Background: It is clear that the fashion industry is experiencing a change as a result of the explosion of social media. Today the four key social media platforms for fashion houses are Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat. The society has created a culture around these media platforms, which is referred to as insta-culture. Why read Vogue magazine to find out the latest trends, when social media is covering the runways in real time? A debate about what direction the fashion industry is heading towards is a hot topic of discussion. The fashion industry has gone through changes before but now consumers have become more demanding regarding quick accessibility of fashion. Consumer behavior and the way we consume fashion has changed. An obvious sign of the change within the industry is how fashion weeks around the world have become the most coveted”it” event for celebrities and fashionistas worldwide. Fashion week is a fashion industry event that lasts around one week. The goal is for the fashion industry to network and for fashion houses to share their next season collections. Fashion weeks have traditionally been a closed, trade only-event which highlights promotional and glamorous entertainment events. However, now it is the most important shows that everyone wants to be seen at. What will become of fashion weeks is truly unknown. One thing that is for sure is that the development of social media definitely plays a vital role in the change of the industry. Aims of the research: The broader aim of this research is to analyze through the lens of fashion week, what is happening in fashion week and the driver of change within the fashion industry, social media, and to unravel why we see a change in fashion week now. The second aim is also to investigate in what way the change is affecting the way fashion is displayed at fashion weeks. Methods: This thesis was completed by gathering observations and analyzing interviews, blogs, press, journal articles, social media and observations that focused on the phenomenon of fashion week especially in the New York and Stockholm context. This qualitative method is referring to as Netnography using primarily data gathering from the internet and data from the existing interviews with people from the industry. Results: Social media has affected the fashion weeks in many ways. Today fashion brands have to include social media in their marketing strategy in order to survive in the insta-culture that reflects on the society. The insta-culture has as well resulted in that fashion week has been reinvented to an entertainment event open for everyone. The democratization of the fashion week has in turn resulted in that designers have to change how and when they deliver fashion. Instead of waiting six months for the collections to hit the stores, designers now have adopted a see now buy now model. Contributions: The result of this thesis brings awareness to people within the fashion industry and fashion theories when it comes to what is happening to the industry and how to better support fashion management strategies. Social media has created an insta-culture in the society that also affects the fashion industry. This thesis also highlights the great impact that the society has on fashion even today. This study therefore further develops the sociological theory when it comes to the impact from the society and how it affects fashion.

Through understanding the way in which design can contribute in a holistic way to sustainability, this thesis investigates and proposes the design methods, and characteristics of sustainable products, services or systems capable of contributing to our happiness, hence shaping and promoting society towards sustainable lifestyles. It presents the first indications of the relationship between Happiness and Sustainable Design. The review of a vast array of phenomena (Happiness, Sustainable Lifestyles/Society, Sustainable Product Design, Consumption Behaviour, and the emerging Role of the Designer), shed light on this relationship, as well as making evident the social gap that represents within sustainable design. This led to the development of an Initial Theory to bridge this gap, which then proposed the development of new design theories and tools and also a radical evolution of the design discipline. Preliminary Testing with sustainable design thinkers validated this theory and pointed out other interesting avenues in order to develop and test it further. Subsequently, through an exploratory and iterative approach, with the Initial Theory at the heart of the research, the Design for Happiness workshop framework emerged and took shape. Two pilot studies and a first study facilitated its planning, development and implementation, which ultimately led to a strong Design Process and Tool-Kit. In addition, two Main Studies confirmed its effectiveness and put forward a robust conceptual design outcome; the trials of which demonstrated its success and high potential to contribute to Happiness and Sustainable Lifestyles. Overall, the results and findings of this research demonstrated that material changes can take place without having to do without social networks which feed our happiness. The Design for Happiness workshop framework is a practical proposal that encourages multidisciplinary groups to reinterpret the relationship between objects and users, hence approaching design from a different perspective that results in innovative conceptual designs. Here, the designer becomes a process facilitator who shares design tools, encouraging participation in the construction of collective and integrated design visions and scenarios. Creativity and Sustainability are pivotal pillars of this proposal and its success is anchored in its capacity to deliver a collection of experiences that contribute to happiness through the way in which they require people to live in general. It also challenges the evolution of the Design discipline and its consequential theoretical development. The relationship between Design, Sustainability and Happiness is new territory. This research is the first on the subject of Sustainable Design and Happiness, therefore offering a groundbreaking opportunity for design, designers, and its practical applications.

