The Internet offers new ways of imaging and 'imagining' national belonging and cultural identities in contemporary Chinese societies such as Singapore. The Chinese society is also a key representative in Tu Wei-Ming's first symbolic universe - including China, Hong Kong and Taiwan - under a 'Cultural China' (Tu 1994). Various cultural discourses indicate that this nation-state is capable of managing culture to maintain national competitiveness within global capitalism (Wee 2000, Chua 1995). This 'local national cultural ism' is significantly manifested in Chinese media and entertainment websites from Singapore. Within the Asia Pacific region, the notion of an emerging 'pan-Chinese' cultural identity for commercial exchange and interaction with regional and global markers has been an appealing economic construct (Nyiri 1999). In Singapore the Chinese media and entertainment websites employ design strategies to attract foreign investors and cater for local 'heartlanders' with success. The Singapore media sire is carefully scrutinized, presented and aligned with its economic policies and agendas in presenting the country as a young and vibrant society. Although media and entertainment form a key aspect of popular culture in contemporary Singapore, the visual communication and content of the websites also provide an 'institutional memory' and design strategies which emphasize the distinctiveness of cultural identity. This is research interrogates the perception of 'Chinese' identity by Singaporean youth in a pilot study which analyses user responses to a prototype for interface design in web-based communication. In addition, a comparative analysis of three design components - colour, icon/symbol and visual metaphor ??? is examined with reference to the social construction of local, 'glocal' and cultural meanings in the media and entertainment websites-from Hong Kong, Shanghai and Singapore. The research concurs with current literature that cultural identity is mediated by design and communicative strategies to resonate with the target audience. Although the design strategies for representing a 'pan -Chinese' identity have yet to be explored, 'Cultural China' plays a major role in regional/global economic development.

Programvaror och gränssnitt är idag en naturlig del av vår vardag. Att ta fram användbara och framgångsrika gränssnitt är i företagens intresse då det kan leda till nöjdare och fler kunder. Problemformulering i den här rapporten bygger på användarundersökningar som genomförts på ett energipresenterade informationsgränssnitt som används av personer i fastighetsbranschen. Företaget som äger programvaran genomförde en enkätundersökning, i den indikerades att programvarans användbarhet behövde utvecklas och detta gavs i uppgift till projektgruppen att vidareutveckla. Vidareutvecklingen baseras på Delone och McLeans (2003) Information system success model samt begreppen informationsdesign, användbarhet och featuritis. Utifrån dessa skapades den teoretiska bakgrund som låg till grund för de kvalitativa intervjuerna och frågeformulär som togs fram. Den teoretiska bakgrunden låg dessutom till grund för de gränssnittsförslag som slutligen togs fram i projektet (Se figur 4). Resultatet av undersökningen visade att användare och supportpersonal hade förhållandevis olika upplevelser av Programvaran. Andra slutsatser som kunde dras om hur ett informationsgränssnitt ska designas för att fungera som stöd för användaren var följande. Det ska följa konventionella designmönster som ska vara konsekvent genom hela programvaran. De ska använda ett anpassat och tydligt språk och antingen vara så tydlig och intuitiv att alla verkligen kan förstå programvaran eller ha en bra och tydlig manual. / Software and interfaces are today a natural part of our everyday lives. Developing useful and successful interfaces is in business interest as it can lead to more satisfied customers. The problem in this report is based on user surveys conducted on an energy-presented information interface used by individuals in the real estate industry. The company that owns the software conducted a survey, indicating that the software usability needed to develop, and this was assigned to the project team to further develop. Further development is based on Delone and McLeans (2003) Information System Success Model as well as the terms information design, usability and featuritis. Based on these, the theoretical background used was the basis for the qualitative interviews and questionnaires that were presented. The theoretical background provided the basis for the interface proposals that were finally presented in the project (See Figure 6). The results of the survey showed that users and support staff had relatively different experiences of the software. The other conclusions that could be drawn about how an information interface should be designed to serve as support for the user were the following, it should follow conventional design patterns. The design should be consistent throughout the software, it should use an adapted and clear language, and either be so clear and intuitive that anyone can understand the software or offer a clear manual.

