Workplace Studies: Recovering Work Practice and Informing System Design

by Edited by Paul Luff , Jon Hindmarsh , Christian Heath

• ISBN13: 9780521598217
• ISBN10: 0521598214
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-08-15
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Workplace studies are of growing significance to people in a broad range of academic disciplines and professions, in particular those involved in the development of new technologies. This ground breaking new book brings together key researchers in Europe and the US to discuss critical issues in the study of the workplace and to outline recent developments in the field. The collection is divided into two parts. Part I contains a number of detailed case studies that not only provide an insight into the issues central to workplace studies but also some of the problems involved in carrying out such research. Part II focuses on the interrelationship between workplace studies and the design of new technologies. This book provides a valuable, multidisciplinary synthesis of the key issues and theoretical developments in workplace studies and a guide to the implications of such research for new technology design and the workplace.

Table of Contents

List of contributors	vii
List of figures	x
Preface	xii
Introduction	1	(28)
Paul Luff
Jon Hindmarsh
Christian Heath
Part 1: Exploring the workplace
Making a case: `knowledge' and `routine' work in document production	29	(17)
Lucy Suchman
Design by Problem-solving	46	(22)
Graham Button
Wes Sharrock
Analysing cooperative work in an urban traffic control room for the design of a coordination support system	68	(24)
Jacques Theureau
Genevieve Filippi
Expert systems in (inter)action: diagnosing document machine problems over the telephone	92	(49)
Jack Whalen
Erik Vinkhuyzen
The critical role of workplace studies in CSCW	141	(9)
Kjeld Schmidt
From individual action to collective activity and back: developmental work research as an interventionist methodology	150	(19)
Yrjo Engestrom
Part 2: The interface between research and design
Analysing work practice and the potential role of new technology at the International Monetary Fund: some remarks on the role of ethnomethodology	169	(18)
Richard H. R. Harper
Ethnography, communication and support for design	187	(28)
John Hughes
Jon O'Brien
Tom Rodden
Mark Rouncefield
Where the rubber hits the road: notes on the deployment problem in workplace studies	215	(15)
Bob Anderson
Situating workplace studies within the human-computer interaction field	230	(12)
Liam J. Bannon
Analysing the workplace and user requirements: challenges for the development of methods for requirements engineering	242	(10)
Marina Jirotka
Lincoln Wallen
Supporting interdisciplinary design: towards pattern languages for workplaces	252	(10)
Thomas Erickson
Bibliography	262	(19)
Index	281