An emerging trend of the healthcare industry is the huge increase in the number of medical devices being used by lay people at home. Home use medical devices range from simple inhalers to very complicated devices such as defibrillators. This research aimed to assist designers in developing home use medical devices by providing information and suggestions regarding lay users and how to address their needs and expectations. For this purpose a qualitative and inductive approach was adopted and several studies were carried out, including: (1) a comprehensive literature review to understand the background of the phenomena; (2) observational studies with 40 lay users (i.e. 10 younger lay users, 10 older lay users, 10 users with mobility and sensory disabilities, and 10 users with cognitive disabilities) in order to identify their characteristics when interacting with products; (3) an online questionnaire survey with 53 designers to understand designers‟ requirements when designing home use medical devices, as well as their expectations for a proposed design support tool; (4) the development of the design support tool; and (5) an evaluation study with 12 professional designers in order to assess the effectiveness of the tool (in a format of a design guidance). This research adopted an inclusive approach which investigated both lay users‟ characteristics and designers‟ perspectives. It has, for the first time, outlined lay user characteristics based on empirical studies with different groups of people. It is also one of few studies focussing on designing home use medical devices; the requirements of professional designers have provided an in-depth insight into the challenges of designing medical devices for use in the home environment. The design guidance, as commended by the designers in the evaluation, was the first comprehensive information source in the UK for the emerging home use medical device field where little support is currently available.

Nous assistons aujourd'hui à une évolution de la conscience collective pour la prise en compte de l'environnement en conception de produit industriel. Cette réalité du monde industriel conduit à reconsidérer le développement d'outils classiques de conception et d'innovation pour intégrer la problématique environnementale. L'innovation, paramètre majeur du développement et de la croissance de l'entreprise, doit aussi conduire à des concepts éco-innovants. Il existe peu de méthodes complètes d'éco-innovation. Il est indispensable de développer une méthode alliant l'analyse du problème dans le sens du développement durable, la formalisation adaptée et la sélection des outils de résolution adéquats. L'utilisation des outils d'éco-innovation permettra aux entreprises de s'approprier le concept de développement durable à l'échelle de l'émergence de leurs produits. Cette approche intégrée de conception permet d'influencer les modes de production et de consommation, d'anticiper les besoins futurs des utilisateurs et d'assurer la pérennité de la société. Ces travaux de thèse s'inscrit dans le cadre de la mutation de la Méthode d'Aide à l'INnovation (MAL'IN) vers un outil d'éco-innovation. La démarche actuelle MAL'IN permet d'analyser et structurer un problème de conception de produit, de le formaliser et de le résoudre. Adaptée aux phases préliminaires de conception, la méthodologie est basée sur l'analyse fonctionnelle, l'analyse des phénomènes physiques et sur la définition des biais d'attaque du problème. La résolution fait appel à des outils adaptés de la théorie TRIZ et d'autres outils développés dans ce cadre. L'enjeu de la thèse concerne l'intégration de la vision développement durable dans la méthode actuelle MAL'IN à travers la structuration et la mise en place de connaissances environnementales nécessaires au stade de la recherche de concepts et de ainsi faire évoluer cet outil vers un outil d'éco-innovation. Les travaux de thèse impliquent d'une part, l'intégration de la vision environnementale aux outils existants de la méthode MAL'IN notamment dans la phase d'analyse et de formalisation du problème de conception et, d'autre part, le développement de nouveaux outils d'éco-innovation permettant d'adapter et de structurer la démarche existante en fonction des nouvelles données d'analyse environnementale du produit. L'ensemble des méthodes proposées doit apporter des réponses cohérentes de la spécification du besoin jusqu'à la recherche de concepts éco-innovants. La méthode développée doit convenir à tous les membres du groupe de créativité, en particulier, il faut s'assurer que l'expression des différentes connaissances et des orientations de structuration et de formalisation soit compréhensibles et interprétables par les participants. L'éco-innovation impose, entre autres, la personnalisation du produit, un designer intervient classiquement dans ce cadre. Les outils doivent être conçus pour être interprétés par cet intervenant particulier.

My research is focused upon what industrial designers can contribute in order to mitigate environmental problems often caused by their designs. The intent is to propose a procedure to integrate eco-effectiveness at the beginning of the design process, to consider it at each stage of the product’s lifecycle, and to measure that product’s environmental performance in order to make informed design decisions. At each stage the designer can follow this flexible process, which is intended to work in conjunction with individual creative methods while prioritizing the need for eco-effectiveness. The goal is to develop a procedure that is simple enough for designers to use every day and that could also provide means of verification, rather than relying on assumptions and good intentions. I acknowledge that efforts from a single discipline are not enough. In order to address the environmental challenges we face today, collaboration among disciplines will be necessary, as well as a change of behavior and attitudes towards consumption. This is my contribution. / text

