Under vårt magisterarbete har vi under ett antal tillfällen följt med och studerat tre lastbilschaufförer. Syftet med studien var bland annat att få en förståelse för hur de hittar till rätt adress och därmed se om de skulle kunna vara behjälpta av ett navigeringsstöd. Vi gjorde ett designförslag inspirerat av vad vi fått fram då vi analyserat materialet från fältstudierna samt av designidéer såsom exempelvis Calm Technology och Tacit Interaction. I magisteruppsatsen beskriver vi vårt designförslag och diskuterar bland annat hur designparadigmen Calm Technology och Tacit Interaction kan användas i utformning av IT-artefakter. Vi kommer fram till att de nya designkoncepten Calm Technology och Tacit Interaction handlar om relationen mellan teknik, människor och mänsklig handling.

Under vårt magisterarbete har vi under ett antal tillfällen följt med och studerat tre lastbilschaufförer. Syftet med studien var bland annat att få en förståelse för hur de hittar till rätt adress och därmed se om de skulle kunna vara behjälpta av ett navigeringsstöd. Vi gjorde ett designförslag inspirerat av vad vi fått fram då vi analyserat materialet från fältstudierna samt av designidéer såsom exempelvis Calm Technology och Tacit Interaction. I magisteruppsatsen beskriver vi vårt designförslag och diskuterar bland annat hur designparadigmen Calm Technology och Tacit Interaction kan användas i utformning av IT-artefakter. Vi kommer fram till att de nya designkoncepten Calm Technology och Tacit Interaction handlar om relationen mellan teknik, människor och mänsklig handling. Nyckelord: Människa-Dator Interaktion (HCI), Work Practice, IT-design, Calm Technology, Tacit Interaction, interaktionsdesign

I denna rapport, som baserar sig på ett studentprojekt utfört under våren 2002, har vi fokuserat på ordet kommunikation. Vi beskriver hur användande av designverktyg kan spela en nyckelroll när det gäller att stöda kommunikation i gruppaktiviteter och i vilken utsträckning kommunikation kan stödas och förstärkas av verktyg som mockuper och metaforer. Vi beskriver också en designprogress från initiala skisser till färdig mockup av ett grafiskt användargränssnitt för en demoapplikation av en vykortstjänst.

Med denna uppsats vill vi (författarna) samla ihop 5 år av tankar, teorier och erfarenheter kring systemutveckling och lärande. Uppsatsen presenterar 8 projekt som är genomförda i Blekinge mellan 1995-1999. Med utgångspunkt i projekten behandlas en utvecklingsprocess för IT-system som är baserad på kreativitet och lärande miljöer. Särskilt lyfter uupsatsen fram behovet av att förändra processen för att möta slutanvändare av program och tjänster.

I detta arbete framlägger vi ett designförslag på hur ett diskussionsverktyg som stödjer ljud- och bildkommunikation kan se ut. Ett förslag som förbättrar och förenklar den distanskommunikation som idag sker med hjälp av mobiltelefoner, videokonferenssystem samt webbkameror anslutna till persondatorer. Den design vi föreslår möjliggör för mobila användare att visuellt föra flerpartssamtal med hjälp av PDA:er. Vårt designförslag har fått arbetsnamnet CU2 (see you too) och är tänkt att fungera i tredje och/eller fjärde generationens mobila nät. Vi har valt att genomföra vårt magisterarbete på företaget A Brand New World i Kista, Stockholm. Företaget utvecklar och säljer system inom mobilt Internet.

Rapporten huvudsyfte är att beskriva hur vi genom användning av språk och kommunikation har kunnat tillgodose våra användares krav på ett ärendehanteringssystem, samt på vilket sätt vi har använt artefakter för att kommunicera. Vi kommer att beskriva olika delar av projektet där språk och kommunikation har haft centrala "roller" och visat sig ha olika betydelse beroende på de personer som medverkar och i vilken miljö situationen har utspelat sig. Rapporten behandlar även hur resultatet av ovanstående har lett oss in i en utvecklingsprocess där vi försökt tillgodose användarens krav på bästa sätt. Vi kommer också att beskriva de kända och tidigare okända metoder som vi använt oss av för att uppnå vår målsättning, att överlämna en första prototyp av ett ärendehanteringssystem.

Att en dator hänger sig, inte gör som man vill eller bara är obegriplig är inget nytt fenomen. Dock är detta en del av vardagen på diariet i Regionens Hus i Mariestad, där de tre registratorernas arbetsprocesser innehåller ett antal problem som bland annat är datorrelaterade. Rapporten beskriver arbetet på diariet, de problem som finns, vem som äger problemen, och innehåller också en diskussion runt de befintliga problemen. Rapporten tar upp allt från postöppning till sökfel i programmet Diabas och mycket annat som ingår i arbetet som registrator. De problem som finns i arbetet på diariet har hopat sig över registratorerna som känner att det inte finns någon självklar part som de kan vända sig till för att få hjälp. Känslan av maktlöshet är alltid närvarande i arbetet när registratorernas datoriserade hjälpmedel inte gör som de vill. Rapporten är ett steg i att kartlägga problemen och vem som äger dem, och avsedd att bli en hjälp för registratorerna.