Cette thèse porte sur les spécificités du secteur public et leurs impacts sur les incitations et la performance. Elle mobilise les outils microéconomiques de la théorie des contrats et l’analyse économétrique. Parmi ces caractéristiques, une attention particulière est portée sur les problématiques de surveillance, de gestion de l’information et de contraintes budgétaires. Le premier chapitre de cette thèse contribue au débat sur la transparence dans le secteur public en considérant l’une de ses caractéristiques majeure : un budget limité. Cette question est étudiée comme un problème de design informationnel et utilise un modèle principal agent sous aléa moral pour montrer que la transparence a plus de chance d’être sélectionnée par le principal lorsque que le budget disponible et la valeur de la tache sont faibles. Le deuxième chapitre s’attache à offrir une nouvelle explication théorique à l’intuition associant un accroissement de la pression bureaucratique à une baisse de la qualité. Dans ce but, l’idée d’«extra-mile» est introduite dans un modèle principal agent classique sous aléa-moral. Le management bureaucratique est caractérisé par l’introduction d’une procédure définie comme l’association d’une codification et d’une vérification. Une telle procédure permet une vérification plus précise de l’action de l’agent mais est source d’inefficience sociale. Le dernier chapitre, dans une démarche théorique et empirique, propose une nouvelle explication de la différence des prix de l’eau en France en se fondant sur des arguments organisationnels. / This thesis focuses on the structural specificities of the public sector and how they impact incentives and performance. It uses the microeconomic tools of contract theory and econometric analysis. Among these characteristics, special attention is paid to monitoring, information management and budget constraints by applying a theoretical lens, that allows to provide new insights into the incentive systems in place in the public sector. The first chapter contributes to the debate on transparency in the public sector by considering one of its major features, i.e. a limited budget. This issue is studied as an information design problem and employ a principal-agent model with moral hazard to show that if the principal has to choose between total transparency and total opacity, then transparency is more likely to be optimal when tasks are least valuable and budgets are lowest. The second chapter aims at capturing a new theoretical explanation for the widespread intuition that more bureaucracy could lead to less effort and quality despite improved control. To that end, the idea of “the extra mile” is introduced in a classic principal-agent model with moral hazard. Bureaucratic management is characterized by the use of procedures, defined as the association of codification and verification. A procedure allows for more accurate verification of the agent’s action, but is socially inefficient. In the third chapter, using both theory and regression analysis, we propose a new explanation for price differences in the French water industry based on organizational arguments.

A presente dissertação é o resultado de uma pesquisa que avalia as vantagens da utilização de nuvens de texto para apresentar os resultados de um sistema de busca na web. Uma nuvem de texto é uma técnica de visualização de informações textuais e tem como principal objetivo proporcionar um resumo de um ou mais conteúdos em uma única tela. Em uma consulta na web, os resultados aparecem listados em diversas páginas. Através de uma nuvem de texto integrada a um sistema de busca é possível a visualização de uma síntese, de um resumo automático, do conteúdo dos resultados listados em várias páginas sem que elas tenham que ser percorridas e os sites acessados individualmente. A nuvem de texto nesse contexto funciona como uma ferramenta auxiliar para que o usuário possa gerenciar a grande carga de informação que é disponibilizada nos resultados das consultas. Dessa forma os resultados podem ser vistos em contexto e, ainda, as palavras que compõem a nuvem, podem ser utilizadas como palavras-chave adicionais para complementar uma consulta inicial. Essa pesquisa foi desenvolvida em duas fases. A primeira consistiu no desenvolvimento de uma aplicação integrada a um sistema de buscas para mostrar seus resultados em nuvens de texto. A segunda fase foi a avaliação dessa aplicação, focada principalmente em buscas exploratórias, que são aquelas em que os objetivos dos usuários não são bem definidos ou o conhecimento sobre o assunto pesquisado é vago. / This dissertation presents the results of a research that evaluates the advantages of text clouds to the visualization of web search results. A text cloud is a visualization technique for texts and textual data in general. Its main purpose is to enhance comprehension of a large body of text by summarizing it automatically and is generally applied for managing information overload. While continual improvements in search technology have made it possible to quickly find relevant information on the web, few search engines do anything to organize or to summarize the contents of such responses beyond ranking the items in a list. In exploratory searches, users may be forced to scroll through many pages to identify the information they seek and are generally not provided with any way to visualize the totality of the results returned. This research is divided in two parts. Part one describes the development of an application that generates text clouds for the summarization of search results from the standard result list provided by the Yahoo search engine. The second part describes the evaluation of this application. Adapted to this specific context, a text cloud is generated from the text of the first sites returned by the search engine according to its relevance algorithms. The benefit of this application is that it enables users to obtain a visual overview of the main results at once. From this overview the users can obtain keywords to navigate to potential relevant subjects that otherwise would be hidden deep down in the response list. Also, users can realize by visualizing the results in context that his initial query term was not the best choice.

