Submitted by Silvana Teresinha Dornelles Studzinski (sstudzinski) on 2015-06-26T13:21:31Z No. of bitstreams: 1 LucieneMachado.pdf: 6153860 bytes, checksum: 5a1406c717f371fcd2bbb426cb8779ed (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-06-26T13:21:31Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 LucieneMachado.pdf: 6153860 bytes, checksum: 5a1406c717f371fcd2bbb426cb8779ed (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-02-24 / Nenhuma / Esta pesquisa propôs uma associação entre a moulage e a metodologia do Design Estratégico por meio da etapa metaprojetual Dentre as modalidades de representação na Moda (uma das subáreas do Design), a moulage é uma técnica de modelagem tridimensional, a qual consiste em modelar o tecido diretamente sobre o corpo ou manequim, aplicada geralmente no final do processo de Moda, na etapa de Modelagem. O Design Estratégico, uma das vertentes do Design, é composto por uma etapa anterior à de projeto, denominada metaprojetual, a qual consiste na pesquisa e interpretação de dados do problema de design para direcionar a geração de propostas conceituais de projeto, denominadas concepts. Tanto o Design Estratégico quanto a Moda são áreas de caráter projetual e criativo que utilizam técnicas de representação como forma de tangibilizar e visualizar o conceito do projeto. O objetivo da presente pesquisa de caráter exploratório e qualitativo foi analisar o deslocamento da técnica de moulage para a etapa metaprojetual a fim de construir concepts. Para tal, elaborou-se um Exercício Projetual através da metodologia do Design Estratégico que consistiu em solucionar um briefing de Design de Moda, utilizando a moulage durante o processo de construção do concept. O exercício foi aplicado a oito duplas de voluntários, compostos por um designer de moda e um designer. Através de vídeos gravados durante a execução do exercício e de entrevistas abertas realizadas após o mesmo, analisou-se como as duplas utilizaram a moulage para gerar e representar suas ideias na elaboração dos concepts. Os resultados apontaram que a moulage, sendo utilizada de modo experimental durante a etapa metaprojetual, contribuiu como um estímulo para potencializar a geração e a representação das ideias dos participantes, bem como, auxiliou a construir, a visualizar e a materializar o concept. / This research proposed an association between draping technique and Strategic Design. Draping, a type of representation in Fashion Design, is a threedimensional modeling technique which consists in directly modeling a piece of fabric on the body or mannequin. It is usually done in the modeling phase, in the end of the design fashion process. The Strategic Design, one type of design, encompasses an earlier design stage, called metaprojetual phase, which consists of research and interpretation of the design problem data that drives to the generation of conceptual proposals, called design concepts. Both Strategic Design and Fashion Design have creative and project character that uses techniques of representation as a way to materialize and visualize their project concepts. The objective of this research was to analyze the effects of the displacement of draping technique to the metaprojetual phase to build design concepts. Through a literature review and with a qualitative exploratory study, it was proposed a Design Exercise developed with the Strategic Design methodology. The exercise consisted of solving a fashion design briefing using the draping technique during the concept building process. It was applied with eight groups, which one consisting of a fashion designer and a designer. Through videos and interviews it was analyzed how they used the draping technique to generate and represent their ideas in the concept building process. The results showed that the draping technique, being used experimentally during the metaprojetual phase, contributed as a stimulus to potentiate the generation and the representation of the designers' ideas as well as it contributed to build, visualize and materialize the design concept.

