Published Article / Personalised funerals are defined as modernised, innovative, customised and specialised types of funerals. Personalised funerals are performed to reflect the individual's life and what he or she has accomplished (Broadbent 2002; Wolcott 1999). The aim of this study was to establish if there is a niche in South Africa for graphic material for personalised funerals. The importance of a personalised funeral is to comfort the attendees and avoid the funeral being too traumatic. One of the main questions that arose during this study is how well South Africans react to the idea of personalised funerals? Traditional funerals are gradually being improved by means of creating a more modernised and customised funeral. Funerals now include pictures, photographs and even slide shows of the deceased person (Jenga 2001). Informal receptions with bright colours and even a party after the services are becoming the preferred method (Edwards 2002). Orchids instead of roses, favourite songs instead of Bach, touching poems instead of traditional prayers (Wolcott 1999), slay coffins instead of a plain wooden coffin (Eybers 2007) all emphasise the need for personalised funerals. The aim of the first questionnaire was to establish if there is a niche in South Africa for graphic design material for personalised funerals and to assist with the various design implications that can be used in a funeral pamphlet. A second questionnaire was developed in order to include the opinion of a professional in the funeral industry, which could be beneficial in the design process. Through analysing these questionnaires, various design concepts were developed and applied to funeral pamphlets. The funeral industry already provides various services, for example catering, hiring of tents and vehicles. Why not graphic designers? The author of this study postulates that this could possibly develop a trend or need in South Africa, and expose more and more South Africans to personalised funerals.

People frequently have problems making multiple devices work together. In this thesis, I use the Research‐through‐Design approach to understand the issues and propose solutions. Through an iterative series of investigations, the problems people have with the connection of multiple devices has been examined, including usability issues, difficulties with the sequential connection procedure, and difficulties performing an action. I found non‐expert users to have difficulties with interpreting and evaluating the devices’ interaction status regarding the sequence of the connection procedure. When an evaluation problem occurs, they have problems dealing with the required sequence or diagnosing the error in their interactions. The problem understanding was examined from additional cases. The comprehension of the problems allowed me to generate design implications and propose a design solution. I proposed two implications with which to solve the stated problem. I suggested helping users evaluate device interaction and reduce unnecessary user interactions. A design framework was suggested as a solution by providing diagrammatic representations of system interaction and signals revealing device status. I then assessed the suggested solutions using paper prototypes, and demonstrated their effectiveness. The improved interfaces helped users evaluate device connection status so they may determine how to proceed with sequential interaction. With the Research‐through‐Design approach constructing knowledge by integrating theories and hypothesis, I found the feature of user‐multiple device interaction in which a user is required to manage the interaction between the devices. A single device cannot aid the user interaction. In the dissertation, I proposed a desirable state of user interaction, which is achieved by two devices revealing connection states together so that a user can earn a useful system image.

Our society is becoming more restless and mobile, a symbol for this mobility are the backpackers. Backpackers are found everywhere in the world and represent a form of low-cost independent travellers. To experience as much as possible, seems to be a very important issue for backpackers and they have that as a motivation during their travels. Backpackers have been described as ”experiences hungry”. The term experiences, is today being used a lot in the tourism industry. To be able to predict what an experience is, can be hard and the term is hard to define. Mobile technologies are also becoming a permanent part of the our society. Communication technology are something that backpackers use more and more during their travels. This thesis identifies knowledge and design implications for a mobile application to support backpacker´s need when travelling and how backpackers define the notion of travel experiences. The result of the thesis have calumniated in a mobile application prototype that coul contribute in letting backpackers get more out of there journey. This in an interactive and social way, by giving backpackers the opportunity to be social towards each-other share information through a social medium. As the thesis have shown that backpackers wants to meet others on there journey and experience the world.

