What Are Workplace Studies For?

Abstract

Abstract:We have considered the role of workplace studies from the CSCW literature which are intended to inform system design and implementation. We present a critique of these studies, categorised according to which phase of the design process they most inform, and discuss the tensions between providing explanatory accounts and usable design recommendations, the pressures on fieldworkers to provide both, the purposes different approaches serve, and the transition from fieldwork to system design.

From Artefacts to Infrastructures

“…CSCW has spent considerable energy on discussions about how to inform design from microoriented, typically ethnographically inspired work place studies (Hughes et al 1992;Plowman et al 1995;Voss et al 2009;Karasti 2001;Randell and Shapiro 1992). The rich empirical picture of workplace activities that can be achieved by ethnographic research is envisaged as helping overcome the difficulties encountered with traditional methods of 'requirements capture' that only engage with the formal descriptions of how work tasks are supposed to be undertaken.…”

“…The rich empirical picture of workplace activities that can be achieved by ethnographic research is envisaged as helping overcome the difficulties encountered with traditional methods of 'requirements capture' that only engage with the formal descriptions of how work tasks are supposed to be undertaken. By drawing attention to the range of informal procedures through which work goals are carried out, including dealing with frequent 'abnormal instances', such studies were seen as providing the information required for designing tools and systems that could better support the ways in which work activities are actually performed (Plowman et al 1995;Luff et al 2000). However this goal has proved somewhat elusive for a number of As Karasti (2001, p. 235) points out, "[m]any studies have described ethnographers as mediators between the work place and systems development".…”

The teleradiology system and changes in work practices

“…The work practice oriented study of everyday clinical teleradiology work practice clearly illustrates that this is the case also with teleradiological systems, and it should be taken into account in designing and implementing them in practice. The study reveals important aspects that have previously been unnoticed or invisible [28]. For example, the articulation work done to ensure the smooth flow of the teleradiology service consisted of a major part of the work process both in terms of amount of activities and importance for the whole process.…”

Analysing Asynchronous Collaboration

“…Schmidt and Bannon note the " ... the underlying assumption in most of the CSCW oriented research thus far that the co-operative work arrangement to be supported by a computer artefact is a small, stable, egalitarian, homogenous and harmonious ensemble of people." (1992, p.15, see also Plowman, Rogers, andRamage, 1995). In effect, the present framework abstracts over particular episodes of interaction in order to characterise the broader patterns of communication which underwrite coordination.…”