During the past decade, consumer health information-centers have been developed at the hospital libraries in Sweden in order to meet the increasing demand from patients and their relatives concerning consumer health information. In 1993, the hospital libraries in Falun, Västervik and Karlstad launched a consumer health information database called PION. The aim of this Master's thesis is two-fold. My first aim is to describe and discuss the principles of user-oriented evaluation. In my attempt to convey the theoretical discussion into the everyday life of librarianship, my second and most important aim is to conduct a user-oriented evaluation of the database PION.

The aim of this bachelor thesis is to study how libraries handle metadata in institutional repositories. The methodology of the study is semi-structured interviews with librarians from all Swedish libraries that currently use the institutional repository system DSpace. Metadata schemes from the different libraries have also been studied. As analytical tools the study uses the user tasks presented in Functional Requirement for Bibliographic Records, as well as a study of metadata quality made by Jung-Ran Park. The study shows a rather big difference between the ways the libraries use institutional repositories.

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.

Our aim in this work has been to redesign ModernFamilies and make a user-friendly interface for people with aphasia. The focus has been to identify general issues they might face while using different technology and applications, in order to find better alternative design for ModernFamilies, with a focus on usability. To approach this issue, we used a qualitative method. Our study includes several interviews and observations preformed in conjunction with the AGNES project (AGeing in a NEtworked Society) and speech therapists. Aphasia requires simple design that in the same time gives them support to understand and use technology and different applications.

In this Bachelor thesis I explore sound and room as elements in design of user interfaces, both theoretical and practical in a specific application domain, to identify some of the advantages and disadvantage associated with these elements. As application domain I studied email clients and their usage at home amongst students at Blekinge Institute of Technology. In the study I found an activity, which seems to be highly distributed in the physical room where the user is located. The activity was notification of email and could take place in an arbitrary location of the home. I then augmented this activity with ideas from my theoretical assumption about room and sound. The result was a rule-based agent for notification of email, which primarily uses sound as interaction style..

The aim of this study is to examine present forms of interaction between Child Welfare Clinics (Barnavårdscentraler, BVC), and libraries. The study departs from the user?s perspective, i.e. how the parents evaluate the information they are given about the library and its resources to provide information they want in their present and new situation. In two local communities the survey looks into how parents of babies are informed about the library in meetings arranged as part of the information and support program provided by BVC.

The purpose of this Masters thesis is to investigate how a group of academic librarians perceive distance learners as a user group. We have in our study been influenced by phenomenography, which is both a set of theoretical assumptions and a methodology. The theoretical frame of reference consists of Carol Kuhlthaus different levels of education and Michael Buckland´s information barriers. Using a qualitative method consisting of nine interviews with academic librarians and structural factor such as academic library policies, we have been able to conduct our study. The results of the study are presented in grouped categories of quotations that reflect various perceptions.

This report is written for a consultant networking company with the purpose to review the development ofthe company's remote connections from a user friendly and security perspective.This includes an investigation of the possibilities to consolidate existing authentication methods foraccessing customers. The problem lies in the amount of methods being used. Through case study wefound that smart cards, SMS-service, software and hardware tokens exist.The only method feasible from a security perspective is smart cards. Since the method is not commonlyused by the company's customers a standardization of it would be counterproductive.Also, the purpose of this report is to investigate how the ongoing internal development of the remoteconnection will affect the company's clients. Within this framework we have also verified a designsuggestion.We interpret, after the completion of the case study, that the internal development of the remoteconnection is marginally affected by legal perspectives.

In industries today the demand for reading the state of industrial equipment and thus prevent machine breakdown, is increasing. The company HMS Industrial Networks AB has a product on the market, Netbiter EC350 that is used to read sensors and thus find out the condition of industrial equipment. By reporting scanned data to users through a cloud service, users can keep track of their equipment. When developing Netbiter EC350 a slot was made for a Bluetooth module to offer clients a wireless reading in future developments. In this project a prototype was made to show how this Bluetooth communication can be implemented. The goal of the project was to create a Bluetooth communication between a Bluetooth sensor and Netbiter EC350. A user interface was made to allow the user to read sensor values. The result of the project shows how a Bluetooth communication can be implemented to read sensors wireless and therefore it fulfills its purpose and goal.

