Designing Work: Situating Design Objects in Cultural Context

Abstract

This paper compares the design of systems for computer supported cooperative work (CSCW) in Japan and in Scandinavia with particular attention to the influence of culture on both the design process and on what is designed. The paper suggests that CSCW systems, like all technologies, can be read as texts which give form to the conversations that made them and which, by deduction, can reveal certain ideas, values and norms of the participants in that conversation These technological texts contain some elements which are distinctive to their culture of origin, without necessarily being unique to that context. The paper further offers a plausible explanation for certain CSCW design choices, basing its argument in the discourse of designers themselves. It employs the notion of technological frame (Bijker and Law, 1992) to explain how Japanese CSCW designers invoke Japanese culture in general and certain aspects in particular as resources upon which to found technical decisions, illustrating the translation of these cultural arguments in CSCW systems. It also explores how a group of Scandinavian designers draw on the vocabulary of democratic ideals and participation to support their production and, especially, their particular design practices. Simply put, this paper seeks to clarify the relationship between what designers do and how they do it, and between what they do and what they say.