Design at Work: Cooperative Design of Computer Systems

The contributors to this important volume begin with a simple premise: Computer system development is difficult, not primarily because of the complexity of technical problems, but because of the social interaction involved when users and designers learn to create programs and express ideas together. Based on this important concept, they offer concrete suggestions for ways that system developers can experiment with new perspectives and techniques for cooperating with users -- especially during the early phases of the design process.

The editors' primary goal is to stimulate the creation of useful computer systems -- systems that support and sustain the fragile relationship of the people, the working environment, and the computer technology itself.

This readable and engaging book focuses on the process of building systems with the involvement of users....Greenbaum and Kyng's book is insightful for understanding the situated design for that matter. It serves best as a textbook for situated design or supplemental reading in a broader design course....if you are looking for an engaging story of design from head to hand, from idea to product, one for all and all for one, read Greenbaum and Kyng.
—Computing Reviews

The editors and their fourteen contributing authors provide an interesting and well-argued case for cooperative design.... a good-value, readable, well-referenced and thought-provoking book on largely non-technical, but essential, issues of computer systems design.
—The Australian Computer Journal

...contains chapters of uniformly high quality that illustrate how cognitive psychology is coming to understand complex problem solving in a wide range of human endeavors. There is a rich offering of methods, findings, and research problems in the areas of reading, writing, and calculation through to problem solving in electronics, legal reasoning, and international relations....Students of problem solving will appreciate the change that this book represents from the earlier experimental work on simple laboratory tasks.
—Robert Glaser
University of Pittsburgh

in the light of a theoretical understanding of human behavior, both individual and social. It is exciting to see that the field has reached a state of maturity in which we can begin to draw on a shared body of experience and understanding to deepen our intellectual roots and draw nourishment from them to create new ways of designing and working. I highly recommend the book to everyone concerned with designing computer systems.
—Terry Winograd
Stanford University

...a cornucopia of delights that allows for a careful rethinking of the sets of processes we call designing. Although dealing primarily with computer system development, the various authors' careful attention to relationships of language to action, and concern for participation and cooperation in design, make this recommended reading for students and practitioners in fields from computer science to communication, and from engineering management to cybernetics. Most importantly, the chapters as a whole force computer scientists to recognize the embeddedness of social interactions in their work, and force work practitioners to reexamine the conceptual framework and assumptions of their everyday activities. A wonderful book!
—Frederick Steier
President, American Society for Cybernetics, Old Dominion University