Configuring User-Designer Relations

by Voss, Alex; Hartswood, Mark; Procter, Rob; Rouncefield, Mark; Slack, Roger

• ISBN13: 9781846289248
• ISBN10: 1846289246
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-10-30
• Publisher: Springer-Verlag New York Inc

Summary

'User-designer relations' concerns the sorts of working relationships that arise between developers and end users of IT products - the different ways designers of IT products seek to engage with users, and the ways users seek to influence product design. It is through the shifting patterns of these relations that IT products are realised. Although it has generally been accepted that achieving better user-designer relations will improve the quality of IT products, there has been little consensus on how this might be achieved.

Table of Contents

Contributors	p. xi
Introduction: Configuring User-Designer Relations: Interdisciplinary Perspectives	p. 1
Introduction	p. 1
The Chapters	p. 2
The grammars of User-Designer Relations	p. 10
References	p. 11
Participatory Design: Issues and Approaches in Dynamic Constellations of Use, Design, and Research	p. 13
Introduction	p. 13
Participatory Design	p. 14
Participatory Design Approaches	p. 16
The Socio-Technical Approach	p. 16
The Collective Resource Approach	p. 17
MUST	p. 19
Participatory Design in Corporate Research and Development	p. 20
Related Approaches	p. 21
Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Workplace Studies	p. 21
Science and Technology Studies	p. 22
Participatory Action Research, Developmental Work Research, and Related Approaches	p. 23
Moving Beyond Use, Design, Research, and Participation as 'a Matter of Course'	p. 24
Conclusions	p. 25
References	p. 26
Design as and for Collaboration: Making Sense of and Supporting Practical Action	p. 31
Introduction	p. 31
Design for Collaborative Work	p. 33
User-Designer Relations	p. 34
Understanding Practice - 'Informing Design'	p. 35
Ethnography for Design	p. 35
Doing Ethnography for Design	p. 39
Typifications and Patterns	p. 41
IS Methodology: Prescription, Process, and Evolution	p. 43
Design as Collaborative Work	p. 44
Meshing Ethnography and Design Practice	p. 48
Concrete Requirements and the Need for Change	p. 48
Design Sensibilities and Ethnography	p. 49
Conclusions: Innovation in Use, Envisaging the Future	p. 51
References	p. 53
User-Designer Relations in Technology Production: The Development and Evaluation of an 'Animator' Tool to Facilitate User Involvement in the Development of Electronic Health Records	p. 59
Introduction	p. 59
The National Programme for IT	p. 59
Why were Problems of User Engagement Not Anticipated?	p. 61
Participatory Design and Large-Scale Implementations	p. 62
The Origins of the 'Animator'	p. 64
Project Development	p. 65
Development of the Animator	p. 66
Evaluation	p. 70
Animator Evaluation Questionnaire Summary	p. 71
Focus Group Evaluation	p. 73
Baseline	p. 74
Post-Intervention	p. 74
Summary of Results of Focus Group Discussions	p. 80
Discussion and Conclusions	p. 81
The Need for 'Meaningful' User Engagement	p. 81
Animator-Assisted Mediation	p. 81
The Animator in User-Designer Collaboration	p. 82
Acknowledgements	p. 84
References	p. 84
Lessons Learned in Providing Product Designers with Use-Participatory Interaction Design Tools	p. 87
Introduction	p. 87
Initial Evaluation of a Card-Sorting Tool	p. 90
Observations	p. 91
Reflections on Study 1 and Changes for the Second Study	p. 95
Card Sorting and Scenario Design Tools Managed by Designers	p. 97
Observations	p. 100
Reflections and Lessons Learnt from the Studies	p. 105
Changing Designers' Attitudes towards PD Takes Time	p. 105
Interaction Design Models are Critical to Participation	p. 106
Organisational Credibility More Important than Experimental Rigour	p. 106
Rules of Engagement Between Designers and Participants (and Researchers) Evolve Over Time	p. 107
Conclusions	p. 108
References	p. 108
A Break from Novelty: Persistence and Effects of Structural Tensions in User-Designer Relations	p. 111
Reinvented Wheels and Real-Life Concerns in User-Designer Relations	p. 111
Persistence of Structural Patterns in User-Designer Relations	p. 112
Historical Continuities in Present Day Concerns: Two Cases of Health care Technology	p. 117
The PDMS Develoment Project: Why Does PD Wane in the Wild?	p. 118
Outline of the Wristcare Innovation Process	p. 120
Examining the Commonalities in User-Designer Relations of the Two Cases	p. 124
Small Steps That May Make a Difference	p. 126
Conclusions	p. 127
References	p. 128
Practicalities of Participation: Stakeholder Involvement in an Electronic Patient Records Project	p. 133
Introduction	p. 133
A National Health Service (NHS) Trust	p. 135
Delivering the Electronic Patient Record	p. 136
Setting, Study, and Method	p. 137
Managing Participation and Understanding Work Practice	p. 138
Getting a Project to Work	p. 138
Keeping Users in Mind	p. 142
Escalating Problems	p. 145
Keeping Track of Issues	p. 147
Domestication and Legacy Systems	p. 148
Discussion: Project Work and Organisational Issues	p. 150
Conclusions: The Practicalities of Participation and Socio-Technical Design	p. 152
Acknowledgements	p. 154
References	p. 154
Bottom-up, Top-down? Connecting Software Architecture Design with Use	p. 157
Introduction	p. 157
Challenges to Assembling Infrastructure, Applications, and Services	p. 162
Gaining a Sense of How Assembly Could Be Achieved in a World Where Applications/Services Do not yet Exist	p. 163
Challenges	p. 168
Assemblies	p. 169
Basic Assemblies	p. 169
Assemblies as Service Composition	p. 177
Inspection and Awareness of Resources	p. 184
Pulling Things Together	p. 187
References	p. 189
Global Software and its Provenance: Generification Work in the Production of Organisational Software Packages	p. 193
Introduction	p. 193
Narrative Biases in STS: Localisation	p. 196
From Importing to Exporting	p. 197
The Studies	p. 199
Birth of a Package	p. 200
Accumulative Functionality	p. 200
Management by Community	p. 202
Community Management Strategies	p. 202
Witnessing	p. 203
Management by Content	p. 204
The Organisationally Particular	p. 206
Smoothing Strategies	p. 207
From Generification to Generifiers	p. 207
Segmenting the User Base	p. 208
Promising Future?	p. 211
Opening the Black-Box (and Finding a 'Black-Blob')	p. 213
Conclusion: Black-Blobs Travel Better Than Black-Boxes	p. 214
Acknowledgements	p. 216
References	p. 216
Concluding Remarks	p. 219
Introduction	p. 219
A Taxonomy of PD Practices Revisited	p. 220
Context of Engagement	p. 221
Timing of Engagement	p. 221
Scale of Engagement	p. 222
Purpose of Engagement	p. 222
User Experience	p. 223
Summary	p. 223
A Collaborative Endeavour	p. 224
User Engagement in the Wild	p. 225
Taking User-Designer Relations Forward	p. 227
References	p. 230
Index	p. 233
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