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Tjänster är en växande marknad där bemanningsföretagen har fått en ökad betydelse bland annat beroende av marknadens höga krav på tillgänglighet och flexibilitet. I dagens samhälle är det viktigt att produkter och tjänster inte bara fyller en funktion utan också uttrycker och förmedlar rätt budskap till intressenterna. Design har därför fått en allt viktigare funktion inom företag som vill utmärka och särskilja sig. För att frambringa ett starkt och trovärdigt varumärke som differentierar sig gentemot konkurrenterna, borde skapandet av varumärket inkluderas i en designstrategi där kvaliteten på designen är väsentlig. Studien syftar till att skapa en tydligare bild om och på vilket sätt ett tjänsteföretag arbetar med designstrategi i en förändringsprocess och hur de når ut till målgruppen. Urvalet för denna studie är tjänsteföretaget Academic Work, kommunikationsbyrån Naked, som företaget har tagit hjälp av i framtagandet av det nya konceptet, och slutligen en av företagets utvalda målgrupper, studenter. Genomförandet av denna studie bygger på kvalitativa intervjuer med Academic Work och Naked samt en kvantitativ enkätundersökning med målgruppen studenter. De viktigaste slutsatserna från studien är att Academic Work: Inte har en entydig och självklar syn på designstrategi utifrån en förändringsprocess. Inte uttalat varit medvetna om att design har betydelse när de skulle se över sin marknadsföring och kommunikationsplattform, och är inte, eller i vart fall i ringa ut-sträckning, medvetna om designstrategins betydelse. Anlitat externa konsulter för att få hjälp med förändringsprocessen och de har därigenom implementerat design och designstrategi i processen. Förutom slutsatserna kring Academic Work har även följande slutsatser dragits: Det är viktigt med en tydlig kommunikation mellan företaget och externa konsulter för att stärka företagets varumärke och värden. Enkätundersökningen visar på att företaget nått ut till ekonomer i större grad än till humanister. Studenterna beskriver Academic Work utifrån givna påståenden som: seriösa, intressanta, vägvisande, karriär och arbete. / Services are a growing market where agencies have taken on increased importance, partly because of the market's higher demands on availability and flexibility. It’s important today that products and services not only fulfill a function, they also need to express and convey the right message to the consumers. Therefore has design got an increasingly important role in companies. To generate a strong and credible brand that differentiates itself from competitors, a distinctive design and developed design strategy is necessary. The study aims to create a picture on whether and how a service company works with design strategy in a process of change and how the target group conceives the new design. This study is based in the service company Academic Work changed design, the communications agency Naked who helped them and one of Academic Works target groups, students. Information from above is given via qualitative interviews with Academic Work and Naked and a quantitative survey that students have filled in. The main conclusions of this study are that Academic Work: Not have a clear and obvious approach to the design strategy based on a process of change. Not explicitly been aware that the design has a meaning when they would review their marketing and communications platform, and is not or at least to a limited extent, aware of the importance of the strategy design. Used external experts, Naked, for help with the change process, have implemented the design and design strategy in the process. In addition to conclusions about Academic Work have also the following conclusions been made:  Communication between the company and external experts is important regarding companies brand and their values. The survey shows that the company has primarily reached out to economists in greater degree than the humanists. Students describe Academic Work, from given statements, as: genuine, interesting, pioneering, career and work.

