Purpose The purpose of this thesis is to develop a theoretical framework for sustainable product design, targeting aesthetic design elements, as part of product development by applying the Ted’s 10 methodology for textile environment and the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Design/Methodology/approach The thesis follows a deductive and inductive multi – method approach. A systematic literature review gives insights into existing literature on product design; the interviews with two experts evaluate the theoretical framework based on the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the implications and applicability of findings in practice. Findings It is found that, in comparison to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, the aesthetic design elements in product design from literature have no clear guidelines to restrict environmentally unsustainable practices/ decisions, apart from EU regulations. The theoretical framework, which is built on these gaps by applying the Ted’s 10 design methodology, shows suggestions concerning the aesthetic design elements, which have the possibility to reduce the need to consume, chemical impact, waste, and energy and water consumption. Two expert interviews validate the theoretical framework and discuss implications and applicability. Originality/value It is stated that product design, especially the aesthetic design elements, have a major impact on the environmental sustainability of the final product. Therefore, decision making regarding these elements have the potential to greatly reduce the environmental impact. Moreover, the analysis of the Ted’s 10 may contribute to the realization of several UN Sustainable Development Goals. It could communicate the positive environmental impact textile and fashion designers and businesses can have when applying the Ted’s 10.

This is a master’s thesis project of 30 credits written with guidance from the Swedish research institute ICT Viktoria and Industrial Ecology at KTH. This thesis is conducted by two students at KTH, one with a background in Mechanical Engineering and Industrial Ecology and the other with a background in Energy and Environmental Technology. This study focuses on circular economy linked to the furniture industry in Sweden and how the transition from theoretical to practical concepts can be improved. The methods of this thesis consist of three semi-structured interviews, a survey and an analytical comparative literature review. The interviews, survey and literature review is analyzed with the purpose of finding important criteria relevant for office chairs in circular business models. The interviews are performed face-to-face with three different key persons; an office supply manager, a CEO at a refurbishing company and a product manager. The study focuses on product design within the Swedish furniture industry although some aspects regarding circular business models, logistics and psychological values are included. The results are design criteria for office chairs in circular business models and a design evaluation program for the industry built on these. The program, based on multi criteria analysis, can help reduce the gap between theory and practice of how circular economy should be implemented in the industry. By giving early feedback during the design phase on how well an office chair and a company’s structure meet circular economy criteria the authors hope to ease and speed up this transition. The main characteristics of an office chair designed for circular business models are: Durable Easy to service Adaptable Modular Homogeneous material composition in modules Although the transition to circular business models can be a comprehensive process the authors believe that if furniture manufacturers would integrate circular business models for office chairs into their business structure this would be both economically viable and highly beneficial for their environmental profile which can strengthen their position on the market.

<p>This thesis project aims to create an animistic system for remote workers to promote a healthier work style and more interactions between remote workers and their colleagues. The Covid-19 pandemic since 2020 resulted in a significant increase in employees who started to work remotely, and with that came the benefits and challenges. Working from home allows remote workers to work with higher productivity and a more flexible schedule and improves the work and life balance of the remote workers. However, major communication issues were reported due to asynchronous working pace and less in-person interaction, which became a significant challenge for remote working. Other remote working challenges include difficulties setting up a home office, health concerns such as sedentariness and hydropenia, higher worker self-discipline requirements, etc. In this thesis, I took the approach of animistic design, focused on the context of a home office environment, and created an interactive system, Planto, a planter and mobile application system designed to improve the work-from-home experience. This thesis presents the Planto system’s research and design process, including literature review, peer product review, user research, ideation, the iterative process of a mobile application design and a product design, and a heuristic evaluation to assess the quality of the design outcome. Planto system seamlessly integrates product design, animistic design, and IoT design. More importantly, it aims to facilitate the complicated work-from-home experience, and the medium is a simple planter.</p>

Due to a growing interest in communication in today’s society the demand for equipment that is used in communication networks increases while the competition between companies that produce this equipment grows. To meet the increasing demand and at the same time having a competitive product development many companies use some effective product design, such as the modular product design. When a modular product design is used it’s good to compare different module configurations for a certain product and to simplify these comparisons some tool can be used. This work examines the design and development of a tool that visualize information about different modular plans in a web interface. The focus of the work is on the storage and processing of data to be presented and also the software architecture, namely the back-end of the tool. The front-end consists of a web interface that is developed and described in another thesis. Different techniques to store data are examined and data models are developed. A multitier architecture, more precisely three tiers, is used in the tool where the three tiers are one tier for the data storage, one tier for the processing of data and one for the web interface. A relational database is used as data storage and to process data the programing language Java is used. To communicate between the web interface and the tier that process data a RESTful API is used.

