As the area of nucleic acid based technologies develops, so will our understanding of how structural variations in DNA and RNA pathogens are associated with disease. The overall goal of this thesis is the development of broadly targeted measurement techniques for variable viral RNA by Real-Time PCR (here referred to as quantitative reverse transcriptase PCR, QRT-PCR). In papers I & II, broadly targeted and specific QRT-PCRs were used to study expression of endogenous and exogenous betaretrovirus sequences in human tissues. Results from human tissues demonstrated endogenous betaretrovirus expression in a tissue-specific manner, highest in reproductive tissues. Despite the high sensitivity, no exogenous betaretrovirus was found in human breast cancer samples. The limits of primer and probe degeneracy for detection of a diverse set of retroviral sequences was evaluated. These methods are useful for further investigations on the pathophysiological contribution(s) of endogenous betaretrovirus and to investigate whether an exogenous betaretrovirus is involved in human breast cancer. In papers III & IV, we developed and applied broadly targeted one-step QRT-PCRs for influenza viruses and coronaviruses. In addition to the generic primers, two novel probe design strategies were used in order to be able to broadly amplify these diverse sets of viruses: A triplex system for simultaneous detection and quantification of influenza A, B and C (3QRT-PCR and further developed 3QRT-PCR-MegB; where MegB stands for MegaBeacon) based on TaqMan® and MegB probes, and a pan-CoV QRT-PCR, based on three TaqMan® probes i.e., degeneracy was distributed on three probes. Probe fault tolerance was thus increased in two ways, either with short probes with/without locked nucleic acid (LNA) nucleotides concentrated to conserved stretches, or with long probes (MegB), compensating mismatching positions with many matching ones. Clinical samples, negative by antigen detection with immunofluorescence (IFA), were influenza A positive with 3QPCR-MegB. Avian pooled samples, negative with an earlier pan-CoV QPCR, came out positive with the triple-probe system. Assay evaluation with clinical samples and reference strains revealed good clinical diagnostic potential. Thus, the thesis describes several strategies to counteract sequence variation of RNA viruses and describes a set of broadly targeted QRT-PCRs useful for scientific screening or diagnostics of betaretroviruses and respiratory viruses.

Smart Clothing, the convergent future of the electronics and clothing industries, struggles to reach its true potential and enter the mass market because of 1) imbalanced contributions from the electronics and clothing sectors, 2) the lack of an integrated approach to optimise the input from the different areas, and 3) the unclear direction of the products. There is a need for an NPD process that balances all contributions and addresses new values based on user requirements. Moreover, a strategic approach, that challenges the development teams to go beyond their existing creative boundary and reconciles their differences, is required. According to the research, Smart Clothes should take the design approach of functional clothing and focus on the area of sportswear, personal healthcare and physical monitoring, as they fit the users’ lifestyle and requirements. Since social acceptance is an important factor, Smart Clothes must also have a good design and whilst, at the same time, perform all the basic functions that ordinary garments do. They should allow the user to personalise the styles and functions according to the benefits, with respect to product lifecycle and disassembly. A conceptual model of the NPD process was developed and tested with experts in this field. The proposed model provides the basis for a computer software to plan and manage product development teams and activities at the front-end of the NPD process. It offers several advantages: 1. Combining the NPD models and those of collaborative development 2. Providing a holistic view of Smart Clothing development 3. Clarifying of the roles of all participants within the collaborative development teams 4. Describing the responsibilities and expected contributions of all participants 5. Explaining working relationships and overlapping roles and responsibilities 6. Offering the directions for the creative boundary extension