ABSTRACT System development has become more and more concentrated on development for the Web and this has resulted in larger target groups. It will most surely continue to be so considering that the Web will be the infrastructure of business and services in the future. A big target group involves that the owner of a system can earn a lot of money from the paying users, but that assumes that the system can meet user needs. If a system on the Web does not satisfy the user?s demands then they will use the competitor?s system instead because it is only a mouse-click away. That is why the business, already during the development process, has to take the role of the users seriously. Even if all users cannot take part in the process at least some users can and it would be a shame not to take advantages of this kind of expert knowledge. This report describes how a system development project can be practised and how a developer can do to satisfy each user?s requirements even though he or she are not specified, and also why a useful system is classified as an investment in the future.

When an accident is happening most of the time it is the person on the street that is reporting this to SOS Alarm, the instance that is controlling, for example, the ambulances. To ensure that as few mistakes as possible are made it us crucial that the communication between the caller and the ambulance via the SOS Alarm is as efficient as possible. Communication between the caller to SOS Alarm and the ambulance is done by passing through the operator at the SOS Alarm station and then on to the ambulance. Is this the way that it should be handled or are there optional ways that could be used? The technology has evolved since the system used today was installed and today cellular phones are very common and it is not unusual that it is possible to take pictures with these phones. Is this something that could be used to enhance the way information is sent between the caller and the ambulance? These are questions that this thesis tries to answer by using studies at SOS Alarm and Ambulance centrals as a foundation for the arguments.

Den här rapporten är ett resultat av ett kandidatarbete på 20-poäng. Projektet som rapporten handlar om, beskriver hur utvecklingen av ett webbutikssystem åt ett flertal företag gått till. De har i sin tur köpt webbsystemet från företaget Opti Use som givit oss uppgiften. I rapporten diskuteras hur utvecklingsprocessen gått till och hur ett arbete med ett befintligt system upplevts. Rapporten beskriver även hur lösningen på uppgiften har tagit form och hur utvecklingsprocessen påverkat den. Metoderna som används under projektets gång beskrivs utifrån hur de förändrats för att önskat resultat skulle uppnås. Titelns innebörd beskriver projektgruppens utvecklingsprocess under arbetet med projektet i förhållande till tidigare erfarenheter under MDA-utbildningen.

Sesame är ett projekt mellan Blekinge Tekniska Högskola och Universitet i Pretoria som syftar till att skapa kurser där studenter från de båda universiteten ska samarbeta och därigenom utbyta kunskaper och erfarenheter. Målet med projektet är att initiera forskning, såväl som att testa och utvärdera metoder för kollaborativt lärande. Ett nyckelbegrepp inom Sesame är ? internationalisation at home?, vilket betyder möjlighet till interaktion och kunskapsutbyte mellan människor i olika länder och kulturer, utan att de fysiskt måste lämna sina länder. I den här rapporten beskriver vi planeringsfasen av Sesame där vi fokuserar på samarbetet mellan deltagarna i Sverige och Sydafrika.

The gender question in computer science is often presented as: "Why are there so few women in computer science and what can be done about that?" This question usually focuses on women. Sometimes 'men' or 'gender' enter the discussions. However, it is not common that the second part of the sentence - computer science - is considered. The papers in this thesis challenge, in different ways, how the gender question is usually perceived and discussed within the community of computer scientists, and where solutions are looked for. The approach taken is to move focus from women/gender to the discipline of computer science itself. This means the question is raised towards a more general level, towards "the science question", discussing the discipline, its paradigms and knowledge processes. Theories and methodologies from gender research, used within computer science, offer new possibilities to develop broader and more complex understandings of "the gender question in computer science".

Hur kan mobila användare studeras? Frågan blir allt mer aktuell i samband med att vi människor i större utsträckning blir mobila och därmed också använder mobila artefakter som en del av vardagslivet. Denna fråga är framförallt aktuell för de företag som utvecklar denna typ av artefakter. Vi har under detta kandidatarbete samarbetat med ett företag som dagligen ställs inför denna typ av frågor, och vi kommer i denna rapport behandla utvecklingen av en metod för att studera just mobila användare. Att studera användarna är naturligt, då det är de som är nyckeln till vilka tjänster och artefakter som just de har användning för. Vår metod influeras av tankar från den etnografiska traditionen och har utvecklats genom en studie av ungdomar i gymnasieålder och deras vardag. Ungdomarna har gett oss inblick i sina liv genom att fotografera och berätta kring dessa fotografier under seminarier som kontinuerligt genomförts under studien. Vi har valt att ha ett brett perspektiv under studien för att få en helhetsbild av de studerade ungdomarnas liv. Utifrån den ansenliga mängd information vi inhämtat genom att studera ungdomarna, har vi tagit fram en design av en funktion till mobilt användande av intresse för dessa ungdomar. Vår metod, som vi valt att kalla Kamerametoden, kan alltså med fördel användas vid framtagning av en design utifrån den inblick som fås i den studerades liv.