Syfte: Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka hur modeföretag jobbar med hållbar produktutveckling och design och vad det finns för vidare utvecklingsmöjligheter. Genom en kvalitativ intervjustudie ska studien bidra med en sammanställning och diskussion kring hur företag kan implementera hållbarhet i produktutvecklingsprocessen. Uppsatsen skrivs på svenska.   Metod: Genom en kvalitativ och deduktiv ansats har empiriska data samlats in genom semistrukturerade intervjuer med fyra produktutvecklande modeföretag. Metoden valdes för att ge rum för utvecklade svar från informanterna vilket skapade förutsättningar för en sammanställning och diskussion kring hur modeföretag kan implementera hållbarhet i produktutvecklingsprocessen och design. Teoretiskt perspektiv: Den tidigare forskningen involverar forskning kring tre övergripande ämnen. Det första ämnet är begreppet hållbarhet med fokus på det ekologiska perspektivet. Det andra ämnet är hållbara designstrategier, som inkluderar teorierna “Cradle to Cradle”, Eco-Design, Life Cycle Assessment samt de hållbara designstrategierna inom Design for Environment. Det tredje och sista ämnet rör designens funktion i relation till hållbarhet. Resultat och slutsatser: Resultatet visar att samtliga företag uppfattar hållbarhetsbegreppet som brett och delvis abstrakt. Detta visar sig genom företagens olika sätt att tillämpa hållbarhet via de hållbara designstrategierna. Denna skillnad är däremot också ett resultat av företagens olika identiteter och produkter. Däremot, de strategier som generellt implementerades var materialval, val av produktionsland, kvalitetsfokus och tidlös design. Studien har även undersökt vilka utvecklingsmöjligheter som finns, vilket visat att företagens tillämpning av hållbara designstrategier i högre grad borde grunda sig i en mer noggrann ekologisk utvärdering. Detta för att ge ett tydligare resultat kring vad som är “mest” hållbart för varje individuellt företag, samt hur hållbarhet kan appliceras på det sätt som bäst passar produktens design och egenskaper samt företagets målgrupps uppfattning av hållbarhet. / Purpose: The purpose of the paper is to investigate how fashion companies work with sustainable product development and design, and their opportunities for further development within the area. Through a qualitative interview study the investigation will contribute to a synthesis and discussion about how companies can implement sustainability in the product development process. The paper is written in Swedish.   Method: Through a qualitative and deductive approach, empirical data has been collected through semi-structured interviews with four product-developing fashion companies. The method was chosen to make room for the informants to give more complex answers, which created prerequisites for a synthesis and discussion about how fashion companies can implement sustainability in the product development process and design.   Theoretical perspective: The scientific research involves research within three general subjects. The first subject is the concept of sustainability, with focus on the environmental perspective. The second subject is sustainable design strategies, which includes the theories “Cradle to Cradle”, Eco-Design, Life Cycle Assessment and the sustainable design strategies within Design for Environment. The third and last subject concerns the function of the design in relation to sustainability.  Results and conclusions: The results show that all companies perceived the concept of sustainability as wide and partly abstract. This appears through the companies’ different ways of applying sustainability via the sustainable design strategies. However, this difference in application is also a result of the different identities and products of the companies. Yet, the strategies which were found generally implemented are choice of material, choice of production country, quality focus and timeless design aesthetic. The study has also investigated the companies’ opportunities for further development within the area, which showed that the companies’ applications of sustainable design strategies to a higher extent should be based on a more precise environmental assessment. This would give a clearer result on what is the “most” sustainable strategy for every individual company, but also how sustainability may be applied in a way that best fits the design and features of the product and the company's target group's perception of sustainability.

Context. This paper aims to investigate the potential of sustainable interaction system by employing persuasive design process. Sustainable Human Computer Interaction community (HCI) strives to find effective ways to change human behavior toward pro-environment. The sustainable HCI community seems to propose ambient display interface as one of its major interaction methods, which have an impact in quiet and static surroundings. However, when it comes to crowded public places where public resources are heavily wasted, ambient interfaces hardly get people’s attention and provide timely information to people. Goals. The author proposes an embodied sound interface as an alternative in the crowded places. The embodied sound interface serves to alert people at the right moment in a fun and pleasant way to induce people to engage in an intended behavior spontaneously. A sensor system prototype embedding an embodied sound interface, musical hand shaker (MHS), was developed aiming at reducing the use of paper towels. The MHS is placed near the water tap in a restroom and it respond with a music to the hand shaking of the user in front of the MHS. The system encourages people to experience how easy it is to save paper towel and do a green activity in their daily life. Methods. This study is grounded on three HCI fields: ambient information systems, affective interaction, and persuasive technology. The MHS prototype went through the persuasive design process which includes iterative steps of prototype implementation and evaluation. This design process centered on the eight steps of design process and Fogg behavior model. The persuasive qualities of embodied sound interface such as understandability, recognition of the system goal, and persistency of raised awareness of sustainability were examined. Results. The final outdoor evaluation in the restroom of a mall confirmed the impact of the MHS on people’s habit of using paper towels as well as its effectiveness of persuasion. Since it is a pilot study, there remain some unresolved issues and open questions for researcher in HCI and psychology fields.

