Mobile phones have become ubiquitous in many countries today. As the number of subscribers and geographical coverage continues to increase worldwide, mobile users can now be reached at nearly any place and at any time. Though the technology supports near perpetual connectivity, users are not available for mobile phone communication in such a straightforward way. As a result, users are often interrupted by mobile phones in the middle of activities. One reason that has been attributed to this problem is the callers lack of awareness about the callee’s current activity. Some context aware mobile technologies have been developed with an aim to help users coordinate mobile phone interruptions. However, these studies are mostly technology oriented and we are yet to understand the effectiveness of these designs. This is because there are few studies on interruption and availability in relation to mobile phone use. To examine the role of technology in coordinating mobile phone interruptions, we have conducted a diary study to investigate the factors that affect the disruptiveness of a mobile phone call, and the practices by which mobile users currently manage their availability. The results from our study show that the availability of a user is highly subjective, and that the interruption rating of a call is affected by factors such as location, activity, relationship with the caller as well as the history of interactions between them. We have also found that mobile phone users appropriate features of the device by way of silencing calls, dismissing calls or placing a ’missed call’, in order to manage their availability. The implications of our results for the design of technologies such as context aware telephony, that aim to coordinate mobile phone calls is discussed. / kvmurali32@gmail.com

Examensarbetet berör frågor kring arkivering och dokumenthantering på stads-byggnadsförvaltningen i Trollhättans kommun. Problem som kommunen har är dagslägets hantering av digitala filer. / Se mailadressen

Uppsatsen behandlar hur två organisationer samarbetar och koordinerar deras kooperativa arbete med hjälp av en artefakt. De två organisationerna är Marinmuseum och Turistbyrån där deras kooperativa arbete handlar om att skapa guidade turer tillsammans. Vi har jobbat mot målgruppernas målsättningar, behov och krav för att hitta det ultimata stödet för deras verksamhet. Syftet är att förmedla förståelse för hur organisationerna idag använder artefakten i deras gemensamma arbete, baserat på intervjuer och observationer. Huvudfrågorna i vår studie har varit: Hur kan vi som utvecklare kan stödja de två olika organisationernas samarbetsmöjligheter och förbättra koordinationen i det fall då de använder denna artefakt, deras pappersbaserade bokningslista som primär informationsplats? Hur kan denna artefakt ersättas utan att tappa dess koordinations och interaktions förmågor samt flexibilitet? Studien har visat att den pappersbaserade artefakten, deras bokningslista, innefattar många positiva egenskaper som vid digitalisering måste tas hänsyn till. Denna artefakt har vi valt att kalla för koordinationsartefakt för att belysa dess koordinationsegenskaper. Med vår studie vill vi framhäva den markanta skillnaden med ett system som är anpassat efter verksamheten istället för att verksamheten är anpassad efter systemet. / 0706-384031, 0708-682180

Chat communication has been investigated within the frames of 5thD (Fifth Dimension). The study is based in field-material from two chat sessions, between children in Ronneby-Barcelona and Ronneby-Denver. During the chats there was plenty of interaction between children and, assistants, which is illustrated with the help of patterns of communication. The analysis of the data shows that chat is more than an interaction between two persons, it even connects two social settings. The thesis also deals with the question of how to create meaningful chat, since this did not occur in an entirely satisfactory way during the above-mentioned chats.

This thesis was originally motivated by a curiosity about how historicity and culture forms understanding in activities in a work situation. I wanted to gather and structure some thoughts about what happens when scientific, formally educated, knowledge, which dominates in a traditional desk learning situation, is facing knowledge which is learned through practice in real work situations with complex technology. These contradictions, I believe, must be something we all experience every day, more or less consciously. A study could perhaps be done at any kind of activity or work. I chose a dialysis department and the work of dialysis nurses as an example. This turned out to be a good choice, since these two perspectives of understanding becomes quite clear in a setting with new technology, which, together with routines and treatment, is developing and changing constantly. Patients, nurses, doctors, patient wards, dialysis machines, water cleansing system, and so forth create a complex system. It is not possible to analyse this system, or even create anything meaningful for it, unless bringing in a perspective of time and culture, into the discussion. Historicity explains and forms work practice at the very same time, when the nurses have to create a standpoint and an understanding for the actions they have to take. Creating meaningful design into complex environments is not helped by aiming for a total understanding of the whole system. Instead, agents that form the change of understanding, behaviour and action may work as keys into the creation of new design.

How should requirements be expressed to support the design process of advanced software? This is what this report contributes based on facts from qualitative research methods performed at Ericsson Software Technology. The design process studied is influenced by different ways of expressing the requirements, problem-oriented and solution-oriented. The problem-oriented way of expressing requirements supports the designers to keep the overall picture of the product and make visions possible in the requirement handling process. The study also points out that the problem-oriented way of expressing requirements facilitates distributed software projects. / Rapporten berör hur krav kan uttryckas problemorienterat eller lösningsorienterat och hur dessa olika uttryckssätt påverkar designprocessen.

