This thesis addresses design and development associated problems identified within theplatform-game genre. The problem described originates from the fluctuating curve ofinterest towards the platform-game genre that can be observed between the 1980’s andtoday. The problem stated in this thesis is that modern platform-game developers mayoften overlook and –or deprioritize important design and gameplay related componentsthat we find reoccurring in previously popular games within the genre.This thesis strives to address such problems by decomposing the developmentprocess of a platform game into a light framework titled Implementation categories. Allincluded categories represent a set of design and development related platform-gamecomponents – primarily identified through previous research in the field. In order tocreate an understanding of each category’s complexity - as well as account for thepossibilities to use the categories as a guideline when developing a platform game - aprototype game was developed. The Implementation categories included in theprototype was then measured with a set of software complexity metrics. This thesis willmotivate and explain the selection of implementation categories, account for the usageof software complexity metrics as well as present a detailed documentation of theprototype development.The result of this thesis is a thorough presentation of the Implementation categories -attached with complexity examples for each category as well as a complete gameprototype. The complete results of this thesis will hopefully be of assistance in smallscale,independent or academic game projects in regard of design, decision making,prioritization and time planning.

Réalisant un croisement de regards entre l’Europe et l’Amérique Latine, cette thèse étudie le caractère d’un nouveau type de voie - le boulevard - qui a été redéfini à l’occasion des travaux d’Haussmann à Paris et s’est transformé tout au long de ce dernier siècle et demi. Un nouveau type de boulevard s’affirme ainsi au cours du XXe siècle, caractérisé par une répartition de la chaussée favorisant l’ordonnancement des différentes formes de mobilité en couloirs réservés par fonctions (piétons, vélos, bus, voitures). Ce nouveau boulevard est aussi le reflet d’une stéréotypie dans le projet de la voirie résultant d’un aménagement davantage techniciste de l’infrastructure. Il fait référence à des espaces qui adoptent et adaptent des modèles exogènes sans vraiment réussir à produire des configurations urbaines en accord avec les caractéristiques paysagères identitaires des villes, tout en créant des espaces de voirie fragmentés. Au XXIe siècle, cette configuration a été renforcée par l’introduction des nouveaux dispositifs de bus (BSP, BRT, BHNS). Les exemples du boulevard Magenta à Paris transformé en "espace civilisé" et de la avenida de las Américas à Cali avec l’implantation du BRT MIO illustrent cette problématique. / Taking into account different perspectives from Europe and Latin America through a crossing view methodology, we have studied the birth and transformation of a new type of boulevard developed since Haussmann. This boulevard derives from a roadbed distribution favoring the organization of various forms of mobility into dedicated corridors according to their function (pedestrians, bicycles, buses, cars). It also reflects a form of stereotyping in the urban project, contributing to an even more technical street planning. It refers to a road space pretending to adopt and adapt exogenous models without really succeeding on producing urban configurations in accordance with the city’s particular landscape, whilst creating fragmented road spaces. In the 21st century, this composition has been reinforced by the introduction of new bus devices (own-site bus service, BRT, BHLS). The example of the Magenta Boulevard in Paris transformed into a civilized space and the las Américas avenue in Cali with the introduction of the MIO BRT illustrate this issue.

Abstract The concept design of small handheld electronic and telecommunication devices is a creative and dynamic process. Interaction between the designers plays an important role in the creation of new products. This thesis addresses the communication between product concept designers. The aim of this thesis is to examine new ways of developing computer systems for remote collaboration. Multiple research methods have been used so as to enrich the view of the research subject. Product concept design has been studied in field studies and at co-located concept design workshops where the object of design was uncertain. Co-located workshops were organised to examine the moment to moment interaction between designers to discover how designers collaborate when designing a design object in common. By applying the concepts of activity theory, the concept of instrument is elaborated. Four types of instruments to mediate between a designer and the object of design and collaborating designers are identified. These are the instruments used to externalize an understanding of the design object, the concrete means of interaction, the future artefact and the hypothetical user activity. The latter two make up the design object which designers' strive for, and can also be instruments for scaffolding each other. A conceptual model was developed to describe the design action and the instruments for collaboration. This model was used to gain insight into the creation of computer support for remotely collaborating designers by posing questions for computer systems design. To develop computer systems to support designers in remote collaboration, an understanding of both the requirements set by the field and the technological feasibility is needed. Three application prototypes are presented as proof of the concept and as an experiment with virtual prototyping technology. The concept of design action has been defined on the basis of activity theory. Computer-supported geographically distributed workshops have been organised and analysed using the design action as an analytical tool for the research material. I conclude that, in order to support remote collaboration of concept designers, computer systems should support collaborative construction of the object of design. Instruments, such as the future artefact, its various representations and the conceptual construct of hypothetical user activity are potential instruments for computation.