Summary This thesis consists of an ethnographic investigation of five Swedish household's everyday life in their kitchens during the spring 2001 and an analysis of this context, which for certain can be apt for the development of the smart home services of today. Finally some future opportunities on how to systematise ethnography for design use also are drawn. The focus of investigation of this thesis is to find out what actual happens in some situations in ordinary kitchens. Specific interest is showed for the articulation work, while most smart appliances of today supports only goal-oriented activity, hence evolved from the ground of the home PC interaction. The ethnographical investigation is focused on three specific events in a house hold which all are assumed to take place in the families kitchen. The events are: 1) When a family plans and books an amusement activity. 2) When a family plans it's shopping. 3) When a person solves a goal oriented task, for example details about cooking a meal.

This report is our Master thesis. Our work has taken place at a one-stop-shop in Sölvesborg during the spring of 2002. We have conducted ethnographical studies concerning the one-stop-shops frontdesk and telephone exchange. During these studies we became aware of some differences under which the daily work was to be carried out. When operating the switchboard the staff usually work alone and perform the tasks individually. At the frontdesk there's usually two or more people from the workforce. They carry out their work in the form of a network, where the colleagues support each other in what seemed to be seamless cooperative work. We closely studied the work being carried out by the staff at the frontdesk in order to gain a deeper understanding for their handling of cases in their daily work. How do the staff achieve this seamless cooperative work, and how are the cues that trigger the cooperative work being relayed? In this report we describe aspects of cooperative work and different mechanisms that affects cooperation. With the aid of concrete examples, we highlight how the staff in this environment, design their language and their actions. We argue that cooperative work is formed and coordinated with the aid of various artefacts. In the concrete worksituation there are cues being communicated that plays an important role in the success of the work being carried out. These cues often carry an invitation to cooperative work as we mean that they function as a way to ask the colleagues for assistance in the handling of a case, or reversed, function as to show that one is available and can assist the colleague. To understand these mechanisms of cooperative work, some general and others more specific to the workplace we have studied, is of great importance to the understanding of how cooperation is established. We highlight aspects of cooperation that are important and must be considered when designing new technology intended to support cooperative work. All names on individuals have been changed, to protect their true identity.

Abstract This report is our bachelor thesis. Our work has taken place at a galvanising company in Sölvesborg. The company faced major changes, of which one was a computerisation process. The new system could involve changes in work practice and in specific tasks, affecting the workers. If the coming system was to support work, from the production personnel?s perspective, we felt a legitimate participation in the development and design of the future work practice, was a requirement that was not met. During our ethnographical studies we noted that conflicts arose between production and administrative -personnel. We investigated the conflicts closer in our pursuit to find what caused them. In that work we used various methods such as Future workshop and Brainstorming. Together with production personnel we identified information and functions that are vital in their work. Also, we tried to understand what impact these aspects had on different tasks, and to find an answer to the question, could computers support the production personnel in their work? To find an answer to this question, we have in depth, studied them and closely followed their daily work. We reason about the existing work practice, and possible scenarios in the future. We describe what we find to be important to consider when introducing computers to the workplace. The report also presents a possible draft, a sketch to design, of the future computer system. All names on individuals and customers have been changed, to conceal their true identity.

This Master Thesis looks into software development processes and the work activities these need to support. Hesitation against process support within Software developing organisations combined with a possibility to develop process support for such a company, made the foundation for this thesis. The reference company where the study took place is a large worldwide Telecom company where we focused on one design department with 25 people. Instead of using Participatory Design (PD) [Schuler, Namioka] as a method for Software development as traditionally, we used it for developing process support together with the people at the department. Three different supports for different project processes were created with PD and an evolutionary way of work together with the ?designers?. We came to a complex project environment which required control in several aspects such as project sponsoring, project management, line management, design maintenance etc. We saw a way of working that was following a common agreed way of work by the group that is formed by socio-emotional aspects and co-learning aspects [Hägerfors, 1995]. In contrast to this, the study showed that the available process support and also the use of the process support had a clear concentration towards a management focus ? the control function. The available process support and the use of this did not really consider the aspects of Socio-emotional or Co-learning. Existing process support was built around documents that became evidence for actual activities during the project. The process support developed during this study (by us and the designers) finally also got that concentration. A conclusion is that when the organisation puts high requirements on control of projects, this will also affect the way the organisation wants support for work. This is the missing point.

In this Bachelor thesis I explore sound and room as elements in design of user interfaces, both theoretical and practical in a specific application domain, to identify some of the advantages and disadvantage associated with these elements. As application domain I studied email clients and their usage at home amongst students at Blekinge Institute of Technology. In the study I found an activity, which seems to be highly distributed in the physical room where the user is located. The activity was notification of email and could take place in an arbitrary location of the home. I then augmented this activity with ideas from my theoretical assumption about room and sound. The result was a rule-based agent for notification of email, which primarily uses sound as interaction style.

