The study is aimed at the development of a Practice Model for Private Practice Management in Social work. It is evident from the literature that no practice model for private practice management exists, peculiar to the nature and modus operandi of Social work. A further problem is that the knowledge base of Social work is often derived and adopted from other professions and disciplines to address problem areas in Social work private practice. The problem lies far deeper. The lack of a practice model for private practice management also implies the lack of guidelines on how to employ social workers within the field of private practice. Poor remuneration and socio-economic change in the external environment put financial and emotional pressure on the social worker, which causes him to leave the social work profession. With reference to the above mentioned the researcher developed a practise model for private practice management in Social work to an extend that the content nature and magnitude of private practice is being familiarised and utilised in practice through this practise model. In order to reach this goal, a theoretical frame of reference for private practice management in Social work is created, the profile of existing private practices in South Africa is explored, a practice model for private practice management is developed through the intervention research model and the developed practice model's value is evaluated through focus groups consisting of private practitioners. Interdependent herewith all relevant concepts, principles, processes and elements as components of a practice model is investigated in both the field of social work and economic and management sciences. From the economic and management science a distinction is made between aspects applicable within entrepreneurship and management to private practice management. Based on a comprehensive literature study the practice model is developed and supported by a secondary data analysis from the national databank of the South African Social Workers in Private Practice. The utilisation value of the developed model is evaluated through three separate focus groups consisting of social workers in private practice. The qualitative data analysed through this process is carefully incorporated into a final practice model. Conclusions and recommendations as a result of the research process conclude the study. Copyright 2004, University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. Please cite as follows: Bloem, CHM 2004, 'n Praktykmodel vir privaatpraktykbestuur in maatskaplike werk (Afrikaans), PhD thesis, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, viewed yymmdd < http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-12152006-111832 / > / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Social Work and Criminology / Unrestricted

User Experience Engineering (UxE) incorporates subject areas like usability, HCI, interaction experience, interaction design, "human factors", ergonomics", cognitive psychology", behavioral psychology and psychometrics", systems engineering", [and] "computer science," (Hartson, 1998). It has been suggested that UxE will be the main success factor in organizations as we enter the "loyalty decade" of software development, where the repeat usage of a product by a single customer will be the metric of product success (Alghamdi, 2010; Law & van Schaik, 2010, p. 313; Nielsen, 2008; Van Schaik & Ling, 2011). What is relatively unknown in the current academic literature is whether existing UxE methodologies are effective or not when placed in a longitudinal research context (Law & van Schaik, 2010). There is room for the exploration of the effects of long-term UxE practices in a real-world case study scenario. The problem, addressed in this study, is that a lack of the application of UxE-related processes and practices with an industrial partner had resulted in customer dissatisfaction and a loss of market share. A three-year case study was performed during which 10 UxE-related metrics were gathered and analyzed to measure the improvements in the design of the customer's experience that long-term UxE practices could bring to a small corporate enterprise. The changes that occurred from the corporate and customer's point of view were analyzed as the customer's experience evolved throughout this long-term UxE study. Finally, an analysis of the problems and issues that arose in the implementation of UxE principles during the application of long-term UxE processes was performed. First-hand training between the research team and company employees proved essential to the success of this project. Although a long-term UxE process was difficult to implement within the existing development practices of the industrial partner, a dramatic increase in customer satisfaction and customer engagement with the company system was found. UxE processes led to increased sales rates and decreased development costs in the long-term. All 10 metrics gathered throughout this study showed measurable improvements after long-term UxE processes and practices were adopted by the industrial partner.