Studies of work and the workplace in HCI concepts and techniques /

• Main Author: Button, Graham.
• Other Authors: Sharrock, W. W.
• Format: Electronic
• Language: English
• Published: San Rafael, Calif. (1537 Fourth Street, San Rafael, CA 94901 USA) : Morgan & Claypool Publishers, c2009.
• Series: Synthesis lectures on human-centered informatics (Online), # 2.
• Subjects: Work > Computer simulation.; Human-computer interaction..; Human engineering.; Ethnomethodology.
• Online Access: Abstract with links to full text
• Item Description: Part of: Synthesis digital library of engineering and computer science.; Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on April 7, 2009).; Series from website.
• Physical Description: 1 electronic text (ix, 95 p.) : digital file.; Also available in print.
• Format: Mode of access: World Wide Web.; System requirements: Adobe Acrobat reader.
• Bibliography: Includes bibliographical references (p. 91-93).
• ISBN: 9781598299885 (electronic bk.); 9781598299878 (pbk.)
• ISSN: 1946-7699
• Access: Abstract freely available; full-text restricted to subscribers or individual document purchasers.

This book has two purposes. First, to introduce the study of work and the workplace as a method for informing the design of computer systems to be used at work. We primarily focus on the predominant way in which the organization of work has been approached within the field of human-computer interaction (HCI), which is from the perspective of ethnomethodology. We locate studies of work in HCI within its intellectual antecedents, and describe paradigmatic examples and case studies. Second, we hope to provide those who are intending to conduct the type of fieldwork that studies of work and the workplace draw off with suggestions as to how they can go about their own work of developing observations about the settings they encounter. These suggestions take the form of a set of maxims that we have found useful while conducting the studies we have been involved in. We draw from our own fieldwork notes in order to illustrate these maxims. In addition we also offer some homilies about how to make observations; again, these are ones we have found useful in our own work.