This project has been devoted to design a computer system with a tangible user interface, in the context of future supervision of remote drop-in dialysis patients. The tangible computer system was developed as an example of how two concepts in human work, accountability and awareness, can be supported through tangible user interfaces. A current trend within CSCW discusses accountability in design in terms of how software should make its own actions accountable. We choose to use an alternative route, namely to use the tangible interface for explicating nurses and patients actions for each other. Explicating actions is key benefit with a tangible interface in work environments that is physical co-located. We conclude that our strategy can be investigated further in settings where the work is carried out in a physical co-located space.

Co-operation between research and industry and society, and the notion of innovation systems, are high on the agenda of national as well as international research politics. However, how to make co-operation between researchers and practitioners work, and what kind of research results could come out of such co-operation, is hardly discussed. The article uses evidence from three projects in the areas e-government and telecommunication to reflect on such co-operation. Scientific understanding and practices of design, development and use of ICT challenge and inform each other in these co-operative projects, which we have started to refer to as ‘situated innovation’. The article discusses the role of the researcher in such contexts, the character of the research results, and means to co-ordinate different rhythms and rationales in order to make research and practices of ICT development and use mutually enhancing.

Användarmedverkan i design (participatory design) har traditionellt sett vanligen skett inom ramen för systemutvecklingsprojekt, med klara avgränsningar i tid och rum. Moderna IT nätverk, som omfattar en mängd olika applikationer från olika leverantörer, nya web-utvecklingsverktyg, och integreringen av kundorienterade anpassningsprocesser med kontinuerlig vidareutveckling och versionshantering, är emellertid bara några exempel på pågående förändringar och utveckling som håller på att flytta medverkan kring IT design bortanför traditionella systemutvecklingsprojekt. Utifrån exempel hämtade från fallstudier bedrivna inom ett forskningsprojekt där vi har fokuserat på existerande praktiker och IT i användning på arbetsplatser inom offentlig förvaltning med inrktning mot publika tjänster, belyser vi i den här artikeln olika förståelser av design, vilka utmanar några av de förgivettaganden som ligger till grund för forskningsområdet Participatory Design i dess nuvarande form. Om design av IT uppfattas som ständigt pågående, och på ett intrikat sätt sammanvävt med användning, har detta flera viktiga implikationer för användarmedverkan i design. Det understryker vikten av design för förändring. Det visar på behovet av nytänkande kring strukturering av mjukvaru-utvecklingsprocesser. Det medför fokusering av frågor kring koordinering av design i användning och anpassning och utveckling av IT. Inte minst medför det att 'shop floor IT management' hamnar i blickfånget, dvs organisatorisk och teknisk support för lokal anpassning och kontinuerlig design och utveckling i användning, av IT, och behovet av modeller och metoder för långsiktigt hållbara, distribuerade, kooperativa design processer.

Projektets syfte var att undersöka om en handdator kan stödja distriktssköterskans arbete. I rapporten beskrivs hur vi tillsammans med distriktssköterskor har iakttagit i vilka situationer handdatorn kan vara ett hjälpmedel. Om patientjournalen är tillgänglig via handdatorn vid hembesök skulle det styrka de av oss utvalda nyckelorden som representerar distriktssköterskans yrkeskunnande; "seende", lyhördhet, kommunikation, flexibilitet, prioritering, beslutsfattande, dokumentation, framförhållning samt utveckla ett minne och självständighet. I rapporten skriver vi också om hur distriktssköterskorna tillsammans med oss har påverkat utvecklingen av det grafiska gränssnittet i designprocessen. Vi visar med mock-upbilder hur denna process har framskridit och vi pekar på hur viktig användarmedverkan är. Vår studie visar att man med metoder som etnografiska studier, workshops, mock-uparbete och participatory/deltagar design kan få en inblick i ett så traditionellt yrke som distriktssköterskans och se var, när och hu r handdatorn kan användas i den dagliga verksamheten.

This report gives a presentation of work in progress, a pilot study concerning the setting up of public services in the local context of the county of Blekinge, South-eastern Sweden. The main aim with this discussion is to support a more reflective and participatory attitude towards design and development of public systems among municipalities and other service producers/providers in the future. The way in which I will do this study is to examine a selection of methods, or types of needs analysis or needs assessments, used by different actors and producers of public services in order to get a picture of various needs among the users. One part of my study is to look at service providers and their use of explicit techniques, such as questionnaires, larger surveys and work carried out with the help of focus groups. A basic question to put forward is what role do these explicit surveys play for the various participating actors - including citizens - and, in the long run, for the design-choices? The mapping work described here is being carried out within the context of a larger on-going research and development project concerning the continuous design and development of IT in use in public service. [1].

Detta magister arbete tar upp problem med distribuerat samarbete och informationsflöde med och utan datorstöd. Om datorstöd kommer att bli en framgång eller ej beror inte bara på datorstödet utan också på om användarna tar sitt ansvar och lägger in information och uppdaterar den. Gör de det kan datorstödet bli ett effektivt verktyg för distribuerat samarbete och information.

