It was Thomas Babington Macaulay who once stated that “… logicians may reason about abstractions. But the great mass of men must have images”. Recent research on visualization within the manufacturing industry has been focusing around the notion of how to improve performance measures, such as the effectiveness and efficiency of completing a task. Consequently, this led to the dimension of user experience in regard to a visualization becoming relatively neglected. Furthermore, it is mentioned that concepts which are created based on how they are perceived by the customer, have shown to be of significance when creating customer value. Consequently, the purpose of this thesis was to shine light on both of the dimensions of visualization, user performance and user experience, and to study their influence on customer perceived value (CPV) in a business-to-business (B2B) relationship.This thesis was designed as a single case study of a Swedish low-volume, process oriented manufacturing company. Moreover, the case study included two units of analysis, representing current clients involved in two different projects with the company at which the case study was conducted. It is stated that one of the application areas of visualization lies in communication and it can be utilized in order to effectively convey certain information. The information which was in focus in the focal study was the information which is collected during quality control activities performed during the manufacturing process.The findings of the thesis suggest that certain aspects of visualization can have an influence on the functional and emotional dimensions of CPV in a B2B relationship. The conceptually proposed model provides an expanded view on the dimensions of visualization and helps to demonstrate how they stand in relation to the dimensions of CPV, as well as the dimensions used to measure relationship strength in a B2B context. Hereby, the evidence collected during the case study demonstrates that certain relationships between visualization and CPV are suggested to be eminent empirically as well. Thus, suggesting that visualization is an important factor to consider for practitioners in their communication with the customer. / Det var Thomas Babington Macaulay som en gång sa att ”… logiker må resonera kring abstrakta koncept. Den stora massan dock behöver bilder”. Senaste forskningen kring visualisering inom tillverkningsindustrin har fokuserat kring hur man kan utöka användarnas prestanda genom att mäta effektiviteten av nyckeltal så som precisionen av en utfört arbetsuppgift och tiden det tar att utföra uppgiften. Det har således lett till att den andra dimensionen av visualiseringar som syftar på användarnas upplevelse har blivit relativt försummad. Därutöver har det visats att för att skapa värde för kunden bör utvecklaren av ett koncept ha i åtanke hur konceptet uppfattas av kunden. Följaktligen är syftet med det här arbetet att belysa båda aspekterna av visualisering, användarens prestanda och upplevelse, för att studera hur dessa påverkar kundens uppfattade värde (KUV) i ett business-to-business (B2B) förhållande.Examensarbetet var upplagt som en fallstudie på ett svenskt process-orienterad tillverkningsföretag som producerar i låga volymer. Dessutom inkluderade fallstudien två av företagets klienter som är involverade i två olika pågående projekt med det företaget som var del av fallstudien. Ett utav områden inom vilka visualiseringar kan appliceras ligger inom kommunikation och litteraturen har därutöver påvisat att visualiseringar kan användas för att effektivt förmedla information. Informationen som var i fokus under fallstudien är den information som genereras i samband med kvalitetskontrollsaktiviteterna som genomförs under tillverkningsprocessen.Resultatet av examensarbetet antyder att visualisering kan ha en påverkan på den funktionella och emotionella dimensionen av KUV i ett B2B förhållande. Den teoretiskt föreslagna modellen expanderar dagens perspektiv på båda aspekterna av visualisering samt demonstrerar hur dessa aspekter står i relation till dimensionerna kopplade till KUV. Dessutom visas hur visualisering kan påverka de dimensionerna som används för att mäta relationsstyrka i en B2B miljö. Den empiriska data som samlades in som del av fallstudien hjälpte att antyda att vissa relationer mellan visualisering och KUV även kan fastställas i praktiken. Detta indikerar således att visualisering är en viktig faktor för företag att ta hänsyn till i deras kommunikation med kunden.