This study is about the complexity that is present in wayfinding and wayshowing in a multilevel building where the floors are uniform and how this problem can be solved. Åva gymnasium is a municipal upper secondary school whose facilities span over multiple levels, many of which look the same. The uniformity of the building contributes to difficulty in navigating the building. It is this practical problem that is at the root of this study. The purpose of the study is to clarify the interior navigation at Åva gymnasium, thus facilitating for pupils and teachers in everyday life. In addition, the hope is that the work can provide a deeper understanding of how wayfinding theories can be applied in a complex multilevel building. The study connects several different aspects of wayfinding and wayshowing. By analysing theories of wayfinding and various aspects of this subject, such as signing, distinction and wayshowing the comprehension of what can be improved has been formed. An increased understanding of the space and the problem has been achieved through the following methods; observation, site analysis and notation analysis. The methods showed that there is a problem that is based on the fact that the floor plan in the building is uniform and little work has been done to change this The result of the study is visualized through a design proposal. With the help of clearer distinctions between the different levels of the building and simple but efficient signage, the environment may become more structured and easily understood. / Denna studie handlar om komplexiteten som finns i vägvisning och orienterbarhet i en likformig flervåningsbyggnad och hur detta problem kan åtgärdas. Åva gymnasium är en kommunal gymnasieskola vars lokaler är förlagd över flera våningsplan, flertalet av dem är likformiga. De likartade våningsplanen bidrar till att det är svårt att orientera sig i byggnaden. Det är detta praktiska problem som ligger till grund för studien. Syftet med studien är att förtydliga navigationen på Åva gymnasium och därmed underlätta för elever och lärare i vardagen. Utöver detta är förhoppningen att arbetet kan ge en djupare förståelse för hur wayfindingteorier kan tillämpas i en komplex flervångsbyggnad. I studien kopplas flera olika aspekter av vägvisning och orienterbarhet samman. Genom att undersöka teorier om wayfinding och olika aspekter inom detta ämne, så som skyltning, särskiljning och wayshowing har en bild av vad som går att förbättra bildats. En ökad förståelse för platsen och problematiken har getts genom metoderna observation, platsanalys och notationsanalys. Metoderna visade på att det är en problematik som grundar sig i att våningsplanen i byggnaden ser likadana ut och lite arbete har gjorts för att förändra detta. Resultatet av studien visualiseras genom ett designförslag där vägvisningen har förtydligats för att understödja orienterbarheten i miljön. Med hjälp av särskiljning av våningsplanen och enkel men effektiv skyltning blir miljön mer strukturerad och lättförstådd.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T15:24:28Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 WilliamCR_DISSERT.pdf: 4883592 bytes, checksum: 04d9390c77e3944f5982c4f2de3366cd (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-10-29 / Among the numerous policy changes that the world has experienced in recent years, occupies a prominent place in the quest for greater transparency of public agencies. Transparency has been an important tool in the accountability of the State to promote greater participation of the society by providing information that was previously restricted knowledge of public agencies. Brazil, following this trend, promulgated in May 2012 the Access to Information Act that seeks to disclose the actions of the State at all levels, in all public administration agencies. On the same day of the enactment of the law is provided society with a site that is empowering citizens to make their requests for information to government agencies. The Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, which at that time had no a tool to assist them in managing this demand. This project has the objective to describe, build and implement a solution to solve this problem using Design Science Research as methodology. As result, the solution built in this research became a new module of the institution s ERP became it capable to control the entire process, and will be helpful to others partners which use our system ERP / Entre as in?meras mudan?as pol?ticas as quais o mundo tem passado nos ?ltimos anos, ocupa um lugar de destaque a busca pela maior transpar?ncia dos ?rg?os p?blicos. Esta tem se mostrado uma ferramenta importante no accountability do Estado por promover uma maior participa??o da sociedade atrav?s da disponibiliza??o da informa??o que antes era de conhecimento restrito aos ?rg?os p?blicos. Acompanhando essa tend?ncia, o Brasil promulga, em maio de 2012, a Lei de Acesso a Informa??o (LAI) que busca dar publicidade das a??es do Estado em todos os n?veis e ?rg?os da administra??o p?blica. No mesmo dia da promulga??o dessa lei, ? disponibilizado ? sociedade o portal de Servi?o de Informa??o ao Cidad?o (e-SIC), cujo objetivo ? prover um meio do cidad?o fazer seus pedidos de informa??o a qualquer institui??o do setor p?blico. A Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN) at? o momento n?o possu?a uma ferramenta capaz de auxili?-la no gerenciamento dessa demanda. Esta pesquisa tem por objetivo descrever, construir e implantar uma solu??o informatizada que resolveu esse problema do gerenciamento dos pedidos de informa??o endere?ados ? UFRN a partir do Servi?o de Informa??es ao Cidad?o. A metodologia escolhida para o desenvolvimento da pesquisa ? a Design Science Research (DSR), pois leva em considera??o a cria??o de artefatos e regras para a cria??o de modelos e m?todos. Como resultado, o Sistema de Acesso ? Informa??o para Transpar?ncia (SAIT), desenvolvido nesta pesquisa, tornou-se um m?dulo do sistema administrativo preexistente na institui??o, o qual poder? ser de grande valia tanto internamente quanto para outras institui??es p?blicas que adotam os nossos sistemas informatizados