This Bachelor Thesis in the area of Computer Science and Work Science describes the process of design and development of an IT-tool between the municipality of Ron-neby and TietoEnator a development and consultancy firm, the Gothenburg office. The thesis focuses mainly on the cooperation between the consultant designer and the local municipal. Through cooperation, the organisation is incorporated into the tool and the tool is incorporated into the organisation. Concepts that are central in this thesis are design, cooperation and tailoring. A question raised is, if distance work and extensive cooperation might be a good way of working in the process of design and development, when the organisation is being incorporated into the tool. Advan-tages and disadvantages of this way of working are discussed. Our studies show that distance work is a good complement for personal meet-ings between designer and co-developer. There are several advantages and disadvan-tages with distance work. Through cooperation, the co-developer gains the advantage of being able to affect the tool through proposals of design. This also gives an in-creased opportunity for tailoring in the future. The support to the co-workers in the organisation is important for how the tool will be received. The long-term aspect of the process of design and development of IT is of importance when organisations continually develop and change over time. The IT-tool ought to be flexible and tailorable. In the end of this thesis, some proposals are given concerning cooperative proc-esses of design and development, on the basis of our studies during the work with this Bachelor Thesis.

Informationsteknik är en aktiv och energisk deltagare i våra liv. Bokstavskombinationen IT förekommer överallt. Men vad är egentligen denna informationsteknik? I denna licentiatuppsats söker författaren svar på frågan med hjälp av svenska offentliga texter. Dessa texter beskriver informationsteknik främst som ett komplicerat tekniskt fenomen vilken ställer krav på infrastruktur och teknisk expertis. Samtidigt beskriver samma dokument informationsteknik som en pådrivare i samhällsutvecklingen. Man kan således konstatera att informationsteknik verkar ha två sidor; en teknisk och en samhällelig. Ett annat sätt att leta efter svar är att studera hur informationsteknik formas i vardagens praktiker. I denna licentiatuppsats undersöker författaren projektet ´Kvinnor skriver på nätet´ som bland annat hade som ambition att förverkliga de demokratiska tankegångar som de formuleras i svenska IT-politiska dokument. Som en ytterligare ingång till vardagens informationsteknik studerar författaren hur bibliotekarier formar informationsteknik genom att delta i IT-projekt och skapa webbplatser till sina organisationer. Författaren kommer fram till att det inte finns en enda och entydig definition av fenomenet informationsteknik. IT är både teknik och samhällsutveckling. IT är både storslagen politisk retorik och vardagens kreativitet med dess tröttsamma rutiner. Författaren kommer också fram till att informationsteknik inte endast är en angelägenhet för makthavare och tekniska experter. Informationsteknik är en levande process, vilket förutsätter att den ständigt måste utvecklas och formas i vardagen. Om vi utgår från en bred definition av informationsteknik får detta intressanta konsekvenser. Författaren vill visa att informationsteknik är ett fält där det finns plats för många olika kompetenser och erfarenheter. Informationsteknik är en möjlighet men den måste anpassas i de existerande organisationer där människor i samarbete med andra människor, datorer, nätverk och programvara förverkligar och formar informationsteknik. Detta perspektiv påminner också om att ansvaret av informationsteknikens utveckling och tillämpningar inte bara hör hemma i stora IT-företag utan att informationsteknik förverkligas och skapas i arbetslivet på olika nivåer.

Examensarbetet är ett samarbetsprojekt mellan Intensivvårdsenheten på Universitetssjukhuset MAS och Interactive Institute. Projektet undersöker hur en handdator med korta videofilmer, gjorda av kollegor, kan underlätta kunskapsöverföring mellan personal. Vår rapport beskriver en designprocess, från utveckling till domesticering.

The main interfaces for interaction with computers today are; keyboard, mouse and remote control. In order to interact with the presentation software Power Point, the presenter has to focus either on the computer or the buttons on the remote control. By doing this, the presenter often loses the contact with his audience and his or her flow of speech gets interrupted. This project has researched the possibility of using gestures for interaction with Power Point, by using an appliance that detects gestures. The purpose was that the interaction should be possible to realise by software, which we have done an introductory design of. We have focused on assisting presenters when they use Power Point and other applications when delivering presentation. To collect data and get an understanding of presenters, presentations and gestures we have observed presenters in action, done workshops together with future users and tested some gestures in real life. These are methods inspired from approaches such as ethnographic fieldwork and participatory design. During the whole project we have used video recording to collect and save data. To create an understanding and clear picture of what the future software should include UML-diagrams were used. We have separated gestures in two categories; natural and designed. The natural gestures occur naturally during speech and social interaction, while the designed gestures are gestures that you learn to use and express, often to perform a task. We discovered that it was the designed gestures that are best suited for gestural interaction with computer. Since the designed gestures are close to the natural way of gesturing we see them as easier to learn, remember and also more comfortable to use. We think the designed gestures have the potential to become second nature, therefore they are good to use for interaction with computers. Our research work led us to realise a need for an on/off function, to distinguish the designed gestures from the natural ones. By using a gestural interface during a presentation, the presenters can keep the focus on the audience and the message they want to convey. When gestural interfaces become reality they will introduce a paradigm shift in the way that people interact with computers and information.