Mobile ad hoc networks create communication links without the aid of any infrastructure, forwarding packets among mobile nodes. The MANET research community has identified several fundamental challenges, among which the most prominent is discovering an optimal route between two nodes. Existing work has proposed a plethora of routing protocols. Since each protocol implements its own philosophy and algorithm to target a specific purpose, routing protocols in MANETs show very different characteristics. Selecting a particular protocol for an application or deployment environment involves evaluating many complex inter-dependent tradeoffs and can be an overwhelming task for an application designer. However, this decision can have a significant impact on the success of a system in terms of performance, cost, and responsiveness. Emerging distributed applications deployed in MANETs inherently experience highly dynamic situations, which necessitate real-time routing protocol selection in response to varying scenarios. Most of the relevant research in this area relies on simulation studies or empirical analysis to select a routing protocol, requiring an infeasible amount of time and resources for the approaches to be used in real-time decision making. In my dissertation work, I designed the Chameleon framework to facilitate real-time routing protocol decisions based on given application and environmental characteristics. My approach develops analytical models for important network layer performance measures capturing various inter-dependent factors that affect routing protocol behavior. I provide an analytical framework that expresses protocol performance metrics in terms of environment-, protocol-, and application-dependent parameters. This effort has resulted in detailed models for two important metrics: end-to-end delay and throughput. I specify detailed models for the parameters embedded in the models with respect to the ability of network deployers, protocol designers, and application developers to reasonably provide the information. Finally, in a systematic manner, I outline the Chameleon software framework to integrate the analytical models with parameters specified by these three groups of stakeholders. / text

A fundamental change in the global and textile industries took place on 1 January 2005, when the global quantitative quotas were abolished. International retail buyers are now able to reduce the number of their international suppliers, and can act on a preference to buy from suppliers anywhere in the world, offering the cheapest price on international orders. South Africa had been experiencing growth in cheaper imports, mostly at the lower end of the market, since 1994 when the political arena in South Africa changed, resulting in a reduction of its tariffs faster than the World Trade Organisation required. The post-2005 environment has seen a rapid increase in imports into South Africa, predominantly from Asia. This has resulted in numerous South African firms in the clothing and textile industries having to reduce their labour, outsource part of their production, or close down altogether, due to their inability to compete with their Asian counterparts. One area of the clothing and textile industries in South Africa that has the potential to assist in the sustainability of these industries is the development and growth of South African design content. Relatively new to South Africa is the growth in and recognition of South African fashion designers entering the market, which has resulted in the heightened visibility and activity of numerous inter-related industries, all servicing South African fashion, such as: model agencies, hair-stylists, make-up artists, the fashion media, fashion events and private boutiques. This study explores the experiences of and problems faced by South African designers in producing garments, meeting the price demanded by consumers, and being competitive in the current context of the local market that is dominated by the major retail chains. However, as this research paper will show, numerous South African designers are managing in different ways to succeed and in so doing, have created viable and successful design operations in a very competitive industry. The participants interviewed for this study are all independent designers and successful in their own right. Some have been in the industry for many years, while others are establishing their names and brands in the marketplace. All these designers manufacture from their own atelier (studio) or factory, thereby retaining production control. As and when the need arises, some outsource part of their production to CMTs (cutmake- and-trim specialists) or home-based workers. Many of the designers sell within both the formal and informal economy, some sell their products through their own boutiques while others sell through private boutiques. A common theme of these designers' success is that they grew their business gradually, learning incrementally about the business of fashion and how to maintain control over their cash-flows while slowly growing their visibility in the market. In the interviews, the designers reflected on the importance of customer relations, the importance of Fashion Weeks for promoting their products, as well as the importance of finding reliable suppliers. A common difficulty experienced by the designers is that of finding the correct balance between creativity and commercial success. The study concludes with some recommendations for the promotion and sustainability of South African design content, such as development of co-operative ventures or small clusters of designers working together and creating economies of scale in order to wield greater influence in the value chain. Another important recommendation made is that of designers finding suitable business partners, so that while the designers focus on creative work, their partner drives the commercial and marketing arm of the operation. / Thesis (M.Dev.Studies)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2006

