This paper presents another iteration in the ongoing CSCW dialogue between the understanding of work and the design of systems to support work. We overview the Locales Framework (and its five aspects of locale foundations, individual views, civic structures, interaction trajectory, and mutuality) as a shared abstraction for both understanding and designing. We describe the use of the framework in a telehealth case study and discuss the implications of the framework for the design of generic toolkit environments, as interpreted in the prototype system called Orbit. We conclude with a critique of the framework and suggestions for further iterations in the dialogue.

Semiformal, argumentation-based notations are one of the main classes of formalism currently being used to represent design rationale (DR). However, our understanding of the demands on designers of using such representations has to date been drawn largely from informal and anecdotal evidence. One way to tackle the fundamental challenge of reducing DR's representational overheads, is to understand the relationship between designing, and the idea structuring tasks introduced by a semiformal DR notation. Empirically based analyses of DR in use can therefore inform the design of the notations in order to turn the structuring effort to the designers' advantage. This is the approach taken in this chapter, which examines how designers use a DR notation during design problem solving. Two empirical studies of DR-use are reported, in which designers used the QOC notation (MacLean et al., this volume) to express rationale for their designs. In the first study, a substantial and consistent body o...

this paper, I review the history of HCI as steps toward a science of design. My touchstone is Simon's (1969) provocative book he Sciences of the Artificial. The book pre-dates HCI, and many of its specific characterizations and claims about design are no longer authoritative (see Ehn, 1988). Nevertheless, two of Simon's themes echo through the history of HCI, and still provide guidance for charting its continuing development

Critiquing systems are a type of active, knowledge-based design support system. They propose to positively influence designers' cognitive processes by pointing out potential problems and contentious issues while designers work. To investigate the effects such systems have on the activities of professional designers, a design environment containing a critiquing system was designed, built, and evaluated for a specific area: phone-based interface design. Four professional designers were observed using the environment to solve realistic design tasks. Our protocol analyses indicate that such systems do influence the behaviour of designers, but often indirectly. Designers were observed anticipating the activity of the system and taking preventative steps to avoid it. Differential effects depending on the designers' level of domain experience were also observed. Overall, the system was better suited to the needs of highly experienced designers. Keywords : Critiquing Systems, Cognitive Ergono...

This work analyzes the central role of interpretation in non-routine design. Based on this analysis, a theory of computer support for interpretation in cooperative design is constructed. The theory is grounded in studies of design and interpretation. It is illustrated by mechanisms provided by a software substrate for computer-based design environments, applied to a sample task of lunar habitat design. Computer support of

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This paper is based on the premises that the purpose of engineering education is to graduate engineers who can design, and that design thinking is complex. The paper begins by briefly reviewing the history and role of design in the engineering curriculum. Several dimensions of design thinking are then detailed, explaining why design is hard to learn and harder still to teach, and outlining the research available on how well design thinking skills are learned. The currently most-favored pedagogical model for teaching design, project-based learning (PBL), is explored next, along with available assessment data on its success. Two contexts for PBL are emphasized: first-year cornerstone courses and globally dispersed PBL courses. Finally, the paper lists some of the open research questions that must be answered to identify the best pedagogical practices of improving design learning, after which it closes by making recommendations for research aimed at enhancing design learning.

The notion of generic design, while it has been around for 25 years is not often articulated, especially within Newell and Simon's (1972) Information Processing Theory framework. Design is merely lumped in with other forms of problem solving activity. Intuitively one feels that there should be a level of description of the phenomenon which refines this broad classification by further distinguishing between design and non-design problem solving. However, Information Processing Theory does not facilitate such problem classification. This paper makes a preliminary attempt to differentiate design problem solving from non-design problem solving by identifying major invariants in the design problem space.

“Collaborative work is the core of our society, wrought with difficulties and benefits. It is clear that technology can change group work, and there is a good possibility that it can result in major enhancements to productivity.

This paper discusses the role of interpretation in innovative design and proposes an approach to providing computer support for interpretation in design. According to situated cognition theory, most of a designer’s knowledge is normally tacit. Situated interpretation is the process of explicating something that is tacitly understood, within its larger context. The centrality of interpretation to non-routine design is demonstrated by: a review of the design methodology of Alexander, Rittel, and Schön; a protocol analysis of a lunar habitat design session; and a summary of Heidegger’s philosophy of interpretation. These show that the designer’s articulation of tacit knowledge takes place on the basis of an understanding of the design situation, a focus from a particular perspective, and a shared language. As knowledge is made explicit through the interpretive processes of design it can be captured for use in computer-based design support systems. A prototype software system is described for representing design situations, interpretive perspectives, and domain terminology to support interpretation by designers. The Need for Computer Support The volume of information available to people is increasing rapidly. For many professionals this means that the execution of their jobs requires taking into account far more information than they can possibly keep in mind. Consider the lunar habitat designers who serve as a key example in this paper. In working on their high-tech design tasks, they must take into account architectural knowledge, ergonomics, space science, NASA regulations, and lessons learned in past missions. Computers seem necessary to store these