Participatory development of a mobile and distributed information system

PARTICIPATORY DEVELOPMENT OF A MOBILE AND DISTRIBUTED INFORMATION SYSTEM

 

Per Hasvold, Department of Informatics, University of Oslo and Norwegian Centre for Telemedicine

 

This paper will present some of the experiences from an ongoing participatory design project where nurses and physicians have taken part in the design and development of mobile and distributed information services together with professional developers at NST. The research is part of a project to help provide knowledge on the potential for mobile information devices such as handheld computers and wearable computers as a tool for coordination and collaboration among healthcare professionals. Through experiments and the development of two applications, we have been able to acquire knowledge on the technology and revealed several candidates for services based on mobile and distributed information devices. The participatory development shows that there is a difference between what users tell us about their work and the observed activity. The lesson learned from this is that observations provide important insight into the activity that is not revealed through interviews and role-plays. Further, the participatory design process has provided mutual learning that makes the users better prepared for assuming responsibility for the future use of new technologies in their work. The paper will discuss some of the shortcomings of current theory on mobility in computer supported cooperative work (CSCW) and suggest using the "point of action" perspective to add understanding of the personal and organisational context. The research is part of a PhD study by the author.