Sous la pression croissante de l'innovation, les entreprises sont plus que jamais obligées de s’occuper de la gestion de l'innovation, et plus particulièrement la génération systématique et la sélection des idées. Ceci s’applique en particulier aux secteurs technologiques tels que l'automobile.L’idéation signifie la procédure de la génération et sélection des idées pour les innovations de nouveaux produits, services où modèles d’affaires avec un potentiel commercial sur le marché. Elle se situe au début de la phase floue amont (« fuzzy front-end », FFE) du processus de l'innovation et détermine le processus de développement de nouveaux produits (« New Product Development », NPD).Dans ce contexte, cette thèse vise à répondre à la question de recherche suivante: « Comment est-il possible de créer une approche structurée qui fait de l’idéation la tâche principale de la FFE et l’implémenter comme processus dans un environnement d'entreprise pour faciliter la gestion de l'innovation? » À cet objectif, la principale contribution de ce travail est un modèle « étape – points de décision » (« stage-gate » en anglais) d’un processus d’idéation de référence qui est basé sur un ensemble des facteurs clés de succès identifiés dans la littérature et des entrevues d'experts.Le modèle de processus d’idéation de référence proposé s’appuie sur l’intégration forte et systématique des acteurs internes et externes dans l'idéation et intègre ainsi intrinsèquement le paradigme modern de l'Innovation Ouverte. Il a été conçu de manière qu’il puisse être intégré dans les processus d'innovation existants avec des efforts raisonnables, et qu’il assure l’alignement des activités d'idéation avec la stratégie commerciale de l'entreprise.La validation du modèle de processus de référence proposé a été faite chez le sous-traitant automobile allemand KSPG Automotive Group essentiellement par la dérivation d'un processus spécifique à cette entreprise à partir du processus de référence. Ce processus dérivé prend en compte le contexte spécifique de l'innovation et l'idéation chez cette entreprise et facilite par conséquence son intégration dans la culture organisationnelle de l'entreprise et son paysage de processus.Dans le cadre de cette thèse, la faisabilité de l'approche globale ainsi que le processus d'idéation lui-même ont été validés, et un concept pour l'introduction du nouveau processus a été établi. Sur cette base solide sont données des perspectives pour les prochaines activités de recherche qui sont directement liées à l'introduction et l'amélioration du processus, ainsi que la détermination de l'applicabilité de l'approche dans d’autres secteurs industriels. / Under the rapidly increasing innovation pressure, companies are forced—more than ever before—to deal with the subject of innovation management, particularly with systematic idea generation and selection. This is especially true in technology-driven sectors such as automotive.Ideation denotes the procedure of idea generation and selection for innovations of products, services or business models with commercialisation potential on the market. It is located in the very beginning of the fuzzy front-end (FFE) of the entire innovation process and sets the course for New Product Development (NPD).In this context, this work attempts to answer the following research question: “How is it possible to create a structured approach which makes ideation the core task of the FFE, and to implement it as a process in a corporate environment such that it facilitates innovation management?” To this aim, its principal contribution is an ideation stage-gate reference process model based on a set of key success factors identified from literature and expert interviews.The proposed ideation reference process model capitalises on the strong and systematic involvement of internal and external stakeholders in ideation, and therefore follows intrinsically the modern paradigm of Open Innovation. It is designed in a way that can be integrated in existing innovation processes with reasonable effort, and it assures the alignment of ideation activities with the company’s business strategy.The validation of the proposed reference process model has been done at the German automotive supplier KSPG Automotive Group based on the derivation of a company-specific ideation process from the reference process. This derived process takes into account the company’s specific context of innovation and ideation, and is consequently focused on facilitating its integration into the company’s organisational culture and process landscape while introducing a fundamentally new approach to systematic ideation activities.In the scope of this thesis, the feasibility of the total approach as well as the ideation process itself has been demonstrated, and a concept for the broad introduction of the new process has been established. On this solid basis, perspectives for future research activities directly linked to the introduction and the improvement of the process, as well as to the determination of the applicability of the approach in different industry sectors are given.

