With the trend of increasing international academic exchange, the number of international students in Sweden continues to expand over years. The stress faced by international students has attracted more and more attention from university organizations and the society. This project takes the current mental health-care service for international students at Linnaeus University as the research object. Based on the participatory design and service design theory, challenges faced by the international student health-care service system and improvement opportunities were investigated through a stakeholder map, semi-structured interviews, observations, questionnaires and co-creation workshops among other methods. By introducing participatory design into the development process, an improved mental health-care service system with integrated online and offline information is presented as an example for universities’ organizations for improving the mental health-care service for international students.

This master thesis describes an ethnographic research under the critical paradigm of thoughtin the use of ICTs to support citizen participation in the Municipality level. The purpose ofthe research was to acquire an understanding of the perspective of citizens on the topic andprovide suggestions for the employment of ICTs in citizen participation on the specificcontext. The research setting is located in a neighborhood of a Municipality in Athens, thecapital of Greece. Participants included randomly selected citizens, representatives fromcitizens groups which are active in the neighborhood and a representative of the Municipality.The data gathered in the research was qualitative and the methods were selected andconducted following the participatory design approach in correspondence with theethnographic methodology and critical paradigm. The methods used were interviews, probesand participatory observation. The data gathered pointed at similar concerns expressed by theparticipants mainly towards issues such as ignorance and indifference. Participants also hadthe opportunity to make suggestions on the topic of ICTs and citizen participation, which incombination with the results of a thematic analysis of the qualitative data were used to makesuggestions for future employment of ICTs in the Municipality. Through this directengagement with participants the research also hopes to contribute to the developing Greekdomestic literature on the topic, especially concerning the use of qualitative data.

Non Governmental Organizations have a mission to improve the conditions of the whole or a part of the local societies in the place where they are active. “Network for children’s rights” is a Greek NGO that mostly aims to fight for and ensure the appliance of children’s rights as these have been embodied in national and European Union legislation and international treaties. Its employees are working hard to fulfill their everyday tasks and serve the children members. The scope of this study is to seek for major obstacles in order to achieve feasible interventions within NGOs with the use of Participatory Design. PD methodology is considered a fruitful one to engage the employees and other stakeholders who are affected by a problematic situation into the following processes: 1) to co-research the situation inside the working, social, financial and legal context, 2) to express their feelings, opinions, ideas on how the situation can be improved according to their needs, 3) to co-design and evaluate the solution. To fulfill the scope, a PD study in the NCR was conducted. The outcome of the study as well as its whole process were evaluated. Two major obstacles were found. The first and most significant one has been the very small percentage of representation of the stakeholders of the NGO who participated in the study. The second one has been the lack of collaborative language games to ensure mutual understanding among participants. A researcher should pay extra attention to overcome these obstacles and future studies may provide with new tools that confront them.

Uppsatsen har som syfte att identifiera utmaningar som medborgarmedverkan medför inom en offentlig verksamhet vid utveckling av offentliga digitala tjänster. Utifrån dessa utmaningar diskuteras potentiella möjligheter som uppstår när utmaningarna klaras av samt vilken roll IKT och Government 2.0 har i dessa utmaningar och möjligheter. Vidare diskuteras även Participatory Design som tjänstedesignansats utifrån identifierade utmaningar och potentiella möjligheter vid utveckling av offentliga digitala tjänster. Uppsatsens teoretiska referensram redogör främst för forskningsämnena e-Government och Government 2.0 samt tjänstedesignansatser så som Participatory Design och User-Centered Design, samskapande och vikten av att involvera användare. En fallstudie har genomförts i en svensk kommun för att öka förståelsen om medborgarmedverkan vid utveckling av offentliga digitala tjänster. Genom förståelsen av kommunens kontext identifieras nio olika utmaningar: Utmaningar: Arbete för öppenhet och transparens mot medborgare Skapa mångfald i utvecklingsprojekt Identifiera fler faktorer, utöver mångfald, för en lyckad medborgarmedverkan Sprida kunskapen om vilka faktorer som är viktiga för lyckad medborgarmedverkan Tillfoga sig kunskapen om hur man når ut till medborgare på bästa sätt Motivera medborgare till att medverka (kommunicera vilket värde medverkan ger för varje enskild medborgare – dvs. kunna svara på frågan ”Varför ska just jag medverka i detta projekt?”) Bibehålla medverkande medborgare Öka datakunnigheten hos medborgare och andra aktörer Använda IKT och Webb 2.0 till dess fulla potential Dessa utmaningar ligger sedan till grund för potentiella möjligheter. Möjligheter som innebär öppenhet och transparens där offentliga digitala tjänster kan utvecklas utifrån medborgares och användes behov. Detta genom att använda sig av PD som tjänstedesignansats, IKT och Webb 2.0 – plattformar för samskapande, nätverkande, dialog och kunskapsspridning.

