Grounded Design: Exploring the Creation of IT Artefacts in Social Practice

1. Grounded Design: Exploring the Creation of IT Artefacts in Social Practice Volker Wulf University of Siegen and Fraunhofer FIT

2. Table of Content • Introduction • Concept of Social Practice • Design Case Studies • Comparing cases and building concepts • ePortefolio • Meta research • Conclusion

3. Introduction • Designing (innovative) technical artefacts which interact with social practices (in work, leisure, life, …..) to reach societal ends • Research is context-specific • Specific social environment (practices, historical condition, …. • Specific actors • Specific technologies and infrastructure • ……. • Specific and „strange“ content of research • Computer science: not dealing with context specific results • Social science: not dealing with design and intervention • Field of strong epistemologic divides • The role of theory, concepts, the and transferability of insights

4. Theories of Practice • Sociological theories focusing on social practices • Bourdieu (1977 and 1990) Giddens (1979 and 1984), Garfinkel (1967) and Latour (1993) • Reckwitz (2002 and 2003): Line-out of an idealized theory of social practice • Practice is understood to be a mainly routinized pattern of human action • Historically grown • Consisting of mental and physical aspects • Grounded in background knowledge (know how, forms of understanding, state of emotion and motivational knowledge) • Importance of artefacts and their use • Examples of practices • Specific manner to work, to cook, or to play soccer • Practices are reproduced situatedly within specific contexts • (Ubiquitous) Computing is a key driver

5. Grounded Design: Overview over a Practice based Approach • Conducting a set of specific design case studies • Documenting the insights gained in the individual case studies • In a complex manner beyond (few) academic papers • Building a ePortefolio out of a set of design case studies • Comparing design case studies • Buttom-up building of sensitizing concepts with design-relevancy • Concepts being navigation devices • Meta research: Research on deign research practices • Towards self-reflectivity, IT support, and transferability of insights

6. Design Case Studies: A Practice-based Research Approach • Empirical analysis of given social practices in a specific field of application • (Participatory) Design of an innovative ICT artifact related to the findings of the empirical analysis • Investigation into the appropriation of the ICT artifact over a longer period of time Prestudy IT Design Appropriation

7. Firefighter in Burning Buildings: Research Methods • Eight years of engagement with • Firebrigade of Paris • Firefighters in Köln • Volunteer firefighters in NRW • Observationals studies, semistructured interviews, design-oriented workshops • Prototyping and appropriation at the training centre of the „Institut der Feuerwehr NRW“

8. Findings of Empirical Prestudies • Wayfinding is physically challenging collective activity • Extreme conditions of interaction (smoke, heat, time pressure) • Supported by physical aretfacts (fire hose, chalk) and body contact • Building own spacial understanding and sharing with following troups • Troups are rather autonomous inside but external coordination by a commander (outside the building) • Communication via radio, one channel • Disrupting and stressfull for the inside • Awareness and disturbance by using just one channel

9. Prototyping and Design Explorations

10. DesignsConcepts • Landmarke: a device to help navigating in burning buildings • Annotation of space in the building • Shape of door stopper • Builds a ZigBee network • EmergencyMessenger: a communication device • Structured communication with the outside commander • Augmenting radio communication

11. Appropriationin Practice • Landmarke provided more security in leaving the building and finding short cuts • EmergencyMessenge saved considerable time in the communication with outside • Replaced radio communication as standard media • Unease of commanders • Longer time to work in the burning building • EmergencyMessenge added value to the network of Landmarkes

12. ePortefolioof Design Case Studies andButtom-upConcept Building Cooperative Work Community Support Set of Design Case Studies Sustain- ability Aging Society

13. Domains of Buttom-Up Concept Building • Prestudy: Striking elements of practice (e.g. Randall list) • IT Design: Interface, Functionality, Architecture • Appropriation: Dynamics of the interrelation of technical artefacts and practices • Transiting the perspectives/phases Prestudy IT Design Appropriation

14. Modes of Documentation: Different types of experiences • Prestudies: photos, semi-structured questionaire, field notes (anonymized, if possible), videos • IT Design: running system versions, prototypes, scribbles, documantation of design workshops • Appropriation: usage data, photos, videos, field notes, • Publications • Pre publication: different paper versions, reviews, discussions • Presentation: Slight, Audio & Videos • Post publication: annotation

15. Navigation via Sensitizing Concepts • Buttom-Up abstractions • Navigating design case studies rather than replacing the concrete data • Application specific search tool • Implementation in the interface

16. Moving for project support to an ePotefolio of Design Case Studies • Transiting from a work environment to the (semi-) public presentation of selected results • Storing the different materials and making them available in the team of researchers • Paper versions towards publication • Differentiated access rights • Window for (semi-) public accessability of selected data • Allowing to annotate the portefolio

17. Meta-Research: Research on Design Research Practices • Ethnographies in current research projects • Usage of ressources, empirical data, etc • Cooperation and knowledge sharing (inner team, industry partners, user organizations) • Abstractions and concept building • Building the digital portefolio and its linkage to given research infrastructures • Appropriation of the digital portefolio

18. Conclusion • Practice-orientationis an interestingframeworkfordesigning IT in the real world • Exploringfuturesbeyondinteraction design andusabilitystudies • Practice-orientationrequireslong-term perspective • Trustfulcooperationwithfieldsofapplication • Facilitationofsocio-technicalprocesses • Requiresmetastudies • Reflecting upon theactionresearchprocess • Comparinggiven (partial) Design Case Studies • Practice-orientationis a riskyresearchframework • Quality of design isevaluated in socialpractice • Quality of an appliedresearchcommunityis / shouldberelatedtoitsimpact in practice

19. Acknowledgements: „Research in practice-based computing is always a team effort“ • Deeply endebted to my research group which has developed over more than 20 years ….. Markus Rohde, Volkmar Pipek, Gunnar Stevens, Claudia Müller ….. and quite some more colleagues • Core contributions by colleagues / friends visiting us …. helping us to reflect …… Dave Randall, Kjeld Schmidt, Mark Ackerman, Batya Friedman, Peter Brödner, ……