forumadministratörer har mer kunskap om användarna i Hjälpforum kan de anpassa sin kommunikation utifrån användarnas individuella behov och öka deras förmåga att bidra med mer kvalitativ återkoppling. Detta kan i sin tur bidra till en positivare inställning och ökat förtroende hos användare i Hjälpforum. I denna studie kunde fem användartyper kartläggas i Hjälpforum med stöd av egen empiri och tidigare forskning.

The problem being examined is the disturbing noise that is created in an open plan office on a company working with a creative process, such as a newspaper or a communications agency. The purpose of this study was to examine the needs for today for a sound absorber in open offices and create and design a design proposal. The aim is also to develop a marketing material the product proposal. The problem has been broken down into the following questions:- How does the user look at the need of a sound absorber in an open offices solution today?- Does an interior designer apply sound absorbers when they furnish the intended environment? - How can a design that meets the needs that exists be achieved and to speak the user?The study is based on three choice of methods a literature review on selected topics that relate to the topic, an interview with an interior designer to explore how an interior designer applies absorbers in open plan office and finally an extensive survey that treats the user's needs and appropriate appearance for the product proposal.The design process has undertaken the following methods, design brief, requirements specification, functional analysis and sketches to produce the final product proposal.

Detta arbete är en reflektion över ett programvaruutvecklingsprojekt, WAIS, och den arbetsmetodik som användes för detta projekt. Arbetsmetodiken för utvecklings-projektet var Extreme Programming (XP) och vi ifrågasätter om detta val var lämpligt för ett projekt som WAIS. Projektet genomfördes vid Blekinge Tekniska Högskola under våren 2004. Utvecklingsprojektet WAIS var en del av ett större projekt, AIS 42, som stöds av VINNOVA. Huvudprojektets bakgrund och syfte beskrivs för att läsaren skall förstå den roll projektet hade. Studenternas uppgift har varit att utveckla en prototyp för ett system som skall sprida information relaterad till logistik och transporter.

The work as a personal assistant is sometimes associated with certain problems. Studies have shown that personal assistants often experience indistinct rules and roles concerning what should or should not be included in their duties. This study was undertaken to evaluate problems associated with the profession as a personal assistant, how widespread they are and how they are dealt with. Specifically, the study evaluates if the personal assistants have to do duties that they consider they are not assigned to do. Different roles (formal as informal) are also discussed which may be of current interest in this study, but also how we see people on basis of ethics and moral.

Umeå University currently uses two Course Management System, Moodle and Sakai (Cambro). Both Moodle and Sakai are based on open source code and are today the two more popular choices among Swedish Universities. They both have different strengths and weaknesses both from a technical perspective and a user perspective. This can create problems for a course responsible/teacher when it comes to planning the course structure at a distance course but also when planning the course structure on a campus course that uses a Course Management System. With this as my starting point my formulations of questions become:How do the Course Management Systems that Umeå University uses differs, both from a technical perspective and user perspective?What possibilities is there in the Course Management Systems to use a different Course Structure?Is there a noticeable difference on the view of Course Management System of teachers and students at different departments?The purpose with my essay is to create a basis that course responsible/teacher can use to plan the course structure.

Safety, its a word not commonly associated with elderly people living alone. There is however a device that is supposed to bring safety, and enable elderly people to continue living in their present household - an emergency dialer. However these devices does not serve their own purpose in terms of design. Thepurpose of this study is to create an emergency dailer that everybody would want to put on their wrist or bedside table. The market for these devices have looked the same for the last twentyfive years, despite of society´s advancements in both design and technology.

The purpose of this Master's thesis is to contribute to a betterunderstanding of children's free time reading book practices by studyingpupils in the school library and their processes of finding and borrowingbooks for themselves to read silently in the classroom, so called free timereading books. The study also includes observations of the staff's role,particularly the school librarian's in supporting pupil's book selection.The empirical material consists of field notes from an etnographic studywhere pupils in 4th grade (aged 10-11) and staff were observed duringthree school library visits. The theoretical framework is inspired byLennart Björneborn's concepts of information practices in libraries:serendipity, integrative library interface, mediation flow and affordancespaces.The study shows that pupils' search for free time reading books in theschool library is relatively routine-based at the same time as it isspontaneous. The process is an interplay with factors such as time,display and interaction in the integrative library interface. In the presenceof adults, finding books becomes an imposed task for the pupils.

Skeuomorphism är ett relativt nytt begrepp inom interaktionsdesign.Skeuomorphism är en designstil vars mål är att efterlikna realistiska objekt för attframkalla och skapa vissa effekter och upplevelser, som till exempel attunderförstått kommunicera en förståelse till användaren. Litteraturstudien visadepå att ingen har undersökt hur användare upplever inslagen och effekter somutlovas är spekulationer. Denna uppsats undersöker hur användare upplever inslagav skeuomorphism i digitala gränssnitt. Studien utfördes med hjälp av metodernathink-aloud och intervjuer för att besvara frågan, ?Hur upplever användare inslag avskeuomorphism i digitala grafiska gränssnitt??.

The purpose of the project was to design an electric bicycle to offer thetarget group youth an attractive alternative to mopeds. The basis for theproject was user studies in which young people were interviewed andobserved in their daily environment.The project resulted in a product, designed with the focus of integratingthe battery to the shape, to create a wholeness that is simple andintuitive.!The product is easy to use and operate, with an automatic transmissionengine.! A smart modular system allows the user to choose design withmudguards, rear rack, or without. The battery design is based on "cradleto-cradle" to maximize the battery life and minimize environmentalimpacts.It was very fun and rewarding to have the opportunity to present theresults for the youth who showed great interest in the product.The project was conducted in collaboration with Designit and Cycleurope..

Abstract: After their introduction, technical systems designed for Situational Awareness have changed the possibilities on the battlefield. Today, Swedish tanks use a system known as the TCCS. This system offers many advantages to a tank platoon, but does it also bring disadvantages? This essay examines pros and cons with the TCCS. To find these the author uses a Swedish Armed Forces analyze model in a comparative study.

The question of direct citizen participation in politics and administration is a contestable one. Its proponents claim that it has positive consequences even for the more "traditional", representative democracy, since participation leads to an increased political knowledge and increased political interest, and thus creates a revitalised democracy. Critical voices have however been raised to the validity of this claim. Critics have also pointed out direct participation as problematic, because it leads to problems of political inequality: a difference of political influence between ? on the one hand, the citizens participating directly and those that restrict their political participation to voting, and ? on the one the other hand ? between the institutions, for example schools, that employ, and don?t employ this method of direct citizen influence.In this essay, these two points of criticisms are tested in the context of user-boards in elementary and secondary schools.