A large part of the Namibian low income population lack access to grid distributed electricity. This mean they are effectively shut out from basic functions such as lighting, information technologies and hygienic food handling. Hence, finding ways of providing affordable off-grid electricity is an important, not to say critical, task.This master thesis is an innovation and concept development project that has been carried out in cooperation with organisations in Sweden and Namibia. The purpose of the project has been to (1) develop a concept for off-grid electricity supply in Namibia and (2) to gain a deeper knowledge within the area of innovation and product development for the Base of the Pyramid population, i.e. the poorest, but largest, socio-economic part of the global population.Essential in this project has been to acquire user understanding and to identify user needs to create a foundation for developing the concept.

The myth of the user - a study of the user discourse and its visionariesThis study is a discourse analysis of the visions that implicitly are expressed in different texts about user-centered library theory. Several other studies have analyzed the discourse and conceptualization of how the user is expressed in the library debate. Therefore we have chosen to analyze the visions that are expressed by three different sources: the evaluation of the Swedish GÖK project, which was an reorganization of three different libraries in Sweden (Greenhalgh, Worpole & Landry 1995). The influential book by Michael E. Casey and Laura C.

The advantage and the possibility of keeping track of a number of vehicles to make work practice more effective and smooth is today a favorable choice for Visual Units Logistics customers. We?ve been evaluating the software and trying to take it one step further and letting not only the individual user, but maybe, the company as a whole benefit from its advantages. This has been done by using methods like letting ourselves get to know the software, user case studies, workplace studies, interviews and future workshops. This resulted in a prototype introducing a new function designed with all collected data in mind trying to make the software, Visual Units Logistics, even more effective for the every day work practice of the user.

The aim of this essay is to examine three separate Swedish public libraries and their respective websites on the grounds of the usability sciences. I firstly had to summarize the main properties of the usability-field in order to gain an extended knowledge of its purposes and possible usage for today?s library systems. I was then able to apply the extended knowledge in the examination of the three library websites and the purpose of determining whether or not they were designed according to the standards set by the usability-sciences.Usability is a rather new science that deals with the dissection and examination of computer-based systems, in order to find the key components that make systems user-friendlier. With user needs being the main focus of its research, usability tries to meet all the different needs of the modern user and construct systems that are less system-centered and more user-centered.

Service Design is a relatively new, unexplored and exciting phenomenon that through an interdisciplinary work methodology designs services. A discussion has been going on for a long time regarding whether there is a difference between products and services. Services are often classified as immaterial, heterogeneous, non-storable and inseparable in relation to products. A question that arises is if something specific characterises the work methodology used regarding service design. The aim with this paper is thus to explain the work methodology when working with service design.

The popularity of video games has been boosted by the rise of user-generated live streaming platforms, and the biggest of them all is Twitch. The popularity depends on Twitch alignment of live streamed video games. The stream is created by a player who broadcast and streams the video game online. The video game can then be watched by a viewer that is interested in the video game. In every stream there is an implemented live chat that allows the viewer to interact with the streamer while the stream is online.

The aim of this master thesis is to study how academic librarians can overcome the gap between themselves and the user. The gap, as we see it, is generated by the user's deeper knowledge surrounding her subject in comparison to the librarian. This knowledge gives the user possibilities to handle certain discourses attached to the subject and a knowledge how sub-subjects relate to each other within the main subject. At the same time the user is in need of help to find information within her subject, this need needs to be explained to the librarian as a search expert. The scope of this master thesis is to find how the librarian, tactically, can reach the users need despite lack of subject knowledge.

Service Design is a relatively new, unexplored and exciting phenomenon that through an interdisciplinary work methodology designs services. A discussion has been going on for a long time regarding whether there is a difference between products and services. Services are often classified as immaterial, heterogeneous, non-storable and inseparable in relation to products. A question that arises is if something specific characterises the work methodology used regarding service design. The aim with this paper is thus to explain the work methodology when working with service design.

This thesis evaluates the user board of the elememtary school in Veberöd, Sweden. In this process an evaluation model is developed. The model itself gets evaluated in a meta-evaluation to improve the model for future use.The starting point of the evaluation is the deliberative democracy theory. Although Sweden is a representative democracy an official desire exists to have a democracy with deliberative qualities. The evaluation model is constructed to fit this context and is therefore, not only, set out from classical goal-based evaluation but also from deliberative democratic evaluation.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how activities in elderly care matters to well-being among elderly people, from both User perspective and staff perspective. The study is made out of a qualitative method, this to create a deep-going understanding of how the people participating in the investigation are experiencing the impact of activities on well-being from their unique situation. Personal interviews have been used as method. Six persons were participating, three elderly persons and three persons working as staff. All interviews were made in a ?short-time? ward in the county of Västernorrland.The result of the investigation shows that the elderly people that were interviewed not directly related the participation in activities to feelings of well-being.

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.

The purpose of this Bachelor thesis is to examine how user-friendly the OPAC of the Märsta public library is considered to be.Theoretical basis are HCI and Allwoods definition of usability. Issues are: Is the OPAC suited to its task? Is the OPAC user-friendly? How well does a user accept the OPAC? and What degree of competence is shown by users of the OPAC? The source material consists of six interviews in the form of .avi files. The method I have chosen is qualitative semi-structured interview form. The result is that, based on Carl Martin Allwood?s defini-tion and with exception for the using of help-resources, the usability of Märsta?s library OPAC can be considered less good..

The purpose of this Master?s thesis is to perform a user oriented evaluation of the International Library?s website. The questions posed in this study are; for what purpose do the users in this study turn to the International Library?s website; what does the users information searching process consist of when visiting the site; how does navigation, layout and content effect the users satisfaction with the website; do the users in this study consider that the International Library?s website can be improved and if so, how? The study was performed with a user oriented approach where six qualitative interviews with librarians who use the website were conducted. These interviews were analysed using Brenda Dervin?s Sense making-theory and Leclercq?s theory about user satisfaction.