Submitted by Irene Nascimento (irene.kessia@ufpe.br) on 2017-04-19T18:51:20Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) TeseCatarina_Final.pdf: 8264334 bytes, checksum: c3137c70a9924ba34f7f1f21851e4495 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-04-19T18:51:20Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) TeseCatarina_Final.pdf: 8264334 bytes, checksum: c3137c70a9924ba34f7f1f21851e4495 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-09-21 / FACEPE / Há muito se estuda o uso de tecnologia da informação em apoio a diversas atividades nas organizações. Um eixo desses estudos convergiu, a partir da década de 1990, para o estudo de sistemas que suportassem o trabalho em grupo, inicialmente colocalizados e, mais recentemente, dispersos. Tais sistemas, nominados sistemas colaborativos, adquiriram maior robustez ao serem beneficiados com as funcionalidades mais sociais da web 2.0, permitindo a interação simultânea e à distância, ampliando as possibilidades de abordagens e arranjos de suas funções. Em outro ângulo, a tarefa de gerar ideias em grupo é algo que acontece no cotidiano desses coletivos e é essencial aumentar o desempenho das organizações perante o cenário dinâmico e competitivo do mercado. Nesta perspectiva, vislumbrou-se acoplar um sistema colaborativo a uma tarefa de geração de ideias expectando que tal dueto poderia facultar um melhor resultado naquela tarefa. Assim, a pesquisa objetivou apurar qual o efeito que a adoção de um sistema colaborativo provocaria na estruturação da tarefa de geração de ideias em grupos virtuais. Para embasar essa discussão, utilizaram-se as lentes de teorias estruturacionais e da atividade, além do modelo 3C de colaboração. Em seguida, para operacionalizar a pesquisa, realizou-se um quase-experimento, no qual funcionários de uma empresa do segmento farmacêutico foram instados a gerar ideias mediados por um sistema colaborativo especificado para a pesquisa, tendo sido aqueles observados sob parâmetros da quantidade e qualidade das ideias geradas e da satisfação com o processo e com o resultado. Os aspectos apurados confirmaram as expectativas iniciais, indicando que há potencial de sucesso, mas, por outro lado, fazem ver que os processos e rotinas bem definidos, a facilitação das atividades pelo sistema e os elementos constantes em encontros presenciais são componentes relevantes em tarefas grupais apoiadas pela TI, especialmente as de geração de ideias. / There has been a lot of studies using information technology as a support for several activities in organizations. In the 90´s decade, an axis of such studies converged for the teamwork’s support systems study, initially co-located and, more recently, dispersed, called collaborative systems. Empowered by the web 2.0 social functionalities, this system strengthens simultaneous and distance interaction, increasing the possibilities of its function as arrangements and approaches. In another perspective, the generating group ideas task is something that happens routinely in a group and it is frequently used to increase the organizational performance in this dynamic and competitive market scenario. From this perspective, there has been an idea of coupling a collaborative system to a task of idea generation expecting that such duet could generate better outcomes. Therefore, the research aims to verify what effects the adoption of a more socially profiled collaborative system would result in the structuring the idea generation tasks in dispersed groups. As a basis for this discussion, the structural and activity theories lenses were used, and also the 3C collaboration model. Then, to operationalize the research, a quasi-experiment was performed, where a pharmaceutical company employees were asked to generate ideas mediated by a collaborative system, developed especially for the research. During the quasi-experiment, it has been observed, using quantitative and qualitative techniques, the number and quality of the generated ideas, the satisfaction with the process and its results. The results confirmed the initial expectation, pointing out that this social and collaborative system type performs an important role in supporting idea generation tasks, moreover, the importance of well-defined processes and routines, the activities facilitation by the system and the elements experienced in face-to-face encounters must be considered as well.

Context:- Software companies have changed their strategies from “innovating for customers” and “innovating with customers” to innovating “by customers” which is also known as customer-driven innovation. Actually, companies move toward customer-driven innovation programs because they need to collect as many ideas as possible from suitable customers to ensure their global competitiveness and set the stage for profitable growth. As customer-driven innovation is comparatively a new trend, the objective of our research is to explore its status in the new era of software development. Objectives:- The main aim of our study is to investigate customer-driven innovation in the modern era of software development. It also explores the motives, benefits, communication channels and barriers between customers and software companies to cooperate with each other. Methods:- Systematic Literature Review (SLR) and industrial interviews are two basic types of data collection methods which are utilized to accomplish the objectives of