A presente dissertação é o resultado de uma pesquisa que avalia as vantagens da utilização de nuvens de texto para apresentar os resultados de um sistema de busca na web. Uma nuvem de texto é uma técnica de visualização de informações textuais e tem como principal objetivo proporcionar um resumo de um ou mais conteúdos em uma única tela. Em uma consulta na web, os resultados aparecem listados em diversas páginas. Através de uma nuvem de texto integrada a um sistema de busca é possível a visualização de uma síntese, de um resumo automático, do conteúdo dos resultados listados em várias páginas sem que elas tenham que ser percorridas e os sites acessados individualmente. A nuvem de texto nesse contexto funciona como uma ferramenta auxiliar para que o usuário possa gerenciar a grande carga de informação que é disponibilizada nos resultados das consultas. Dessa forma os resultados podem ser vistos em contexto e, ainda, as palavras que compõem a nuvem, podem ser utilizadas como palavras-chave adicionais para complementar uma consulta inicial. Essa pesquisa foi desenvolvida em duas fases. A primeira consistiu no desenvolvimento de uma aplicação integrada a um sistema de buscas para mostrar seus resultados em nuvens de texto. A segunda fase foi a avaliação dessa aplicação, focada principalmente em buscas exploratórias, que são aquelas em que os objetivos dos usuários não são bem definidos ou o conhecimento sobre o assunto pesquisado é vago. / This dissertation presents the results of a research that evaluates the advantages of text clouds to the visualization of web search results. A text cloud is a visualization technique for texts and textual data in general. Its main purpose is to enhance comprehension of a large body of text by summarizing it automatically and is generally applied for managing information overload. While continual improvements in search technology have made it possible to quickly find relevant information on the web, few search engines do anything to organize or to summarize the contents of such responses beyond ranking the items in a list. In exploratory searches, users may be forced to scroll through many pages to identify the information they seek and are generally not provided with any way to visualize the totality of the results returned. This research is divided in two parts. Part one describes the development of an application that generates text clouds for the summarization of search results from the standard result list provided by the Yahoo search engine. The second part describes the evaluation of this application. Adapted to this specific context, a text cloud is generated from the text of the first sites returned by the search engine according to its relevance algorithms. The benefit of this application is that it enables users to obtain a visual overview of the main results at once. From this overview the users can obtain keywords to navigate to potential relevant subjects that otherwise would be hidden deep down in the response list. Also, users can realize by visualizing the results in context that his initial query term was not the best choice.

Studies show that young adults do not see public sector as an attractive employer. There is an incorrect view that needs to be treated with correct information. Ovanåkers municipality has therefore requested an information material that highlights them as employers. Public sector need to comply with laws and directives in their external communication. But how can these rules coincide with visual and verbal rhetoric, in order to maintain both the tune of the authority and yet influence the target audience? Previous research shows that visual and verbal rhetorical figures and tropes can affect the receiver so they look at the sender and the message more positively. However, there is no previous research on which rhetorical figures or tropes that works best in text and image, or how rhetorical figures and tropes can interact with language in public sector. This study has through comparative analysis and testing on the target audience come to the assumption that there are 11 rhetorical figures and tropes that work better than others with language in public sector with an informative purpose, and that there are six figures and tropes that should be able to interact to some extent with language in public sector, for example in images. Of these figures and tropes, this study indicates that public sector could use rhyme in heading, epanaleps in the introduction, antithesis in body text and hyperbola in image if they want their target audience to positively be affected by the information. The visual rhetoric should subsequently complement or say the same as the verbal rhetoric in order for them to work together. / Studier visar att unga vuxna inte ser på offentlig sektor som en attraktiv arbetsgivare. Det finns en felaktig syn som behöver bemötas med korrekt information. Ovanåkers kommun har därför bett om ett informationsmaterial som framhäver dem som arbetsgivare. Offentlig sektor behöver förhålla sig till lagar och direktiv i deras externa kommunikation. Men hur kan dessa regler samverka med visuell och verbal retorik i syfte att behålla både myndighetstonen men ändå påverka målgruppen? Tidigare forskning visar att visuella och verbala retoriska stilfigurer kan påverka mottagaren så att de ser på avsändaren och meddelandet mer positivt. Det finns dock ingen tidigare forskning på vilka retoriska stilfigurer som fungerar bäst i text och bild, eller hur retoriska stilfigurer kan interagera med myndighetsspråk. Denna studie har genom komparativ analys och utprovning på målgruppen kommit fram till antagandet att det finns 11 retoriska stilfigurer som fördelaktigt borde kunna samverka med myndighetsspråk i informativ text, samt att det finns sex stilfigurer som till viss del borde kunna samverka med myndighetsspråk, exempelvis i bilder. Av dessa stilfigurer indikerar studien att offentlig sektor kan använda rim i rubrik, epanaleps i ingress, antites i brödtext och hyperbol i bild – om de vill att målgruppen positivt ska påverkas av meddelandet. Den visuella retoriken borde sedan komplettera eller säga samma sak som den verbala retoriken för att de ska kunna fungera tillsammans.

