Monthly Archives: February 2012
Eckert, C. & Stacey, M. (2001) Dimensions of communication in design, ICED01
I read again this article when I was looking for some kind of classification of the different communication types in design communication. I am looking at computer support for the different kinds of types. This need for support is also … Continue reading
Garrety, K. & Badham, R. (2004) User-Centered Design and the Normative Politics of Technology, Technology & Human Values, Vol. 29, No. 2. pp. 191-212
Garrety and Badham present an interesting case study of the introduction and use of UCD methods in a mining and manufacturing company in Australia. The paper focuses on politics on getting the UCD methods to work in practice. The described … Continue reading
Greenberg, S. & Buxton, B. (2008) Usability Evaluation Considered Harmful (Some of the Time). In CHI 2008 Proceedings, pp. 111-120.
Greenberg and Buxton have listed in their paper a number of problems related to usability testing, and situations where usability evaluation can even be harmful ”if naively done ’by rule’ rather than ’by thought’”. Their main message is: ”the choice … Continue reading
Oudshoorn & Pinch (2008) User-Technology Relationships: Some Recent Developments, In Hackett et al. (eds.) The Handbook of Science and Technology Studies (3rd ed).
The chapter gives an overview of research about user-technology relationships in the field of science and technology studies. The areas reviewed include innovation studies (especially von Hippel’s lead users), sociology of technology (especially social construction of technology), feminist studies of … Continue reading
Kuutti, K. (2011) Out of the Shadow of Simon: Artifacts, Practices, and History in Design Research, in Proc. Doctoral Education in Design Conference 2011
The paper discusses and critiques the usage of natural science model of theory in design research. Kuutti argues that the subject matter of design and thus also design research is such that any timeless theory is incapable of handling it. … Continue reading
Ostergaard et al. (2005) An experimental methodology for investigating communication in collaborative design review meetings, CoDesign, 1(3), pp. 169-185
Student groups were used to test different communication media in distributed design reviews. The tested media were face-to-face communication, audio and text (chat). The results show that the text based solution was perceived as least effective communication media. This to … Continue reading
Wixon, D. (2011) Measuring fun, trust, confidence, and other ethereal constructs: It isn’t that hard. Interactions Vol. 18 no 6.
In his article, Wixon argues that everything can be measured, but something about the object of measurement is always lost. Therefore, we need multiple measurements to get more accurate measures of the real thing. Still, the most important thing in … Continue reading
Lee, J.H. and Popovic, V. and Blackler, A.L. and Lee, K.P. (2009)User-designer collaboration during the early stage of the design process. IASDR 2009 Proceedings
Lee et al. give a nice introduction in involving users to product design. They claim collaboration (if understood) is the magic bullet to users’ tacit needs. The Authors claim literature to see distinctions between UCD, participatory design and designing for … Continue reading
Cooke, F.L. (2002) Harnessing the Firm-specific Knowledge of the Maintenance Workforce for Organizational Competitiveness, Technology Analysis & Strategic Management, vol. 14, no. 1, pp. 123-140.
I read this paper because Refaiy and Labib 2009 mentioned that this paper is the only paper that addresses the relationship between knowledge and maintenance workforce (skilled craftsmen and technicians who are responsible for maintaining production equipment). However, it turns … Continue reading
Refayi, M., Labib, A. (2009) The effect of applying tacit knowledge on maintenance performance: an empirical study of the energy sector in the UK and Arab countries, Knowledge Management Research & Practice, 7, 277-288
The paper looks at socialization in maintenance context and how it affects maintenance team performance. Data was collected through surveys in energy industry in UK and Arab countries. Sharing tacit knowledge has positive impact on reliability, availability and maintenance supportability. … Continue reading