our study. Then qualitative data analysis software is used to perform thematic analysis (Grounded Theory) in order to draw conclusions and highlight useful information from the collected data. Results:- Based on the SLR and interviews result the conclusion was made that there are different types of motives and benefits for company and customer to cooperate with each other during idea generation stage of product and service innovations. We identified various types of activities and communication channels in the context of customer-driven innovation. In addition, we identified different types of barriers that can limit the cooperation between company and customers. Conclusions:- The comparison between theory and practice explored most important motive and benefit for company and customers to cooperate with each other during ideation process of product and service innovation. It also identified most significant activities and communication channels for idea generation in the context of customer-driven innovation. In addition, we identified most common barriers which prevent company and customers to cooperate with each other during ideation process. / In this thesis different aspects of customer-driven innovation were investigated. In this type of innovation customers feedbacks are considered as a driving force for products and services improvement. Therefore, companies let their customers to drive idea generation stage for products and services in order to be become marketplace leader. In this case, customers’ are considered to be primary sources of ideas and suggestions. While the role of company is to listen carefully, analyze, filter and implement the retrieved customers feedbacks into new products and services, then deliver to the customers and receives once again feedbacks from them. In this competitive era, customer is a ‘king’ because he will buy only the products that satisfy their needs and wants therefore company need to actively involve customers in innovation. This study evidences show that customers could be involved in idea generation process for products and service which is beneficial to the company sustainable competence. In addition, we have provided different examples of the companies i.e., Sony Ericsson, Telenor, Sun and Hallmark that have developed products and service with customer cooperation. They claim that the innovative idea should not be only provided by internally but by externally via customers because customer-driven innovation had a better chance of succeeding than company-driven innovation. One of the main issue is aimed to be discussed in this paper was to understand that how company can receive customers feedbacks (ideas, suggestions, complaints) about their products and services. The results of our study indicates that company are using different types of communication channels to retrieve customers feedbacks about their products and services i.e., website, blogs, twitter, facebook, call center, live chat, email, focal point software, share point software, CRM software, software toolkits, video conference, linkedIn and suggestion box. Another main issue that we were aimed to be presented in this paper was to understand different activities organized by companies in order to identify customers’ needs and demands. These different types of activities for idea generation in customer-driven innovation are facebook survey, website popup survey, client survey, market survey, closed feedback loop (call center survey), workshop with customers, brainstorming together with customers, idea contests, focus group, user cases, run a 360, following up meeting with customers, user stories and customers interviews. Based on the SLR and interviews results the conclusion was made that there are different types of motives and benefits for company and customer to cooperate with each other during idea generation process for products and services. The company motives and benefits behind a cooperation are increase customer satisfactions, achieve competitive advantages, collecting new ideas, reduction of market uncertainties, financial benefits and etc. On the other hands, customers achieved various types of benefits to cooperate with company i.e., cognitive or learning benefits, social integrative benefits, personal integrative benefits, monetary rewards, non-monetary rewards and etc. Potential barriers that can limit the cooperation between customers and company were identified. Based on theoretical material and interviews results the conclusion was made hat each side have their own barriers which prevent them to cooperate. The company side barriers are lack of secrecy, lack of expertise, lack of communication channels, hard to implement customers’ ideas and etc. While there are various customer side barriers that can limit cooperation with company during ideation process i.e., customers’ incapability to express, they don’t know whom they may contact, they afraid that the company will raise the cost of the products by identifying their demands and etc. Ultimately, it is not the ability of company to only innovate but their ability to innovate continuously and consistently that is very important. Company can no longer assumes that they have all the knowledge and abilities for innovating for customers nor it is enough to innovate with customers but company need to let their customers’ to drive innovation. In future, successful companies will be those that take benefit from customer-driven innovation in order to increase their growth, enter to new market and be competitors in their market. / Email: dirdard@yahoo.com Phone # +46 723255451

