Design at Work by Joan Greenbaum;Morten Kyng;

Author:Joan Greenbaum;Morten Kyng;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: CRC Press (Unlimited)
Published: 1991-04-15T00:00:00+00:00

Center Stage: Philosophy of Design

The scenes and discussion above illustrate the main ideas in our design philosophy which builds on, and puts into practice, the design ideals discussed as background in the first chapter. This design philosophy emphasizes the following points:

Cooperative Design. Users, as well as professional designers, have knowledge and skills that are central to the design of useful computer applications; therefore, design needs to be organized as a cooperative activity between the users and the designers.

Family Resemblance. To allow both groups to contribute effectively and creatively, the design could be based on situations having a family resemblance to the prior work experience of both the users and the designers.

Practice. Designing a computer application and introducing it in a work setting will change the work practice. Yet design must take its starting point in the current practice of the users—an invaluable source for the design of systems that will fit newly emerging work practices.

Experiencing the Future. An effective way of allowing users to employ their knowledge and skills is to simulate future work situations, creating the illusion of actually working with the projected system. In this way the ability of the future computer application to mediate work can be tried out, and changes in the use practice can, to some extent, be predicted.

Learning and Transcendence. Finally, learning is an important ingredient in design processes. The different groups involved learn about the work and background of the others, and confrontation with "outsiders" contributes to the understanding of one's own work practices. In addition, in situations where ted or simulated work breaks down, where people's involved action suddenly stops and they start to reflect on their own work, this brings to design an innovative character: The opening of possibilities for new ways of doing things; of transcending the traditional practice of the users and of the designers.

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