Co-Operation with Users: Challenges from (I)Literacy and Cultures

With the developments in the global market, designs focusing on the users of Information Technologies becomes a competitive factor since successful diffusion and up-take of IT lie with the users. But users have different IT competences and are culturally different. These are challenges that HCI-design methodologies need to address. User-Centred Design offers a possible approach but there are limitations that must be dealt with to strengthen user oriented and interdisciplinary approaches, and the development of techniques and tools that are suitable for handling the complexity of designing for a global world. This research-in-progress paper outlines preliminary reflections on – and contributions to – the development and qualification of techniques and tools that address user-centred design in a global context. We discuss User-Centred Design and qualify this approach by aligning with the Scandinavian IS tradition of co-operating directly with users. We suggest an approach inspired by the Scandinavian approach to IS design as a possible point of departure for targeting global users. We introduce the conceptual and experimental work in our Vision Lab, an approach based on co-operation with users and on the fundamental understanding of design methods as a relational practice that takes place between objects, contexts, users, and designers. We describe different techniques we have explored, characterized by giving the users voice throughout the design effort. In a final chapter we re-address the global perspective, and point out that virtual co-operation with the users is the next challenge. We suggest two digital techniques which may be explored for virtual cooperative design, discuss potential challenges to these methods, and conclude with propositions for further research to be carried out in the Vision Lab

Participatory design and participatory development: a comparative review

This paper examines literature in the twin domains of participatory interactive systems design and participatory approaches to international development. As interactive systems are increasingly promoted as a possible means of achieving international development goals, designers generally agree that participatory design approaches should be applied. However, review of the literature reveals that these two different traditions have more complex relationships, and questions must be asked about: the aims of participation, the forms of participation that are being advocated, and the skills and strategies required of practitioners. The findings suggest that successful integration of participatory interactive systems design into development will require careful reflection on the nature of development and the approaches adopted.</p

Exploring the Rhetoric on Representing the User: Discourses on User Involvement in Software Development

It is widely accepted that users should be involved in interactive systems development. However, involving users is often difficult and quite rare in software development organizations, especially in the context of product development, referring to the development of commercial software products or systems. This paper critically examines the position of user involvement in three software development organizations that operate in the product development context. Through analysis of the empirical, qualitative material gathered from the case organizations, five distinct discourses on user involvement are identified. The discourses are (1) user centered- ness as a tradition, (2) user involvement as imago factor and selling argument, (3) user involvement as a waste of time and money, (4) user involvement as a controllable and measurable quality improvement effort, and (5) user involvement achievable through persuading, marketing and manipulating. These discourses construct user involvement in different ways in these organizational settings. Furthermore, the discourses can be related to the wider discursive field in which the human-computer interaction community participates and contributes. Some of these discourses can be criticized from the Scandinavian tradition of systems design of being forms of technological colonialism and in some cases merely silencing the users instead of giving them a voice

E-voting in Brazil - the risks to democracy

Literature has shown that countries with strong democratic traditions, such as the United States and Canada, are not yet using electronic voting systems intensively, due to the concern for and emphasis on security. It has revealed that there is no such thing as an error-free computer system, let alone an electronic voting system, and that existing technology does not offer the conditions necessary for a reliable, accurate and secure electronic voting system. In this context, then, what are the risks of e-voting to democracy? In what ways, if at all, can more fragile, less mature democracies be buttressed with e-voting systems? As a key component of e-democracy, it seems that e-voting technologies are to become more secure and increasingly reliable in the near future and will indeed be adopted in many countries. In what ways, if at all, will the introduction of such systems increase voter confidence in the political system, promote citizen engagement in political life, and nurture the evolution of democracy? If both e-voting and edemocracy are emerging based on popular demand - that is, as a demand-driven alternative to current processes, then there is no doubt that they are likely to enhance and improve the efficiency of traditional democracy. However, if e-voting technology is being introduced based on a supply-driven fashion - the technology exists therefore it should and must be implemented - then the implications for democracy should be considered. Brazil's introduction of e-voting offers a cautionary tale of supply-driven technological implication. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how the introduction of e-voting in Brazil is highly risky to democracy due to the lack of emphasis on security and the lack of a sociallyinformed and socially driven approach to technological innovation. The Brazilian example illustrates the democratic implications of a market-driven approach. The lack of a technology strategy designed to promote and extend democratic principles is not surprising given the closed door, market-based negotiations that led to the adoption of e-voting in Brazil. The promise, and indeed, the imperative of a democratic, voter-centered approach as an alternative for the development of an electronic voting system, is explored in the paper

SCOPE FOR USABILITY TESTS IN IS DEVELOPMENT

Despite being a common, established concept in wide usage, usability tests can vary greatly in goals, techniques and results. A usability test purchased and performed for a specific software product, may result in either minor user interface improvements or radical U-turns in the development. Such variation has been discussed as a problem of the scientific reliability and validity of the testing method. In practice it is more important what ‘kind of data’ one can expect of the selected method than whether it is reliably always the same data. This expectation of information content or ‘scope’ is of importance for evaluators, who select and conduct usability tests for a specific purpose. However, the scope is not explicitly stated or even discussed: Too often the premise is that, because a usability test involves users, it brings the (necessary) user-centeredness to the design i.e. takes socio-technical fundamentals as inherently given. Through a literature review of testing practices and analytical considerations, we search for the scope of a usability test, which could deliberately approach the socio-technical tradition and equally develop both the system and the user organization. A case example represents a possible realization of the extended scope of usability test

Participatory Design for User-generated Content: Understanding the challenges and moving forward

Research on participatory design (PD) dates back to the 1970s, and has focused historically on internal organization settings. Recently, the proliferation of content-producing technologies such as social media and crowdsourcing has led to the explosion of user-generated content (UGC) that originates outside of organizations. Participative challenges in UGC differ from those in traditional organizational, as well as other distributed multi-user, settings; e.g.; open source software, multi-party systems. UGC is an interesting emerging domain and exploring PD in this context may contribute to knowledge and practices in PD itself. In this paper, we analyze the challenges and opportunities associated with PD in organization-directed UGC development, illustrate these with two UGC projects, and propose fruitful directions for future research

Deploying the User-Centered Systems Development Model to Assess IS Products used to launch Entrepreneurship Ventures

More and more people are looking to start entrepreneurship ventures. Companies have developed Information Systems (IS) tools to assist them through the steps of starting or building a business. Products like GoVenture, BizCafe, Industry Masters and the DIY Toolkit are a few examples of IS products that exist. This research study investigated eight IS-based products to assess whether these products met the User-Centered Systems Development (UCSD) requirements of iterative product design. The research generated a list of IS products, a list of product features, and a quick-reference tool to be used by those launching or growing a business. Differentiations found in each product; addressed single vs. multiple business options, end-user decision making, task interdependence, and criteria-based constraints. A discovery was that simulations or demonstrations (demos) are not as robust in providing ‘real’ or ‘actual’ examples in order to build consumer confidence. However, the process garnered helpful information for budding entrepreneurs

Computer Applications as Mediators of Design and Use

The present report constitutes together with 21 submitted papers the author's doctor's dissertation. This dissertation summarizes an understanding of computers as the materials that we shape in design, on the one hand, and the artifacts that we use, in work and other everyday activities on the other. The presented work is primarily methodological and design-oriented, i.e. it is concerned with changing computer applications and with understanding them as changing and as part of change