The Interactional Affordances of Technology: An Ethnography of Human-Computer Interaction in an Ambulance Control Centre

Abstract

This paper reports an ethnography of ambulance dispatch work in a large UK metropolitan region. The interplay between control centre ecology, usage of a computerised dispatch system, and cooperative work of control personnel is analysed. The methods by which a ‘working division of labour’ is sustained to effectively manage dispatch in the face of high workload and manifold contingency are explicated, and contrasted with methods employed by workers in other control room settings known from the literature. The implications of the study for system improvement and for several emphases in HCI research (including discussions of ‘affordances’) are explored.