Thinking together in concept design for future products - Emergent features for computer support

Abstract

This paper points out how we can design systems in order to support concept designers who collaborate in creating new product concepts, small hand held electronics devices. An understanding of concept design is presented using concepts from Activity Theory to analyse design practice. The three levels of Activity: Activity, Action and Operation are discussed in order to reveal how Hypothetical User Activity is embedded as a mediator in Design Activity. This finding is used as an informing concept to design computer systems for synchronous collaboration of geographically distributed concept designers. Two exemplary systems are used to instantiate how the conceptual understanding has been useful for our systems design efforts. It is concluded that this treatment has lead us into consider CSCW applications as systems which mediate meaning.