Grande parte das moradias brasileiras apresenta coberturas inadequadas, conforme indicação de pesquisa sobre o deficit habitacional. A carpintaria dessas coberturas necessita de mão de obra qualificada e materiais de custos elevados, porém, na maioria dos casos ainda hoje utiliza processo construtivo artesanal. O objetivo deste trabalho é identificar quais as condições necessárias para viabilizar a produção de sistemas de cobertura adotando o processo de préfabricação com madeiras de florestas plantadas, em contextos com precariedades, como nos casos dos assentamentos rurais. Os estudos se concentraram em dois assentamentos rurais; no primeiro, Assentamento Rural Pirituba II no município de Itapeva - SP, foi desenvolvido o sistema de cobertura VLP (vigas laminadas pregadas) e empregado em 35 moradias; no segundo, Assentamento Rural Sepé Tiaraju localizado no município de Serra Azul - SP, foi desenvolvido o sistema de cobertura Painéis pré-fabricados e empregado em 67 moradias. A estratégia adotada para a coleta de dados do produto e do processo aconteceu ao longo da cadeia de produção dos sistemas de cobertura, começando pelo desenvolvimento do projeto, passando pela realidade social do assentamento até a aplicação das propostas em cada assentamento. O desenvolvimento e escolha da proposta elaborada utilizam o processo participativo com envolvimento direto das famílias em todo o processo. Os resultados obtidos permitem concluir que ambos os sistemas de cobertura pré-fabricados atendem às condições necessárias na redução de custos com materais e mão de obra melhorando a qualidade de acabamento dos sistemas de cobertura mesmo trabalhando em situações com precariedade de infraestrutura. A relevância da pesquisa está no fato de agregar valores não comuns às coberturas das habitações rurais possibilitando a replicação dos princípios adotados em situações semelhantes, mesmo que em contextos diferentes, demonstrando que a pré-fabricação com o processo participativo podem ser alternativas viáveis para comunidades organizadas. / There are many Brazilian houses with inadequate roofs, as indicated by research on the housing deficit. The traditional build-up roofs require skilled labor and expensive materials, made in a handmade construction process. The objective of this research is to identify the necessary conditions to enable the production of roof systems by adopting the pre-fabrication with soft-wood from reforestations, to be applied in precarious situations, such as are found in rural settlements. The studies focused on two rural settlements. At the first, in the Pirituba II (Itapeva SP, Brazil), it was designed the roof system NLB (nailed laminated beams) which covered 35 houses. In another context, the Sepé Tiaraju, located in the municipality of Serra Azul SP (Brazil), it was designed the roof system in prefabricated wood panels, applied in 67 houses. The strategy for collecting data about the product and the process occurred throughout the production chain of roofing systems, starting with the participatory design, through the found social reality, to implementation of proposals in each rural settlement. The development and selection of the proposed solutions counted with the direct involvement of the families throughout the process. With the results it is concluded that both prefabricated roof systems meet the conditions of cost reductions of materials and labor, improving the quality of the finish of the roof system, even when working in situations with precarious infrastructure. The relevance of this research is to add not common value to the roof of rural housing, enabling the replication of the principles in similar situations and demonstrating that the prefabrication and participatory design can be viable alternatives to organized communities.

Many of those who buy a PDA today do it for the purpose of time management. The PDA is meant to replace other artifacts like paper diaries and notebooks but in practice the PDA cannot be used as the sole resource for time management. We think that to succeed in making time management with a PDA more useful the design has to be grounded in an understanding of the existing technology and how it is used in practice. We achieved this understanding of the time management with a PDA by conducting an ethnographical study to find out how the PDA is used in practice, making a technical investigation of the PDA and cooperated with the PDA users throughout the design process. In this thesis we describe our design suggestion that improves the applications for time management in the PDA and take it a step closer to be the replacement for other time management artifacts that the users wanted.