The aim of this dissertation is to comparatively analyse the set designs for Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s (1756-1791) opera, The Magic Flute (1791), with specific reference to selected set designers from the 18th to the early 21st century. The selection was made in light of each set designer’s unique design concepts for The Magic Flute which were all realised as stage settings in a proscenium arch theatre. In order to analyse the designs, it is necessary to trace theatrical practices and chronologically examine the reforms that affected the visual and spatial representation of scenography from the 18th to the 20th Chapter one provides a brief overview of the development of the proscenium arch stage. It examines the architectural reforms that were made to the proscenium arch in order to accommodate deeper stages and changes in stage settings. In addition, Chapter one investigates methods that theatre architects used to alter the proscenium arch and forestage in order to create a unity between the audience members and the performance. century. The set designs for The Magic Flute by Emanuel Johann Schikaneder (1791), Karl Friederich Schinkel (1816), David Hockney (1978) and William Kentridge (2007) will be analysed within the context of this investigation. Chapter two further considers the architectural modifications that were made to the stage and auditoria of opera theatres in more detail, from the first U-shaped auditorium onwards. It is essential to consider the different architectural structures of opera theatres because in order for each designer to initiate their design concept, they would be required to consider the architectural limitations of their chosen auditoria. The architectural structure would be determined by the foyer area, the style and arrangement of seating and the size of the proscenium arch and stage. Chapter three, by means of a comparative analysis, considers the social and cultural influences on the design concepts of Schikaneder, Schinkel and Hockney and how they informed those of Kentridge for The Magic Flute. It also provides a brief overview of stage lighting, scenic styles and stage machinery used in opera from the 16th to the 20th Chapter four classifies the theatrical spaces used in opera theatres by examining three key areas in an opera theatre, in relation to the foyer, auditorium and stage area. This investigation will be conducted with specific reference to the Theatre Auf Der Wieden, The Royal Opera House, the old Glyndebourne Opera House and The Artscape Opera House. In addition to this it will examine the selected designers’ approach to their design concepts by comparatively analysing the stage settings of Schikaneder, Schinkel, Hockney and Kentridge for The Magic Flute and the stage technology that was used to realise their design concepts. Thereafter, the set designs for Kentridge’s production and how they were conceptualised from a South African perspective will be examined. century Chapter five summarises the ways in which scenography is influenced by architectural, cultural and theatrical discourses, from the analysis of the designs and concepts for The Magic Flute. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2013.

This study examined how the personal characteristics of instructional designers influenced their current instructional-design practice (ID). I first looked at the instructional designers’ perceptions of the relationship between their personal characteristics and their ID practice. I then looked at how these variables were used by the designers to influence their ID practice. The study was guided by the following questions: What specific personal characteristics instructional designers perceive as being an important influence on their ID practice? How do instructional designers use specific personal characteristics to influence their ID practice? How do instructional designers use specific personal characteristics to diversify their ID practice? Specific personal characteristics included personal attributes such as age, and experiences, including prior work experiences. Personal characteristics were informed by the literature, the pilot study, and personal experiences. This qualitative research study used interviews as the primary source for data collection. The theoretical framework was symbolic interactionism. A pilot study was used to test and fine-tune the research data-collection methods and analysis. A snowball sampling technique yielded 15 instructional designers working in a higher education setting in the United States. I included instructional designers who did not receive formal training in ID but who obtained the necessary skills to perform the job through experience. The data analysis followed the guidelines proposed by Miles and Huberman, Kvale and Brinkmann, Roulston, and Rubin and Rubin. Findings showed that instructional designers perceived that specific personal characteristics such as (a) gender, (b) age, (c) key people, (d) spirituality, (e) philosophy, (f) formative years, and experiences such as (a) education—student experiences in the classroom, and program preparation, and (b) work experiences—prior work experiences, and ID professional work experiences influenced their ID practice. These personal characteristics influenced the designers ID practice by adding a secondary perspective through their cultural and biological influences, and by directly informing their approach to process through educational and work experiences. Study results showed that specific personal characteristics and experience allow instructional designers to alter their current ID practice, thereby transforming a once-homogeneous process to a heterogeneous one.

Relationships between furniture and children s play are examined in this research paper, with the purpose of connecting features in furniture to specific play activities. The focus of the research is children between the ages of 4 to 8 years old in the context of indoor play at home. An image survey of furniture created for children s use displays a range of attributes and aesthetics designed into children s furniture. A collage study conducted with designers, parents and teachers reveals the perception of furniture s use and anticipated attractiveness to children by analyzing each item s characteristics. Trace observation of how children manipulate their home environment and home interviews with parents provide opportunities for a detailed description of children s play activities linked to specific pieces of furniture. Child interviews conducted for a National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR) sponsored research project for the study of Inclusive Indoor Play provided information on children s preferences with respect to indoor play at home. This research paper discusses how the combined data of these four studies links distinct furniture features to specific play activities. The resulting data proposes an informative tool to be used by designers to create furniture more conducive to children s play.