The Covid-19 pandemic has caused problem in a particular sensitive area: pregnancy, a moment with a significant impact on women's life. Prior research in this area has examined how women experience and manage pregnancy. However, it is still unclear how the experience of pregnant women is affected by key challenges arising from COVID-19. This research acts as a prerequisite study which can serve as a base for future design research in HCI (Human Computer Interaction). This study used semi-structured interviews in order to collect data. Participants in this study were recruited from two countries, India and Sweden, using initial purposive sampling followed by snowball sampling method. A qualitative analysis was carried out on the data, which showed that the key challenges faced by pregnant women during COVID-19 were as follows: social life, emotion and online/remote support. The study revealed that participants felt isolated and were deprived of social contact during their pregnancy, and that the feeling of women's partners being separated from the mother and baby during doctor visits and their other pregnancy related activities impacted both partners negatively. Moreover, while pregnancy application were used to compansate for these needs, such applications were typically lacking in accuracy of information on the participants specific needs, and were thus not well-suited for used during the pandemic. Thus, HCI experts need to look at design solutions considering pregnant women needs during pandemic situations.

Videoinnehåll på internet är en populär källa för informationssökning och underhållning idag. YouTube är den största av de videoplattformar som finns tillgängliga och dess gratisversion finansieras genom reklam. Reklamen i sig innebär ett avbrott i tittarupplevelsen. Tidigare forskning har visat att sådan reklam är ett störande moment och kan orsaka irritation hos tittaren. Därtill väljer många idag att installera insticksprogram i sina webbläsare som blockerar reklamen och hindrar den från att visas. Eftersom att reklamen i dessa fall inte når mottagaren så fungerar inte reklamfinansieringen som tänkt. Denna studie syftar till att undersöka vad hos reklamen som uppfattas som störande och/eller irriterande av tittaren samt hur videoreklam kan utformas för undvika detta. För att besvara frågeställningarna genomfördes en experimentell studie där tio studenter deltog. Resultatet visade att de störande aspekterna relaterar till reklamens tid, dess placering i en video och tittarnas personliga intresse av reklamens innehåll. Slutligen föreslås följande designimplikationer för utformandet av videoreklam: i) reklamklipp bör vara kortare än 15 sekunder för att undvika att uppfattas som irriterande; och att längre reklamklipp bör kunna skippas av användaren; ii) placering av reklamklipp mitt i en vald YouTube-video bör undvikas; iii) reklamklipp bör passa till innehållet av den valda huvudvideon och borde, om möjligt, vara av personligt intresse för tittaren; iv) funktioner såsom att få se kvarvarande tid för ett reklamklipp bör kunna anpassas av tittaren själv, genom dennes användarkonto. / Videos have become a popular source for information gathering and entertainment. YouTube is the biggest video platform available and its free version is funded by ads. The advertisements create an interruption from the viewer experience and research has shown that the ads are disruptive and can cause irritation among the viewers. Many users choose to use plugins in their browsers which block ads to avoid the distraction. Since ad-blockers hinder the ad from reaching the viewer they also hinder the funding of the video platform. This study aims to research what parts of the ads that the user finds disruptive or irritating, and how ads should be designed in order to avoid being perceived as a source of irritation for Swedish viewers. A suggestion will be made on how to design the video ads so that they are as non-disruptive as possible for the user and therefore allowed to be a part of the viewing experience. To answer the questions at hand an experimental study was conducted with ten students. The results showed that the irritating aspects of ads are related to the running times, its placement in a video and the viewers own interest in the content of the ad. Finally, the following implications are suggested for the design of video ads: i) ads should be shorter than 15 seconds to avoid being perceived as irritating; users should be able to skip longer ads; ii) ads showing in the middle of the video should be avoided; iii) ad content should match the content of the video and, if possible, be relevant to the viewer and their interests; iv) features such as showing the time remaining of the ad should be made customisable by the user, through their user account.

<p>I rapporten undersöks problemställningen ”<strong>Hur kan teorin om Gemensam grund och specifikt ”gemensamt avslut” bidra till en ökad förståelse för betydelsen av social interaktion i flexibel undervisning via datorförmedlad kommunikation?” </strong>i en fallstudie med fokus på videokonferenssystem vilka används i lärandemiljöer. Resultaten som framkom tydliggjorde att då ett sociotekniskt glapp uppstår tvingas studenterna att skapa alternativa strategier för att kunna uppnå just det här gemensamma avslutet. Därmed uppvisar också resultaten att drivkraften att uppnå gemensamt avslut inte endast är stark vid kommunikation som sker ansikte mot ansikte utan även vid datorförmedlad kommunikation. Fallstudiens resultat kan därmed ses som ett bidrag till grundforskningen i det att betydelsen av att uppnå gemensamt avslut vid datorförmedlad kommunikation uppvisas, vilket också förstärker betydelsen av Clarks (1996) teori om gemensam grund. Vidare har resultaten från fallstudien också använts för tillämpad forskning då designkonsekvenser tagits fram vilka beskriver hur videokonferenssystem i lärandemiljöer bör utformas för att studenter lättare ska kunna uppnå gemensamt avslut via systemen. Med hjälp av dessa designkonsekvenser kan det sociotekniska glappet reduceras och därigenom skapa ett framgångsrikt lärande för studenter vilka studerar via flexibelt lärande.</p>

