Cooperative prototyping: users and designers in mutual activity

Abstract

In most development projects, descriptions and prototypes are developed by system designers on their own utilizing users as suppliers of information on the use domain. In contrast, we are proposing a cooperative prototyping approach where users are involved actively and creatively in design and evaluation of early developed prototypes. This paper will present a detailed analysis of an example of application of the approach-design of computer support for casework in a technical department of a local government, where urban planning and environmental control of companies are central work tasks. The analysis starts out from the mutual object of design: the work processes of the prospective users. We look at design as a learning process and analyze various situations where openings for learning occur in the prototyping activity. These situations seem to fall into three categories: the first is situations where the future work situation is simulated and the conditions of the future work activity investigated, in particular the role of the computer application. The second is where the prototype is used as a basis for discussion and articulation of problems with the current work practice, and goals of the future one. The third kind of situations are situations where the design situation as such becomes the focus. Based on the example and earlier results we discuss benefits, problems and prospects of the approach. In particular we discuss the tension between needs for careful preparation of prototyping sessions and establishing good conditions for user and designer creativity. The message with this respect is that users and designers should learn from breakdowns and focus shifts in the prototyping sessions rather than trying to avoid them.

Varieties of User-Centeredness

“…1 However, despite the interest [58], the concept is still unclear [11], [29], [45], [54]. Although the phrase "user-centered" emerged in the human computer interaction (HCI) field, it can be argued of having adopted ideas from different sources, such as prototyping [48], [23], [10], evolutionary delivery [48], socio-technical design [6], [64], [72], [21], user participation [64], participatory design [27], [77] and usability engineering (UE) [45], [63], [66]. As a consequence, it has also adopted a variety of meanings from these different sources.…”

Collaborative futuring with and by makers

“…To enhance these participants' capacity to envision the future trends and solutions, we produced a set of 'double stimulus' or 'scaffoldings' (Bødker and Grønbaek 1991;Cole 1996;Nardi 1996;Hyysalo and Lehenkari 2003). First, drawing from PD ideas of representing work through pre-filled cards (Muller 1993;Halskov and Dalsgård 2006), we provided the participants with sets of cards in six categories for both trend identification and solution proposals.…”

Users and Computers - A Contextual Approach to Design of Computer Artifacts

“…The work that involves computer-based tools either exclude major modifications from the participatory activities themselves, cf. (Bødker & Grønbaek, 1989;Bødker & Grønbaek, 1991a;Grønbaek, 1989, and [14, 15]) or it focuses on very limited areas such as interface design for video cassette recorders (Madsen & Aiken, 1993). This situation is unsatisfactory for three reasons.…”