Context: Organizations generate a number of solutions or ideas for a problem, by then select and synthesize some of these ideas for further development. Idea synthesis as an important phase of innovation process causes a reduction of enormous ideas to be considered by an interested company. Accordingly, innovation process can benefit from integration of ideas with restricted perspectives. Idea synthesis is effective when the defined product is novel, has high impact, is of low cost, and has good support from stakeholders. Idea synthesis is facilitated by the used of variety of structures. Interactive groups which require physical meeting of the participants are a facilitated forum for idea synthesis, where organizations try to utilize the multiple perspectives of groups. An alternative to this approach is bilateral communication between potential innovators. Bilateral communication is used by innovators that network with each other to identify related ideas and technologies in the context of open innovation. Software not only enables interactive groups and bilateral communication but also amplifies the performance of these structures by replacing them with online workshops or social networking. While both these structures are performed and justified through the use of software, it is not clear which of these structures is more effective. Objectives: The aim behind conducting this research is to compare the effectiveness of interactive groups and bilateral communication for idea synthesis. Additionally, besides the factors that affect achieving an agreement among the group members in both structures, a consistent pattern of idea synthesizing can be identified through the observation of participants’ behaviors,. Methods: In this study two research methodologies were used; a controlled experiment and a multiple-case study. First, an experiment was conducted to compare the effectiveness of idea synthesis of interactive group and bilateral communication channel for software product innovation. A total of 78 software engineering students generated software based solutions for a problem individually and subsequently combined their ideas to improve their initial solutions, either through the interactive groups or bilateral communication. Second, a multiple-case study using the collected data from the participants’ chat and questionnaires was conducted to identify the consistent pattern of idea synthesizing and the factors that affect achieving an agreement among the group members in both structures. Results: Statistical analyses of experimental results show no difference between interactive group and bilateral communication channels significantly for idea synthesis. It was found that the groups in bilateral communication channels could not generate more effective ideas than interactive groups in terms of novelty, feasibility, impact value, and stakeholder support through the ideas synthesizing. The identified factors which influence agreement among the group members, both challenges and determinants, in interactive groups and bilateral communication channels are categorized separately. Barriers in achieving an agreement between participants are included in context of ideas and participants’ interests in bilateral communication, while the barriers in interactive groups are features of ideas and participants’ features. Moreover, an agreement between participants is yielded in context of ideas and participants’ features in bilateral communication, while the agreement in interactive groups is yielded in context of ideas and participants’ interests. Conclusions: We conclude that there is no difference between interactive groups and bilateral communication for idea synthesis. The solutions achieved through both structures are not significantly different in terms of novelty, feasibility, impact value and stakeholder support. Moreover, achievement of an agreement in both structures not only depends on the context and features of ideas but also features of participants. On the one hand, the presence of ideas with consistent context and features besides motivated participants, interested in performing the idea synthesizing, lead to achieving an agreement. On the other hand, ideas with inconsistent context and features, lack of participants’ interest in sharing and synthesizing idea, lack of communicating, and lack of time managing hinder achieving to an agreement. / Department of Informatics University of Zurich Binzmühlestrasse 14 CH-8050 Zürich