Alternative educational tools have been investigated, in form of a meta-game structure, a computer-based educational software (Quest Atlantis) which was used in an after-school environment within the frame of Fifth Dimension site in Ronneby. The study is based on field material from five sessions, each of two hours. A first focus in this thesis is on the extent to which such a virtual environment can be used for educational purposes, to which extent it can supplement the traditional educational system. A second focus is on how appropriate the software is to its educational purpose and how it can be improved by means of participatory design. The analysis of the data shows that computer games are a rich setting for human learning, in a more dynamic, active and involving manner than traditional education. In this particular case, we came to the conclusion how the software has to be improved in order to suite children’s computer skills and we came up with an original method for involving users in participatory design. / Alternativa utbildningsverktyg har studerats, i form av en meta-spel struktyr, en databaserad utbildning software (Quest Atlantis), som har varit använt i en efterskola miljö, inom Fifth Dimension ramar, i Ronneby. Studiet baseras på fältmaterialet från fem sessioner, varje session på två timmar. En först fokuspunkt i det här arbetet koncentrerar sig på: till vilken mån en sådan virtuel miljö kan användas för utbildnigssyfte och kan supplimentera det traditionella utbildningssystemet. En andra fokupunkt koncentrerar sig på hur lämpligt mjukvara är för dess utbildningssyften och hur den kan förbättras med hjälp av participatory design. Analysen av data visar att dataspel är rika miljöer för mänsklig lärande, på ett mer dynamiskt, aktivt och involverande sätt än traditionell utbildning. I det här studiet har vi kommit fram till att hur man kan förbättra mjukvaran för att passa barnens datavana och vi har uppfunnit en original metod för att involvera användare i participatory design. / This thesis has been conducted at the Department of Human Work Science, Media Technology and Humanities at Blekinge Institute of Technology in the fields of work science and computer science.

The project takes place at the intensive care unit (ICU) in Malmö. It is a collaboration project between Interactive Institute and Malmö Academic Hospital (MAS). Their main interests are to explore and domesticate a learning and competence developing process. The main question in this project is to understand how the design process can support the effective implementation of a PDA information device for nurses. The design process does not stop at the technical level. It continues by the involvement of developers into nurses? technology learning process. We have developed a first prototype from the design guidelines supplied by Erling Bjarki Björgvinsson and Per-Anders Hillgren. This prototype has allowed the disposal of films done by nurses themselves to other nurses concerning medical machineries. Those films are used by nurses themselves to support the use of those machineries, fix them and teach other nurses the functioning of those medical machineries in the ICU. We have carried on research at ICU to understand what is required for nurses to know, the implication of their work for the functioning of those machineries, and the workloads, constraints and organisation. This has been done to see how to adapt the functioning of the PDA devices to the real circumstances of their work. As the matter of fact, we have indicated how IT developers have to work, as IT-facilitators in the use context if one want to arrive to a successful IT design solution. / Examensarbetet är ett samarbetsprojekt mellan Intensivvårdsenheten på Universitetssjukhuset MAS och Interactive Institute. Projektet undersöker hur en handdator med korta videofilmer, gjorda av kollegor, kan underlätta kunskapsöverföring mellan personal. Vår rapport beskriver en designprocess, från utveckling till domesticering. / Marcus Emilson tel: +46(0)733 442548 Viktor Bergqvist tel: +46(0)736 264239

This thesis presents a study that was conducted within a project, the purpose of which was development of a software application (ePeer) for students at Mbarara University of Science and Technology (MUST). ePeer is a tool for gaining information about Youth Sexual and Reproductive Health and will be used in a peer education project which is currently being set up in Mbarara. The study presented in this report aims at designing the interface of ePeer. Our intention was to develop a design that would suit the future users of ePeer. Achieving that involved learning about user expectations and bridging the cultural differences between us, the software developers, and the future users. In order to meet the user expectations we decided to get students at MUST involved in the design process of ePeer’s interface. Two methods were used to accomplish that, namely mock-ups and evaluations. The mock-up sessions provided us with a number of prototypes of ePeer’s interface, created by the students. The evaluation of three applications, with functionality similar to ePeer, resulted in a list of application features that were most appreciated by the students. By analyzing the outcome of the mock-up and evaluation sessions we managed to learn about the students’ expectations concerning ePeer’s content, functionality and layout. Basing on that analysis we suggested a design of ePeer’s interface. The design was positively evaluated by representatives of the future users.

