Introduction: Stories About Users

Abstract

In 1997, when I for the first time was going to work with `multimedia', as it was called back then, it quickly dawned on me that I had to become more informed about who the users were. The task was to develop a small piece of software to help an unemployed person clarify what kind of work he or she wanted to do. I had spent a day with a lot of jobseekers and interviewed some of them. In order best to share my understanding of the job-seeking users with the project team that I worked with, I wrote a little story about 30-year-old Bente who falls pregnant while an apprentice in a shop and as a consequence abandon her apprenticeship. Later on, Bente gets jobs at various industrial companies, mostly temporary jobs and seasonal work. She feels secure in working with routine tasks so that she does not have to put too much thought into things but can concentrate on the work and let her mind wander. The last place she worked suddenly closed down and since then her job opportunities have been limited. Bente would like to get started on an education but is afraid that this is incompatible with a husband and raising a family. She would like to do something in commerce or something to do with people.