Med den snabba pågående teknikutvecklingen ökar allmänhetens krav på interaktiv medborgarservice. I projektet sker ett samarbete kring verksamhets- och IT-utvecklingen mellan medborgarserviceverksamheten i fem kommuner, ett call center företag och två applikationsutvecklande konsultföretag. Målsättningen med projektet är att, tillsammans med systemutvecklare, teknisk supportpersonal och dem som arbetar med medborgarservice, vidareutveckla den IT som används idag, samt testa nya möjligheter avseende ett tekniskt och designmässigt avancerat integrerat IT-stöd för medborgarservice. Avsikten är också att bidra till utvecklingen av en reflekterande praxis kring IT i användning, bl a genom att utforska möjligheterna att stärka resurserna för kontinuerlig lokal design och 'fininställning' av IT i användning. Det handlar om att stödja, synliggöra och utveckla strukturerna för, och samarbetet kring, IT management som en del av vardagens praxis. Projektet fokuserar på arbetets praxis. Grundhypotesen är att IT är något som konstrueras i användning. I den konstruktionsprocessen behöver design-perspektivet stärkas och stödjas.

Accountability is an important issue for design, in more than one sense. In software engineering literature, accountability is mainly seen as a goal for quality assurance of design processes. In ethnomethodological studies, accountability is a central concept for understanding how people organize their everyday actions and interactions. Where the different research approaches meet, in Human Computer Interaction (HCI) and Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) literature, new and hybrid understandings of accountability arise. In this paper, I explore and compare uses of the concept of accountability in a selection of texts. Finally, using a specific case as an example, I discuss what focusing on ethnomethodological understandings of accountability might imply for design of information technologies.

At present, I am involved in a three-year research and development project called Design of IT in Use; technologies for supporting services to the citizens (Design av IT i användning, or DitA for short). This project, which is being funded by the Swedish Council for Work Life, is about the use, design and continual support and development of computer support for public administration and information services offered by one-stop shops and call centers. The main focus is on the ongoing integration of such systems with public electronic information systems, and on new developments and design to meet the increasing complexity and diversity of ICT (Information and Communication Technologies). One of the aims of our research is thus to participate in the developing of new forms for citizens' access to public information and public services via Internet. Our work in the DitA project is based on previous and ongoing longitudinal close-up studies of work practices and uses of technological support in actual physical locations such as one-stop shops and call centers. In our research work, we are actively involved in inter-organizational cooperation aiming to coordinate information and services on-line across and beyond old sectorial boundaries, both on the local, municipal level, and on a regional and national level. We are participating in the analysis and design of prototypes for on-line public information and public services, including the process of establishing focus groups and reference groups for the further development and testing of ideas, scenarios and prototypes. Through and beyond the challenges these developments are posing to traditional public service bureaucracies and their roles vis-à-vis the citizens?, we see more profound challenges to ways of understanding the use and design of modern technologies. We have found, in our research work, that we are having to search for new ways to grasp from where, whom, and what situation, these service centers are being contacted. The ?global access? offered by www is accompanied by a growing need to localize the user/citizen/person ? and for the user to be able to localize her- or himself - i. e. a need to design for and manage the specificities of the situation of use of IT. One concept we have been exploring recently, as a way of focusing this seeming paradox, is ?genius loci?, a concept used by architects and artists in reference to ?the spirit of the place?.

In this position paper for the MUM 2003 workshop in Norrköping, December 10th 2003, Designing for ubicomp in the wild: Methods for exploring the design of mobile and ubiquitous service, a brief description is given of methods used in connection with a series of ‘quick and dirty’ ethnographic studies of mobile ICT users. These studies were carried out as commissioned research during 2000. Because of predetermined constraints on the studies and resulting reports, alternative ways of describing and annotating interactions on the move were devised and tested. As a result, the initial single time line approach was abandoned and a number of messier, multi-branched chor(e)ographies of communication were developed. These were finally discarded at the time as failures. However, in connection with becoming more of a mobile ICT user myself, the issue of the social and situated construction of time, and the need for supporting several themes in parallel, along different time lines, has surfaced again, and now seems more relevant than ever.

New information technology is developing faster than the models, metaphors and methods in use for conceptualizing the sharing and managing of information in organizations, in communities and in society in general. The way we utilize information technology today does not seem to succeed in supporting the everyday work practices through which organizations accomplish their work. In this PhD dissertation, the results of a research project about skill, cooperation and computer support in public service one-stop shops are presented and discussed. Based on these results, alternative metaphors are presented for understanding the constructive aspects of front office work practices, One hypothesis is, that there is added value in not only being aware of multiperspectivity as an issue, but of making use of it in design. A problem here is that many traditional research methods, as well as most methods for systems development, are designed to diminish rather than make use of ambiguity and diversity. The metaphor of inverted indexicality of language is introduced in order to conceptualize the construction of meaning in action. New ways of conceptualizing IT management on the shop floor - including design issues - are proposed. Metaphors like the art of IT management, gardening and caring for are indicative of the issues at stake.

