Jose Abdelnour Nocera and Lynne Dunckley

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An Approach to the Evaluation of Usefulness as a
Social Construct using Technological Frames Jose
Abdelnour Nocera Jose.abdelnour-nocera_at_tvu.ac.uk
Lynne Dunckley Lynne.dunckley_at_tvu.ac.uk Institute
for Information Technology Thames Valley
University England
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Relevance Rapid prototyping allows designers to
obtain quick feedback with a minimum investment
in the early stages of design however, no
valuable information regarding its usefulness can
be collected until a broader adoption of the
technology. (De Paula, 2003)
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• Key objectives
• The use of concept of technological frames to
  explore how systems acquire their usefulness once
  deployed in their actual contexts of use.
• Bringing the sociology of technology closer to
  HCI, CSCW and IS research.

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• Key characteristics
• An alternative epistemology towards the study of
  technology and the groups related to it that
  questions
• The idea of systems having a fixed useful
  character.
• The boundaries between producers and users of IT/
  between settings of design and use.

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How many bicycles can you see?

• A Unsafe bicycle
• A Macho bicycle

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The working and nonworking of an artifact are
socially constructed assessments, rather than
intrinsic properties of the artifact. One
artifact (in the old sense) comprises different
socially constructed artefacts, some of which may
be working while others are nonworking. (Bijke
r, 1995)
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Interpretative flexibility of Technology

• The Metaphor of Technology as Text...
• just as the meaning of a written text is not a
  property of the text, so too the character of
  technology is not determined by its technical
  structure (Mackay,2000)

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Soc. of Tech. offers an epistemology congruent
with the study of usefulness of IT as social
proxies
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• Previous work on studying the usefulness of
  systems
• Information Systems
• Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) Davis (1989)
• -Perceived Usefulness reduced to idea of
  performance
• -Perceived Ease of Use
• Limitations of Quantitative Methods
• Relation to developers responsiveness
• Gefen, D., Keil, M. (1998)
• Relation to User Interface Characteristics
• Calisir, F., Calisir, F. (2004)

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HCI Nielsens view on usefulness
Sociology of Technology
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Usefulness as a social construct

• Focused on Meaning (Constructionist Paradigm)
  instead of Perceived Performance (Positivistic
  Paradigm)
• Interpretative flexibility of Technology
  (Sociology of Technology)

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Usefulness as a social construct
The technological usefulness of software
artefacts remains unknown, or known only
indirectly, and relies upon improvisations that
remain invisible to professional design (Suchman,
2002). Users construct technology they do
this both symbolically, in their reading of
artefacts, and literally, in the articulation
work that is essential before a generic
system-product can be used as an artefact
supporting day-to-day practices. (Hales, 1993)
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Technological Frame
The core set of assumptions, expectations and
knowledge of technology collectively held by a
group or group. (Orlikowski and Gash, 1994,
p.199) A technological frame comprises all
elements that influence the interactions within
relevant social groups and lead to the
attribution of meaning to technical artifacts-
and thus to constituting technology. (Bijker,
1995, p. 123)
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This approach integrates Technological Frames
with the concept of Breakdowns A breakdown is
not a negative situation to be avoided, but a
situation of non obviousness, in which the
recognition that something is missing leads to
revealing (generating through our declarations)
some aspect of the network of tools that we are
engaged in using. Winograd and Flores (1986,
p.165-166) (Similar ideas in Situated Action
Suchmann, AT, Hermeneutics)
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Revised Conception of Technological Frames

• Goals
• Societal and practical
• short and long term
• Problems (breakdowns)
• Elements of interpretation
• Assumptions, knowledge (e.g. problems solving
  strategies, praxis) and expectations reflected
  by people or in discourse
• Elements of practice
• Any action, practice leading to or responding to
  the attribution of meaning to technology

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• EMPIRICAL WORK
• ELSOFT European based software vendor of
  standard ERP software (BIZWARE) for small and
  medium sized organisations, sold around the world
• ETNOGRAPHY and QUALITATIVE CASE STUDIES
• RESEARCHER ADOPTED THE ROLE OF USABILITY
  CONSULTANT
• Informed Consent issues
• Conflicts of roles and going native.
• ANALYSIS OF THE PROCESS OF USERS ROLE IN
  DEVELOPMENT
• APPROPIATON OF BIZWARE IN CUSTOMER SITES IN
  INDONESIA, HONG KONG, SPAIN AND UNITED KINGDOM.
• DATA
• INTERVIEWS,
• INTRANET DOCUMENTS,
• E-MAILS AND FAXES
• PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION

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• Why Enterprise Resource Planning Software for
  SMEs?
• Used to support tangible work activities
• Standard design used in different cultures
• Producers presented it as embodying best
  business practice
• Access

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Stakeholders Technological Frames
Coping Strategies
Natural?
Practical?
Utility
Software
Usefulness
Usability
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• Usefulness of BIZWARE defined with meanings
  (themes) related to
• Security
• Efficiency
• Customer Centredness
• Situated Usability
• Openness
• Completeness
• Quality of Automation

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• Conclusions
• The definitions of how useful a system is and of
  the problems it is deemed to solve are not static
  but negotiable, fluid and subject to the
  sociocultural perspectives and practices of both
  producers and users.
• Contributions and Further Work
• TF offer qualitative sociological framework that
  explains how the usefulness of systems is
  socially constructed.
• Analysis framework that can be integrated with
  novel UCD context-based techniques such as Bill
  Gavers cultural probes.
• Reflective approach that can equally consider
  producers and users perspectives for the
  identification of conflicts, e.g. elements of
  interpretation and practice in RAD methods such
  as XP and DSDM.