The declining cost of photovoltaic (PV) modules has enabled the vision of ubiquitous photovoltaic (PV) power to become feasible. Emerging PV technologies are facilitating the creation of intentionally non-flat PV modules, which create new applications for this sustainable energy generation currently not possible with the traditional rigid, flat silicon-glass modules. However, since the photovoltaic cells are no longer coplanar, there are significant new requirements for the power electronics necessary to convert the native form of electricity into a usable form and ensure maximum energy harvest. Non-uniform insolation from cell-to-cell gives rise to non-uniform current density in the PV material, which limits the ability to create series-connected cells without bypass diode or other ways to shunt current, which is well known in the maximum power tracking literature. This thesis presents a modeling approach to determine and quantify the variations in generation of energy due to intentionally non-flat PV geometries. This will enable the power electronics circuitry to be optimized to harvest maximum energy from PV pixel elements – clusters of PV cells with similar operating characteristics. This thesis systematically compares different geometries with identical two-dimensional projection "footprints" for energy harvest throughout the day. The results show that for the same footprint, a semi-cylindrical surface harvests more energy over a typical day than a flat plate. The modeling approach is then extended to demonstrate that by using non flat geometries for PV panel, the availability of a remotely located stand-alone power system can be increased when compared to a flat panel of same footprint. These results have broad application to a variety of energy scavenging scenarios in which either total energy harvested needs to be maximized or unusual geometries for the PV active surfaces are required, including building-integrated PV. This thesis develops the analysis of the potential energy harvest gain for advanced non-planar PV collectors as a necessary first step towards the design of the power electronics circuits and control algorithms to take advantage of the new opportunities of conformal and non-flat PV collectors.

I rapporten undersöks problemställningen ”Hur kan teorin om Gemensam grund och specifikt ”gemensamt avslut” bidra till en ökad förståelse för betydelsen av social interaktion i flexibel undervisning via datorförmedlad kommunikation?” i en fallstudie med fokus på videokonferenssystem vilka används i lärandemiljöer. Resultaten som framkom tydliggjorde att då ett sociotekniskt glapp uppstår tvingas studenterna att skapa alternativa strategier för att kunna uppnå just det här gemensamma avslutet. Därmed uppvisar också resultaten att drivkraften att uppnå gemensamt avslut inte endast är stark vid kommunikation som sker ansikte mot ansikte utan även vid datorförmedlad kommunikation. Fallstudiens resultat kan därmed ses som ett bidrag till grundforskningen i det att betydelsen av att uppnå gemensamt avslut vid datorförmedlad kommunikation uppvisas, vilket också förstärker betydelsen av Clarks (1996) teori om gemensam grund. Vidare har resultaten från fallstudien också använts för tillämpad forskning då designkonsekvenser tagits fram vilka beskriver hur videokonferenssystem i lärandemiljöer bör utformas för att studenter lättare ska kunna uppnå gemensamt avslut via systemen. Med hjälp av dessa designkonsekvenser kan det sociotekniska glappet reduceras och därigenom skapa ett framgångsrikt lärande för studenter vilka studerar via flexibelt lärande.