M.Tech. (Industrial Design) / This study investigated the user’s perspective with reference to the regular use of the WonderbagTM retained-heat cooker in low-income communities in a South African context. This research addresses the limitations of the literature available to support the investigation of the design of a fabric retained-heat cooker from a user’s perspective. As with the WonderbagTM retained-heat cooker, products aimed at underserved low-income communities are often designed without the participation of the end-user. This research focuses on the user’s experience of the fabric retained-heat cooker and seeks to include the user in the process of improving the design of these products. Participatory action research and user-centred design were utilised as the chosen methodologies for this study. The history of retained-heat cookers has been reflected upon when considering the use of insulation materials and alternative fabric improvements. Methods of manufacture, material cost and usage have been considered as critical elements of the design process as well as the skill level of the existing users. Participants indicated their personal interest in the design and development of the prototype retained-heat cooker. They were intensively involved in the design process from the focus group discussion where their perceptions were elicited, right through to their testing of the final prototype. A final workshop concluded the last of three workshops where participants provided individual feedback in terms of their personal experiences of using the prototype retained-heat cooker. Participants were able to selectively customise their prototypes, which brought about a sense of ownership and pride that was not evident in their use of previous retained-heat cookers. Participants indicated personal interest in creating their own retained-heat cookers from the experience that they acquired during the research process. As a result of this experience, the participants believed that they could manufacture their own retained-heat cookers to sell within their community, which could provide income for themselves and other members of their community. The saving of energy in terms of the fuel required to complete the cooking process translated into a direct saving of money, which was highlighted as a recurring theme and identified benefit of retained-heat cooking. By encouraging the use of energy-efficient retained-heat cookers, low-income communities could directly benefit from spending less on fuel costs and more on other essentials.

Aus der Einleitung: "An zukünftige intralogistische Systeme werden hohe Anforderungen in Bezug auf Dynamik und Flexibilität gestellt. In Verbindung mit dem übergeordneten Ziel ressourceneffiziente und klimaschonende Prozesse zu entwickeln sind innovative Lösungsansätze gefordert. Die Entwicklung eines schnellen Regalbediengerätes auf Basis der Steward-Gough-Plattform soll u. a. durch die Minimierung der zu bewegenden Massen diesen Anforderungen gerecht werden. Hiervon profitieren vor allem Flexibilität und Prozesszeiten. Das Vorhaben ist eingegliedert in ein Förderprogramm unter der Leitung des EffizienzCluster Logistik Ruhr (ECLR), welches sich u. a. mit der Bedeutung und den Potentialen der Logistik im urbanen Umfeld beschäftigt."

