Redefinition design is a special case of speculative and critical design; it is intended to be used by designers in facing otherwise recalcitrant or refractory design situations. One subject that generates more refractory design situations than most is money. Thus, money will be the vehicle used to derive, articulate and apply the redefinition design methods. The future of money is heavily informed by ideas from its past. In this regard, the services and systems based around money, including industries focused on design, often embody a conservative culture that perpetuates old paradigms onto new technology. In this dissertation, I propose two research questions: RQ1: Paradigm Paralysis – what characterises the underlying assumptions that heavily inform the design and development of money? In the context of investigating the new methods associated with Redefinition Design, we firstly begin to examine and interrogate underlying and often tacit assumptions, taking the specific case of money. Though this question I elucidate the fundamental principles of money, which lie at the core of the longstanding mainstream monetary paradigm. The totality of money is broken down into four main constituents: monetary artefacts, currency systems, monetary mentifacts and finally the functional axioms of money. Revealing these core principles, and analysing them within specific cultural contexts, will inform the methods used in the development of the practical work. RQ2: Paradigm Breakout – What characterises a methodology that can facilitate designers to step beyond the underlying assumptions informing the development of money? This research has yielded strategies that allow the radical re-conception and design of currency systems and monetary artefacts, through the application of a redefinition design approach. The Redefinition Design methods developed in this research enable the designer to identify suitable alternative cultural contexts, such as historic or literary contexts. The methods prompt us to deconstruct these contexts, then reconstruct them with a design proposal that resonates with all cultural levels of the given context. Hence, in the case of entrenched social technologies like money, the resulting Redefinition Design proposals are harmonious with the alternative culture, but incongruous in the context of contemporary culture. These methods do not instigate a paradigm shift but rather a paradigm breakout.

This practice-led PhD explores ‘how highly specialised and innovative new design practice is made accessible to new audiences in the context of the museum’ (AHRC CDA Award call, RCA, 2010). Innovative new design was further specified as ‘highly academic, speculative, critical and experimental, often dealing with new technologies or ways of working, developing design as an agent of social or cultural change.’The call challenged designers to ‘articulate their processes and practices in ways that can be understood by, and influence, the general public.’ This PhD consists of a case study in the form of a six-month residency at the Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A) in 2013, entitled ‘The Department of Seaweed’ (DoS), as well as a design theoretical contextualisation of its framework, methods and outcomes. Among these are insights into how to co-develop design outcomes and knowledge by working with natural resources. This led me to propose a new method for cospeculative design that integrates open ended material exploration and systems level speculation through participatory critical practice in a museum residency. The outlook of design thus shifts from critical speculation towards design for transition, set against the challenges of the 21st century and beyond. The setting for this thesis is the interrelation of the following three subjects: Methods of Making, Transition Design and Museum Residencies. I established the DoS as a community of practice (CoP) around the development of seaweed as a material for making. Our approach connected making, practice-based research and generative material development with participatory methods and speculation — exploring perspectives from critical, speculative and transition design — and enabling multiple, interlinked forms of participation through dialogue, speculation, making and reflection, both on design practice and the museum. The museum, in the context of this PhD, is understood as a public place of sensemaking and knowledge sharing. As a cultural node, both analogue and digitally networked, it enables the community it is embedded within to access its own past. This thesis proposes that by means of resident and mobile CoP, museums also present ideal places for shared knowing, speculation about and actively shaping preferable futures. I propose using museum residencies as public research and development labs for nonnormative practices, enabling participants to develop a field of visions, identify the inherent potentials of a project and link multiple projects up into an infrastructure by growing a community of practice. Museum residencies can be ideal settings for practice-led research projects that are informed by — and inform— the museum and its community and can link up individual ideas and concepts into communities of practice intent on collaborating to pursue the next steps. The thesis also outlines how ethical, value-based frameworks may govern co-operation — particularly important relating to the use of natural resources such as seaweed. Suggest a system of departments in flux for integrated practices, that can dock on and off existing institutions. This PhD is aimed at practitioners who want to engage with a community in a participatory design process or wish to work with natural materials such as seaweed. It is also aimed at theorists engaged or interested in practice-led design research, participation, generative material innovation, museum residencies, reflexive practice in immersive environments and critical- and transition design.

