The Locales Framework: Understanding and Designing for Wicked Problems

ISBN-13: 9789048162536 / Angielski / Miękka / 2011 / 242 str.

G. Fitzpatrick

Opis

Software design is becoming increasingly complex and difficult as we move to applications that support people interacting with information and with each other over networks. Computer supported cooperative work applications are a typical example of this. The problems to be solved are no longer just technical, they are also social: how do we build systems that meet the real needs of the people who are asked to use them and that fit into their contexts of use. We can characterise these as wicked problems, where our traditional software engineering techniques for understanding requirements and driving these through into design are no longer adequate.

This book presents the Locales Framework - and its five aspects of locale foundations, civic structures, individual views, interaction trajectory and mutuality - as a way of dealing with the intertwined problem-solution space of wicked problems. A locale is based on a metaphor of place as the lived relationship between people and the spaces and resources they use in their interactions. The Locales Framework provides a coherent mediating framework for ethnographers, designers, and software engineers to facilitate both understanding requirements of complex social situations and designing solutions to support these situations in all their complexity.

Spis treści

Preface. Part I: Introduction. 1. The Wicked Problem of Design. 1.1. Systems Design as a Wicked Problem. 1.2. A Research Narrative. 2. The CSCW Design Challenge. 2.1. Understanding Cooperative Work. 2.2. Designing Systems. 2.3. The Understanding - Designing Dialogue. 2.4. Summary. Part II: Evolution to the Locales Framework. 3. The wOrlds System. 3.1. A Brief wOrlds Tour. 3.2. Summary. 4. Systems Engineers at Work. 4.1. Appearance of Work in Isolation. 4.2. Breakdowns in Work. 4.3. Summary. 5. How Systems Engineers Accomplish Work. 5.1. Making Sense of an Unknowable Environment. 5.2. Working with Workspace Characteristics. 5.3. Work around Strategies. 5.4. Summary. 6. Moving From Space to Place. 6.1. Ethnography to Design. 6.2. wOrlds Away From the Systems Engineers' World. 6.3. From Space to Place in Systems Design. 6.4. Summary. Part III: The Locales Framework. 7. Introduction to the Locales Framework. 7.1. Locale as Unit of Analysis. 7.2. Overview of Framework Aspects. 7.3. Centres and Perspectives. 7.4. Summary. 8. Locales Framework Aspects. 8.1. Locale Foundations. 8.2. Civic Structure. 8.3. Individual Views. 8.4. Interaction Trajectory. 8.5. Mutuality. 8.6. Summary. 9. Locales Framework Approach. 9.1. Related Approaches. 9.2. Using the Locales Framework. 9.3. Summary. Part IV: Working with the Locales Framework. 10. Distributed Research Work: A Tale of Two Groups. 10.1. Introducing the Internet Exploration Unit (IEU). 10.2. Introducing the Romany Initiative. 10.3. Key Features of Collaboration. 10.4. Conclusions and Reflections. 11. Designing for Telehealth. 11.1. Current Intra-ICU Practice. 11.2. Current Remote Consultation Practice. 11.3. Evolving a Telehealth System in Practice. 11.4. Conclusions and Reflections. 12. CSCW Environment Design: Orbit and Tickertape. 12.1. Evolving Orbit. 12.2. The Coincidental Tickertape Lesson. 12.3. Summary. 13. Conclusions, Reflections and Future Work. 13.1. Review of the Locales Framework. 13.2. Reflections on Using the Framework. 13.3. Moving Forward - Future Work. 13.4. Postscript: Reflections from a Distance. 13.5. Conclusion. References. Index.