Abstract The ability to generate creative new ideas to develop innovative products and optimize processes has become crucially important for organizations’ survival in the competitive and turbulent market environment. The objective of this dissertation was to examine the value creation of systematic idea generation in a quantitative fashion by defining a new evaluation methodology. This called for designing a set of quantitative value creation metrics for creative idea generation. This study aims to enhance current knowledge of idea generation measurement that has so far mainly focused on human judgment-based methods. The goals of this exploratory study were formulated into two research questions. The first addressed the subject from a conceptual viewpoint, while the second involved a single-case study in the automotive industry. Documentation-based approaches were used as the primary means of data collection to maximize the quantitative accuracy of the measurement. Single-case study was selected as the research method because of the deep-level data access required to thoroughly assess an idea generation process. Patent information-based measures were adopted in the case organization to gain insights into the effectiveness of its idea generation process. The research data was collected from the case organization’s management information systems. Data analysis allowed for a fact-based evaluation of the idea generation process, which would not have been possible with traditional qualitative measures. The results demonstrate that idea generation can be measured rigorously like most other processes when proper metrics are in place. Nevertheless, several limitations were identified that must be considered when discussing further applications of the proposed measures in other organizations. This thesis proposes a new analysis method for the creative phase of the product creation process. Future studies could build on this model, for example, by experimenting with the indicators proposed by this study in other contexts or designing a set of “rival” value creation metrics for idea generation. / Tiivistelmä Kyky luoda uusia ideoita innovatiivisten tuotteiden kehitystä ja prosessien optimointia varten on elintärkeää organisaatioiden selviytymisen kannalta vahvasti kilpailluilla markkinoilla. Tämän tutkimuksen tavoitteena oli tutkia arvonluontia systemaattisessa ideoiden luonnissa määrällisin menetelmin kehittämällä uusi arviointimenetelmä. Tässä yhteydessä oli määritettävä joukko määrällisiä arvonluontimittareita luovalle ideoiden luonnille. Tutkimus pyrkii täydentämään olemassa olevaa tietämystä ideoiden luonnin mittaamisesta, joka on tähän asti pääasiassa keskittynyt laadullisiin menetelmiin. Tutkimuksen tavoitteista johdettiin kaksi tutkimuskysymystä. Ensimmäinen kysymys käsitteli aihepiiriä teoreettisesta näkökulmasta, ja toinen liittyi autoteollisuudessa tehtävään tapaustutkimukseen. Empiirisen aineiston keruussa hyödynnettiin ensisijaisesti asiakirjapohjaisia lähestymistapoja määrällisen mittauksen tarkkuuden maksimoimiseksi. Tutkimusmenetelmäksi valittiin yhden tapauksen tutkimus, koska ideoidenluontiprosessin syvällinen analyysi vaatii pääsyä yksityiskohtaiseen yritysaineistoon, mikä ei monitapaustutkimuksessa olisi ollut mahdollista. Ideoiden luontiprosessin tehokkuuden arviointia varten tapausorganisaatiossa otettiin käyttöön patenttitietoon pohjautuvia indikaattoreita. Aineisto kerättiin organisaation tietojärjestelmissä. Aineiston tarkastelu mahdollisti ideoiden luonti-prosessissa tapahtuvan arvonluonnin konkreettisen havainnollistamisen, mikä ei olisi ollut mahdollista perinteisten laadullisten mittarien avulla. Tutkimuksen tulokset osoittavat, että luovaa ideoiden luontia pystytään mittaamaan useimpien muiden yritysprosessien tapaan täsmällisesti, mikäli sovelletaan asianmukaisia indikaattoreita. Tutkimus nosti kuitenkin esiin tiettyjä tekijöitä, jotka rajoittavat tässä työssä esiteltyjen tehokkuuden mittarien käyttöä muissa organisaatioissa. Tämä työ esittää uuden arviointimenetelmän, jota voidaan soveltaa tuotekehitysprosessin luovassa vaiheessa. Aihetta käsittelevät jatkotutkimukset voisivat laajentaa tässä työssä kehitettyä mallia esimerkiksi kokeilemalla esiteltyjen indikaattorien käyttöönottoa muissa konteksteissa tai määrittelemällä vaihtoehtoiset arvonluontimittarit, jotka eivät jaa samoja rajoitteita.

Empirical findings on knowledge transfers associated with business closures are limited (Hoetkerand Agarwal, 2007), and very few studies examine the search process of individuals and theirsearch for new solutions and ideas (Maggitti et al., 2013). The purpose of this paper is to fill theknowledge gap of knowledge spillovers and idea generation taking place while displacedemployees transition to entrepreneurship after business closure. This paper will examineAstraZeneca’s displaced employees that started their own businesses after AstraZeneca’sresearch and development facilities closed down in Lund (2010) and Södertälje (2012) inSweden. The research questions investigated were: What are the different factors and ideaprocesses that made the displaced employees start their own businesses? To what extent are theentrepreneurs utilizing their knowledge and experience gained at AstraZeneca in their currentbusinesses, and are they using contacts gained while working for AstraZeneca? To answer thesequestions both qualitative and quantitative research method were used in the form of surveys andinterviews. The results of this study showed that a knowledge spillover took place between thenew firms and the closing firm, while previous experience and expertise gained fromAstraZeneca greatly influenced the idea generation that took place amongst the displacedemployees while transitioning into entrepreneurship. Moreover, about 20% of theentrepreneurship was necessity based, whereas 70% were opportunity based. In regards to thetiming of the idea generation process, half of the participants came up with the business ideaafter learning about the closure, while the rest disagreed. Therefore, the idea generation processamongst the participants did not necessary start after the announcement of the displacement.