Earthquake safety engineering of nuclear power plant structures poses several challenges to the analyst and designer. These problems are characterized by highly transient and dynamic nature of earthquake induced excitations, random nature of details of support motions (in terms of duration, frequency content, amplitude modulation, multiple components, and spatial variability), nonlinear nature of structural behavior, geometrical complexity of the primary and a large number of secondary systems (such as, for example, piping, rotors, and machine panels), soil-structure interactions, demands on high level of safety expected of these structures, and general paucity of recorded data on strong ground motions appropriate for the given site. Probabilistic methods offer the most rational framework to base design decisions for this class of problems. The work reported in the present thesis belongs to this broad area of research. We focus attention on studying two classes of nuclear power plant components, namely, a pipework in the heat exchanger segment, and, control and safety rod drive mechanism (CSRDM) and investigate their performance by taking into account complicating features such as differential seismic support motions across multiple supports, nonlinearities at support locations, random nature of dynamic loads and uncertainties in system parameters. Response measures include peak responses, reliability against specified performance criterion, measures of uncertainties in response variables of interest. Chapter-1 provides the functional details of nuclear power plant structures that includes reactor assembly and heat transport system assembly, CSRDM, heat transfer piping networks, and nonlinear supporting devices (such as rod, spring, guide supports, limiters, and snubbers). The discussion brings out the structural mechanics issues that need attention while analyzing seismic response of some of these components. Chapter-2 provides a brief review of literature covering the following topics: Monte Carlo simulation based methods for static and dynamic reliability analysis problems, digital simulation of random variables and processes, treatment of non-Gaussianity in simulations, strategies for variance reduction, models for uncertainty in response using limited samples, data based extreme value analysis, studies on multi-supported piping networks under differential seismic inputs and seismic performance of CRDM structures. The study identifies specific issues related to numerical simulation of nonlinear dynamic response of multisupported pipeworks to differential seismic inputs, uncertainty propagation and reliability modeling in seismic response of pipeworks and CSRDM using Monte Carlo simulations with variance reduction, data based extreme value analysis, and uncertainty propagation using limited samples as topics requiring further research. The problems of numerical simulation of nonlinear multisupported piping systems subjected to differential seismic support motions and drop time characterization of CSRDM structure during a seismic event are considered in Chapter-3. It is noted that commercially available professional finite element analysis (FEA) softwares do not offer a direct means to tackle this class of problems. On the other hand, FEA packages are best suited to produce acceptable FE models which take into account the geometrical complexities of the structures. Thus, the reasonable way to move forward would be to develop external interfaces that take advantage of FE modeling capabilities of professional packages and at the same time enable treatment of complexities associated with differential support motions, nonlinearities and axial rigid motions of subsystems as in CSRDM. The work reported in Chapter-3 describes the efforts expended in achieving this objective. Here the given built-up structure is divided in to a set of linear substructures each of which are modeled using FE analysis procedures. The proposed scheme allows for these FE models to reside in professional FE analysis codes. An iterative time domain scheme for modeling the interaction forces between these substructures is discussed. The set of governing equations of motion are developed in terms of normal modes of substructures in their uncoupled states. A suite of benchmark problems are first employed to validate the procedure developed. Subsequently, the earthquake induced dynamic response of CSRDM structure and the pipeline running between IHX and secondary sodium pump in a typical fast breeder reactor is simulated. The algorithm for simulation of dynamic response of CSRDM and multi-supported pipelines under differential support motions developed in Chapter-3 is employed in Chapter-4 to investigate the questions concerning influence of uncertainties in specifying the loads and the system parameters on the system response. Specifically, the study focuses on quantifying uncertainty in system response characteristics based on limited number of Monte Carlo simulations of the response. For this purpose we draw upon an earlier work by Wilks which specifies the number of samples needed to estimate γ th percentile point of a random variable with β level of confidence. We explore in this Chapter, the application of this idea in the analysis of nonlinear, randomly parametered, dynamical systems under stochastic excitations. In Chapter-5 we turn our attention to the modeling of aseismic reliability of the nonlinear pipework under differential support motions and the CSRDM structure. The performance functions considered for the piping structure are in terms of highest displacements and stresses over a specified time durations while for CSRDM, the performance function is in terms of scram time being less than a specified time duration. We tackle the first problem by using theory of data based extreme value analysis while the second problem is addressed using an adaptive importance sampling strategy. The contributions here pertain to the exploration of data based extreme values analysis as applied to an industrial scale structure and improvisation of algorithmic modifications in the development of adaptive importance sampling density functions. This improvisation consists of selection of sampling points as a judicious mix of points from both safe and unsafe regions. This is shown to reduce the strong correlations that otherwise would be present if samples are taken only from the unsafe region. These studies demonstrate how Monte Carlo simulations with limited samples can be utilized to draw useful conclusions on structural reliability. Chapter-6 summarizes the main contributions made in the thesis and makes a few suggestions for further research. There are five annexures in the thesis. Annexure-1 contains listing of Matlab m-files used for solving illustrative problems in Chapter-2. The details of FE modeling of multisupported system under differential support motions and the details of substructuring scheme used in modeling of such systems with local nonlinearities are provide in Annexure-2. The details of material and geometry of CSRDM structure are provided in Annexure-3. Annexure-4 summarizes the main details of hypothesis tests used in data based extreme value analysis. The algorithms used for converting response spectra into compatible power spectral density functions are described in Annexure-5.

This study looks at creating a mobile application prototype of Faculty of Management of University of Economics Prague. The theoretical section discusses the digital product design process, the particularities of the mobile user interface and general cognitive theory. In the practical section, personas and product functional requirements are modelled using user research. The key application structure is designed on the basis of these requirements and cases of use. Finally, an interactive prototype is created and the most important parts of the application are refined using visual design.

