Design for People at Work

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Design for People at Work
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Sarah Kuhn

• Assistant Professor in Department of Regional
  Economic and Social Development at UMass, Lowell
• Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced
  Study at Harvard University
• Co-creator of UMass Graduate Certificate Program
  in Human-Computer Interaction
• Developed courses in software design at various
  schools, including MIT
• Author  of   Computer   Manufacturing   in  
  New England  and co-author of The Retail
  Revolution

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Design for People at Work

• Computers in the workplace are not always
  liberating
• Most users dont have control over software,
  design, or when they use it
• Efficiency increases are not guaranteed

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Design for People at Work

• Trouble Ticketing System
• TTS developed to eliminate off-task
  conversation between repairmen
• Benefits of conversation were lost
• Time was monitored and workers were penalized for
  training new people or consulting with others
• Unconnected ticket-based tasks contradict the
  human method

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Design for People at Work

• Big Bank
• Authorization card for security
• Human/Supervisor judgment removed
• Some banks encountered authorization scenarios
  every 5-10 minutes
• Workaround introduced, reducing security
• Responsibility given to the teller even though
  the design avoided this

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Design for People at Work

• HELP system
• 2 functions
• Allow machinists to signal for help/break/tools/et
  c.
• Machine activity monitoring and reports
• Reports were one-side of the story
• Mislead management to punish workers
• Spy in the Sky negative connotation
• System was tolerated degree of indignation?

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Design for People at Work

• Themes
• Strict definitions for usefulness within a
  limited context (ie. time on task vs. training)
• Explicit View (Organizational)
• Jobs can be decomposed into tasks and procedures
• Tacit View (Activity-oriented)
• Activities, relationships, communication, etc.
  are combined in a complex manner

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Design for People at Work

• Explicit and Tacit
• Explicit considerations ignore/eliminate tacit
  elements ? reduced efficiency
• Workarounds

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Design for People at Work

• High Cost of Bad Design
• Displacement, intensification, monitoring,
  reduction/redefinition of skill, loss of control
• Human-centered design
• Consider social aspects with tech aspects
• Participatory design
• End-user influence during entire design process
• Collaborative effort
• Workplace democracy and codetermination

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Profile Participatory Design

• UTOPIA project
• Work-oriented approach
• The Tool Perspective
• Extend traditional practical understanding
• Used role-playing with prototypes

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Profile Participatory Design

• 4 Issues for Design
• Take work practice seriously
• Deal with human concerns, treat them as people
  and not as functionaries
• All work tasks exist within a context
• Work is fundamentally social and cooperative
• Work with the user, not for the user

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Profile Participatory Design

• User Participation Metrics
• Directness of interaction with designers
• Length of involvement
• Scope of participation
• Degree of control