Konceptet 'genius loci', här översatt som 'platsens ande', har lånats från arkitektur och grekisk mytologi. Här används det som ett analytiskt verktyg för att utforska hur motstridiga och vaga begrepp som globalisering och lokalisering kan konfronteras och hanteras på fruktbara sätt i design av applikationer för internet-användning. Exempel ges från fyra olika forsknings- och utvecklingsprojekt författaren varit delaktig i. På ett mer filosofiskt plan ställs frågan om 'stark subjektivitet', en ökad förståelse hos individer för 'jag' i förhållande till 'du', och för det egna handlingsutrymmet i tillvaron, kan stärkas och stödjas av den moderna informationsteknologins utveckling. Nyckelord: Människa-maskin interaktion, IT, internet, filosofiska funderingar kring IT

As technology is developed and evolves over time in use, research areas focusing on technology, and technology in use, must develop their metaphors, models and figures of thought. Ethnomethodology, the study of how people organize their everyday lives, is a sociological approach that has come to play an important role in research on human-computer interaction (HCI) and computer supported cooperative work (CSCW)in recent years. In this presentation, some examples are given of how detailed studies of people's actions and interactions can be used to problematize current models and figures of thought concerning organizations and the organization of work. What would happen if we focus on relationships and activities, instead of formal representations of hierarchical decision structures? If we see organizations as constantly on-going activities and cultivating of relationships? How might effective computer support be designed for such an organization? The concept of 'accountability', which is central in ethnomethodology, ís used here to discuss new figures of thought and metaphorical models as a basis for developing mobile services.

Paneldebatt om modeller och metoder i design av informationssystem, med särskild fokus på alternativa abstraktionsmodeller och metoder.

During the twenty-some years since ethnographic field studies in the workplace first began to be taken seriously as having possible relevance for the design of information technology, accountability has been one of the recurring concepts in the literature exploring these areas. Like usability and actability, accountability sounds like an important issue but proves a difficult feature to define. Of what exactly is it an attribute? Who defines it? For whom? Under what conditions? In this paper, I explore and compare a few of the various uses of the concept of accountability that I have come across in ethnomethodological and CSCW literature. In the third section, I tentatively indicate what focusing on accountability, in one or several different interpretations of the concept, might imply for design of IT in some specific cases. These brief and sketchy examples, aiming to be thought-provoking rather than analytically thought-through and articulated, are selected from recent development projects and on-going research work with which I have been involved or come in contact.

In the inter-disciplinary research and development project Design of IT in Use; supportive technologies for citizens? services (DitA), we are studying the use, design and continual support and development of computer support for public administration and information services offered by one-stop shops. Our main focus is on the ongoing integration of such systems with public electronic information systems, and on new developments and design to meet the increasing complexity and diversity of ICT (Information and Communication Technologies). One of the aims of our research is to participate in developing new forms for citizens' access to public services via Internet. The DitA-project is funded by the Swedish Agency for Innovation Systems, VINNOVA, During our ethnographic field studies of work practices in public service one-stop shops, we have observed how closely interwoven people?s on-going choices of action and use of technology are with issues of accountability. This, in turn, has lead us to question whether the importance of considering and supporting accountability issues and needs is perhaps underestimated in the design and development of ICT. Even when designers deliberately focus on use- and action-oriented concepts such as usability and actability, it doesn?t necessarily follow that accountability surfaces as an explicit issue for design. When it does, it is often narrowed down to questions of human-computer interface design, and focused on system accountability versus the user (form and content of feedback information, etc). However, accountability issues, when explored in specific use contexts, are closely linked to social and organizational issues on a number of different levels. Accountability itself, when focused through the prism of people in action, becomes multifarious and ambiguous, begging further exploration of context and involved relationships. In the DitA project, we have deliberately attempted to focus on the concept of accountability in action and how it can be supported and mediated by the design of ICT infrastructures.

Erfarenheter av planering och genomförande av en nätbaserad sommarkurs om IT i vardagen - användning och design. Ambitionen var att använda problem-baserat lärande och 'forskande lärande'. Ett lärarlag på tre personer, som också samarbetar i ett forskningsprojekt om användning och design av IT i offentlig sektor, utvecklade kursen tillsammans. Nätbaserad undervisning, problem-baserat lärande, IT i vardagen.

