This thesis begins by underlining the current methods and procedures in design evaluation as well as how design aesthetics is generally assessed. Then, it suggests the revision of current web design evaluation practices. The thesis explores a new method of incorporating Löwgren’s aesthetics of interaction attributes to help facilitate more eventful conversations within inter- and cross-departmental discussions, with the belief that such a process will manifest into more favorable design results and prevent friction during collaborative work due to incompatibility in technical jargon.

Ballastfria spår har på senare tid börjat byggas i allt större utsträckning. En anledning till detta är höjda krav på järnvägstransporter. Ett ballastfritt spår är ofta utformat som en långsträckt betongplatta på mark som för ned lasten från rälerna till underbyggnaden. I nuläget saknar Sverige dimensioneringsprinciper för ballastfria spår. Principerna är redan etablerade i andra länder men behöver inordnas för svenska förhållanden. År 2012 gjorde regeringen bedömningen att en ny stambana för snabbtåg bör byggas. För detta ändamål har Trafikverket utarbetat en ny teknisk systemstandard för höghastighetsbanor. De traditionella ballasterade spåren är inte optimerade för höga hastigheter. Trafikverkets nya systemstandard förutsätter därför att stora delar av den nya stambanan utförs med ballastfritt spår. Syftet med detta examensarbete är att studera dimensionering med hänsyn till det statiska beteendet hos ballastfria spår och skapa en grundläggande förståelse för spårreaktioner. Med hjälp av handberäkningar och datorstödda metoder undersöks elementärfall av belastningar samt sambandet mellan plattans erforderliga böjstyvhet och underbyggnadens styvhet. Handberäkningsmodeller som antas i detta arbete är bland annat Winklerbäddmodellen och diverse vedertagna tvärsnittsmodeller. De datorstödda metoderna som används är FEM-programmet BRIGADE/Plus och BEM-programmet BE-platte. I BRIGADE/Plus används en tvådimensionell modell där marken modelleras som ett elastiskt underlag. I BE-platte används en tredimensionell modell med en markmodell enligt Winklerbäddmodellen. Resultaten från de olika metoderna kontrolleras mot varandra för att verifiera erhållna resultat. Sambandet mellan elasticitetsmodul i plattornas underlag, plattjocklek och lastreaktioner åskådliggörs i diagram samt tvärkraftstabell i kapitel 4. Beräkningsmodellernas beteende diskuteras och jämförs i kapitel 5. / Recently slab tracks have been built more frequently, among other things due to an increasing demand on rail transport. A slab track is often designed as a continuous concrete slab on grade that carries down the load from the rails to the substructure. At present, Sweden lacks design principles for slab tracks. Principles are established in other countries but must be adapted to Swedish conditions. In 2012 the Swedish government made the assessment that a new mainline for high-speed trains should be built. For this purpose, the Swedish Transport Administration prepared a new technical standard for high-speed tracks. Traditional ballasted tracks are not optimized for high speed trains and therefore the new standard requires large parts of the new mainline to be built with slab track. The aim of this thesis is to study the design of slab tracks with respect to their static behavior and create a fundamental understanding of force reactions acting on them. For elementary load cases the relation between required slab bending stiffness and the stiffness of the substructure will be investigated using hand calculations and computer-assisted methods. Models for hand calculation adopted in this work include the Winkler-bed model and various conventional cross-sectional models. The computer-assisted methods used are FEM software BRIGADE/Plus and BEM software BE-Platte. In BRIGADE/Plus the models are two-dimensional and the soil is modeled as an elastic base. In BE-Platte the models are three-dimensional and the soil is modeled according to Winkler-bed model. The results of the various methods are cross-checked against each other to verify the results obtained. The relationship between the modulus of elasticity of the subsoil, plate thickness and load reactions is illustrated in charts and a shear force table in Chapter 4. The behavior of the calculation models is discussed and compared in Chapter 5.

