1. University of Siegen and Fraunhofer FIT
Grounded Design: Exploring the Creation of IT Artefacts in Social Practice
Volker Wulf
University of Siegen and Fraunhofer FIT

2. Table of Content Introduction Concept of Social Practice
Design Case Studies
Comparing cases and building concepts
ePortefolio
Meta research
Conclusion

3. Introduction
Designing (innovative) technical artefacts which interact with social practices (in work, leisure, life, …..) to reach societal ends
Research is context-specific
Specific social environment (practices, historical condition, ….
Specific actors
Specific technologies and infrastructure
…….
Specific and „strange“ content of research
Computer science: not dealing with context specific results
Social science: not dealing with design and intervention
Field of strong epistemologic divides
The role of theory, concepts, the and transferability of insights

4. Theories of Practice
Sociological theories focusing on social practices
Bourdieu (1977 and 1990) Giddens (1979 and 1984), Garfinkel (1967) and Latour (1993)
Reckwitz (2002 and 2003): Line-out of an idealized theory of social practice
Practice is understood to be a mainly routinized pattern of human action
Historically grown
Consisting of mental and physical aspects
Grounded in background knowledge (know how, forms of understanding, state of emotion and motivational knowledge)
Importance of artefacts and their use
Examples of practices
Specific manner to work, to cook, or to play soccer
Practices are reproduced situatedly within specific contexts
(Ubiquitous) Computing is a key driver

5. Grounded Design: Overview over a Practice based Approach
Conducting a set of specific design case studies
Documenting the insights gained in the individual case studies
In a complex manner beyond (few) academic papers
Building a ePortefolio out of a set of design case studies
Comparing design case studies
Buttom-up building of sensitizing concepts with design-relevancy
Concepts being navigation devices
Meta research: Research on deign research practices
Towards self-reflectivity, IT support, and transferability of insights

6. Design Case Studies: A Practice-based Research Approach
Empirical analysis of given social practices in a specific field of application
(Participatory) Design of an innovative ICT artifact related to the findings of the empirical analysis
Investigation into the appropriation of the ICT artifact over a longer period of time
Prestudy
IT Design
Appropriation

7. Firefighter in Burning Buildings: Research Methods
Eight years of engagement with
Firebrigade of Paris
Firefighters in Köln
Volunteer firefighters in NRW
Observationals studies, semistructured interviews, design-oriented workshops
Prototyping and appropriation at the training centre of the „Institut der Feuerwehr NRW“

8. Findings of Empirical Prestudies
Wayfinding is physically challenging collective activity
Extreme conditions of interaction (smoke, heat, time pressure)
Supported by physical aretfacts (fire hose, chalk) and body contact
Building own spacial understanding and sharing with following troups
Troups are rather autonomous inside but external coordination by a commander (outside the building)
Communication via radio, one channel
Disrupting and stressfull for the inside
Awareness and disturbance by using just one channel

9. Prototyping and Design Explorations

10. Designs Concepts
Landmarke: a device to help navigating in burning buildings
Annotation of space in the building
Shape of door stopper
Builds a ZigBee network
EmergencyMessenger: a communication device
Structured communication with the outside commander
Augmenting radio communication

11. Appropriation in Practice
Landmarke provided more security in leaving the building and finding short cuts
EmergencyMessenge saved considerable time in the communication with outside
Replaced radio communication as standard media
Unease of commanders
Longer time to work in the burning building
EmergencyMessenge added value to the network of Landmarkes

12. Set of Design Case Studies
ePortefolio of Design Case Studies and Buttom-up Concept Building
Cooperative
Work
Community
Support
Set of Design Case Studies
Sustain-
ability
Aging
Society

13. Domains of Buttom-Up Concept Building
Prestudy
IT Design
Appropriation
Prestudy: Striking elements of practice (e.g. Randall list)
IT Design: Interface, Functionality, Architecture
Appropriation: Dynamics of the interrelation of technical artefacts and practices
Transiting the perspectives/phases

14. Modes of Documentation: Different types of experiences
Prestudies: photos, semi-structured questionaire, field notes (anonymized, if possible), videos
IT Design: running system versions, prototypes, scribbles, documantation of design workshops
Appropriation: usage data, photos, videos, field notes,
Publications
Pre publication: different paper versions, reviews, discussions
Presentation: Slight, Audio & Videos
Post publication: annotation

15. Navigation via Sensitizing Concepts
Buttom-Up abstractions
Navigating design case studies rather than replacing the concrete data
Application specific search tool
Implementation in the interface

16. Moving for project support to an ePotefolio of Design Case Studies
Transiting from a work environment to the (semi-) public presentation of selected results
Storing the different materials and making them available in the team of researchers
Paper versions towards publication
Differentiated access rights
Window for (semi-) public accessability of selected data
Allowing to annotate the portefolio

17. Meta-Research: Research on Design Research Practices
Ethnographies in current research projects
Usage of ressources, empirical data, etc
Cooperation and knowledge sharing (inner team, industry partners, user organizations)
Abstractions and concept building
Building the digital portefolio and its linkage to given research infrastructures
Appropriation of the digital portefolio

18. Conclusion
Practice-orientation is an interesting framework for designing IT in the real world
Exploring futures beyond interaction design and usability studies
Practice-orientation requires long-term perspective
Trustful cooperation with fields of application
Facilitation of socio-technical processes
Requires metastudies
Reflecting upon the action research process
Comparing given (partial) Design Case Studies
Practice-orientation is a risky research framework
Quality of design is evaluated in social practice
Quality of an applied research community is / should be related to its impact in practice

19. Acknowledgements: „Research in practice-based computing is always a team effort“
Deeply endebted to my research group which has developed over more than 20 years ….. Markus Rohde, Volkmar Pipek, Gunnar Stevens, Claudia Müller ….. and quite some more colleagues
Core contributions by colleagues / friends visiting us …. helping us to reflect …… Dave Randall, Kjeld Schmidt, Mark Ackerman, Batya Friedman, Peter Brödner, ……