The rise of TikTok has revolutionised our interaction with music on social media, altering how we discover and share songs. Artists recognise TikTok's potential as a launchpad for their careers, while music streaming platforms have embraced user-generated content and introduced features for incorporating music into online sharing. Based on a user centred mixed-methods approach of content analysis and semi-structured interviews with established TikTok creators, this thesis investigates the motivations and mindsets behind sharing music-related content on the platform. Overall, 285 videos were analysed in the first research pillar and 16 user-interviews were conducted in the second pillar. The interviewed participants were all located in the US, under the age of 30 and required to have posted music-related content in the past 30 days. The data of both research pillars was analysed based on an inductive affinity mapping process. The study identified four distinct creator mindsets: reach-oriented, music-oriented, artist-oriented, and self-oriented mindsets. Each mindset represents a unique approach to music sharing, shaped by specific creator motivations and content themes. The study recommends features that enhance personalisation, facilitate music sharing and authentic self-expression, and offer customisation options for visual aesthetics. Additionally this research recommends exploring AI-generated sounds to create a framework for sharing music in a set context, following trending audio ideas on TikTok. The concept of personalisable sharing templates is explored, highlighting the different nuances to be considered when designing them for creators with different mindsets and offering customisation options to express themselves. By considering the unique motivations and characteristics of each mindset and content theme, these design implications aim to enrich the creator experience, foster engagement within the TikTok community and meaningful connections between creators and their audience. In conclusion, this thesis highlights the importance of considering distinct creator mindsets and content types when exploring motivations and user needs in music sharing on TikTok, providing a foundational guideline for platform designers and music industry professionals to tailor their strategies to meet the specific needs and preferences of creators. Future research should evaluate the discovered mindsets based on a quantitative approach and investigate the applicability of these mindsets to other areas of content creation, further extending our understanding of user needs and motivations across various domains when sharing content online. / TikToks frammarsch har revolutionerat vår interaktion med musik på sociala medier och förändrat hur vi upptäcker och delar låtar. Artister förstår TikToks potential som en möjlig språngbräda för deras karriärer, medan musikstreamingtjänster har välkomnat användargenererat innehåll och infört funktioner för att inkludera musik i online-delning. Baserat på en användarcentrerad mixad metod bestående av innehållsanalys och semistrukturerade intervjuer med etablerade TikTok-kreatörer, undersöker denna avhandling motivationen och tankesättet bakom att dela musikrelaterat innehåll på plattformen. 285 tiktok videor analyserades, följt av 16 användarintervjuer. Samtliga intervjuade var under 30 år, befann sig i USA, samt hade publicerat musikrelaterat innehåll under de senaste 30 dagarna. Data från båda delarna av arbetet analyserades baserat på en induktiv affinitetskartläggning. Studien identifierar fyra distinkta tankesätt hos kreatörer: räckvidds-orienterade, musikorienterade, artist-orienterade och själv-orienterade tankesätt. Varje tankesätt representerar en unik inställning till musikdelning, formad av specifika motivationskällor och innehållsteman. Studien rekommenderar funktioner som förbättrar personaliseringen, underlättar musikdelning och autentiskt självuttryck samt erbjuder anpassningsalternativ för visuell estetik. Dessutom rekommenderar denna forskning att utforska AI-genererade ljud för att skapa ett ramverk för att dela in musik i konkreta sammanhang, utefter ljudrelaterade idétrender på TikTok. Ett koncept med anpassningsbara mallar för delning undersöks och belyser de olika nyanser som bör beaktas vid utformandet av dem för kreatörer med olika tankesätt samt erbjuder anpassningsalternativ. Genom att ta hänsyn till de unika motivationskällorna, egenskaperna för varje tankesätt och innehållsteman ämnar dessa designförslag att berika kreatörs-upplevelsen, främja engagemang inom TikTok-communityn och etablera meningsfulla kontakter mellan kreatörer och deras publik. Sammanfattningsvis belyser den här avhandlingen vikten av att ta hänsyn till kreatörernas olika tankesätt och innehållstyper vid undersökning av motiv och användarbehov vid musikdelning på TikTok, vilket ger en grundläggande riktlinje för plattforms-designers och yrkesmän inom musikindustrin att skräddarsy sina strategier för att möta kreatörernas specifika behov och preferenser. Framtida forskning bör utvärdera de upptäckta tankesätten baserat på en kvantitativ metod och undersöka tillämpligheten av dessa tankesätt på andra områden för innehållsskapande, vilket ytterligare ökar vår förståelse för användarnas behov och motiv inom olika domäner när de delar innehåll online.