Design idea generation is a significant part of the designer’s work and most frequently associated with creative problem-solving. However, an outstanding challenge in design is translating empirical findings or other inspirational sources into ideas or knowledge that inform design, also known as generating implications for design. Though great efforts have been made to bridge this gap, there is still no overall consensus on how to appropriately incorporate research data and external sources into the design ideas generation process. Besides, design ideas generation is a process that is rooted in personal knowledge. It is often considered a precedent-based type of reasoning where knowledge is continuously transformed to frame new insights and this creative leap across the divide is perceived to be difficult, especially for novice and student designers. Based on the grounded theory, the author conducted open-ended, semi-structured qualitative interviews with eighteen designers, including design professors, practitioners and students to learn about the knowledge on how the contemporary designers select inspirational sources and transform them into ideas with appropriate methods in different contexts, the design mindset involved during the iterative and generative ideation process, and the criteria of evaluating design ideas. The results indicated seven commonly used categories of sources: ‘personal,’ ‘daily stuff,’ ’media,’ ‘technology,’ ‘knowledge of other disciplines,’ ‘fieldwork’ and ‘design practice.’ The methods could be allocated to three stages: investigation, analysis and synthesis. In each specific phase, designers applied different methods to cope with various sources for various purposes, depending on different situations. A general framework was built for designers to conduct a proper selection of sources and methods to transform them into the knowledge that informs design. The study emphasized the flow of inspirational sources, the relationship between sources and methods, and the transformation procedures which tried to help the designer get more scientific structure and give design students more practical guidance in idea generation. The comparison was continuously made within the matrix structure on the matter of sources and methods selection, the role of design research and ideation process among different groups of designers in academics and practice, which revealed the knowledge and skills missed or ignored in university education and challenges in the design project development. The implications for design education were discussed, such as the development of design students’ competence, especially the skills that should be learned in a new digital society to help design education refine idea generation methods and improve corresponding techniques to discover a dynamic balance between theory and practice. / Das Hervorbringen von Designideen ist ein wichtiger Teil der Arbeit eines Designers und wird meistens mit kreativer Problemlösung assoziiert. Eine besondere Herausforderung ist dabei die mentale Verarbeitung von Informationen und Inspirationsquellen und deren Umsetzung zu Gestaltungsentwürfe. Dieser kreative Prozess wird vor allem von Anfängern und Designstudenten als schwierig wahrgenommen. Trotz vielfältiger Forschungsanstrengungen gibt es noch immer keinen allgemeinen Konsens dazu, auf welche Weise Informationen in den Designprozess einbezogen werden und wie sich diese präzedenzbasierte Art des Denkens vermitteln lässt. Da dieser Prozess stark auf Erfahrung basiert, wird er oft als Präzedenz-basierte Art des Denkens betrachtet, bei welcher Wissen fortwährend in neue Erkenntnisse umgeformt wird. Dieser kreative Akt wird vor allem von Anfängern als schwierig wahrgenommen. Dem Paradigma der 'grounded theory' folgend hat die Autorin ergebnisoffene, teilstrukturierte und qualitative Interviews mit Designern durchgeführt. Interviewt wurden Designprofessoren, Praktiker und Studenten, um zu erfahren, wie zeitgenössische Designer Inspirationsquellen recherchieren und mit welchen Methoden sie diese in unterschiedlichen Kontexten zu Ideen umwandeln. Weiterhin werden die Vorgehensweise der Designer während des Gestaltungsprozesses und die Evaluationskriterien der Designideen untersucht. Anhand der Untersuchungsergebnisse lassen sich sieben Informationskategorien unterscheiden: Persönliches, alltägliches, mediales, technologisches Wissen sowie Wissen aus anderen Fachbereichen, aus Feldforschung und aus der Designpraxis. Diese Methoden finden im Designprozess innerhalb von drei Phasen Anwendung: Untersuchung, Analyse und Synthese. In jeder dieser Phase wenden Designer dabei verschiedene Methoden an, um Informationsquellen aufzubereiten und in den Designprozess einzubeziehen. Ausgehend von einem Prozessmodell untersuchte die durchgeführte Studie insbesondere die Einbeziehung von Inspirationsquellen, die Beziehung zwischen Quellen und Methoden und die mentalen Verarbeitungsprozeduren. Mit den erzielten Ergebnissen unterstützt die Untersuchung die Designforschung und gibt Designstudenten eine fundierte Anleitung für die Entwicklung von Ideen. Ein besonderer Fokus der Studie lag auf dem Vergleich von verschiedenen Gruppen von Designern – insbesondere auch mit Blick auf den Unterschied zwischen tären Ausbildung vermittelten Kompetenzen mit den praktischen Anforderungen korrespondieren. Darauf aufbauend diskutiert diese Arbeit Empfehlungen für die Designausbildung, z.B. hinsichtlich des Kontexts der digitalen Gesellschaft oder der Verfeinerung von Methoden der Ideengenerierung. Damit soll die Arbeit dazu beitragen, die Designausbildung zu verbessern und ein dynamisches Gleichgewicht zwischen Theorie und Praxis zu ermöglichen.

