The company Sound Precision has developed a new Line Array loudspeaker system (VHA-40). When using this system, their customers need computer aid to get the best possible sound-quality and control of sound levels for the whole audience. The aim of this thesis is to develop a truly useful sound quality simulator for the VHA-40. The system will help the sound engineers to position the loudspeakers for optimal sound by simulating loudspeaker configurations and visualizing the resulting sound quality and quantity. To solve this a human-centered design (HCD) approach is taken to implement a system that is truly useful for the users, meaning that they will use it more and hence deliver better sound for the audience.

This thesis considers the development of the software for an, newly developed, embedded real-time control system, based on a Periferal Interface Controller (PIC). The control system is developed to be used for several different applications. In this thesis work, software for two different applications are developed. The first task is a time controlled system, while the other task is implementation of aPI-/PID-controller. A user interface is also developed and implemented.The time controlled system is an automatic horse feeder, which is used for feeding horses at certain predefined points in time.

Design Patterns introducerades på 1990-talet och användningen sades medföra en rad fördelar som skulle hjälpa systemutvecklare i deras arbete. Bland annat skulle Design Patterns underlätta för systemutvecklarna att kommunicera med varandra samt ge en bättre överblick över och förståelse för systemarkitektur genom en höjd abstraktionsnivå. Systemutvecklaren skulle även få en ökad förståelse för god design. Två kritiska artiklar fick oss att vilja beskriva hur systemutvecklare som aktivt arbetar med Design Patterns upplever att centrala fördelar uppfylls. Vi genomförde fyra fallstudier där vi intervjuade erfarna systemutvecklare och vår slutsats är att de upplever att fördelarna med Design Patterns uppfylls.

AbstractTitle: The first thing I do when I wake up is to log on to Facebook. A study regarding how users of Social Networks experiences the User Generated production. (Det första jag gör när jag vaknar är att logga in på Facebook. En studie om hur användare av de sociala nätverken upplever den användargenererande produktionen.)Number of pages: 37 (39 including enclosures) Author: Per MagnussonTutor: Christian ChristensenCourse: Media and Communication Studies CPeriod: Fall semester 2010University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science, Uppsala UniversityAim: The ambition with this essay is to examine how the online users of social networks experience the development of the Internet towards Web 2.0, and the enormous User Generated Content emerging from it. How do we receive User Generated Content from other people, and particularly what do we think about our own production.Material/Method: In order to obtain a deeper understanding of the attitudes and perceptions amongst people regarding this subject I used qualitative interviews with 9 people.

The purpose of this thesis is to get an improved understanding of what the bases for relevance are, when people in real information need situations make relevance judgements. In order to meet this purpose, an investigation based on research literature is performed. Four types of relevance are investigated: topical or subject relevance, cognitive relevance or pertinence, situational relevance or utility, and socio-cognitive relevance. The investigation also deals with users relevance criteria identified in fourteen empirical studies, in which the users are adults and engaged in oral, textual, and multimedia information retrieval. Finally, the connections between the user criteria found and the types of relevance are discussed.

A current issue today is to try to implement creative design as a way to solve wicked problems in scientific contexts such as HCI. Since the problems are wicked, they have no given solution which makes the traditional methods inadequate. In these cases, creative design can be an alternative. Creative design is not used in scientific contexts because it is viewed as something unaccountable.In this essay we argue that creative design not necessarily have to be unaccounted. We discuss various views of creative design and translate theory to a practical context.

Radio frequency identification (RFID) is a versatile wireless technology usedworldwide. The fields of applications are many and its popularity constantlygrows due to smaller in size, better and less expensive components. RFID isused to identify, track or share information about an object using radio waves.This master thesis describes the process of designing and implementing ahandheld UHF RFID reader. The goal was to, based on a UHF RFID-chipdesign a fully functional, small in size and power efficient device. Amicrocontroller provides the user interface and is also used to control theRFID-chip and a Bluetooth device.

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.

Choosing the right user experience evaluation method can be difficult, choosing the right one for mobile user experience can be even more so. One major cause is that mobile usage is context dependent. Another contributing factor is that there is not one widely adopted theory or framework for user experience due to its complexity.The purpose of this study was to evaluate an existing method artifact in its feasibility for evaluating mobile applications. The chosen method, AttrakDiff2 is a self-reporting semantic differential questionnaire to evaluate the user experience of an interactive product, based on its hedonic and pragmatic qualities.A study was conducted where the participants assessed one mobile and one web application, which were later rated with AttrakDiff2. The completion of the questionnaire was conducted as a think-aloud session subsequently followed by an interview.The results suggest that the participants experience was affected more by the evaluated application style than the different platforms.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate an existing user interface. The company in question has a web-based user interface (available through logging in via their website), but they are interested in making the process of using the interface more convenient and the interface more accessible, so that users without a background in computing can properly manage the interface. At the same time they want to apply additional functionalities in order create and to manage increased traffic on the company?s website. For this reason it is important to take into account the issues involved in human-computer interaction (HCI) as well as aspects of cognitive psychology in order to make the tool and the web interface more usable, more motivational, and therefore more efficient and professional.

This thesis of 15 hp has been implemented at Halmstad University, in collaboration with Saab Dynamics in Linköping. Saab Dynamics is a company operating in the defence industry where competition is tough. This necessitates new ways to increase efficiency in the company, which is the basis for this thesis. Saab Dynamics wants to introduce simulation driven design. Since Saab Dynamics engineers have little experience of simulation, required a user methodology with clear guidelines.

The aim of this Master's thesis is to examine the user discourses that can be identified in the public library field. Questions posed in this study are: what discourses can be found, what characterises them, how are users categorised and what does this categorisation imply. The theoretical starting-point is Ernesto Laclaus and Chantal Mouffes discourse theory. The method is text analytic. 62 articles from three library journals - Biblioteksbladet, Bibliotek i Samhälle and Ikoner are analysed through a model in four phases.

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 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.

The product "urinal funnel" for women has fascinated me for a long time. Not only because it solves a practical problem in a simple way, but also because it challenges our definitions of gender and behaviour. This report describes the process of making a new design for a funnel, taking material, ergonomics and construction in consideration. It also includes structuring a launching of the product in Sweden. It starts up with a large amount of information gathering, both by interviewing testgroup-perticipants, but also by researching and evaluating the range of existing funnels.