Moving out from the control room: ethnography in system design

ABSTRACT

Ethnography has gained considerable prominence as a technique for informing CSCW systems development of the nature of work. Experiences of ethnography reported to date have focused on the use of prolonged on-going enthnography to inform systems design. A considerable number of these studies have taken place within constrained and focused work domain. This paper reflects more generally on the experiences of using ethnography across a number of different projects and in a variety of domains of study. We identify a number of ways in which we have used ethnography to inform design and consider the benefits and problems of each.

References

1. 1.Ackroyd, S., Harper, R., Hughes, J.A., Shapiro, D., and Soothill, K. (1992), New Technology and Practical Police Work, Milton Keynes, UK: Open University Press.
2. 2.Ackroyd, S. and Hughes, j.A. (1992), Data Collection in Context, London, Longmans.
3. 3.Anderson, R.J., Hughes, J.A., and Sharrock, W.W. (1989), Working for Profit: The Social Organisation of Calculation in an Entrepreneurial Firm, Aldershot, UK: Gower.
4. 4.Bannon, L. and Schmidt, K. (1991), CSCW: Four Characters in Search of a Context, in Studies in Computer Suppoerted Cooperative Work: Theory, Practice and design, ed. J. Bowers and S. Benford, Amsterdam: North Holland.
5. 5.Bansler, J.P. and B0dker, K. (1993), A reappraisal of structured analysis" design in an organizational context. ACM Transactions on Information Systems, 11(2): 165-193.
6. 6.Bentley, R., Hughes, J., Randall, D., Rodden, T., Sawyer, P. Shapiro, D and Sommerville, I (1992), Ethnographically Informed System Design for Air Traffic Control, in Proceedings of CSCSW '92, ed. J. Turner and R. Kraut, 123-129, Oet.31-Nov.4, Toronto, Canada: ACM Press
7. 7.Comic Deliverable D2.1, 'Informing CSCW System Requirements', Department of Computing, Lancaster University. ISBN 0-901800-29-5
8. 8.Curtis, B., Krasner, H., and Iscoe, N. (1988), A field study of the software design process for large systems, Communications of the ACM, 31: 1268 -- 1289.
9. 9.Diaper, D. (ed.), Task Analysis in Human Computer Interaction, Ellis Harwood.
10. 10.Goguen, J. (1993), Social issues in requirements engineering, in Proceedings of RE 93: International Symposium on Requirements Engineering, Jan 4-6, San Diego: IEEE.
11. 11.Grudin, J. 'The Computer Reaches Out" The Historical Continuity of Interface Design.' Proceedings of ACM CHI'90 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. Evolution and Practice in User Interface Engineering. pp. 261-268.
12. 12.Grudin, J. (1991), CSCW: The convergence of two development contexts, In Proceedings of CHI'91, New Orleans: ACM Press.
13. 13.Harper, R. and Hughes, J.A. (1992), "What a F-ing ystem! Send em all to the same place and then expect us to stop em hitting": Making technology work in air traffic control, in Technology and Working Order: Studies of Work, interaction and Technology, ed. G. Button, 127-144, London: Roufledge.
14. 14.Harper, R., Hughes, J.A. and Shapiro, D. (1991), Harmonious Working and CSCW" Computer Technology and Air Traffic Control, in Studies in Computer Supported Cooperative Work: Theory, Practice and Design, ed. J. Bowers and S. Benford, Amsterdam, North-Holland.
15. 15.Heath C, Jirotka M., Luff P., Hindmarsh J. ' Unpacking Collaboration: The interactional Organisation of Trading in a City Dealing Room', in de Michelis G., Simone C., Sehmidt K. (eds)' Proceedings of ECSCW'93, Kluwer Academic Publishers, ISBN 0-7923-2447-1, pp 155-171.
16. 16.Heath, C. and Luff, P. (1992), Collaboration and control" Crisis management and multimedia technology in London Underground line control rooms, Computer Supported Cooperative Work, 1(1- 2): 69-94.
17. 17.Hughes J., King V., Mariani J., Rodden T., M. Twidale, "Paperwork and its lessons for database systems", Proceedings of the 12th Schaerding International Workshop on Design Of Computer Supported Cooperative Work And Groupware Systems, June 1-3 1993
18. 18.Hughes, J.A., King, V., Randall, D. and Sharrock, W. (1993), Ethnography for System Design: A Guide, Working paper, COMIC-LANCS-2-4.
19. 19.Hughes, J.A., Randall, D. and Shapiro, D. (1992), Faltering from ethnography to design, in Proceedings of CSCW'92, Toronto, Canada: ACM
20. 20.Hughes, J.A., Randall, D. and Shapiro, D. (1993), From Ethnographic Record to System Design: Some Experiences from the field, CSCW,: An International Journal, vol. 1 no 2.
21. 21.Potts C.' Software Engineering Research Revisited' IEEE Software Vol. 10 No 5, September 1993, pp 19-28.
22. 22.Quintas. P. (1993) ed. Social Dimensions of Systems Engineering: People, Processes, Policies and Software Development, New York, Ellis Harwood.
23. 23.Randall, D. and Hughes, J.A. (1994), Sociology, CSCW and Working with Customers', in Thomas, P. ed. Social and Interaction Dimensions of System Design, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
24. 24.Rittel. H. and Webber, M. (1973), Dilemmas in a general theory of planning, Policy Sciences, 4(2): 155-169.
25. 25.Rodden T., King V, Hughes J., Sommerville I. 'Supporting the software process as a social process', Proceedings of EWSPT 94, 3rd European Conference on Software Process Technology, 7-8 February 1994, Springer Vedag.
26. 26.Schmidt, K. (1993), The Sociological Bonanza?, Working Paper, Comic Working paper, COMIC- RIS0-2-3, Department of Computing Lancaster University, Lancaster LA1 4YR, UK.
27. 27.Schmidt, K. and Carstensen, P. (1993), Bridging the Gap: Requirements Analysis for System Design, Working Paper, COMIC-RISO-2-2.
28. 28.Shapiro, D. (1993), Ferrets in a sack? Ethnographic studies and task analysis in CSCW, presented at the 12th Schaerding International Workshop on Design Of Computer Supported Cooperative Work And Groupware Systems, June 1-3, Elsevier Press
29. 29.Suchman, L. Office procedures as practical action." A CM Transactions on Office Information Systems. 1, 1983, 320-328.
30. 30.Suchman, L. (1983), Office procedures as practical action: models of work and system design, A CM Transactions on Office Information Systems, 1(4): 320-328.
31. 31.Suchman, L., and Wyrm, E., (1984), Procedures and problems in the office, Office Technology and People, 2: 133-154.
32. 32.Wattam, C. (1992), Making a Case in Child Protection, London, Longrnans.

Index Terms

• Applied computing

  • Law, social and behavioral sciences

    • Psychology

• Human-centered computing

  • Collaborative and social computing

• Social and professional topics

  • Professional topics

    • Management of computing and information systems

      • Project and people management

        • Systems development