Designing Collaborative Systems

by Crabtree, Andy

• ISBN13: 9781852337186
• ISBN10: 1852337184
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-05-01
• Publisher: Springer Verlag

Summary

Designing Collaborative Systems: A Practical Guide to Ethnography introduces a new 'ethnographic' approach that will enable designers to create collaborative and interactive systems, which are employed successfully in real-world settings. This new approach, adapted from the field of social research, considers both the social circumstances and the level and type of human interaction involved, thereby ensuring that future ethnographic systems are as user-friendly and as effective as possible. This book provides the practitioner with an invaluable introduction to this approach, and presents a unique set of practical strategies for incorporating it into the design process. Divided into four distinct sections with practical examples throughout, the book covers:- the requirements problem; - ethnographic practices for describing and analysing cooperative work; - the design process; and - the role of ethnography when evaluating systems supporting cooperative work."Of the various perspectives that jostle together under the rubric of ethnography, ethnomethodology has often held the most appeal for designers. Yet, surprisingly, there has not been a systematic explication of ethnography and ethnomethodology for the purposes of system design. Andy Crabtree puts this to rights in a comprehensive, informative, and accessible practical guide which will be of great value to not only designers but also the ethnographers who work with them." (Graham Button, Lab. Director, Xerox Research Centre, Europe)"Not only is the book a must for those interested in bringing a social dimension to the system design process, it also makes a significant contribution to ethnomethodology." (Professor John A. Hughes, Lancaster University, UK)

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
Acknowledgements	xi
The Requirements Problem	3	(42)
The Motivation for Ethnography in Design	3	(7)
Analysing the Design Space: The Waterfall Model	5	(1)
A Paradigm Change in Design	6	(4)
A Primary Analytic Point of View for Design: Enter HCI	10	(12)
The User and the Interface in HCI	12	(3)
Mapping Mental Models of the Referent System	15	(3)
The Referent System in HCI	18	(1)
Some Technical Troubles with HCI	19	(3)
From Human Factors to Human Actors: Exit HCI	22	(11)
Reconceptualizing the User	25	(3)
Reconceptualizing the Interface	28	(5)
The Turn to the Social	33	(12)
Cooperative Work?	34	(5)
Self-organizing Structures of Work	39	(6)
Making Cooperative Work Visible	45	(42)
Ethnography: An Informal Mode of Description and Analysis	47	(14)
Investigating Cooperative Work	48	(4)
Assembling Data or Instances for Inspection	52	(3)
Analysing Cooperative Work	55	(2)
The Problem of Constructive Analysis	57	(4)
Analysing Cooperative Work: Sacks and Garfinkel	61	(15)
Conversation Analysis	63	(4)
Ethnomethodological Analysis	67	(6)
General Methodology: Thick Description	73	(3)
Representing Cooperative Work	76	(11)
The Unique Adequacy Requirement	79	(2)
The Particular Need to Transcend Generic Analytic Formats	81	(6)
Work Studies and Design	87	(42)
The Role of Ethnomethodological Studies of Work in Design	88	(7)
Some Practical Strategies for the Use of Ethnography	89	(6)
Using Ethnography to Give Form to Design (The Bricoleur's Craft)	95	(34)
A Lingua Franca for Design	103	(3)
The Adapted Patterns Framework	106	(6)
Analysing the Design Space with Patterns (Formulating Design Solutions 1)	112	(3)
Co-constructing Use-scenarios (Formulating Design Solutions 2)	115	(14)
Evaluating Systems Support for Cooperative Work	129	(36)
Prototyping Methodology	130	(14)
Participatory Design	132	(4)
Cooperative Design	136	(5)
Beyond Political Rhetoric	141	(3)
Evaluation of Prototypes	144	(5)
The HCI Tradition	144	(3)
Alternatives to HCI	147	(2)
Cooperative Design in Action	149	(16)
Situated Evaluation (Formulating Design Solutions 3)	150	(15)
Summary	165	(4)
References	169	(8)
Subject Index	177