Article Notes – Macaulay, C., D. Benyon & A. Crerar. 2000. Ethnography, theory and systems design: from intuition to insight. Human-Computer Studies. 53: 35-60.

Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010

Macaulay, C., D. Benyon & A. Crerar. 2000. Ethnography, theory and systems design: from intuition to insight. Human-Computer Studies. 53: 35-60.

-        Cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT)

-        “Would design not benefit more from training better ethnographers than from burdening them with such a complex set of theoretical concepts and debates as CHAT?”

-        Explicit use of theoretical frameworks encourages reflexivity

-        Suchman: systems designers are disadvantaged as a result of the distance between  them and the subjects/objects of their design.

-        How to help inexperienced design ethnographers makes the transition from intuition to design insight

-        User-centered design is beginning to expand the requirements of workflows to include knowing the social user as well as individual – Is it also not encouraging ethnography?

-        Ethnomethodological terms: issues here is not so much “context a resource” but “context as topic”- so should we focus on how to use contextual information or on what we mean by contextual info?

-        “Suchman proposed that that since tools reify underlying models of the activity they are designed to support, developing an underlying conceptions is a crucial part of the design.”

-        Ethnography set of methods, not theory

-        Tension between “traditional” ethnographer, whose object is to simply describe and interpret cultures (?!) and the design ethnographer whose aim is toe describe and interpret cultures for the purpose of design a tool that will change the culture

-        Relationship between ethnography and design dialogue btwn attitude, validity and practicality

-        Attitude of computer professionals to qualitative “soft” data

-        Openness about theoretical decision in the field may establish greater validity

-        Ethnographer presented different by engineers and anthropologists

-        Design ethnographers have own quick and dirty approach to ethnography

-        Ethnomethodologists claim to have broken with sociologist in that description is not a precursor to analysis, but a means by which to know

-        Theory can enlighten and provide insight into arising problems or confusion

-        Information gathering in design world can come down to stricter deadlines

-        We can only understand the mind with reference to the interaction with the material world that produces the contents of the mind.

-        “Implications for design”

-        Can theoretical frameworks improve the client-designer relationship?

-        Or does it become authoritative?

Check out:

Anderson, A &Alty, J.L. 1995. Everyday theories, cognitive anthropology and user-centered systems design…

Bauman, Z. 1999. Culture as Praxis…

Berg, M. 1998. The politics of technology…

Brown, B. 1998. Working notes:how computers used for collaborative work…

Marcus, G. 1986. Contemporary problems of ethnography in the modern world system….

Tags: Anthrodesign, design ethnography, designer views, expert model, participant observation, relationship technology user, wordpress, workflow
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