En grafisk designer är van att arbeta i en klassisk rak metod, och skapa sina designlösningar med tanke på användaren i tron om att de är experter på att visuellt kommunicera. Samhället kräver dock mer hållbara och användbara produkter och tjänster, vilket tyder på att slutanvändarintegrering kan vara en lösning som ger bred feedback på en potentiell lösningsmetod. En grafisk designers uppgift är att visualisera sin uppdragsgivares uppdrag, göra en målgruppsanalys och leverera en produkt eller tjänst efter en brief; detta inom designerns konstnärliga stil samt expertis. Hur blir det då att inkorporera en slutanvändare i en process där man som grafiker ofta gör individuella beslut? Denna uppsats undersöker vilket värde slutanvändarintegrering skapar och i vilken grad det används idag inom brädspelsbranchens skapandeprocess. Uppsatsen utmanar också genom att presentera barriärer för implementering av en slutanvändar-baserad designmodell. Med utgångspunkt i ett intervjumaterial destilleras ett standardiserat arbetsflöde för brädspelsdesign fram, vilket leder till en bättre förståelse för när och hur slutanvändaren framgångsrikt kan inkorporeras i processen. Detta jämförs sedan med egenutförda användarcentrerade designmetoder där brädspelet ”Green Guardians” har designats men hjälp av speltestningsgrupper bestående av slutanvändare. Intervjumaterialet ger en bred och generell förståelse för hur brädspel skapas, med ett fokus på vad moderatorn studerar under ett speltestningstillfälle. Det sammanfattade resultatet redovisar integrering av slutanvändare som en vital och tillförlitlig del av skapandeprocessen av brädspel. Däremot finns för lite forskning på hur teori och metod tillämpas i praktiken. Dessutom påvisar resultatet att det inte är vanligt att få feedback om brädspelets grafiska utformning och utmanar denna teori med påståenden om att den grafiska designern ser sig som expert, och att kommunikationsproblem kan stå som barriär. Uppsatsen ger därför förslag på hur interaktionen kan förbättras mellan moderator och speltestare för att brädspelet ska utvecklas optimalt.

