This Bachelor Thesis explored the potentials with graphic user interfaces through the methods participatory design, usability and pluralistic usability walkthrough in order to create a graphic user interface that provides the opportunity to teach a younger audience as well as an older generation about video game creation. In the first online survey, potential users were given instructions to draw a scenario. A low interest from just one person for the survey made it not provide enough substance to produce results. A total of 29 test subjects participated in the second online survey where people were allowed to choose between different icons. Selected icons from test subjects became part of the user interface. The usability method was performed jointly with the pluralistic usability walkthrough of four users. The results of these two methods gave us an insight into what could improve our design and be examined during a future study. In the discussion we present how we chose to take in the answers and work with them and also present how a more in-depth study could have been conducted based on the answers we got.

In this Bachelor Thesis (20 p.), we present the history and development of "Intelligent Houses", and most important- explore some of the future possibilities in this area. The project has been carried out through an interdisciplinary cooperation between three different educations at the Blekinge Institute of Technology. By conducting a dialogue with various actors with different professions, we have been trying to identify needs within the concept of "Intelligent Houses", were the end user is not only the tenant or homeowner. Through Participatory Design methods, such as a Future Workshop, we have brought the users together to discuss their own and each others needs and hindrances in their respective work practice, and how intelligent house technology could improve their work conditions. We have also been testing a highly sophisticated CO/CO2/Moisture/Temperature/Enthalpy multi-sensor & controller, originally developed for regulating indoor climate systems. Based on the needs we have found in our fieldwork, we have been looking at possibilities to make multi user solutions with the sensor. / Björn Wessman, tfn: 0457-12726

This project was implemented as a Master thesis project in Industrial design engineering (IDE). In collaboration with Billerud Karlsborg, the project was initiated to develop proposal for a technological solution for eliminating a manual handling work task in the production line for coated paper products. The design process was implemented  as a Participatory design approach, inviting the workers of the production unit to collaborate in design activites and workshops. The participatory approach was based on the Scandinavian perspective on Participatory design, with influences from the comtemporary views on collaborative design. The project included a holistic ergonomic analysis focused on the assessment of musculoskeletal disorder risk factors in the work task flagged by workers as a cause of work strain. The focused work task documented in detail and assessed through REBA and RULA assessment. The work task involves manual handling of a stack of residual paper that is rolled to a tube, by hand, and subsequently lifted and pushed to a grinder inlet for re-purposing. While the ergonomic analysis confirm that there are postural risk factors present, the pace of work suggests that adequate resting for preventing work stain related to the focused task is possible during work. However, the percieved work strained is suggested to originate from work task in close connection to the focused task. A proposal for a concept that sufficiently eliminates the risk factors found in the focused task is developed based on a human-centered design and anthropometric principles. The development concludes with the construction of a prototype, but time constraints denies evaluation of the prototype with end users. The concept is therefore presented as renders of a 3D-model. / Det här projektet har utförts som ett examensarbete inom Civilingenjör Teknisk design, på uppdrag av Billerud Karlsborg. Syftet med projektet var att utveckla ett tekniskt lösningsförslag till ett av Billerud utvalt arbetsmiljöproblem vid en av arbetstationerna i pappersbruket i Karlsborg. I samarbete med arbetarna i den berörda produktionslinjen genomfördes en participativ designprocess, innefattade planering och genomförande av participativa designaktiviteter och workshops baserade på de skandinaviska teorierna kring participativ design, med influens från nyare perspektiv kring co-design. Som en del i arbetet utfördes en övergipande ergonomisk analys avseende belastningsergonomiska riskkällor vid en fokuserad arbetsstation, med en detaljerad kartläggning av den arbetsuppgift som arbetarna upplever som problematisk. Den fokuserade arbetsuppgiften innefattar manuell hantering av en restprodukt som behöver rullas ihop för hand och därefter lyftas samt skjutas till en kvarn för återvinning. Den ergonomiska analysen utfördes med hjälp av REBA- och RULA-bedömningar, vilka bekräftade att en potentiell risk för belastningsergonomiska skador i det arbetssätt som utövas, men där produktionstakten och systemets styrning tyder på att tillräcklig vila är möjlig under arbetet för att motverka skador från lågintensivt muskelarbete. Arbetsmiljöproblemet bedöms däremot inte vara obefintligt då arbetarnas totala arbete innefattar ytterligare moment av fysisk belastning, och där arbetsmiljöproblemet eventuellt kan vara ett resultat av närliggande moment till den fokuserade arbetsuppgiften. Som lösningsförslag på problemet utvecklas ett koncept som eliminerar de funna riskkällorna i den avgränsade arbetsuppgiften, med utgångspunkt i användarcentrerad design och utefter antropometriska riktlinjer. Utvecklingen av en fysisk prototyp för utvärdering med arbetarna påbörjades, men hann inte slutföras innan projektet avslutades. Istället presenteras konceptet genom rendingar av en 3D-modell.