Thesis (DTech. degree in Business Informatics)--Tshwane University of Technology, 2009. / South Africa’s post-apartheid Black farmers commonly referred to nowadays as “emerging farmers” need knowledge support to be successful in agricultural productions. Web-based learning enables knowledge users and knowledge providers to actively engage interactively, and provides a dynamic platform of knowledge support with unparallel flexibility and convenience. However, this technology is yet to be adequately harnessed to the benefit of South Africa Black emerging farmers, whourgently requires knowledge support that could enable their transformation into market oriented farming. In this study we present a model to solve this problem. Qualitative grounded theory approach was utilized as the research methodology. Theresearch revealed that weakly on-demand knowledge support, lack of requisite formal agricultural education, management skill and knowledge for market oriented farming will remain a major setback to the transformation of Black emerging farmers. The researcher proposed an agricultural knowledge support portal-model. In order to cover the entire spectrum of agricultural knowledge support process of the emerging farmers, this study has modelled a number of fundamental components such as synchronous and asynchronous knowledge support systems, Interactive services for personalised knowledge support; Virtual laboratory for researchers and expert viii networking; knowledge bureau for problems presentation and linkage with expert through expert directory; knowledge repository for resource re-use and knowledge sharing; and e-learning for formal agricultural education of farmers and their family. The benefit of this research and knowledge support model will enables large groups of dispersed knowledge providers to directly support individuals, thereby creating a link between agricultural knowledge systems, educational institution and other research organization to pool resources and provide a coherent platform for action. In addition, it will provide a platform of interaction, collaboration and enhance access to knowledge based on requirement on the web. Emerging farmers will no longer seek solutions, rather personalized solutions comes to the farmers. Knowledge support portal holds a promise to enhance agricultural knowledge acquisition and utilization, for the transformation of Black emerging farmers into market oriented or commercial farming.

The urban planning process in Sweden encompasses all design and development of the physical environment in society. It involves a large number of actors and a large amount of data. To be as effective as possible the exchange of data between actors needs to become easier and more effective. This thesis explores how a digital platform for urban planning can be designed to facilitate the exploration of and access to information within urban planning. The method followed an iterative design process based on the UX lifecycle by Hartson and Pyla. Interviews were conducted with potential users to learn about their wants and needs, and research was done on the urban planning process to gather the theory on the subject matter domain. The result of the thesis is a UX prototype of a digital urban planning platform. The prototype was designed in Figma and tested on potential users in a design walkthrough and a usability test together with an interview. The results also show what type of functionality is important for users in this type of platform.

Introduktion: Behovet av och följsamheten till kunskapsstöd i vården är en aktuell fråga. Läkare som arbetar diagnostiskt och behandlande har tillgång till utförliga nätbaserade kunskapsstöd som läkemedelsboken, internetmedicin och FASS.  Det produceras mer och mer forskning inom ämnet fysioterapi. Fysioterapeuter väntas arbeta utefter aktuell evidens, trots att de sällan har särskilt avsedd arbetstid för fortbildning. Skulle ett nätbaserat kunskapsstöd kunna hjälpa fysioterapeuter både att arbeta mer evidensbaserat samt att lättare hitta information som är relevant för deras arbete? Syfte: syftet med studien var att undersöka vilka kunskapsstöd fysioterapeuter använder idag och hur dessa upplevs fungera samt undersöka hur fysioterapeuter ställer sig till ett framtida samlat nätbaserat kunskapsstöd. Metod: en enkät (bilaga 2) utformades. Inklusionskriterier: kliniskt arbetande fysioterapeut på vårdcentral i Sverige. Exklusionkriterier: ej läs och skrivkunnig i svenska. 32 fysioterapeuter deltog i studien och 27 fullföljde enkäten.  Resultat: Fysioterapeuter använder sig till övervägande del av stöd från kollegor, internet, dokument från utbildning / kurser och böcker för både diagnosticering och behandling. Evidensnivån upplevs inte som hög. Tillgängligheten för diagnostiska stöd upplevs något lägre än för behandlingsstöd. Fysioterapeuter anser att ett utförligt nätbaserat kunskapsstöd skulle vara till hjälp i deras kliniska arbete, och de mest eftertraktade sökfunktionerna är en anatomisk atlas och en avancerad sökfunktion.  Konklusion: Fysioterapeuter är positiva till att ett nätbaserat kunskapsstöd skulle vara dem till hjälp i deras kliniska arbete. Mer forskning skulle behövas om hur ett nätbaserat kunskapsstöd bäst bör utformas för god implementation i fysioterapeuters kliniska arbete. Nyckelord: beslutsstöd, evidensbaserad kunskap, fysioterapi, kunskapshantering / Introduction: The need of and compliance to knowledge support systems in healthcare is a current matter. Doctors who provide both diagnostics and treatment have access to extensive net-based knowledge support systems such as läkemedelsboken, internetmedicin and FASS. More and more research is produced in the field of physiotherapy. Physiotherapists are expected to practice evidence based medicine, although they rarely have time at work set aside for further training. Would a net-based knowledge support system help physiotherapists to practice evidence based medicine as well as facilitate the search of information relevant to their work? Objectives: the purpose of this study was to investigate which knowledge support systems physiotherapists use today as well as how accessible they are perceived to be. And to analyze physiotherapists attitudes to a future cohesive net-based knowledge support system. Methods: a survey (attachment 2) was designed. Inclusion criteria: clinically working physiotherapists at care centres in Sweden. Exklusion criteria: lacking reading and writing skills in swedish. 32 physioherapists participated in the study and 27 completed the survey. Results: Physiotherapists rely mainly on knowledge support from colleagues, the internet, documents from their education / additional courses as well as books for both diagnostics and for treatment. The level of evidence is not perceived as high. The accessibility to knowledge support systems for diagnostics is rated somewhat worse than the accessibility to knowledge support systems for treatment. Physiotherapists believe that a wide-ranging net-based knowledge support system would be of benefit to their clinical work, and the most desirable search functions are an anatomical atlas as well as an advanced search function. Conklusion: Physiotherapists believe that a net-based knowledge support system would be helpful to their clinical practice. More research would be needed to determine how a net-based knowledge support system should be designed for good implementation in physiotherapists clinical practice.