Asia pacific journal of information systems

The Korea Society of Management Information Systems (한국경영정보학회)
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Designer-User Interaction without Actual Users: A Lesson from a Field Study

  • Jaehyun Park (Department of Industrial Engineering and Economics, Tokyo Institute of Technology)
  • Received : 2018.02.07
  • Accepted : 2018.10.01
  • Published : 2018.09.29
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Abstract

The purpose of the paper is empirically to explore 'design manner', focusing on the designer's knowledge boundary on the designer-user interactions in the design process. This study conducts a field study and observed designer's interactions with actual users in a leading user-centered design firm over three months. The observations revealed how designers bring ideas about users into design without physically interacting with users during the design process. Based on Bourdieu's theory of practice and the concept of boundary objects, this study introduces the concept of 'design manner', by which designers incorporate user's ideas into the design process without actual involvement of users in the process. This paper contributes to the body of knowledge by introducing the design manner in-between designer's and user's knowledge boundaries and argue bridge between theoretical and actual designer-user interactions in the IS design process.

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