This thesis seeks to answer the primary question as to whether Product Liability Claims are socially desirable by reference to three Product Liability case studies and a survey of 132 archived Product Liability claims. These constitute a representative random sample of Product Liability cases handled by the Author’s Legal Practice. This practice has provided a window through which serious failings are identified in (i) the strict liability based Product Liability Directive; (ii) tort itself as a mechanism for compensating injured persons; and (iii) the procedural infrastructure in which claims are made, as recently reformed in accordance with Lord Justice Jackson’s recommendations. This thesis tests Product Liability claims against the objectives of tort: deterrence; corrective justice; retribution and vindication; distributive justice and compensation. It is found that Product Liability claims fail to meet the defined standard of social desirability. There is nothing special about products to necessitate or justify a bespoke system of liability. Product Liability claims for damages represent in microcosm the broader picture of personal injury claims as a whole. This thesis highlights the failings of a system which relies heavily on gambling upon outcomes; perpetuates a ‘have a go’ culture; rewards the lucky few; builds in an unacceptable element of moral hazard and tolerates and generates the costs of a high volume of claims which serve no practical or legal purpose. It is concluded that 1. The Product Liability Directive was introduced as an emotive response to the Thalidomide tragedy but it would fail to provide a remedy in a similar disaster. Instead it treats sufferers of minor mishaps as victims and contributes to a litigation industry that inculcates in society a false and unnecessary sense of entitlement. 2. The Product Liability Directive should be repealed as a flawed and misconceived piece of legislation that fails to achieve its key goal of protecting consumers and harmonising the law. 3. Support is found in this practical research for much of what Atiyah advocated in his seminal work The Damages Lottery. The possibility of an all-embracing no-fault liability system should be reconsidered subject to strict controls, including thresholds, to ensure that it compensates and rehabilitates only those with genuine needs. 4. A first party insurance market would have to develop to fill the gaps.

We introduce the concept of dot product representations of graphs, giving some motivations as well as surveying the previously known results. We extend these representations to more general fields, looking at the complex numbers, rational numbers, and finite fields. Finally, we study the behavior of dot product representations in field extensions.

<p>Produktnedläggning är ett sätt för företag att få bort produkter som inte presterar tillfredsställande. Tidigare studier har visat att företag med ordentliga rutiner kring produktavveckling har kunnat tillgodogöra sig flera fördelar i form av bland annat bättre lönsamhet och försäljning. Ändå har forskning visat att de flesta företag inte har några formella rutiner för nedläggning av produkter och att produktnedläggning inte ses som lika viktigt som andra produktaktiviteter. Av den anledningen studeras i denna uppsats hur väl utvecklade rutiner två utvalda företag har för avveckling av produkter.</p><p>Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka hur två utvalda företags rutiner för produktnedläggning ser ut. Resultaten jämförs sedan med den teoretiska referensramen samt mellan företagen i fråga för att urskilja likheter och olikheter.</p><p>Till denna uppsats har en kvalitativ metod använts för att klargöra hur företag går tillväga vid nedläggning av produkter. Genom intervjuer med AB Karl Hedin och Spendrups Bryggeri AB har empirisk data samlats in för att möjliggöra jämförelser företagen emellan samt med den teori som sammanställts.    </p><p>De två studerade företagen har helt skilda förfaranden kring produktavvecklingar. Spendrups har en högre grad av formalitet i sina nedläggningsprocesser där hela kedjan från uppkomsten av en produkt till en eventuell avveckling sker i samråd mellan projektledare, företagsledning och produktansvariga. AB Karl Hedin har inga utformade rutiner kring produktavveckling utan hanterar frågan på respektive ort.  Vad som orsakar produktnedläggning hos respektive företag är dålig lönsamhet och försäljning tillsammans med flera andra individuella faktorer.    </p> / <p>Product deletion is a method that companies can use to abandon products that are not performing satisfying. Studies have shown that companies with routines for product elimination have achieved several benefits in terms of higher sales volume and profitability. Nonetheless, research has proved that most companies do not have formal procedures for product deletion and that it is not considered quite as important as other product activities. For that reason, this essay will examine how highly developed the routines for product deletion are in two selected companies.</p><p>The purpose of the study is to observe the procedures for product deletion in two selected companies. The findings will then be compared between companies in the survey and related to the theory to define similarities and differences.</p><p>A qualitative method has been used to clarify how companies proceed when to abandon products. Empirical data has been collected by interviewing AB Karl Hedin and Spendrups Bryggeri AB for comparison to the theory and between the companies in our study in order to distinguish similarities and differences.</p><p>The companies in the study have different routines when it comes to deleting products. Spendrups has a higher level of formality in their elimination procedures where the top management together with project managers and product managers collaborate all the way from the birth of the product to a possible deletion. AB Karl Hedin has no formal routines for product abandonment. These questions are dealt with at each separate district. What cause the companies to eliminate a product are mainly low profitability and sales volume among several individual factors.  </p>

<p><strong>Abstract</strong></p><p><strong>Date:</strong> May 2010</p><p><strong>Program:</strong> International Marketing (Master’s Program)</p><p><strong>Authors:</strong></p><p>Merve Ertekin                                                                 </p><p>Burcak Aydin                                                                  </p><p><strong>Tutor:</strong> Tobias Eltebrandt</p><p><strong>Title:</strong> The Impact of National Identity and Culture on Customer Perception of</p><p>Product Quality; <em>‘The case of mobile phones in Sweden and Turkey’</em></p><p><strong>Problem Statement:</strong> How may culture affect the ‘product quality perception’ of consumers?</p><p><strong>Purpose:</strong> What differences can be observed in ‘product quality perception’ of mobile phones in Sweden and Turkey?</p><p><strong>Method: </strong>A quantitative research has been conducted by using both primary and secondary data. Primary data was gathered from distributing questionnaire to Swedish and Turkish university students and secondary data was collected from books, online resources and articles.</p><p><strong>Conclusion:</strong>  The authors observed that culture and national identity have an inevitable impact on the product quality perception on customers. Comparison between Turkish and Swedish culture for the case of mobile phones’ quality perception indicated that dissimilar norms and values between cultures were defined quality perception differently.</p>