The last few years a lot of media air time has been devoted to training, sports, health and weightloss on a more personal level then before. The new media arena is beeing used at its´ maximumto broadcast wievs on how we should eat, look, exercise and live. This thesis is trying to makebetter understanding on what people in general think is important when it comes to physicaltraining and motivation with the aid of digital media and IT systems. The thesis describes aworkshop that was conducted within the frames of Participatory Design and the outcome of thatworkshop. The workshop was conducted with a group of lead users (in this case instructors at avery large fitness center in Umeå, Sweden) and the main question was ”How can IT be used toachive a positive effect on physical exercise if motivation is the focus?”. Data was collectedduring both a future workshop and an analysis of a digital media production prototype, andcould be seen as two qualitative studies. The outcome of these studies shows three interestingareas where motivation aided by IT is importat. Primarily it is through the experience of theclass. Through flow and mindfulness. Secondarily motivation can be aided by IT in the field ofresult analysis. As a final arena motivation could also be aided by IT through informationsharing between the finess center and the class participants.

De problem som följer den traditionella systemutvecklingen är att det är många informationssystem som inte blir implementerade eller använda på grund av att användarna inte accepterat det nya informationssystemet, likaså är ofta projekten överbudgeterade och tidsöverskridande. En av orsakerna till detta är att användarna inte deltar aktivt under utvecklingsprocessen, vilket gör att systemutvecklarna inte får all den information de behöver för att utveckla ett informationssystem som motsvarar förväntningarna. I detta examensarbete undersöks om tillvägagångssättet participatory design (PD), som innebär att användaren aktivt deltar i hela utvecklingsprocessen, går att integrera med den traditionella systemutvecklingsansatsen, där utvecklingen sker med användarna som stöd till systemutvecklarna. Integrationen har gjorts genom att dels byta ut tekniker i systemutvecklingsmetoden SSADM och dels genom att kombinera SSADMs tekniker med PD-tekniker. Detta resultat har används tillsammans med intervjuer för att avgöra om PD-tekniker kan användas i alla traditionella systemutvecklingsmetoder. Resultatet av integrationen visar att det är möjligt att integrera PD-tekniker med den traditionella systemutvecklingsansatsen.

We have received a mission from a surgical ward at a hospital in northern Sweden; they want a solution that can be used on portable devices. On these devices the healthcare professionals should be able to document the measured vital signs and the results should automatically be documented in the patient record. In the context of a Participatory Design project we conducted design sessions which focused on the user interface of the solution but also deliberated possible functionalities that were not mentioned in the original mission description. The purpose of this study is to describe the situation surrounding the measurement of vital signs of patients. It is currently done manually on a paper form and then registered in the digital patient record. Our aim was to find a design and formulate the functional requirement of a tablet application together with the staff at a hospital in Sweden.

Detta examensarbete har genomförts av två studenter vid Högskolan Dalarna i samarbete medIT-konsultbolaget Istone Concrevi. Edsbyverken, som är en möbeltillverkare baserad i Edsbyn,är kund hos Istone och har ett behov att öka sin leveranssäkerhet. Företaget upplever också attdet finns en bristande sammanhållning mellan de som arbetar administrativt och de som arbetarmed tillverkning i verksamheten. Edsbyverken hoppas att en ökad sammanhållning ska varabidragande till en bättre leveranssäkerhet. Sammanhållning är ett begrepp som är vanligtförekommande inom idrott och lagsporter och förknippas ofta med framgång inom idrotten.Forskningsstrategin som används i studien är design and creation som fokuserar på att skapa nyaIT-produkter, artefakter. Denna studie har resulterat i en artefakt av typen instansiering i form aven applikation som utvecklats med hjälp av ett användarcentrerat och agilt arbetssätt. Syftet medstudien är att undersöka och testa hur teorier inom idrottspsykologi kan användas inom ettsystemutvecklingsprojekt med ändamål att få artefakten och utvecklingsprocessen att främjasammanhållning hos verksamheten. Datainsamlingsmetoder som använts i studien är intervjueroch enkäter. Intervjuerna har använts för att insamla bakgrundsinfo från verksamheten ochönskemål kring appen och enkäterna för feedback på appen samt för att utvärderasystemutvecklingens och appens påverkan på sammanhållningen.Resultaten från datainsamlingen är i många fall spretande med allt från positiva omdömen sommenar att sammanhållningen förbättrats, till negativa som menar att ingen inverkan skett. Vid ensammanvägning kan man dock se att majoriteten menar att detta forskningsprojekt inte lyckatsmed att förbättra sammanhållningen. En viss andel anställda vid Edsbyverken tror dock attsammanhållningen kan öka på längre sikt. Slutsatsen kring idrottspsykologi är att den vid enkoppling till systemutveckling har ett begränsat användningsområde och att många av de teoriersom förekommer om sammanhållning inte är användbara eller passande vidsystemutvecklingsarbete. / This thesis has been implemented by two students at Högskolan Dalarna in cooperation withIstone Concrevi, who is a IT-consultant company in Borlänge. Edsbyverken, a client of Istoneand a furniture manufacturer based in Edsbyn, needs to increase their supply reliability. Thecompany also feels that there is a lack of cohesion between the administrative and themanufacturing parts of the business. Edsbynverken hope that greater cohesion will becontributing to a better supply reliability. Cohesion is a term that is commonly used in sports andteams and is often associated with success in the sport.The research strategy used in this study is design and creation that focuses on creating new ITproducts, artifacts. This study has resulted in an artifact of the type instantiation, which is anapplication developed using a user-centric and agile working. The purpose of the study is toexamine and test if theories from sport psychology can be used within a systems developmentproject with the purpose to get the artifact and the development process to promote the cohesionwithin the business.Data collection methods used in the study are interviews and questionnaires. The interviewswere used to collect background information from the business and wishes about the application.Surveys were used for feedback on the application, as well as to evaluate the systemsdevelopment and the applications impact on the cohesion within the business.The results from the data collection are often sprawling, ranging from very positive signs tonegative. From indications of that the cohesion has improved to statements that it hasn’t. Inappraisal, however, one can see a tendency that this research failed to improve cohesion. Thougha certain percentage of employees at Edsbyverken believe that cohesion may increase in the longterm. The conclusion about sports psychology is that it, when connected to systemsdevelopment, has a limited use and that many of the theories that exist on cohesion within sportspsychology not are useful or appropriate in systems development work.