<p>Plasmonics with the capability to harness electromagnetic waves at a nanoscale can be utilized for multitude of applications in ultra-compact miniature optical devices. Plasmonic metasurfaces which are artificially designed sub-wavelength structures have gained unprecedented interest in being able to engineer and effectively modulate the amplitude and phase of the incident wave. Introducing randomness to such plasmonic metasurfaces can also advance possibilities for extraordinary wave manipulation. Hence, by exploiting the plasmonic response of the ordered and disordered metasurfaces, we can design high performance devices for nanoscale optics.</p> <p>Aiming to provide a holistic solution to the current device limitations and bio-compatibility, my research focuses on non-toxic and environment-friendly coloration using plasmonic disordered metasurfaces. These structures generate a broad range of long-lasting colors in reflection that can be applied to real-life artistic or technological applications with a spatial resolution on the order of 0.3 mm or less. Moreover, my research also deals with the possibility of even concentrating energy in the smallest phase-space volume in optics in the form of coherent radiation through designing nanolasers. The study of carrier dynamics and photophysics of the gain media can be extremely beneficial towards the practicability of these lasers. This work elucidates the evolution of different competing mechanisms for coherent lasing. The dynamic study and experimental demonstration of these devices and respective materials can therefore provide a novel aspect to fundamental and applied research.</p>

The design of any information management system (IMS) requires a clear strategy for its integration into the environment for which it is intended. Information management has been addressed in the objectives and plans of the Government of Uganda since independence in 1962, with varying degrees of success. The extensive changes that have taken place in the last few decades in Ugandan higher education have led to increased demands for managing student information. In turn a strategy for proper coordination of such data is necessary. The major aim of this study was to design such a strategy. The research therefore attempted to investigate the current state of the management and coordination of student information in Uganda. The needs and requirements of a student information management system (SIMS) and strategies for its integration in higher education programmes were established. The study carried out in the education sector was conducted using a qualitative research framework that provided a coherent set of propositions which explains the phenomenon of a SIMS. The researcher purposively selected the respondents (including key informants, administrators and student leaders) in this sector, who included people involved in the capture, storage, management and use of student information in various institutions in the given sector. Observably, the current state of the SIMS lacks a strategy to keep track of student information in Uganda. It was established that to ensure tracking of such data in the country, an identification system with standardised procedures in a coordinating structure is required together with a clear strategy for utilising the existing structures in the education sector. To design a strategy of this kind, a proposed framework for an integrated SIMS defined the principles, environment and contextual boundaries in terms of which the design is created. It defines the structure of a national student identification system and its coordination in the education sector in Uganda. Strategies for ensuring the sustainability of such a system and its implications for the socio-economic environment of higher education are considered. / Information Science / D. Lit. et Phil. (Information Science)

The design of any information management system (IMS) requires a clear strategy for its integration into the environment for which it is intended. Information management has been addressed in the objectives and plans of the Government of Uganda since independence in 1962, with varying degrees of success. The extensive changes that have taken place in the last few decades in Ugandan higher education have led to increased demands for managing student information. In turn a strategy for proper coordination of such data is necessary. The major aim of this study was to design such a strategy. The research therefore attempted to investigate the current state of the management and coordination of student information in Uganda. The needs and requirements of a student information management system (SIMS) and strategies for its integration in higher education programmes were established. The study carried out in the education sector was conducted using a qualitative research framework that provided a coherent set of propositions which explains the phenomenon of a SIMS. The researcher purposively selected the respondents (including key informants, administrators and student leaders) in this sector, who included people involved in the capture, storage, management and use of student information in various institutions in the given sector. Observably, the current state of the SIMS lacks a strategy to keep track of student information in Uganda. It was established that to ensure tracking of such data in the country, an identification system with standardised procedures in a coordinating structure is required together with a clear strategy for utilising the existing structures in the education sector. To design a strategy of this kind, a proposed framework for an integrated SIMS defined the principles, environment and contextual boundaries in terms of which the design is created. It defines the structure of a national student identification system and its coordination in the education sector in Uganda. Strategies for ensuring the sustainability of such a system and its implications for the socio-economic environment of higher education are considered. / Information Science / D. Lit. et Phil. (Information Science)