<p>This degree project is on 15 university points which correspond to 10 weeks full time studies. The work has been carried out during autumn term 2007 and spring term 2008. This degree project has been carried out with the cooperation of Etac Supply Center AB who is located in Anderstorp.</p><p>It’s been Etac interest to develop a solution which helps the user of the wheelchair over obstacles. My task has been to develop a concept that solves the problem according to the requirement specification.</p><p>In the rapport the reader can follow the development from an idea to a finished concept. The biggest feature in the work has been to develop a new suggestion in consultation with Etac. The final solution has been dimensioned after the forces that arise at impact. The finished solution has then been manufactured as a full scaled model.</p>

<p>The master degree thesis project, at Halmstad University, was made in cooperation with Hunter Fan, one of the leading fan companies on the American market. Hunter Fan has expressed a desire to become more successful in Europe which gave birth to this assignment. Hunter Fan wanted the team to adapt Hunter’s ceiling fan technology to a ceiling fan for the Scandinavian market. </p><p>The design team put together a tailor made design process based on knowledge achieved from lectures and literature studies, and experience from working with the design process, to best accomplish the assignment. The problem was to re-design a ceiling fan but the team attacked the problem like; how to circulate the air in a room to be able to get a more innovative and visionary result.</p><p>The team started off with a short initial brainstorming before they moved into the analysis and research phase, where they performed a thorough examination about the company, the market, the product, the user, lighting, trends etc. </p><p>A survey was composed for both people who own a ceiling fan and people who does not. Most survey answers expressed that the light function was a lot more used than the fan function. They bought the fan for its functionality but did not think that their fan was particularly aesthetical attractive. </p><p>Sketching and idea generation were a great part of the project. A huge amount of ideas and concepts were evaluated with several methods and refined to finally result in one concept.</p><p>The final conceptual ceiling fan is really slimmed down and highly inspired by Scandinavian design. The final design includes functions, aesthetically aspects, construction issues, light technologies etc. The concept also includes a vision for the control system and the logotype for marketing the ceiling fan in Scandinavia.</p>

No description available.

Produktnedläggning är ett sätt för företag att få bort produkter som inte presterar tillfredsställande. Tidigare studier har visat att företag med ordentliga rutiner kring produktavveckling har kunnat tillgodogöra sig flera fördelar i form av bland annat bättre lönsamhet och försäljning. Ändå har forskning visat att de flesta företag inte har några formella rutiner för nedläggning av produkter och att produktnedläggning inte ses som lika viktigt som andra produktaktiviteter. Av den anledningen studeras i denna uppsats hur väl utvecklade rutiner två utvalda företag har för avveckling av produkter. Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka hur två utvalda företags rutiner för produktnedläggning ser ut. Resultaten jämförs sedan med den teoretiska referensramen samt mellan företagen i fråga för att urskilja likheter och olikheter. Till denna uppsats har en kvalitativ metod använts för att klargöra hur företag går tillväga vid nedläggning av produkter. Genom intervjuer med AB Karl Hedin och Spendrups Bryggeri AB har empirisk data samlats in för att möjliggöra jämförelser företagen emellan samt med den teori som sammanställts.     De två studerade företagen har helt skilda förfaranden kring produktavvecklingar. Spendrups har en högre grad av formalitet i sina nedläggningsprocesser där hela kedjan från uppkomsten av en produkt till en eventuell avveckling sker i samråd mellan projektledare, företagsledning och produktansvariga. AB Karl Hedin har inga utformade rutiner kring produktavveckling utan hanterar frågan på respektive ort.  Vad som orsakar produktnedläggning hos respektive företag är dålig lönsamhet och försäljning tillsammans med flera andra individuella faktorer. / Product deletion is a method that companies can use to abandon products that are not performing satisfying. Studies have shown that companies with routines for product elimination have achieved several benefits in terms of higher sales volume and profitability. Nonetheless, research has proved that most companies do not have formal procedures for product deletion and that it is not considered quite as important as other product activities. For that reason, this essay will examine how highly developed the routines for product deletion are in two selected companies. The purpose of the study is to observe the procedures for product deletion in two selected companies. The findings will then be compared between companies in the survey and related to the theory to define similarities and differences. A qualitative method has been used to clarify how companies proceed when to abandon products. Empirical data has been collected by interviewing AB Karl Hedin and Spendrups Bryggeri AB for comparison to the theory and between the companies in our study in order to distinguish similarities and differences. The companies in the study have different routines when it comes to deleting products. Spendrups has a higher level of formality in their elimination procedures where the top management together with project managers and product managers collaborate all the way from the birth of the product to a possible deletion. AB Karl Hedin has no formal routines for product abandonment. These questions are dealt with at each separate district. What cause the companies to eliminate a product are mainly low profitability and sales volume among several individual factors.