Over the years, researchers have argued that user friendly and result oriented systems were not necessarily products of participatory user involvement; however there is a degree of user involvement required in the development process of any Information System. The aim of this research is to discover the level of user involvement in in-house software development process in All Nigerian Bank (ANB). We use two research methods - survey and process observation. A survey was conducted for 107 end users and 10 developers (programmers) of 5 selected in-house developed software solutions; we complement our survey with an active observation of a typical software development process. Relative to the five in-house software solutions studied in our reseach; our study reveals that user involvement in the development process on the whole for these five solutions has been 8% participative, 18% representative, 33% consultative and 41% informative. 67% of end user respondents agreed that these specific in-house developed solutions are user friendly while 62% said solutions meet business needs. This result is a clustered representation of the 5 cases as a way of exploring the “normal in-house development process” in ANB We conclude that the level of user involvement relative to business needs and user friendliness is a reflection of a number of factors which include ANB’s business strategy, organizational culture and politics; other factors include weak Nigerian labour laws, low ethical standards and high unemployment rate. / Contact Mobile PhoneNo : +2348067982450

Ny teknik utvecklas idag i snabb takt. Produkter blir allt mer avancerade och fler funktioner ska finnas med i respektive produkt utan att tjänsterna blir för avancerade för slutanvändarna att förstå eller använda. Det här är någonting som designers utbildas till att förstå allra bäst; hur produkter optimalt ska utformas och struktureras för respektive målgrupp. Dock involverar utvecklare och designers sällan de tilltänkta slutanvändarna i designprocessen för att ta fram en optimalt anpassad produkt för den specifika målgruppens behov. I denna studie undersöks hur en digital stödapplikation kan utvecklas tillsammans med äldre vuxna användare och hur en deltagande designmetod kan stärka användarnas egenmakt både i relation till applikationen och inom ramen för en designprocess. Studien undersöker även vilka styrkor och svagheter deltagande designmetoder kan ha för äldre vuxna som deltar i dessa processer. / New technology is developing at a rapid pace. Products are becoming increasingly advanced and more features should be included in each product without the services being too advanced for end users to understand or use. This is something that designers are trained to know best; how products are designed and structured to be optimally presented to each targeted audience. However, developers rarely involve the intended end users in the design process to produce an optimally customized product. The work examines how a digital support application can be developed together with older adult users, using participatory design to enable empowerment, both within the study itself, and in the application. The study also examines what strengths and weaknesses the design method has for older adults.