Litet rum stor funktion är ett examensarbete i Informationsdesign med inriktningen Rumslig gestaltning. I studien undersöks hur ett multifunktionellt förskolerum kan utformas för att bjuda in till och stödja dess funktioner samt underlätta skiftet mellan de olika aktiviteterna. Syftet med utformningen är att skapa en tydlig och inbjudande miljö för förskolebarnen att vistas i samt att underlätta pedagogernas arbete. Designarbetet utgår från ett rum på avdelningen Vatten på Krongatans förskola i Eskilstuna. I dagsläget uppfyller inte rummets utformning användarnas behov och det är inte anpassat för de funktioner som ska finnas där. Kvalitativa intervjuer och en analys av rummet har genomförts för att identifiera behoven som ligger till grund för arbetet. Studien har även baserats på teorier och tidigare forskning om de rumsliga designelementen färg, ljus, form och material samt teorier om affordance, gestaltlagar och designprinciper. Utifrån detta har ett gestaltningsförslag för det multifunktionella förskolerummet tagits fram. Förslaget består bland annat av flexibla lösningar och designelement som valts utifrån teorier i syfte att gestaltningen ska uppfylla användarnas behov samt skapa förutsättningar för att lösa det praktiska informationsdesignproblemet. / This thesis is a study on how to design a multifunctional preschool room in order to make it inviting to its users and to support its functions as well as facilitate the shift between the various activities. The purpose of the design work is to create a legible and inviting environment for preschool children to stay in and to facilitate the teachers' work. This study is based on a specific room at Krongatan preschool in Eskilstuna, Sweden. The current design of the room is not supporting the users’ needs and it is not adjusted to the several activities that are supposed to be performed there. The study is based on qualitative interviews and an analysis of the room to identify the users’ needs. It is also based on theories and previous research about the spatial design elements colour, light, form and material, as well as theories of affordances and design principles. Based on these theories and methods, a design proposal for the multifunctional preschool room has been developed. The proposed design consists of a number of flexible solutions and design elements that are selected from theory in order to accomplish an environment that meet the users’ needs and creates conditions to solve the practical problems.

Graphic figures and various types of infographics have become an essential part of the scientific papers, business presentations and study materials. Although, authors of these documents often lack the knowledge of basic rules and principles of graphic design and learn how to create figures by trial and error. Literature addressing the issues of effective verbal (presentation skills) and non-verbal (principles of scientific writing) is available and accessible. Though literature addressing the issues of scientific figure design and general visual design are very few, sometimes non existent, despite the fact that images, figures and various charts are one of the most effective mediums for information sharing. This lack of material knowledge is detrimental to the quality of works of managers, professors and researchers. This thesis attempts to fill in this gap and motivate readers to further development and research of the issue. The thesis addresses the issue of figures from its core, those being the basic principles of image perception and interpretation. Building on concepts of theorists like Peirce, Saussure and Eco the thesis will then define the meaning and purpose of "Image Interpretation Value". Selected principles of figure construction and interpretation will be introduced. These principles will then be further analyzed and applied on the level of business and scientific figures. Each chapter will include various graphic figures and practical examples to enhance further understanding of the issue. The primary purpose and goal of this thesis is to create an easy-to-follow set of instructions and suggestions on how to design effective and intelligible figures to be used in the fields of business communication, scientific research and academic teaching.