L’objet de ces travaux de recherche est de recueillir auprès de clients leur appréciation et leurs ressentis, traduits par des attributs de produit, face à une innovation en cours de conception, c’est-à-dire sans la totalité des informations sensorielles et fonctionnelles normalement disponibles sur un produit fini.Les deux objectifs principaux sont de prendre en compte les avis des clients tôt dans le processus de conception d’une innovation et de pouvoir comparer plusieurs innovations entre elles ou une même innovation à plusieurs stades de développement, en vue d’aider la prise de décisions des concepteurs et des décideurs.Afin de répondre à ces objectifs, plusieurs démarches méthodologiques sont réalisées et vérifiées :• En vue de compenser le manque de caractéristiques sensorielles et fonctionnelles d’une représentation intermédiaire d’une innovation, nous avons mis en place un « descriptif sensoriel »,• En vue de faciliter les comparaisons d’évaluations de produit, nous avons mis en place un questionnaire standard d’évaluation des avis clients. En effet, sur la base d’une recherche bibliographique des attributs de produit de qualités hédonique et pragmatique intervenant dans l’évaluation d’un produit, nous avons créé une liste d’affirmations à noter,• En vue de valider ces outils méthodologiques, nous avons réalisé une démarche comparative de plusieurs jalons ou stades de développement. Au total, nous avons réalisé six évaluations clients d’une même innovation à différents jalons du processus de conception auprès de 302 évaluateurs.Les résultats d’évaluation obtenus sont ensuite étudiés et comparés. Le but est de valider la construction du descriptif sensoriel et du questionnaire et d’apporter nos conclusions quant à l’évaluation de représentations intermédiaires à différents stades du processus de conception.Le questionnaire standard d’évaluation nécessite d’être affiné mais permet déjà de s’enquérir d’attributs de qualités hédonique et pragmatique d’un produit du point de vue des clients. Le descriptif sensoriel facilite la projection des clients vers ce que sera le futur produit. / The purpose of this research is to obtain the appraisal and feelings of customers, translated by product attributes, about an innovative product during its design process, i.e. without all the sensory and functional features available like for a finished product. Two main goals are to inquire the customers’ ways of thinking early in the design process and to compare several products themselves or the same product at different stages in the process. The objective is to help the designers and managers decision.To meet these goals, we realized and checked several methodological approaches:• To offset the lack of sensory and functional features of an innovation’s prototype, we created a “sensorial brochure”,• To facilitate the product assessments’ comparison, we created a standard questionnaire to inquire customers. In fact, with a bibliographic research of the hedonic and pragmatic attributes involved in the assessment of a product, we created a list of statements,• To validate these methodological tools, we realized a comparative approach at several milestones or stages of the design process. In total, we realized six customers’ assessments at different stages of the design process with 302 respondents.Then we studied and compared the assessments’ results. The aim is to validate the construction of the sensorial brochure and the questionnaire and to conclude from the innovation’s prototype assessments at different stages of the design process. The questionnaire needs to be improved but it has already permitted to inquire the customers on their hedonic and pragmatic attributes in front of a product. The sensorial brochure helps customers to imagine the future product.

This project is a master theses in Industrial Design Engineering written during the autumn of 2017 at Luleå University of Technology and Liko-Hill-Rom in Alvik, Luleå. Liko Hill-Rom is a world-leading company that manufactures and develops patient lifts, slings, mobile lifts, etc. to customers around the world. Liko’s Ovearhead lift system is a system used for lifting and moving disabled people, for example at homes for the elderly, schools and habilitation, hospitals or at home.This project is a development process that concerns the vertical support in Liko Hill-Rom’s Overhead System. The vertical supports are the part that attaches the entire overhead system to the ceiling and our task has been to create a new or developed concept on today’s vertical support. Since these vertical supports are attached to a rail, we needed to create a good interface between these two parts. In order to achieve this, we have collaborated with another group whose task has been to develop the rails in this Overhead. Today, Liko Hill-Rom’s Overhead Lift system is a major part of Liko Hill-Rom’s product portfolio, which is in need of improvements, especially the vertical supports, in order to meet customer and business needs.The goal of our project has been to deliver a smarter and more cost-effective solution of the vertical supports and at the same time maintaining the same reliability as today’s system. Liko Hill-Rom’s current assortment consists of many different variants of vertical supports. By reducing the number of these, can contribute to a more profitable concept “one that fits all”, which will make the design and installation more rapid.The project process was based on a Stage-gate process which is influenced from Liko Hill-Rom’s internal guidelines for a product development process. The stakeholders is based on users and experts in the field and these have been involved in the project process to ensure a good design for all. The project has also been built on a number of scientific theories such as ergonomics, semiotics, affordance and usability, to ensure that the result of the project was based with scientific support.Throughout the process different design methods have been performed, in order to create a concept that fulfills the needs and requirements from our stakeholders. We have for instances created full-scale prototypes in order to develop, evaluate and improve our concept throughout this project. In order to ensure that this concept could withstand the load requirements that Liko Hill-Rom´s product requires, we also perform both mathematical and finite element calculations.The result is a new concept that will replace all 9 adjustable vertical support included in the Liko Hill-Rom system today. The design of the new concept will be considerably more flexible because the majority of the components will be universal. This means that our created concept will be more cost-effective compared to today’s vertical support.

Diploma thesis is devoted to tractor cabin's suspension. First part of the work consists of the overview of used suspension designs and their various modifications. Next, law requirements for roll-over protective structure are described. Subsequently, the suspension design for small-sized tractor is explored. Law compliance is revised via ROPS procedure simulation using finite element method. In the last part of the work, virtual prototype of agricultural tractor in Multi-body environment is built and it is used for studying the dynamic characteristics of proposed cabin suspension design.