An Ethnographic Study Of Graphic Designers

Abstract

This paper is about capturing and analysing requirements for Computer Supported Collaborative Work (CSCW) systems, showing that the approach taken differs from that for more traditional IT systems. Social science research paradigms are used to expand the nature of work in constrained environments. Interaction-based studies of office settings and a case study of a set of knowledge workers who manipulate information leads to an investigation of methods for translating their tacit knowledge into more meaningful requirements statements. The work presents views of the organisation through the participants eyes as contrasted with more formal views of the organisation as a business.