Participatory IT Design Designing for Business and Workplace Realities

by Bodker, Keld; Kensing, Finn; Simonsen, Jesper

• ISBN13: 9780262512442
• ISBN10: 0262512440
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-01-23
• Publisher: The MIT Press

Summary

The goal of participatory IT design is to set sensible, general, and workable guidelines for the introduction of new information technology systems into an organization. Reflecting the latest systems-development research, this book encourages a business- oriented and socially sensitive approach that takes into consideration the specific organizational context as well as first-hand knowledge of users' work practices and allows all stakeholders-users, management, and staff-to participate in the process. Participatory IT Designis a guide to the theory and practice of this process that can be used as a reference work by IT professionals and as a textbook for classes in information technology at introductory through advanced levels. Drawing on the work of a ten-year research program in which the authors worked with Danish and American companies, the book offers a framework for carrying out IT design projects as well as case studies that stand as examples of the process. The method presented in Participatory IT Design-known as the MUST method, after a Danish acronym for theories and methods of initial analysis and design activities-was developed and tested in thirteen industrial design projects for companies and organizations that included an American airline, a multinational pharmaceutical company, a national broadcasting corporation, a multinational software house, and American and Danish universities. The first part of the book introduces the concepts and guidelines on which the method is based, while the second and third parts are designed as a practical toolbox for utilizing the MUST method. Part II describes the four phases of a design project-initiation, in-line analysis, in-depth analysis, and innovation. Part III explains the method's sixteen techniques and related representation tools, offering first an overview and then specific descriptions of each in separate sections.

Author Biography

Keld Bødker is Associate Professor of Computer Science at Roskilde University, Denmark.

Finn Kensing is Associate Professor at The IT University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

Jesper Simonsen is Professor of Participatory Design at Roskilde University and the coauthor of Participatory IT Design (MIT Press).

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	p. xiii
Preface	p. xvii
Acknowledgments	p. xvii
Introduction	p. 1
Target Audience and Structure	p. 3
Concepts and Principles
IT Design	p. 11
Principles of the Method	p. 53
Phases of the Method
Phases, Decisions, and Contexts	p. 83
Initiation Phase: Project Establishment	p. 91
In-Line Analysis Phase: Strategic Alignment Analysis	p. 117
In-Depth Analysis Phase: Ethnographically Inspired Analysis	p. 139
Innovation Phase: Vision Development	p. 165
Method, Tools, and Techniques
An Overview of Techniques	p. 197
Tools and Techniques	p. 217
Epilogue: How to Make Use of the Book	p. 305
References	p. 323
MUST Publications	p. 331
Index	p. 335
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