Denna avhandling undersökte förhållandet mellan urbana attribut och upplevd livlighet och dess effekt på kvinnors upplevda säkerhet. Med utgångspunkt i teorier om naturlig övervakning [6] och vikten av att ha andra människor närvarande för att öka kvinnors säkerhet [17], utvärderades fysiska gatuattribut som förutspåddes öka miljöns livlighet. Totalt deltog 27 kvinnor i åldrarna 22-31 i utvärderingen av upplevd säkerhet vid 16 stads gatuhörn genom en två-alternativ tvångsvalsmetod i en virtuell miljö. Valen gjordes två gånger för varje hörn och gatorna visades i en manuellt randomiserad ordning. Resultaten visar en hierarki av attribut på gatunivå som påverkar den upplevda säkerheten mer än fasader med fönster på grund av deras större inverkan på livligheten, och fönster visar sig vara viktigare än grönska. Förutom att bekräfta tidigare forskning visar studien också att människor inte behöver vara närvarande för att en miljö ska uppfattas som levande, eftersom attribut som bilar, kaféer, busshållplatser och fönster fungerar som substitut för mänsklig aktivitet och närvaro. / This thesis explored urban street attributes relationship with perceived liveliness and its effect on women’s perceived safety. Drawing on theories of natural surveillance [6] and the importance of having other humans present for women’s increased safety [17], the study evaluated physical street attributes that predicted to increase the liveliness of an urban environment were evaluated. 27 females aged 22-31 participated in evaluating the perceived safety of 16 urban street corners using a two-alternative forced-choice method in a virtual reality environment. The choices were made twice for each corner, with the streets displayed in a manually randomized order. Findings reveal a hierarchy of street-level attributes affecting perceived safety more than windowed facades due to its greater impact on liveliness, and windows being more important than greenery. Along with confirming previous research, it is also found that people do not need to be present for an environment to be perceived as lively as attributes like cars, cafes, bus stops and windows serve as proxies for human activity and presence of others.

Sustainable consumption is seen as a crucial political issue on the global agenda by politicians, the scientific community, and citizens who are worried about unsustainable consumption. However, several studies have shown that some consumers with "green" values do not consume sustainably – there is often a gap between attitude and behavior. One explanation is that the commitment to sustainable consumption is discouraged by barriers to action. For example, the supply of sustainable goods may be inadequate or the products too expensive. Such goods may be perceived as ineffective in their purpose to promote sustainable development, or perhaps it is believed that there are not enough other people who consume sustainably to make the individual effort worthwhile. However, some studies have indicated that there are also "reverse gaps". That is, there are people who are not particularly motivated to engage in sustainable consumption, but who do so anyway. The study examines why consumers sometimes engage in sustainable consumption (operationalized as a choice of environmental and Fairtrade certified products) but do not at other times. Research questions include which individual prerequisites (motivation and resources) are important for sustainable consumption, how they are distributed among citizens in Sweden, and finally whether perceived opportunities for sustainable consumption can form not only barriers but also "bridges" for engagement and how these are formed. The latter could explain the "reverse gaps" mentioned above. The author builds on the discussion about the challenges that sustainable development poses for the concept of citizenship. Researchers argue that sustainable development requires a transformation of traditional citizenship theory into a "sustainable citizenship". This is not limited by nation-state borders, takes into account past and future generations, and is open to the idea that responsibility-taking can, and sometimes should, be carried out in the private sphere. The dissertation is based on quantitative analysis of a (Swedish) representative survey and shows how consumers can be divided into different clusters based on their individual prerequisites: "Capable Critics", "Capital Weak Critics", "Conditionals" and ”Skeptics". Even if it is only the Capable Critics who have both the high motivation and a high level of resources that theoretically could be assumed to be necessary, there are a significant amount of consumers who choose environmental and Fairtrade labeled goods regularly across all clusters. These types of consumers encounter bridges to action by particularly positive perceived opportunities that make the engagement a little less demanding on individual prerequisites. The bridges are not the same for all clusters though. Their particular approach to sustainable consumption determines which factors are most important. / Det hållbara medborgarskapet