Communication between people who already know eachother, and who use a social online platform to do so, have been thouroghly studied for years. Thus, the majority of the people we connect with on a day to day basis are friends and acquaintances. As children we were taught not to talk to strangers, and as we grew older we learned to avoid people who act suspiciously. These and many other factors are part of the reason we avoid strangers, but are we doing so wrongfully? Studies have shown that there are many benefits in everyday interaction with strangers, some of which are an estimated increase in happiness and letting people seemingly forget about previous grievances.

This thesis describes a conceptual design of a support frame for a synchronousgenerator used in a vertical axis wind power plant. In this system the generator isplaced on ground level. The thesis also considers the design of housing for thesupport frame and generator. The concept presented in this report is based on anearlier design. Besides geometric design, simplified simulations has been run in orderto optimize some of the parts included in the construction considering naturalfrequencies and structural strength.The result is presented as CAD-models andan assembly drawing..

The ÅF Group is a leader in technical consulting, with expertise founded on more than a century of experience. They offer highly qualified services and solutions for industrial processes, infrastructure projects and the development of products and IT systems. They are also one of the leading names in certified third-party testing and inspection work.Today the ÅF Group has approximately 4,000 employees. Their base is in Europe, but their business and clients are found all over the world.A part of ÅF-Engineerings business is programming different automation systems to clients. Another part is support in both telephone and personal visits.Because the number of clients is high and the flora of different automation systems is big the consequence is that the employees must have access to many licenses with programming tools.

As part of an internship at Ericsson, this report was written to enhance the understanding of how it is to develop a system that is well established at the workplace. To improve an already existing system is not always as easy as many developers may think. In this report the pros and cons of developing an already existing system has been researched and analyzed. Do note that the results are only from one development of a specific system and that comparison of other developments has been made from other reports and not from experiencing it firsthand. It was found that the choices made can have an impact on further developing and it is important to write down what has been done.

The Functional Resonance Accident Model is a method developed to analyze complex systems for the purpose of accident prevention. In FRAM-analysis a visualization of the complex system is created as an aid for identifying points of interaction in the system where the risk of accidents is high, and to determine where preventive measures are to be placed. FRAM Visualizer is a computer program developed as a tool for creating such visualizations.Many usability problems have been identified in FRAM visualizations created both manually according to established method and by using the FRAM Visualizer software. The purpose of this paper is to give a basis for how FRAM visualizations can be improved in accordance with usability criteria for use in future qualitative studies.The author suggests alterations to the FRAM visualization to resolve usability issues identified in previous articles and to achieve usability goals derived from visual communication theory. The design process is guided by established design principles.

During spring 2001 we have been involved with our bachelor thesis at Doberman Digital Agency, an Internet related webdesign company. We have focused our work on the registration process via digital medias such as the Internet. During our workprocess we have been conducting a number of studies and analyses of workrelated materials. Ethnographical methods such as structured interviews and participant observations were primarily used in our work. We also widely used brainstorming in our designprocess.

This Masters thesis investigates user education at academic libraries. The increased demand on students to keep themselves updated in the information society of today urges libraries to develop their user education, concerning both content and teaching strategies. The aim of this study is to examine user education at academic libraries, and the approach of librarians in their teaching. The research questions address how librarians implement the user education and what they focus on. We also want to explore what differences and similarities there are between the user educations, and if anything could be further developed within them.

This study focuses on the influence a user may have over his or her welfare service, personal assistance. A county, an assistance firm and a user cooperative are compared with the thesis that the organisation that surrounds the users shapes the possibilities the user have to influence his or her personal assistance. There are questions that try to answer if there are outspoken social goals within each organisation. Questions regarding influence of the user when she or he is choosing the assistance provider and the users possibility to influence and his or her power to decide who and when anyone works as an assistant are asked..

Abstract During object-oriented system development, programming should be preceded by analysis and design to assure that the system fulfils the demands of the customer and simplify during the development phase and documentation. When modeling the analysis and design phases, several different notations may be used. One of these is the UML (Unified Modeling Language) which this thesis will cover. The aim is to compare the use of the UML i practice versus what is said in the literature. The investigation is built upon interviews at different companies to receive their reflections about the UML.

This degree project has been carried out in cooperation with Gedevelop in Helsingborg.Gedevelop has developed a camera that can calculate the weight of a liquid glass mass.Because of the density and viscosity changes in the glass, the weight information issometimes incorrect given. Glass industry is today addressing the problem by an operatorperforming a manual weighing of a few bottles which, in turn, calibrates the camera system.The project aimed to develop an automated system to control the weighing of glass bottles forglass industries. This system must be so flexible that it can be easily mounted on plants withdifferent production equipment around the world.The project includes design and construction of equipment that meets the requirementsformulated together with Gedevelop. Work has been done both in Halmstad and Helsingborgand has included both calculations and review of the theory to understand the forces thatinfluence the design of different construction parts. A prototype was produced that meets theoperating requirements for the design and can be used in testing features.

This study concerns paratransit service in a relatively small municipality in Sweden. The aim of this study is to describe the user's experience of paratransit service. The question formulation is mainly built around the user's experience of paratransit service and their view on what impact paratransit service has on their lives. The empirical data consists of ten interviews with ten different paratransit service users with ages ranging from 25-95 years. The data has mainly been analyzed through concepts of independence, empowerment and trust. The result of this study shows that paratransit service in many ways can be described as a crucial part of the users' lives.

This thesis describes the process of developing a reservation system for common resources through a TV-interface. The system is developed in cooperation with the company Dreampark and is built to work in their platform for TV, Dreamgallery. The main goal was to develop a reservation system and to make it work with Dreamgallery, to develop a demonstration version of the system. The thesis describes the approach for developing an easy-to-use and customisable program and interface for making reservations. How this is inserted into an existing program in a suitable way.

This report describes how the process has evolved during the creation of a new web page forthe company Scandinavian Travel Agent DMC. The design methods that have been used aredescribed and also how parts of the webpage have been created by using the design methodresults. Our reflections around design and functionality are explained and how usability hasbeen our main focus during the master thesis. We also describe how it has been to work withan external costumer and how the tasks constantly have changed and been added as theprocess has continued.The background to this work is that AB Scandinavian Travel Agent DMC need to improve theircurrent web page. This to give the clients better needed information about destinations, butalso to stand out in the competitive travel business.

This report is an examination paper in computer science at University of Växjö. The report will focus on the possibility to create adaptable systems and to cost calculate the work needed to modify a system to meet new demands. A project [demos] developed by Interactive Institute studio [12-21] in Växjö is the starting point in our work. They have during a period of two years developed a prototype of a system which intends to get youth and democratic selected representatives a communication platform where they may communicate with SMS. Today they are in a position when they want to develop the system for other user groups with slighter different purpose and to do that they need a more flexible system.

The aim of this thesis is to study a number of standards and theories, from the two research areas human-computer interaction and psychology, about how a graphical user interface (GUI) should be composed in order to facilitate interaction between humans and computers. Special emphasis is put on how the GUI should take into consideration the strengths and limitations of human cognition and perception. A study of three web catalogues shows how these theories appear when concretised. The following questions are answered in this thesis:What guidelines and styleguides can be found that specify the design of a user-friendly GUI?How do a few library catalogues on the web match a selection of these design principles?The guidelines are extracted from literature concerning human-computer interaction, psychology, automated library systems and web design.