UTOPIA: Participatory Design from Scandinavia to the World (original) (raw)
2011, IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology
Studies and design of Information Technology support for workplaces, especially workshop floors, office floors and hospital floors, have a strong tradition in Scandinavia, involving workplace users and their trade unions and other stakeholders. The projects emphasize the active co-operation between researchers and workers in the organizations to help improve their work situation. This tradition is here put into and analysed in its historic perspective, starting with the roots in Norway in the early 1970s and highlighting the seminal UTOPIA project from the early 1980s. Today computer use and interaction possibilities are changing quickly, with use contexts and application types radically broadening. Technology no longer consists of static tools belonging only to the workplace, but permeates work on the move, homes and everyday lives. The Scandinavian tradition of user involvement in development is facing up with the challenges of new contexts. The influence on past and current practices for ICT system design internationally in described and analysed.
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