<div> <div> <div> <p>This thesis aims to introduce a system design that supports the user experience of outfit selection, storage, and matching. Clothes are indispensable items in daily human life. Purchasing one's wardrobe has become more affordable. This has allowed people to focus on purchasing more fashionable clothes. Garment shopping has even become a type of social and leisure activity. With the development of internet technology, shopping methods have changed dramatically. However, these seemingly convenient shopping methods also bring unavoidable problems, such as an inability to understand apparel companies' different size standards and the challenge of seeing the details of materials. On the other side, while overemphasizing the convenience of the shopping process, online companies have ignored people's clothes-wearing experience that is the most enjoyable and valuable for customers. This paper introduces an IoT (Internet of Things) design: "Closet Go" including a mobile application and a clip-able camera. "Closet Go" aims to improve customers' daily outfit selection experience by digitalizing their closets and conducting data analysis of customized dressing habits. In this thesis, I present the entire design process: user research, Ideation, UI/UX design, product development, and evaluation. In the research section, potential users were recruited for interviews to discover the current problems in acquiring, selecting, and matching outfits in daily life. The design process section introduces the design development progress and results via user flow, experience map, prototype, and user interface. Finally, the thesis concludes with a heuristics evaluation section that tests the design's usability and experience to refine the project. </p> </div> </div> </div>

I have studied and investigated why sex toys for women look the way they do and what the norms are that affect the design and use of sex toys for women.Through the collected information, I have investigated what can be done better. I have chosen to write about this as I believe that the market that exists now is limited and does not meet the needs that exist from women today. The design is in my opinion outdated and strengthens norms and prejudices from the past and thus inhibits sexual health among women. I have contacted experts in the field to learn more, done user studies and read literature that is relevant and interesting for the work that can strengthen me in my own discoveries. The final product will serve as an example of how design can help strengthen healthy uses and stimulate sexual health in women, and the product will also serve as a response to how sex toys should be designed to suit the needs of the market. The report cannot answer exactly why sex toys are designed the way they do, but I have addressed history and cultural norms that could possibly explain the design and design choices for women's sex toys. I also discuss why it is important to change the look of sex toys for women.

The global business industry is greatly affected by revolutionised human knowledge that requires a continued understanding of human preferences, needs and wants. Motivation to innovate must be understood when marketers aim for business success. Business success is seen in customer satisfaction and employee performance. The starting point for success is the miraculous ideas of employees. These ideas can be anything from the creation of a product or service to the execution of that product or service. Exploring the factors affecting the motivation to innovate on product development may lead marketers to business success by increased profitability, a bigger customer base, and retaining motivated skilled employees with the ability to innovate. This research is based on the South African multinational retailer Woolworths, with the focus on food and design packaging. A qualitative research approach was followed where data was collected from 11 participants using semi-structured individual face-to-face in-depth interviews and structured questionnaires. This study followed a manual thematic approach in an inductive manner. The needs of the participants in this study were categorised into three sections: Need for power, need for achievement and need for affiliation. This study also introduced McClelland's extended needs, and the motive for self-expression stood out among the cohort, confirming their creative skills. With the aid of individual components, domain-relevant skills, intrinsic task motivation and creativity stimulants, the study was able to link the presence of creativity to motivation and innovation. It confirmed that once the creativity intersection combines with organisational components there is a motivational synergy that produces innovation. The results of the study further indicated that internal motivation factors had a greater impact than external factors. As per organisational components, business values were shown to have an influence on the development of a product design. Legislation policies were deemed beneficial to forced creative thinking, yet it was also regarded as a limitation that can be improved through creative flexibility. Other factors that emerged were organisational socialisation, aligned stakeholder communication, sufficient market research, and respecting the emergence of seasonal trends. Future research should explore ways of improving organisational components that act as external influences on individual creative thinking. Moreover, future research should explore how effective training can help stakeholders learn and acquire the rights needs together with the continuous support from the business.

