Analyzing Interaction Dynamics at the Fuzzy Front-End of Innovation Projects: A Tool for Prospective Ergonomics

Abstract

Prospective ergonomics is defined as an emerging mode of ergonomic intervention focused on the anticipation of future user needs and activities for innovation design. This is a fairly new topic of research for ergonomics and implies the development of new methods of intervention, a sustained dialog with other domains such as innovation management, and a better understanding of the activity deployed by design teams at the fuzzy front-end of design projects. In order to address this need, we analyzed verbal communication between members of an ad hoc team whose goal was to structure future projects for the development of systems making use of emerging technologies in the field of bioinformatics, during a KCP workshop for innovation management. Our results show that the activity deployed by this team – composed of software developers, user representatives and an ergonomist - comprises epistemic and argumentative aspects, just as the subsequent design activity does. We discuss these results in terms of research on prospective ergonomics and on design activities.