Combining products and services into Product-Service Systems (PSS), which are often owned and even operated by the company offering them, is seen as an important element of conducting more sustainable business. The prospective environmental benefits of PSS lie mainly in the improved resource- and operational efficiency. This is achieved by way of a critical shift in incentive structure: If an industrial company assumes responsibility for an offering throughout the lifecycle, the terms on which that company operates are changed substantially in comparison to traditional product sales. Instead of benefiting from a short lifetime through additional sales opportunities or making profit through the sale of spare parts, in highly integrated PSS, each parts exchange, each technicians’ visit and each day the lifetime of the offering is reduced directly affects the bottom line of the provider. Due to that, solely as a result of economic rationality, a provider of these offerings has an incentive to design in such a way that the life of this offering is prolonged, need for spare parts is reduced, service activities are facilitated and simplified, and that the conditions are in place to allow for a second or third life of the offering through remanufacturing. Regardless of this compelling logic, at times, industrial companies fail to establish the preconditions to capturing these benefits as they continue to rely on product and sales-centric design processes even though they provide PSS. This thesis aims to examine this unexploited opportunity from two vantage points. On the one hand, methods conceived in academia to support industry in implementing and executing joint, lifecycle-focused design of products and services, and the use of these methods in practice, are examined. Here, the focus firstly lies on understanding how PSS are designed today, and secondly, on what should change about PSS design methods to improve their implementability and usability in industrial practice, so that they can fulfill their supposed role as facilitators of efficient PSS design and operation. On the other hand, the possible benefits of providing specifically designed and lifecycle-focused PSS as an industrial company are in focus. To this end, the value attained by providers throughout the use phase of PSS is investigated, to then identify possible approaches towards enhancing this value. Eventually, both focus-areas are joined in an effort to examine the interaction between method-supported, lifecycle-oriented PSS design and the value attained by providers of such offerings. As a result of the research, a lacking adaptation of design processes to PSS is identified in the case companies. Further, shortcomings of PSS design methods conceived in academia, e.g. excessive complexity, lacking clarity and rigidity, are found in both literature as well as in a study with an industrial company. To take a first step towards rectifying this issue, six characteristics intended to enhance implementability and usability of PSS design methods, are presented. The value attained by PSS providers has been found to be a complex but important subject. In a case study, value determinants of high relevance to the use phase of the lifecycle have been identified and assessed for their utility as indicators in the evaluation and enhancement of PSS offerings in the design phase. The practitioners involved were supportive of the applicability of the systematic approach presented to capture more value through offering PSS. In joining both the value- and method-oriented approach, the mutual dependency of both aspects is discussed. In order to provide PSS in an economically and environmentally efficient fashion, adapting the existing design processes is imperative. The value attained by the provider can, complementary to existing customer-centric approaches, serve as an important goal for the adaptation of design processes. Ultimately, through understanding the change in incentive structure at the core of PSS, and through implementing a value-driven design process supported by efficient and effective methods aimed at providing both customer value and capturing provider benefits throughout the lifecycle, there is a genuine potential of conducting more sustainable business.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Background: New glass ceramics and Computer-Aided Design/Computer Assisted Manufacture (CAD/CAM) have become common aspects of modern dentistry. The use of posterior ceramic crowns with a high level of esthetics, fabricated using the CAD/CAM technology is a current treatment modality. Several materials have been used to fabricate these crowns, including lithium disilicate glass-ceramics, which have not been fully investigated in the literature. Objective: to investigate the load to fracture of lithium disilicate glass ceramic posterior crowns fabricated by CAD/CAM technology with different material thicknesses adhesively cemented on epoxy resin. Methods: Four groups of different ceramic thicknesses (0.5 mm, 1 mm, 1.5 mm, and 2 mm) were fabricated by milling CAD/CAM lithium disilicate IPS emax CAD blocks. A total of 68 posterior crowns were surface treated and luted with a resin adhesive cement on an epoxy resin model. Samples were fatigued then loaded to fracture using a universal testing machine to test the fracture strength. Statistical comparisons between various crown thicknesses were performed using one-way ANOVA followed by Fisher's Protected Least Significant Differences. Results: There was a significant difference in the load-to-fracture (N) value for all comparisons of the four thickness groups (p < 0.0001), except 2 mm vs. 1.5 mm (p = 0.325). The mean load-to-fracture (N) was significantly higher for 2 mm than for 1 mm or 0.5 mm. Additionally, the mean load-to-fracture was significantly higher for 1.5 mm than for 1 mm or 0.5 mm. Furthermore, the mean load-to-fracture was significantly higher for 1 mm than for 0.5 mm. Conclusion: Within the limitation of this study, it is advisable for clinical applications to consider a crown thickness of 1.5 mm or greater of milled lithium disilicate for posterior single teeth.

