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The increase in competition amongst companies that produce complex or large product portfolios has created a need to utilise modularity strategies not only to flexibly manage technical complexity in a costeffective manner but also for visual appearance. This research aims to understand how the visual appearance of products is affected by modular product development strategies. Specifically, the aim is to understand how such strategies induce constraints and generate possibilities for management of visual appearance in the design process. Five studies have been conducted during the course of this licentiate thesis. Two were conducted with professionals and students in design, while the remaining three are theoretical studies based on findings in the literature, theory building, and experimental research. The goal has been to investigate how designers work when they are put to the task of changing and developing the designs of complex products that are part of a portfolio. The challenge has been to study what suitable strategies exist that manage complex products and product brands, then investigate how these influence designers’ practices. The first study examined how coherence towards a product category influences the design of new products. The outcome of the study was a method to explore visual coherence and diversity in the appearance of a product category. The remaining four studies investigated how modularity, brand management and the redesign of product portfolios influence a design process. The second study described a design phenomenon known as aesthetic flexibility, which was further explored in studies three and five. The outcome from these studies was a proposal for four aesthetic flexibility strategies. The fourth study investigated in what way portfolio extension strategies found in brand management and design research are related, and how such strategies influence aesthetic flexibility. The results from study four were illustrated as a model. The main contribution of this work is the phenomenon of ‘aesthetic flexibility’, which helps understand the factors that influence designers when working with branded modular products. Understanding visual flexibility serves as a starting point in further investigations of how different development strategies affect the possibilities for visual product design. The findings of this work serve to illustrate and explain a complex and multi-facetted design phenomenon which many designers manage more or less intuitively today, thus advancing academics’, teachers’ and professional designers’ understanding of the field.

The purpose of this study is to tell the story of how four peer helpers within the Unisa Peer Help Volunteer Programme managed their portfolio development processes to monitor their growth and development which took place as a result of their involvement in peer helper activities. The epistemological framework of this study is interpretive and involved in-depth interviews with four peer helpers who rendered volunteer services at the University of South Africa and have been developing their career portfolios over a period of time. Hermeneutics was the method used to analyse the data. The stories of the four participants were transcribed and retold by the researcher in the form of themes that emerged. This study contained the stories of how the participants initially struggled to understand the concept and purpose of portfolios; how they took charge of the process; and how their attitudes changed from uncertainty and confusion to viewing the process as worthwhile - thus enabling them to commit themselves, to varying degrees, to the development of their individual portfolios. Recurring themes present in all four stories were described in the researcher's story of the participants' stories. The information generated by this study could serve as guidelines for not only peer helpers interested in developing their own portfolios, but also for project leaders involved in the management of peer helper groups and who plan to implement portfolios in their programmes. / Psychology / M.A. (Psychology)

The purpose of this study is to tell the story of how four peer helpers within the Unisa Peer Help Volunteer Programme managed their portfolio development processes to monitor their growth and development which took place as a result of their involvement in peer helper activities. The epistemological framework of this study is interpretive and involved in-depth interviews with four peer helpers who rendered volunteer services at the University of South Africa and have been developing their career portfolios over a period of time. Hermeneutics was the method used to analyse the data. The stories of the four participants were transcribed and retold by the researcher in the form of themes that emerged. This study contained the stories of how the participants initially struggled to understand the concept and purpose of portfolios; how they took charge of the process; and how their attitudes changed from uncertainty and confusion to viewing the process as worthwhile - thus enabling them to commit themselves, to varying degrees, to the development of their individual portfolios. Recurring themes present in all four stories were described in the researcher's story of the participants' stories. The information generated by this study could serve as guidelines for not only peer helpers interested in developing their own portfolios, but also for project leaders involved in the management of peer helper groups and who plan to implement portfolios in their programmes. / Psychology / M.A. (Psychology)

This study centres on curriculum development for a master craftsman level in the Printing, Newspaper and Packaging Industries which is didactically sound and takes cognisance of the dynamic vocational education and training milieu in which it occurs. Curriculum and curriculum development is viewed from a systems perspective and incorporates the specific andragogic didactic needs of the learner target group as well as the unique needs of an industrial sector. Because the National Qualification Framework model advocates an outcomes-based approach to curriculum development this necessitated the identification of a suitable standards generating process to articulate the master craftsman unit standards into a qualification capable of being recognised by the National Qualification Framework. The nature and complexity of the underpinning knowledge, skills and competencies for the master craftsman level were quantified and qualified by means of skills and competency profiling and the development of a job outcome taxonomy of skills, knowledge and attributes which incorporated critical cross field and fundamental skills, and their underpinning knowledge requirements. Using aspects ofvarious vocational education and training models and empirical research course content was sourced, evaluated and developed into appropriate modules of learning that are congruent with the accepted competency based modular training system used in the Industries. Course maps that integrate theory and practice were developed with multi skilling milestones linked to learner certification. Evaluation of resources for the delivery of the Master Craftsman Programme was facilitated by means of a provider quality assessment and accreditation system. The interactive teaching-learning situation and the evaluation processes and procedures were developed to enhance the assessment of applied competencies in the world of work. A pilot study and unit standards generating activities are to be used as a means of implementing and institutionalising the master craftsman curriculum. The findings of this study revealed that by viewing the curriculum from a systems perspective and using a suitable curriculum development model a creative master craftsman curriculum development process could take place. The competency profiling technique and taxonomy of competencies, skills, knowledge and attributes enabled the curriculum process to be a top-down approach which is outcomes-based. / Didactics / D.Ed. (Didactics)

This study centres on curriculum development for a master craftsman level in the Printing, Newspaper and Packaging Industries which is didactically sound and takes cognisance of the dynamic vocational education and training milieu in which it occurs. Curriculum and curriculum development is viewed from a systems perspective and incorporates the specific andragogic didactic needs of the learner target group as well as the unique needs of an industrial sector. Because the National Qualification Framework model advocates an outcomes-based approach to curriculum development this necessitated the identification of a suitable standards generating process to articulate the master craftsman unit standards into a qualification capable of being recognised by the National Qualification Framework. The nature and complexity of the underpinning knowledge, skills and competencies for the master craftsman level were quantified and qualified by means of skills and competency profiling and the development of a job outcome taxonomy of skills, knowledge and attributes which incorporated critical cross field and fundamental skills, and their underpinning knowledge requirements. Using aspects ofvarious vocational education and training models and empirical research course content was sourced, evaluated and developed into appropriate modules of learning that are congruent with the accepted competency based modular training system used in the Industries. Course maps that integrate theory and practice were developed with multi skilling milestones linked to learner certification. Evaluation of resources for the delivery of the Master Craftsman Programme was facilitated by means of a provider quality assessment and accreditation system. The interactive teaching-learning situation and the evaluation processes and procedures were developed to enhance the assessment of applied competencies in the world of work. A pilot study and unit standards generating activities are to be used as a means of implementing and institutionalising the master craftsman curriculum. The findings of this study revealed that by viewing the curriculum from a systems perspective and using a suitable curriculum development model a creative master craftsman curriculum development process could take place. The competency profiling technique and taxonomy of competencies, skills, knowledge and attributes enabled the curriculum process to be a top-down approach which is outcomes-based. / Didactics / D.Ed. (Didactics)