This Master's thesis aims to investigate the reference interview using the discourse analytical method discourse psychology. The reference interview has been studied thoroughly, and its importance has been proven repeatedly within the field of Library and Information Science (LIS). However, it has never been studied from a discourse analytical point of view before.The material for our study was gathered at Malmö public library, and consists of 10 tape-recorded and then transcribed reference interviews. Our study shows that there are several discourses within the reference situation. The dominating discourse, the reference interview discourse, is found within all the reference interviews.

The aim of this master thesis is to gain greater knowledge of interpersonal communication. This study explores on one hand how interpersonal communication can be used as an important part of reference work in a Swedish electronic synchronous reference service, and on the other how interpersonal communication affects the relationship between user and librarian. By using communication theory and establishing a positive relational contact with the user in the electronic environment, the outcome of the reference encounter can be successful for both the librarian and the user. Furthermore, the importance of recognising relational barriers is of great relevance to the relational contact. The scope of this master thesis is to find what relational factors are used and can be used in the interaction between user and librarian.

This report describes the work process to an interactive movie addressed to children with neurodevelopmental disabilities, where Jippieserien is the client. The aim is to explore how multimodal media can convey Jippieseriens message to children with neurodevelopmental disabilities and their parents, by taking the users needs into account.It is important to focus on the people who will use the system when designing interactive systems. This project is therefore using the designprocess human-centered design for interactive systems. The process includes four basic elements and provides guidelines for user-centered design. These parts are analysis, prototyping, implementation, and evaluation (Johansson.

This master thesis work was done by two students at Machine Design at KTH for Lesjöfors Stockholmsfjäder AB. The task was to develop a calculation program for gas springs. The program is going to ease the selection of gas springs for a given case of a lid that should be opened. The program is going to be used internal by sales people at Lesjöfors AB in Sweden and internationally. The program is therefore written in English.The program was developed in Microsoft Visual C# 2008 Express Edition.

The company Pilotfish has developed the system MIVEO which is used by car-sharing to wirelessly monitor, book or otherwise manage a fleet of cars. In a car pool the system has three different types of users with varying degrees of eligibility. These are end users, administrative and service personnel. We have chosen to focus on opportunities to streamline the administrator and service personnel work with a mobile service, as these users of MIVEO often are movable and mobile. From this position we have in the study attempted to answer the following question: How can mobile services used to streamline administrative tasks? This study is about developing a mobile application that will contain the same features as the existing system, but must be mobile suit.

Studies in the field of interaction design and the human memory claim there can be positive effects on the memory when information is presented for the user as a graphical pattern rather than a series of numbers. This thesis aims to influence designers to choose graphical patterns as an interface for information display. Low-fi and hi-fi prototypes of graphical patterns were constructed and tested in a variety of configurations by two users. The users showed differences in the ability to memorize a sequence of digits depending on how this sequence was presented. This study suggests that users are more easily able to recall information presented via a graphical user interface than when the same information is only presented digitally..

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.

This Master Thesis has been carried out in cooperation with Silva Sweden AB. A companywhich manufactures products like compasses, pedometers, headlamps, hiking poles and otherequipment for the out door life and navigation. The purpose of the project has been toassemble methods and models which support user involvement in Silva?s design process.Thus, to increase the number of products with purchasing power, enhance product quality aswell as increase foundation for new product ideas.The focus through out the project has been to assemble a pallet with methods for userinvolvement and from this select a few methods that will fit the company. The purpose of thepallet is to be accessible for the company during their work of change with the design processthat has been going on and will be in the future.

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.

There are several methods and models within the areas of software engineering on how to proceed during a software development process. For each of these methods and models there are benefits and drawbacks, depending on how you choose to look at them. A difference of principle between the different models is that they either advocate iterative development or not. In parts of software engineering one makes use of different methods depending on which is most fitting in a specific situation. There are several methods on how to recieve more qualitative data from the end-users during the requirement collection, but the reappearing pattern is still user centric participation, which means that the user participates more actively in part of or the entire development process.

The theoretical focus in this master is information retrieval (IR), and especially the part of IR that includes interactivity. This research is by some researchers called IIR. Our principal aim was to examine if search engines on the WWW are taking advantage of research results from IIR research. A way to do this is to look at the application of special features, in this case query expansion (QE) and relevance feedback (RF). Both these methods aim for a better matching of documents and the searchers information need.

High demands are set on all equipment used in emergency service work, where small margins can be the distinguishing factor between life and death during a rescue operation. It is important that tools such as ladders quickly and easily can be dismounted from a vehicle and still satisfy the regulatory requirements for securing loads during transport. The existing solution for getting ladders down from the roof of a fire engine requires a large manual effort from the user in an ergonomically unsound posture.In this degree project a new ladder holder is developed with focus on the user to solve the ergonomic problems and at the same time create a more compact design that can be adapted to several different types of ladders. After an initial pre-study with user-interviews and measurement of forces and distances a set of requirements was formulated that came to govern the project's direction. Creative methods were used to generate concepts that improved the function and through design solutions, calculations and testing in CAD a base for manufacturing of a new product was created.The result is a completely new type of ladder holder that minimizes the user's manual effort and simplifies the securing of ladders in the holder.

Since social media is used more today than just a few years ago, it is easier to share our lives to the public in just a few seconds. Social media is easily accessible on smartphones, tablets and computers which allow us users to use them whenever we want.Instagram is an example of a very popular social media today. In this paper we focus on how younger women think about their privacy when using and publishing pictures on Instagram. We have been using a qualitative research method in which ten people were interviewed. All respondents agreed that privacy is important when publishing pictures or videos on Instagram, but there were also some differences between users with public and private accounts.

This paper reports a study on the usability of e-commerce accessed through smartphones. There is much research in the usability of mobile interfaces and many sets of design patterns have been created but a few studies are available for specific domains, and in this report we focus on mobile e-commerce. In this study a framework is developed for how to design mobile e-commerce interfaces with a high degree of usability. Furthermore, the study also contributes a method to how other specific domain can develop a framework with general standards to work from when creating a web interface. By examining two sets of design principles and 14 design patterns, we evaluate which ones are critical in the design of a mobile e-commerce interface for achieving a high degree of usability.

När Windows Vista introducerades förändrades mappstrukturen för hur användarprofilen sparas jämfört med tidigare Windowsversioner såsom Windows XP. Denna rapport undersöker kompatibilitetsproblem med Roaming User Profiles mellan äldre och nyare versioner av operativsystemet. Syftet med rapporten var att utreda vilka problem som kan uppstå, vad det gäller Roaming User Profiles, vid en övergång från Windows XP till Windows Vista eller 7. Undersökningen genomfördes med hjälp av laborationer, litteratur och tester för att hitta problemen såväl som lösningar till dem. Resultatet visar att profiler skapade med Windows XP inte följer med till Windows Vista eller 7 utan det skapas sammanlagt två olika profiler, en för det äldre och en för det nyare operativsystemet.