Processindustrin har möjligheten att ta steget in i en ny utvecklingsfas där teknik kommer att spela stor roll. I och med att teknik allt mer stödjer mobilitet öppnas möjligheten för processoperatörer att på valfri plats kunna övervaka och styra tillverkningsprocessen. Med denna rapport presenterar författaren sin empiriska studie på en högteknologisk fabrik. Studiens fokus ligger i betydelsen av processoperatörernas mobilitet och hur den framträder i deras arbete. Studien visar att mobilitet för operatörerna på fabriken är en del av deras yrkesutövande och väsentlig för att kunna styra tillverkningsprocessen. Utifrån studien ges förslag på teknik som kan stödja denna mobilitet genom att möjliggöra mobil larmhantering.

Working in a software project is a challenge. People with different backgrounds are together working towards the goal of delivering a run able piece of software. As the development proceeds, different guidelines such as: Technology, quality directives, user goals, customer goals, style guides etc. will influence the design. This report will focus on the design of the graphical user interface and discuss how it benefits from making the guidelines explicit in the design process. Today it is identified that interaction design has a problem of reaching practical use in software industry. This thesis will present an approach to interaction design that can be used in practice in the complex nature of software development. The approach stresses the importance of not having only one perspective on design. A design group needs to have more than the end user’s perspective when developing an interactive product. In order to fit reality and fulfill user goals in the design, it is important to make the design process and its guidelines explicit to the developers. During this spring I have been involved in a large software engineering project, developing the interface design of an instant messaging application. In this Master thesis, I will explain how I developed my approach to interaction design in the organization of a project. I will also describe my experiences of working with the method of persona in order to make the user goals explicit in the design. The main purpose of this report is to show a practical way of working with interface design. The work resulted in traceability of design decisions, which was not the goal of this project, merely the result of an approach to design.

Genom att föra samman människor med olika bakgrund och utbildning kan åtskilliga idéer skapas, nya metoder utvecklas och mer kreativa och originella designlösningar produceras. Baksidan är, att ju fler olika människor med olika bakgrund som är involverade i ett projekt desto svårare blir det att kommunicera inom gruppen av olika individer och svårare att komma vidare i en design- och utvecklingsprocess. Vi har under våren deltagit som en del i ett större programvaruutvecklingsprojekt och skapat och använt oss av flera olika designartefakter som medel för att främja samarbete, kommunikation och designarbetet av den produkt vi utvecklade. I denna uppsats beskriver vi hur dessa designartefakter har kommit till, förändrats och hur de har påverkat oss och vårt designarbete. Syftet med uppsatsen är att visa på vilket sätt man kan integrera metoder från olika discipliner i ett programvaruutvecklingsprojekt och framförallt hur arbetet med, och kring designartefakter spelar en viktig roll i utvecklingen av en produkt.

Denna rapport beskriver vårt projektarbete på ComOpt i Helsingborg. Uppgiften har varit att göra presentationer av företagets produkter. Det centrala i arbetet har varit grafisk design, i det här fallet gränssnittsdesign till de presentationer vi har gjort. I vår rapport reflekterar vi över den designprocess vi har genomgått och ställer frågor som: Vad gör en designer till en bra designer? Och: Var får vi kreativitet och inspiration ifrån? Det vi har kommit fram till är att en bra designer kännetecknas av förmågan att kunna prestera bra trots bristande resurser. En bra designer är kreativ och innovativ. Denna kreativitet åstadkoms genom att designern känner sig själv på ett bra sätt och vet hur han eller hon ska få inspiration. Vi har kommit fram till att mycket handlar om att strunta i det självklara och få inspiration i sin omgivning. En inspirerande omgivning ger ofta upphov till många bra idéer. Under vårt arbete har vi använt oss av metoder såsom intervjuer, feedbackmöten, mock-up och storyboard med flera. Detta har hjälpt oss att sätta oss in i produkterna, identifiera kundgrupp och designa presentationer våra klienter har varit nöjda med. Abstract This report is about our work at the company ComOpt in Helsingborg. Our task there has been to make presentations of the company´s products. The core in our work has been graphic design, in this case on the interfaces of the presentations we have been making. In our report we are reflecting about the designprocess we have been in and asking questions such as: What is it that makes a good designer? And: Were do we get our creativity and innovation from? Our conclusion is that a good designer is able to produce good products even with the lack of important resources. A good designer is creative and innovative. The designer knows him or herself and knows how to get inspired and thereby get great ideas. We have noticed that we get these ideas by ignoring the obvious and receiving inspiration through our surroundings. During our work we have been using methods as interviews, feedbackmeetings, mock-ups and storyboards and etcetera. This methods has helped us getting to know the products, identify the customergroup and designing presentations that has been to the satisfaction of our clients.