The aim of this thesis is to find out how users and libraries are constructed at public library websites in Sweden from a web 2.0 perspective. We discuss the development of public libraries in Swedish history and the change from an system oriented perspective to a individual oriented perspective and how these perspectives correspond to needs of the library user. We also discuss the concept of web 2.0 and library 2.0. These concepts are open for different interpretations. Some writers believe that web 2.0 and library 2.0 is something radically new and that it will change the public libraries, while other writers claim that these concepts is just a marketing plan.

The project is a practical and theoretical test of IP telephony with Skype in order to form a base for a comparison between IP-Telephony with Skype and the Public Switched Telephony Network (PSTN). PSTN is the common standard that most of us use for telephony today. The objective for the study is to simplify the choice between PSTN and IP-Telephony for the Swedish private customer user group. The project is supposed to answer the following questions. - How easy is it to start using IP-telephony with Skype? - How is the quality of IP-telephony compared to PSTN? - Are all services provided by PSTN available and accessible using the IP-solution? - How are the usability and the availability of support with IP telephony? - Is IP-telephony a cheaper solution and in that case under which circumstances? Within the project a collection of practical and theoretical tests have been performed to be able to form an opinion on the IP-solution in the following areas, installation, function, quality, usability, costs, accessibility and security. In order to study usability, a test group of ten persons have been used to evaluate the usability of the system.

New technological innovations like tablets and smartphones have a taken significant market share on the web and puts new demands on webpages, the user interface and compatibility among different client devices. The full test of a web-based system prior to the publication is often regarded as an important part of the process to create a complete and successful website. This bachelor thesis investigates the possibility to analyze mobile-adapted web sites using a system that first records the visitor's activities and then replays them for an expert analyst to provide valuable information to developers about how their site can be improved.The essay begins with a litterature study on today's most common web development tools and then examines the possibility to apply them during the development of the analysis tool. The work also describes two methods, pair programming and waterfall method used during the project. Three different evaluation methods are presented and one of the models is applied on the finished system.The project results in a web-based analysis tool written mainly in JavaScript using the jQuery library.

En av de svåraste utmaningarna som ett företag står inför är jämvikten mellan användbarhet och säkerhet, så att ingen av dessa väger över och på så vis påverkar organisationen negativt. Utifrån intervjuer med anställda har användbarheten undersökts, även samtal med ansvariga inom IT-säkerhet har givit förståelse för företagets arbete inom området. I det undersökta företaget kan man se att stor tyngd läggs på säkerheten, vilket kan påverkar användbarheten för användarna. Eftersom det i nuläget saknas en utredning och ett riktigt beslutsunderlag av vilka användare som skall ha vilka behörigheter på sina datorer, ges i slutet av arbetet rekommendationer till företaget gällande användartypernas fördelning utifrån säkerhetsperspektiv och ur användarnas egen användbarhetsuppfattning..

The ambition with this study is to look into and create an understanding for how an intranet can work as a support system in work processes in capacity as a source of knowledge. We want to enhance the understanding for which kind of knowledge that can be coded in and transmitted by an intranet, and which that is lost in this process. We also want to clarify what it takes to get this knowledge, in collaboration with the intranet, to support the work in an organization. It is a qualitative case study at a Swedish bank. It consisted of semi standardized, half structured interviews with five people in one of the bank?s local offices.

The dialysis ward at Karolinska University Hospital is a highly pressurized work environment filled with critical treatment situations where patient?s lives can be constantly in danger. Staff have to deal with a myriad of alarms and error codes in response to their patients varying ailments. The workforce at the dialysis ward lack controlled environment training, sufficient to address all of the potential treatment scenarios, with no risk of jeopardizing the patient?s condition.The purpose of this essay is to design and test the efficacy of using an IT based device for dialysis education at Karolinska University Hospital.The main topics this essay intends to address are:? Identification of user scenarios and training fields.? Prioritization of key training areas.? Utilization of IT in effective staff training.? Design of a conceptual prototype.The process focuses on the user and their needs.