Chapter 1 for the Improvising Design book has been uploaded. The first chapter discusses why we need better models and methods for design … and why design is improvisational. Doubtless, stuff will be shifted around a little, as I complete my write-up of research findings chapters. But this is a good introduction to why we need to change our approach to design.
Tag: design book
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Book Contents Now Available
Here is the Table of Contents for the my in-progress book:
Title: Boundary-Spanning Design: How Information Systems Evolve Through Improvisation
Contents (liable to change as book evolves)
Chapter 1. THE DESIGN PROBLEM
- Change Management and Organizational Design
- How designers think: the problem of the problem
- Waterfalls and out-of-control speedboats
- Scaling up: a group is not a coherent set of individuals, working together
- Bibliography for Chapter 1
Chapter 2. DESIGN AS IMPROVISATION
- Need for adaptation in dynamic situations
- Design as workplace rationales: frames and framing
- Adapting distributed schema & scripts
- Agreeing distributed knowledge: generic subjectivity & routines
Chapter 3. DESIGN AS PROBLEM-SOLVING
- Organizational design problems are wicked problems
- Problem-solving as collaborative learning
- Integrating in-group and out-group knowledge
- Design as emergent understanding
Chapter 4. DESIGN AS SENSITIZATION TO PATTERNS
- Design approaches of novices vs experts
- Mental models: schema vs.scripts
- Method as map: important for acquiring “how-to” (design process) knowledge
- Exemplars as paradigms: important for acquiring “what and why” (design product and rationale) knowledge
- What a design is.
Chapter 5. SITUATED DESIGN
- Importance of domain knowledge
- Knowledge internalization/externalization cycles
- Legitimizing reflective learning in design
- Avoiding premature closure: complicating design
- Iterating opening-up & closing-down cycles of design.
Chapter 6. BREAKDOWNS & BOUNDARY OBJECTS IN DESIGN
- Distributed knowledge vs shared knowledge
- Breakdowns & progress in design
- Role of boundary objects
- Trust & distribution of cognitive labor.
Chapter 7. HUMAN-CENTERED DESIGN
- User-centered vs. human-centered design
- Defining requirements to differentiate what humans are good at, vs. what machines are good at
- Method as filter: what is inside or outside the boundary; what is emphasized
- Selecting design methods to emphasize human-centeredness
- Human-centered vs. user-centered design.
Chapter 8. IMPROVISING BOUNDARY-SPANNING DESIGN
- Why boundary-spanning design is different (and why most design is boundary-spanning)
- So What? Implications for the design of organizational information systems.
- Distributed cognition and improvisational design
creating boundary-spanning designs.
Contents are liable to change, but I feel a sense of achievement, having defined what the book is about … 😉
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