There is a general consensus that play can bring a more enjoyable user experience and can make users realize new things by providing them with a different look and approach. It is often found in games, social media applications aimed at young audiences and similar playful scenarios. However, claims have been made that it actually exists in most everyday situations, and that designers can leverage it to have a positive impact on users. In this work, we have carried out a complete design iteration to ideate and design for playfulness in a non-playful context: a concrete design case on career guidance for the French region of Grand Est. The ideation has been driven by the PLEX framework and PLEX Cards, along with their techniques. As a result, we produced an interactive prototype and evaluated users’ perception of playfulness, as well as some specific PLEX experiences. We found that the PLEX framework and PLEX Cards allow designing for playfulness in non-playful contexts, and that such play is perceived positively. The results also show that we can design to elicit specific playful experiences to some extent. / Det är allmänt känt att lek i datorinteraktion kan ge användare roligare upplevelser och lärdomar genom att erbjuda nya synvinklar och tillvägagångssätt. Det förekommer ofta i spel, sociala medier och applikationer som riktar sig till en ung publik och liknande lekfulla scenarier. Det har dock hävdats att lek faktiskt finns i de flesta vardagssituationerna och att designers kan utnyttja den för en positiv inverkan på användarna. I det här arbetet har vi genomfört ett designarbete innehållande konceptgenerering och design för implementation av lekfullhet i en icke lekfull kontext: ett konkret design case om karriärvägledning för den franska regionen Grand Est. Idéutvecklingen har drivits av PLEX-ramverket och PLEX Cards, tillsammans med tillhörande tekniker. Som ett resultat producerade vi en interaktiv prototyp och utvärderade användarnas uppfattning om lekfullhet samt några specifika upplevelser. Vi fann att PLEX-ramverket och PLEX Cards gör det möjligt att erbjuda lekfullhet i ett icke lekfullt sammanhang, och att sådan lek uppfattas positivt. Resultaten visar också att vi i viss utsträckning kan designa för att framkalla specifika lekfulla upplevelser

Der Umgang mit Ressourcen baut im aktuellen Produktions- und Konsumsystem auf preiswerten Naturverbrauch und globale soziale Missstände. Um tiefgreifende Lösungen für die dringendsten Herausforderungen des 21. Jahrhunderts zu erreichen, ist eine Umgestaltung des derzeitigen Wirtschafts- und Gesellschaftssystems ein wichtiger Ansatz, diesen komplexen sozialen Herausforderungen zu begegnen. In den letzten Jahrzehnten wird die Circular Economy von einer zunehmenden Anzahl unterschiedlicher Akteure aus Politik, Wirtschaft, Wissenschaft und Zivilgesellschaft als vielversprechende Nachhaltigkeitsstrategie diskutiert. Wertschöpfungsketten sollen dabei in Wertschöpfungskreisläufe transformiert werden, indem Produkte und deren Komponenten repariert, wiederverwendet oder recycelt – im besten Fall aber von Beginn an zirkulär designt – werden.

Um entsprechend des Konferenzanliegens über ein Gleichgewicht zwischen Ressourcen, Umwelt und fair verteiltem Wohlstand nachzudenken, untersucht dieser Vortrag die Logiken der Commons als eine gemeinwohlorientierte Alternative und Ergänzung zu gewinnlogikorientierten Wirtschafts- und Produktionsweisen aus der Perspektive des Designs. Grundlage sind die Erkenntnisse aus dem Forschungsprojekt „Commons als Denkweise und Innovationsstrategie im Design. Von der Avantgarde zum neuen Industrieparadigma?“, welches von einer inter-disziplinären Forscher:innengruppe rund um das Institute of Design Research Vienna (IDRV)* durchgeführt wurde.

Seit Paul Crutzens Intervention auf der Jahrestagung des IGBP im Jahr 2000 hat das menschliche Wirken einen prägnanten Namen: Mit dem Begriff ‚Anthropozän‘ hat sich sprachlich manifestiert, was sich wissenschaftlich messen lässt. Der Mensch – oder eher Teile der Menschheit, weshalb auch andere Begriffe wie Capitalocene oder Plantationocene (Davis et al., 2019) diskutiert werden, um die Verknüpfung zu Kolonialismus, Kapitalismus und ‚racial hierarchies‘ aufzuzeigen – hat als ‚geologische Kraft‘ (Crutzen & Stoermer, 2000) das Klima auf der Erde geprägt (oder gestaltet?) – und auch wenn wir die Dimensionen dieses Einflusses vielleicht noch nicht vollumfänglich begreifen können, so ist die drohende klimatische Katastrophe im Begriff, real zu werden.