Sveriges befolkning ökar och det föds allt fler barn. Detta skapar ett stort tryck på förskoleplatser och kommunerna tvingas starta nya avdelningar och förskolor i lokaler som inte är anpassade till antalet barn. Hörselskador, stress, kommunikationssvårigheter och sömnsvårigheter är några av de följder som både barn och vuxna kan få av att exponeras i för höga bullernivåer.Studien syftar till att undersöka hur produktdesign kan användas för att minska bullret på förskolor. Studien har använt sig av en användarcentrerad designprocess där målgruppen, barnen och pedagogerna på förskolan, varit involverade genom hela arbetet.Det teoretiska ramverket innehåller buller, buller inom förskolan, förskolans inomhusmiljö och användarcentrerad design. Till det empiriska arbetet gjordes observationer, frågeformulär och intervjuer med målgruppen. Resultatet visar att de högsta bullernivåerna kommer från barnen själva och lokalerna som de vistas i, vid tillfällen mellan aktiviteter. Det slutliga produktförslaget är ett ljuddämpande pusselmoln som har flera funktioner och syftar till att underhålla barnen vid bland annat väntetid mellan aktiviteter. Studiens slutsats visar att det finns utvecklingsmöjligheter kring ljuddämpande produkter. / Sweden’s population is increasing, and more children are born. This creates great pressure on preschool places and the municipalities are forced to start new departments. Preschools in premises that are not adopted to the number of children. Hearing damage, stress, communication difficulties and difficulty sleeping are some of the consequences that both children and adults can get from being exposed to excessive noise levels. The study aims to investigate how product design can be used to reduce the noise in preschools. The study has used a user-centered design process in which the target group, the children and the educators, have been involved throughout the work.The theoretical framework contains backgroundnoise, within the preschool, the preschool’s physical environment and user-centered design. The empirical work consisted of observations, questionnaires and interviews with the target group. The result shows that the highest noise levels come from the children themselves and the premises in which they are staying, on occasions between activities. The final product proposal is a sound-absorbing puzzle cloud that has several functions and aims to entertain the children during, among other things, waiting time between activities. The study’s conclusion shows that there are development opportunities for sound-absorbing products.

Elever med neuropsykiatriska funktionsvariationer (NPF) upplever en försämrad skolgång på grund av att den är dåligt anpassad efter deras behov. Grundskolelärare har ett ansvar att anpassa sin undervisning så den passar alla, men deras ökade belastning lämnar lite tid över till att kommunicera med sina elever på individnivå för att ta reda på deras behov. Den bristande kommunikationen mellan grundskolelärare och elever med NPF blir problematisk då parternas behov missförstås av varandra. Denna studie undersökte hur man genom produktdesign kan skapa en bättre kommunikation mellan elever med NPF och deras lärare. Studien genomfördes med teorier och metoder från forskningsfältet användarcentrerad design. Genom intervjuer, observationer, dokumentanalys, en ökad empatisk förståelse och marknadsundersökning skaffade studien en förståelse av användarnas behov och önskemål. En koncept- och produktutvecklingsfas möjliggjorde skapandet av ett slutgiltigt produktförslag. Studiens slutsats visar hur produktdesign i en användarcentrerad designprocess skapar en förståelse för en användargrupp och möjliggör ett produktförslag som tillfredsställer deras behov. Studien resulterade i ett produktförslag som kan förbättra kommunikationen mellan grundskoleelever med NPF och deras lärare. Produktförslaget kan förhoppningsvis leda till en bättre skolgång för elever med NPF om läraren gör anpassningar i sitt klassrum och/eller undervisning som tar hänsyn till elevens behov. Produktförslaget är endast ett förslag på hur en produktlösning kan se ut bland många andra möjliga lösningar. Studiens kunskapsbidrag bidrar med insikt i hur man genom produktdesign och en användarcentrerad designprocess kan utforska en användargrupp för att tillgodose deras behov. / Students with cognitive disabilities are unsatisfied with their lower school education because of poor adaption to their needs. Lower school teachers have a responsibility to adjust their way of teaching and classroom environment in order to fulfill everyone’s needs. But the abundant workload teachers experience leaves little time for individual communication with their students to find out their needs. This study examined how product design can create a better communication between lower school students with cognitive disabilities and their teachers. The study used theories and methods from the research field of user-centered design. The methods used were interviews, observations, analysis of documents, improvement of empathetic understanding and a market analysis. These enabled a better understanding of the users’ needs and desires. The study’s conclusion shows how product design in a user-centered design process can create a better understanding of a user group and a design-proposal that satisfies the users’ needs and desires. The study resulted in a design-proposal that can improve communication between lower school students and their teachers. The design proposal can potentially lead to an improved education for students with cognitive disabilities if the teacher adjusts their classroom environment and/or way of teaching with regards to their students’ needs. The design-proposal is merely a proposal among many other solutions of how a product solution could be made. The study contributes with research about how product design and a user-centered design process can examine a user group in order to satisfy their needs.

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