Detta arbete är en reflektion över ett programvaruutvecklingsprojekt, WAIS, och den arbetsmetodik som användes för detta projekt. Arbetsmetodiken för utvecklings-projektet var Extreme Programming (XP) och vi ifrågasätter om detta val var lämpligt för ett projekt som WAIS. Projektet genomfördes vid Blekinge Tekniska Högskola under våren 2004. Utvecklingsprojektet WAIS var en del av ett större projekt, AIS 42, som stöds av VINNOVA. Huvudprojektets bakgrund och syfte beskrivs för att läsaren skall förstå den roll projektet hade. Studenternas uppgift har varit att utveckla en prototyp för ett system som skall sprida information relaterad till logistik och transporter. Slutanvändarna till systemet är många och de tillhör olika organisationer som är spridda både fysiskt och verksamhetsmässigt. Arbetsmetodiken XP faller in under paraplybegreppet Agile manifesto vilkas principer beskrivs i detta arbete. Paralleller dras till arbetsprocessen och dess resultat som projektgruppen har utfört. Vi reflekterar över projektarbetet och arbetsmetodiken utifrån det perspektiv som växt fram under våra år på MDA-programmet. Synsättet bygger bland annat på particpatory design och människa-datorinteraktion där användarmedverkan har en central roll vid utvecklingsprocesser. Vår slutsats visar att utvecklingsprojektet gått miste om flera av de fördelar som arbetsmetodiken XP kan ge. De orsaker som identifierades var: tidsaspekter, tillgång till aktörer och avsaknaden av en tydlig gemensam målbild. / This thesis is a reflection over a software engineering project, WAIS, and the work methodology that has been used within the project. Extreme Programming (XP) was the work methodology used during the process of development. We question if the choice of work methodology is suitable for this kind of project. The project was running by student during spring 2004 at Blekinge Institute of technology (BTH). The project WAIS was a part of a larger project named AIS 42 that runs with funds from VINNOVA. The main projects background and purpose are described in thesis so that the reader can understand the students’ part in the projects as a whole. The students’ main task was to develop a prototype for a system that disseminates information about logistics and transports. The system has many different end users and they come from various organizations that are spread out both physical and organizational. XP is treated as a methodology with in Agile manifesto, which principles are being explained in the thesis. Parallels are being drawn between the work process and the result from the work done. We reflect over the process and the work methodology from a perspective that has been brought forth from our years of education at BTH. The approach is built up upon theories from participatory design and human computer interaction where the user has an essential part of the process of development. The conclusion shows that the project has missed some of the advantages that XP brings. The reasons that we identified were; timeaspects, access to users and the lack of a joint objectiv.

The introduction of new information technology (IT) in an organisation is one way of changing the conditions for how tasks and work processes can be designed and performed, as well as how people in the organisation interact with each other. Today, many Swedish workers rely completely on IT to be able to perform their jobs, while experiencing a combination of continuous and intermittent IT-related changes that affect this ability. The introduction of new or updated IT systems in an organisation is an example of what is referred to as an IT-related change process in this thesis. Because IT has become such an integral part of modern organisations, many change processes in organisations are simultaneously enabled and constrained by the IT systems involved in a change process. In this thesis, I introduce the concept of inertia in sociotechnical systems to analyse IT-related change processes in organisations, and how achieving the goals of these processes is complicated by organisational, social, and physical aspects in addition to technology. The context of this thesis is the Swedish public sector domains of health-care and higher education, and the result of research studies and experiences from four action research projects in these settings. The contribution of this thesis adds to the contributions of the included papers through the definition of inertia in sociotechnical systems and its subsequent application. The thesis shows that the concept of inertia in sociotechnical systems can be used to understand IT-related change processes as changes to the characteristics of a sociotechnical system, and, in the context of organisations, how these processes affect and are affected by an organisation’s characteristics. This is illustrated in the thesis through the application of the concept on examples of IT-related change processes from the included papers and research projects. In addition, the thesis shows that the use of vision seminar methods can benefit Swedish organisations, since new IT is often introduced without clearly defined, expressed, understood, and accepted goals.

This paper reports on an on-line collaborative design project of which the final outcome was a comprehensive, international World-Wide Web database of experts in the field of Instructional Technology as part of a learning task for post-graduate students in the same field. The main objective of the study was to determine the extent to which computer-supported collaborative design without face-to-face contact could be used to create a useful resource in this field. Sub-questions that arose were: How does a computer-supported collaborative design process evolve in an open-ended learning environment? What support could student designers working on a real-life project expect from their peers and experts in the field? How does one judge the success of such a project? What direct benefits can students derive from computer-supported collaborative design? The iterative design process was explored by means of an action research case study methodology. Three sets of issues fundamental to constructivist learning in an open-ended virtual environment came under scrutiny, viz. collaborative and participatory design, computer-mediated collaboration and collaborative learning. lt was found that computer-supported collaborative design could be a highly effective method both of learning and of producing a valuable artefact. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2001. / gm2014 / Education Management and Policy Studies / unrestricted