Den här studien har genomförts i samarbete med Statens tjänstepensionsverk (SPV). Myndigheten hanterar tjänstepensioner för de som är, eller har varit, statligt anställda. Studiens syfte var att utveckla ett användbart hjälpmedel för kollaborativ idégenerering samt att jämföra en implementation med traditionell webbprogrammering mot att skapa ett tillägg till en molnplattform. Metoder som användes i projektet var intervjuer med medarbetare på myndigheten, utveckling av en webbsida med HTML, CSS, JavaScript och PHP och utveckling av ett tillägg mot en molnplattform. Den framtagna prototypen av idégenereringsverktyget testades i två omgångar med användbarhetstest. Resultatet visar att den framtagna prototypen ur ett användbarhetsperspektiv lyckades med målet att vara enkel att komma i gång med och lätt att använda. Viss förbättringspotential fanns med ännu tydligare beskrivningar och att säkra upp att användaren inte ska kunna använda verktyget fel. Under projektet uppkom det även svårigheter att implementera mot molnplattformen då kommunikationen med databasen inte lyckades implementeras. Så slutsatsen är att det kan vara enklare att programmera med mer traditionell webbprogrammering för en utvecklare som inte är van vid molnplattformen. Däremot kan det vara mer effektivt för ett företag att integrera applikationen mot en redan befintlig plattform för att kunna samla data på en plats. / This study has been carried out in collaboration with Statens tjänstepensionsverk (The National Government Employee Pensions Board, SPV). The government agency handles occupational pensions for those who is, or has been, a government employee. The purpose of this study was to develop a useful tool for collaborative idea generation and compare an implementation with traditional web programming against developing an extension for a cloud platform. The methods used in the project were interviews with employees at the company, development of a web page with HTML, CSS, JavaScript and PHP and development of an extension for a cloud platform. The idea generation prototype developed was tested in two usability tests. The result shows that the produced prototype reached the goal of being simple to use and easy to get started with seen from a usability perspective. There was also some potential for improvement with even clearer descriptions and less risk for the user to use the tool incorrectly. During the project some difficulties with developing against the cloud platform occurred leading to the database communication not being implemented. The conclusion is that it can be easier to program with more traditional web programming for a developer who is not used to the cloud platform. However, for a company it can be more effective to integrate the application to an already existing platform to be able to save data in one place.

Text-to-image generation is one of the most significant technological advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) during recent years, with the software Midjourney being amongst the most popular tools for this purpose. There is however some uncertainty about how tools like Midjourney will impact and integrate with creative professions, such as graphic design. To successfully integrate graphic designers with image-generating software, it is necessary for the tools to be designed according to the needs of their design process. This study, therefore, examines the requirements graphic designers have for Midjourney to be integrated into the idea generation phase of their design process. Requirements were gathered through interviews, which were then prioritized through surveys. A comprehensive list of requirements was formulated based on these findings. An analysis of the results was also conducted to analyze the prioritization of each individual requirement. The results highlight areas of improvement in Midjourney, with a focus on control and usability. The discussion explores factors that could have influenced the validity of the results, along with a reflection on the study's implementation. Finally, the conclusion of the study outlines the key improvements needed for Midjourney according to the results and suggests directions for future research within the research area.

This study explored Visual Art creation by Grade 11 learners in the art classroom and the relationship with attaining creativity acumen. Creativity acumen in this instance is looked upon as the ability to visually conceptualize imaginative ideas and then translate that into an individual rendition of a concept presented. The learners first perceive an idea and then conceive a concept. Visual perception is a function of how the eyes and brain see whole images, but these images are broken down into their visual elements, such as lines and shading during Visual Art creation. The visual elements are then created in forming an art-work, which in turn lends itself to understanding complex concepts and themes. Creativity acumen involves two processes: having ideas (creativity-relevant processes) and then producing a visual exposé of such ideas. A literature review was conducted which provided useful insight into the components of the creative process and the contextual factors influencing creativity acumen within the school environment. An empirical study was conducted with six art learners in Grade 11, selected through purposive sampling. Creativity questionnaires were completed pre- and post-art creation as a self-assessment tool of how effectively individual implementation of the creative process occurred during idea development and artistic expression in attaining creativity acumen during Visual Art production, if at all. The art creations were observed from task presentation through to completion deadline. Photographic records of the art creations were captured as they were produced and completed. Interviews were conducted at the end of the art creative process. The data was descriptively tabulated into photo-sheets and tabulated for qualitative interpretation and description of findings and results. From the empirical study it can be concluded that there is a dialectic relationship between the creativity-relevant processes and art-relevant skills, as set out theoretically by Amabile (1996) when creating Visual Art. The relationship is intertwined and compounded by overlapping factors in acumen to be creative and creating an art-work. Both require openness to new ideas and perspectives and both need perseverance and effort to learn new skills and craftsmanship. The conclusion of this study is that creativity acumen and art creation have variation of outcome and expansion of ideas in common. Creativity acumen is a means of extending one’s outlook and ability to question, look for new information, develop ideas independently while art creation is a means of visual expression in learning to elaborate on a concept through externalised representation which guides further possibilities and understanding of new concepts and perspectives. There is a dialectic relationship between art creation and creativity acumen or ability as one possibly informs and develops the other. / Psychology of Education / M. Ed. (Guidance and Counselling)