14571844
The process of ISD methodology selection and use: a case study
This paper provides empirically-based explanations for the observed low, and partial, use of information systems development (ISD) methodologies. The research reported in this paper examines the process of methodology selection and use in an intensive field study of the early stages of systems development and notes ongoing adaptation of methodologies in response to changing contingencies. The paper concludes that, in many circumstances, methodology adaptation is a necessary part of successful systems development. It also suggests that deeper understanding of the attitudes of different stakeholders to selecting and using ISD methodologies may help to explain this adaptation.
15057511
Completing design in use: closing the appropriation cycle
Users appropriate a technology innovation as they adapt and adapt to its capabilities. This paper argues that the appropriation of technology innovations – information and communication technologies such as devices and systems – is actually part of the design process. The design of a technology innovation is completed by users as they appropriate it. The contributions of the paper are to draw attention to the crucial role played by users’ actions in completing the design process and to examine the implications for the design and implementation of technology innovations. The challenge for designers is to design malleable technologies that can be adapted to users’ organisational, social and personal practices, and then to harvest users’ needs from the appropriated innovation in order to improve its design. For managers, trainers and IS staff involved in the implementation of innovations, the challenge is to encourage and support users’ appropriation activities.
1970300
Acting out the future: a process for envisionment
It is difficult to design innovative information and communication technologies to meet needs that will emerge from future interactions between users, technologies and their situations of use. We have been using scenarios that are acted out as a way of envisioning the future. This paper describes some of the core dilemmas of innovative design. It draws on our existing work as well as ideas from a range of disciplines to present a ‘light’ but useful envisionment process that may be applied to commercial design problems.
131770741
Structured Case: A Methodological Framework for Building Theory in Information Systems Research
This paper presents a methodological framework, structured-case, that assists IS researchers to undertake and assess theory building research within the interpretive paradigm, and explains its value in achieving convincing explanations that are strongly linked to both the research themes and data collected in the field.
52799724
Comparative usability evaluation: critical incidents and critical threads
3113915
Learning by doing with simulated intelligent help
Intelligent advisory interfaces will afford new approaches to help and training problems, however little is known about the usability of such facilities. This recent study indicates that although intelligent help can support users, there are also specific potential problems.
14643603
Making use is more than a matter of task analysis
I am pleased and honored that such an impressive group of commentators considered my book Making Use (Carroll, 2000) worthy of discussion and analysis. I would not expect, nor even prefer really, to have everyone agree with me. What would bother me, what would bother any author, is to not be read at all. Dan Diaper’s critical review and the commentaries by David Benyon/Catriona Macaulay, Tom Carey, and Fabio Paterno, will help to make that less likely! Many important themes are raised in Diaper (2002) review and in the commentaries. In this response I want to concentrate on refining a few of the main issues and distinctions. First, I briefly consider contrasts in values. I think that preferences for scenario-based design versus traditional task analytic methods reflect differences in the underlying world views and values of designers and researchers. To some extent, therefore, the issues in this discussion are not just technical, but paradigmatic and moral. Second, I consider the state of design practices in HCI and its implications for where onus lies in contemporary methodological argumentation and for what sorts of data are pertinent and required to address outstanding methodological issues. Finally, I consider the question of how task analysis, in the sense of structured task decomposition, might be reconstructed in the emerging paradigm of scenario-based design.
14287805
A Formalism and Environment for the Development of a Large Grammar of English
Natural language grammars with large coverage are typically the result of many person-years of effort, working with clumsy formalisms and sub-optimal software support for grammar development. This paper describes our approach to the task of writing a substantial grammar, as part of a collaboration to produce a general purpose morphological and syntactic analyser for English. The grammatical formalism we have developed for the task is a metagrammatical notation which is a more expressive and computationally tractable variant of Generalized Phrase Structure Grammar. We have also implemented a software system which provides a highly integrated and very powerful set of tools for developing and managing a large grammar based on this notation. The system provides a grammarian with an environment which we have found to be essential for rapid but successful production of a substantial grammar.
23810734
Requirements Development in Scenario-Based Design
We describe and analyze the process of requirements development in scenario based design through consideration of a case study. In our project, a group of teachers and system developers initially set out to create a virtual physics laboratory. Our design work centered on the collaborative development of a series of scenarios describing current and future classroom activities. We observed classroom scenarios to assess needs and opportunities, and envisioned future scenarios to specify and analyze possible design moves. We employed claims analysis to evaluate design trade-offs implicit in these scenarios, to codify the specific advantages and disadvantages in achieving requirements. Through the course of this process, the nature of our project requirements has evolved, providing more information but also more kinds of information. We discuss the utility of managing requirements development through an evolving set of scenarios, and the generality of the scenario stages from this case study.