This Bachelor?s Thesis concerns 20 points at the MDA educational program (People, Computers and Work) at Blekinge Institute of Technology in Ronneby. The MDA educational program focuses on how people use Information Technology and its design and development. Volvo Car Corporation is looking at the future possibilities of their development of their Drivers Information Module, DIM . Today all their instruments are analogical and as time go by, new features are added in the car. This overflow of instruments and information is more likely to confuse the driver than to assist him. Instead Volvo wants to focus on showing only the relevant information for the driver. So Volvo is designing a new Drivers Information Module, which works like a computer monitor. This gives a new perspective on how to show information for the driver. Our goal in this project is to give ideas on how the information can be displayed in this new version of the DIM and in what situations.

När en datoriserad artefakt introduceras som ett verktyg i en aktivitet är det inte möjligt att enbart ta hänsyn till designen av det specifika verktyget för att förstå den verkliga användningen. Det är även nödvändigt att studera kontexten i vilken verktyget används och att rigga miljön för att stödja användningen av verktyget. Detta har jag försökt att visa i mitt magisterarbete där jag har studerat hur resenärer checkar-in på flygplatser i Sverige och Norge med hjälp av eller utan att använda självbetjäningsautomater, d.v.s. s.k. Self Service Units.

Many of those who buy a PDA today do it for the purpose of time management. The PDA is meant to replace other artifacts like paper diaries and notebooks but in practice the PDA cannot be used as the sole resource for time management. We think that to succeed in making time management with a PDA more useful the design has to be grounded in an understanding of the existing technology and how it is used in practice. We achieved this understanding of the time management with a PDA by conducting an ethnographical study to find out how the PDA is used in practice, making a technical investigation of the PDA and cooperated with the PDA users throughout the design process. In this thesis we describe our design suggestion that improves the applications for time management in the PDA and take it a step closer to be the replacement for other time management artifacts that the users wanted.

Field studies, interviews and participative observations have been the main methods in this master thesis where the author has studied, and partially participated, in the development process of a booking system called FRI. Idavall is the small company that develops this suc-cessful software despite small resources. Characteristic for Idavall is in the way they manage to involve their about 1300 users in the development process. The development process is highly flexible which is required when rapidly changes are common. The overall question in this thesis is: How do Idavall manage to develop this software in a flexible way and successfully involve their users in the development process? Idavall arranges FRI-meetings, courses and demonstrations where users meet each other and a representative from Idavall. All participants discuss FRI and have the opportunity to propose changes, improvements and report bugs. One of the most important parts of the busi-ness idea of Idavall is to offer a proper, friendly and professional support. The support is one of the most important possibilities to be informed about the users? needs, wishes and propos-als. This, what I called, user driven development has a lot of common with Participatory De-sign (PD) where users participate in the design of new software. PD implies that users of software should take part in decisions that affect the system and the way it is used and de-signed. Idavall make use of a kind of Customer Relationship Management (CRM), which is a concept used in the marketing arena. The objective of CRM is to create a strong, mutual and trustful relationship between supplier and customer. By using CRM in combination with PD it is possible to enhance the user participation and enable user driven development. The company has a flexible development process, which is built on an informal way of driving the process. Informal meetings are common where decisions about changes and im-provements are taken quickly. New versions are delivered about 20 times a year. The employ-ees meet several times a day in the central located coffee room and discuss problems. The development process has a lot of common with Extreme Programming (XP), which is a software development methodology that aims to make software development more flexi-ble and focus on highly flexible environments with quickly changing requirements. XP is de-scribed briefly and comparisons are made to the development process of FRI as well as short-comings of XP in the context of PD.

Computer Supported Collaborative Learning, CSCL, är ett relativt nytt forskningsområde inom undervisningsteknologi. Dess fokus ligger på lärandeprocessen i en läromiljö där samarbete är grundläggande och helt eller delvis sker med hjälp av datorer. I denna rapport ska jag, med hjälp av en modell kallad Kognitivt lärlingsskap (Cognitive apprenticeship), belysa områden som är av vikt när CSCL-miljöer designas. Kognitivt lärlingsskap är ett försök till att kombinera traditionellt lärlingsskap med skolarbete. Kombinationen ska underlätta utvecklandet av teoretiska och praktiska kunskaper. Modellen har beskrivits som framgångsrik men det finns vissa skillnader mellan lärlingens lärandemiljö och elevens lärandemiljö som gör det svårt att applicera lärlingsmodellen i skolmiljön.

Many companies invest large amount of money in developing new technology, without knowing how it will be used. To succeed in making these technologies useful it is necessary to understand the context that gives meaning to the artifact. In the case of generic products, especially in new domains, the context is not obvious. This bachelor thesis analyses what Usability Engineering, Participatory Design and Ethnography can contribute to the problem of learning about the context of usage for generic artifacts. Understanding and identifying details of context is considered to be important to achieve usability in software development. The experience is that most recommendations on usability methods concern situations of specific users in a specific context. In order to find important aspects of the real-world use of generic products, we suggest that ethnographic studies can be conducted in contexts where behaviors relevant to the design are thought to be found. The problem of not knowing the context was experienced in usability work practiced in a large software engineering project. The project task was to develop a web browser for Symbian's ?Quartz? reference design for handheld devices. Methods used were taken from participatory design and usability engineering.