Master of Landscape Architecture / Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning / Mary C. Kingery-Page / Chester I. Lewis Reflection Square Park in Downtown Wichita, Kansas commemorates the life of Chester I. Lewis, president of the Wichita Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1958 and leader of the Dockum Drugstore Sit-In of 1958, the first successful sit-in of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. In its current condition, the reflection park is underutilized and often subject to vandalism. As a historically significant park, it is important to the community of Wichita to maintain the integrity of the meaning of the site while simultaneously improving the physical design. The purpose of this project is to provide a redesign of the historically significant Chester I. Lewis Reflection Square Park which reflects the implication of the reflection park as a culturally inclusive and historically significant downtown space. Access to culturally and socially inclusive outdoor spaces is imperative to providing opportunity for people of all different backgrounds to personally connect to the space. While the goal of this project is to design inclusive spaces, the author recognizes inclusiveness in a space is interpreted by and culturally dependent on the user of the space (Kemmis, S., & McTaggart, R. 2000). The author conducted research through a cyclical process of engagement meetings with stakeholders, one-on-one interviews with Wichita community members, and design proposals for Lewis Park. Content analysis was performed on data from meetings and interviews to inform a set of guidelines to redesign Lewis Park. Theories of cultural interpretation were also explored to recognize how to integrate different audiences into one culturally inclusive outdoor space (Ulrich 1986). Findings include guidelines guided by community input for designing Lewis Park as a culturally inclusive outdoor space and a theoretical design proposal for stakeholders and the City of Wichita to consider. The redesign of the reflection park was driven by the aspiration to reflect the cultures of Wichita’s ethnically and racially diverse communities in the contemporary context of dialogue on race and memorials in public space.

Abstract This thesis contributes to the field of collaborative information systems and Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW). It extends the notion of technological support for design activities "in use" beyond providing the flexibility to tailor collaborative software, to provide means to support the appropriation process of these tools in their application fields. Two long-term studies on the evolution of usages of collaborative software in a German authority and in a network of freelancers in the field of consulting form the foundation of this work. Based on the experience there, it was possible to identify user activities that drive the appropriation process and to establish a perspective on the appropriation of a Groupware as a social process. Appropriation can be described as a collaborative effort of end users, who perform "appropriation activities" to make sense of the software in their work context. Besides activities to configure the software to fit into the technological, organisational and individual work context of the users ('Tailoring'), there is a larger area of technology-related communication, demonstration and negotiation activities aimed at establishing a shared understanding of how a software artefact works and what it can contribute to the shared work context. The mutual shaping of the technology and organisational contexts resemble an ongoing design process that end users perform largely without any involvement of professional developers. This perspective is the guiding line for developing means for "Appropriation Support", i.e., means to support the appropriation activities that end users perform. To inform the design of appropriation support measures and functions, current approaches that capture the collaborative dimensions of tailoring, and the necessities of 'discourse ergonomics' for technology-related online communication are explored. The trend to work with a tool 'infrastructure' instead of monolithic Groupware tools is a complicating yet important secondary consideration here, since it demonstrates the necessity to offer support 'beyond one tool' to support a use-oriented perspective on appropriation. The resulting idea of 'Use Discourse Environments' as a main concept for appropriation support which captures the activities of communication, demonstration and negotiation as well as the activity of tailoring (where possible) was implemented and evaluated in two prototypes that refer to the application fields of the initial studies. The idea of integrating online discourse, tool representations and tailoring facilities served as a guideline for the use discourse both in an event notification service as well as in the 'Online Future Workshop' that addressed a shared inter-organisational software development infrastructure. Based on the evaluations, design recommendations for appropriation support are made, and the problematic nature of appropriation activities as 'infrastructural work' versus the 'productive work' that end users consider their main area of work is addressed. The thesis concludes with a vision of collaborative software tools that do not only provide their original services, but also address end users as a 'virtual community of technology practice'.