Syfte: Företag har svårt att positionera sig på webben då de misslyckas att utveckla sina webbsidor för att stödja dess varumärkesstrategi. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur ett företag kan tillämpa designstrategi ur ett användarcentrerat designperspektiv för att stödja företagets övergripande varumärkesstrategi på webben. Kunskapslucka: Denna studie har identifierat en kunskapslucka vad gäller hur företag fastställer och verkställer designstrategi för att stödja övergripande varumärkesstrategi på webben. Metod: Studien avser att undersöka tillämpning av designstrategi genom att ta fram ett designförslag som baserats på en användarcentrerad designprocess. För att göra detta har intervjuer med experter samt expertutvärdering av webbsidor utförts för att kartlägga en billeverantörs återförsäljares domän, baserat på motsvarande strategi för köpresa som är avsedd för att leda besökaren till billeverantörens produkt- och tjänsteutbud som representeras av återförsäljare och dess webbsidor. Denna datainsamling ligger till grund för persona och kontextscenarion som översätts till identifierade krav som motsvarar produktens designstrategi. Designstrategin ligger sedan till grund för det skapande momentet i den användarcentrerade designprocessen, där iterativ design leder till förädlande av framtagna ramverksskisser till interaktiv prototyp. Resultat och slutsats: Resultatet av studien som var en framtagen interaktiv prototyp visar att användarcentrerad design som tillämpar designstrategi, genom att fastställa företagets och användarens mål och behov samt innehålls- och funktionalitetskrav, är ett alternativ som tillåter strukturerad förädling av en webbsida till den punkt att webbsidan uppfyller sin designstrategi. Resultatet visar också att beroende på hur grundlig en kartläggning är och hur välformulerad designstrategin är påverkar hur väl framtagen webbsida, vare sig det är en prototyp eller slutprodukt, uppfyller sitt syfte. / Purpose: Corporations experience difficulties positioning themselves on the web as a result of not developing their websites in a way that is inline with their overall business strategy. The purpose of this study is to explore how corporations should apply design strategy, based on a user-centered design perspective, to support their overall business strategy on the web. Originality/value: This study has identified a knowledge gap in terms of how corporations define and apply design strategy in order to support their overall business strategy on the web. Methodology: This study aims to research the application of design strategy by creating a prototype through the use of a user-centered design process. This was done by interviewing experts as well as evaluating websites, in order to explore the domain of a car manufacturers retailers, which was based on the corresponding strategy of leading the visitor to the car manufacturers offerings that are represented by the retailers and their websites. This data collection was the foundation in the creation of a persona and context scenarios that was translated into identified needs that represented the products design strategy. The design strategy in turn was the foundation for the creating phase of the user-centered design process, where iterative design lead to refining framework sketches and an interactive prototype. Findings and conclusion: The study which resulted in an interactive prototype shows that user-centered design, which applies design strategy by defining the corporations and the users goals and needs, is an alternative that allows for structured refinement to the point that the website fulfills its design strategy. The results also show that depending on how well the domain exploration is executed as well as how well the design strategy is defined will affect the resulting website and to what extent it fulfills its purpose, whether it’s is still a prototype or if it’s the end result.

abstract: Industrial design is the practice of creating solutions by studying people and businesses. Originally centered on development of goods, industrial design uses methods rooted in human behavioral study, human factors, and strategic problem solving. As our economy and professional practice shift away from manufacturing towards a service-dominant landscape, industrial design must align its profession to formally include service design. The small service business setting is a microcosm in which the value of design and branding in business is magnified. This research reinforces design's ties with services marketing and business and is dedicated to finding solutions for the backbone of our economy. Micro-businesses with fewer than 20 employees often lack the sophisticated management, marketing, and strategies that bring about success. Despite the fact that 70% to 80% of small and micro businesses are service based, little research is dedicated to unique strategies for these small service firms. Research has shown that using strategic business design increases small business success. Given high small business failure rates, it behooves entrepreneurs to use intuitive planning tools that are appropriate for the dynamic startup years. When put within reach and context of small business owners, the tools used in design draw a clear map of insights into the "design" of small businesses. Through a literature review, interviews, and a new workshop method, the needs of small business owners and the challenges they face are used to design and implement an accessible, actionable strategic toolkit for small service businesses. This simple, interdisciplinary toolkit was designed with the goal of increasing the efficacy and likelihood of ongoing strategic business planning through context-specific, instrumental activities. The tools are shown to help a business owner form pragmatic, iterative problem-solving approaches that allow the business owner to plan in the face of uncertainty and find insights into her own business, brand, and services. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.S.D. Design 2012

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It can be shown that exceeding both utilitarian and hedonic needs of consumers leads towards greater satisfaction, delight and enduring consumer loyalty. If designers are to meet the progressively diverse needs of consumers, then access to consumer values, aspirations and the underlying logic of their social practice become increasingly important. If we accept that what people say, do and think are often different things, gaining access to these requirements is clearly a challenge. The challenge is not only concerned with how these requirements are accessed at source, through widely adopted ethnographically inspired techniques, but more towards how these requirements are communicated to the designer. There is a clear disconnect between the collection of consumer requirements and how these requirements are arranged and communicated as implications for design. This thesis details a governance framework for the output of ethnographically inspired research methods to provide an understanding of the arrangement and attributes a communication tool for ethnographic work should possess, particularly towards the more technical area of new product development. The framework bridges a gap between consumer research and design action, which may be used as an approach to facilitate innovation, targeted problem solving and offer creative direction for new product development. Following an exploratory review of the literature and a series of way-finding interviews with domestic appliance and consumer goods manufacturers, a pilot study was conducted to identify the philosophical and practical barriers faced by designers, when designing for consumer requirements beyond the functional. A detailed second level literature review explored the emergent themes and led towards a desktop review of over 30 different creative thinking design tools from the design & emotion movement, 24 different communication approaches for ethnographic work in design and a two year case study on communication within the design process.

Com a expansão dos serviços digitais por meio de tecnologias móveis na última década observa-se a importância crescente da atitude de design para compreender o contexto de uso e as emergentes necessidades funcionais e emocionais dos usuários nas quais se baseia a percepção de uma boa experiência do usuário (UX). Levando em conta que a estratégia de negócio e a estrutura organizacional são determinantes para o resultado da experiência percebida pelo usuário e o consequente sucesso do serviço, esta pesquisa teve como objetivo principal investigar as práticas de design nas dimensões operacional, tática e estratégica em diferentes empresas prestadoras de serviços digitais tendo em vista a identificação de padrões relacionados com a adoção da gestão de design e da estratégia de design, e qual o impacto desta adoção nas medidas de desempenho. Para isto, foi adotada como estratégia de pesquisa o levantamento teórico preliminar seguido da realização de estudos de casos múltiplos. Neste estudo de caso, foram investigadas empresas com designers e UX designers trabalhando no desenvolvimento de serviços digitais. As evidências compiladas a partir da teoria, combinadas com os padrões obtidos com os casos, resultaram em um modelo de referência sobre a geração de valor através do design, e em quatro proposições teóricas principais que mostram que as práticas de design executadas pelas áreas de experiência do usuário possuem um potencial de integração interdisciplinar e geração de novas ideias propício para melhorar a sinergia e o resultado de uma equipe ágil de projetos, gerando insumo para decisões estratégicas e potencialmente valorizando a determinação de métricas de uso e engajamento. / With the expansion of digital services through mobile technologies viewed on the last decade, it can be observed the growing importance of the design attitude to understand the context of use and the emerging functional and emotional needs of the users on which the perception of a good user experience (UX) is based on. Taking into account that the business strategy and the organizational structure are determinant to the result of the experience perceived by the user and the consequent success of the service, this research had as main objective to investigate the practices of design in the operational, tactical and strategic dimensions on different digital service companies in order to identify the standards related to the adoption of design management and design strategy, and the impact of this adoption on performance measures. Following this purpose, the preliminary theoretical survey followed by multiple case studies was adopted as a research strategy. In this case study, we investigated companies with designers and UX designers working on the development of digital services. Evidence compiled from the theory combined with the patterns obtained with the cases resulted in a reference model on value generation through design, and in four main theoretical propositions that shows that design practices performed by the user experience departments have the potential for interdisciplinary integration and generation of new ideas conducive to improving the synergy and the result of an agile project team, generating input for strategic decisions and potentially valuing the determination of metrics to follow use and engagement.

Com a expansão dos serviços digitais por meio de tecnologias móveis na última década observa-se a importância crescente da atitude de design para compreender o contexto de uso e as emergentes necessidades funcionais e emocionais dos usuários nas quais se baseia a percepção de uma boa experiência do usuário (UX). Levando em conta que a estratégia de negócio e a estrutura organizacional são determinantes para o resultado da experiência percebida pelo usuário e o consequente sucesso do serviço, esta pesquisa teve como objetivo principal investigar as práticas de design nas dimensões operacional, tática e estratégica em diferentes empresas prestadoras de serviços digitais tendo em vista a identificação de padrões relacionados com a adoção da gestão de design e da estratégia de design, e qual o impacto desta adoção nas medidas de desempenho. Para isto, foi adotada como estratégia de pesquisa o levantamento teórico preliminar seguido da realização de estudos de casos múltiplos. Neste estudo de caso, foram investigadas empresas com designers e UX designers trabalhando no desenvolvimento de serviços digitais. As evidências compiladas a partir da teoria, combinadas com os padrões obtidos com os casos, resultaram em um modelo de referência sobre a geração de valor através do design, e em quatro proposições teóricas principais que mostram que as práticas de design executadas pelas áreas de experiência do usuário possuem um potencial de integração interdisciplinar e geração de novas ideias propício para melhorar a sinergia e o resultado de uma equipe ágil de projetos, gerando insumo para decisões estratégicas e potencialmente valorizando a determinação de métricas de uso e engajamento. / With the expansion of digital services through mobile technologies viewed on the last decade, it can be observed the growing importance of the design attitude to understand the context of use and the emerging functional and emotional needs of the users on which the perception of a good user experience (UX) is based on. Taking into account that the business strategy and the organizational structure are determinant to the result of the experience perceived by the user and the consequent success of the service, this research had as main objective to investigate the practices of design in the operational, tactical and strategic dimensions on different digital service companies in order to identify the standards related to the adoption of design management and design strategy, and the impact of this adoption on performance measures. Following this purpose, the preliminary theoretical survey followed by multiple case studies was adopted as a research strategy. In this case study, we investigated companies with designers and UX designers working on the development of digital services. Evidence compiled from the theory combined with the patterns obtained with the cases resulted in a reference model on value generation through design, and in four main theoretical propositions that shows that design practices performed by the user experience departments have the potential for interdisciplinary integration and generation of new ideas conducive to improving the synergy and the result of an agile project team, generating input for strategic decisions and potentially valuing the determination of metrics to follow use and engagement.