article

Selecting users for participation in IT projects: Trading a representative sample for advocates and champions?

Authors:

Rasmus Rasmussen,

Anders S. Christensen,

Tobias Fjeldsted,

Morten HertzumAuthors Info & Claims

Interacting with Computers, Volume 23, Issue 2

Pages 176 - 187

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.intcom.2011.02.006

Published: 01 March 2011 Publication History

Abstract

The selection of users for participation in IT projects involves trade-offs between multiple criteria, one of which is selecting a representative cross-section of users. This criterion is basic because trading it for other criteria means basing designs on information biased toward some user groups at the expense of others. Based on interviews in development and customer organizations we find that their criteria for user selection favor persons who can contribute to the progress of the IT project over persons who are representative of the full range of users. A highly valued contribution from participating users is the ability to advocate a vision for the system and champion its organizational implementation. A survey in one customer organization shows that respondents' personal traits explain up to 31% of the variation in their experience of aspects of the usability of a recently introduced system. Thus, unless participating users are representative as to these personal traits, IT projects may, inadvertently, bring about systems that will fail to satisfy many users.

References

[1]

Alter, S., 2001. Which life cycle - work system, information system, or software? Communications of the Association for Information Systems 7, 17:01-17:54.

[2]

Problems integrating user participation into software development. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies. v47 i2. 323-345.

Digital Library

[3]

Technology trouble? Talk to us! Findings from an ethnographic field study. In: Clement, A., de Cindio, F., Oostveen, A.-M., Schuler, D., van den Besselaar, P. (Eds.), PDC 2004: Proceedings of the Eighth Biennial Participatory Design Conference, ACM Press, New York. pp. 224-234.

Digital Library

[4]

Contextual Design: Defining Customer-Centered Systems. Morgan Kaufmann, San Francisco, CA.

Digital Library

[5]

The lonesome cowboy: a study of the usability designer role in systems development. Interacting with Computers. v18 i4. 601-634.

Digital Library

[6]

Creating conditions for participation: conflicts and resources in systems development. Human-Computer Interaction. v11 i3. 215-236.

Digital Library

[7]

Participatory IT Design: Designing for Business and Workplace Realities. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.

Digital Library

[8]

User participation in system development revisited. Information & Management. v28 i5. 311-323.

Digital Library

[9]

Employee participation: diverse forms and different outcomes. Academy of Management Review. v13 i1. 8-22.

[10]

Using segmentation approaches for better prediction and understanding from consumer mode choice models. Journal of Marketing Research. v18 i3. 301-309.

[11]

User involvement in the systems design process - a practical guide for users. Behaviour & Information Technology. v15 i6. 363-377.

[12]

Analyzing requirements - evolution in engineering design using the method of problem-reduction. Concurrent Engineering. v8 i2. 104-114.

[13]

Measuring usability: are effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction really correlated?. In: Proceedings of the CHI 2000 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, ACM Press, New York. pp. 345-352.

Digital Library

[14]

The user-developer communication process: a critical case study. Information Systems Journal. v13 i1. 37-68.

[15]

How to design usable systems. In: Helander, M. (Ed.), Handbook of Human-Computer Interaction, Elsevier, Amsterdam. pp. 757-789.

[16]

. In: Greenbaum, J., Kyng, M. (Eds.), Design at Work: Cooperative Design of Computer Systems, Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ.

Digital Library

[17]

Interactive systems: bridging the gaps between developers and users. IEEE Computer. v24 i4. 59-69.

Digital Library

[18]

Groupware and social dynamics: eight challenges for developers. Communications of the ACM. v37 i1. 92-105.

Digital Library

[19]

Don't underestimate the problems of user centredness in software development projects - there are many!. Behaviour & Information Technology. v15 i4. 226-236.

[20]

Images of Usability. International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction. v26 i6. 567-600.

[21]

Paradoxes of participatory practices: the Janus role of the systems developer. Information & Organization. v13 i1. 1-24.

[22]

"Constructing the users" in open source software development. Information Technology & People. v22 i2. 132-156.

[23]

ISO 9241, 1998. Ergonomic requirements for office work with visual display terminals (VDTs) - Part 11: Guidance on usability, International Standard Organization, Geneva, CH.

[24]

Selecting and evoking innovators: combining democracy and creativity. In: Proceedings of the NordiCHI 2006 Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, ACM Press, New York. pp. 321-330.

Digital Library

[25]

Customer-developer links in software development. Communications of the ACM. v38 i5. 33-44.

Digital Library

[26]

The enactments and consequences of token, shared, and compliant participation in information systems development. Accounting Management and Information Technologies. v6 i4. 221-254.

[27]

User involvement: a review of the benefits and challenges. Behaviour & Information Technology. v22 i1. 1-16.

[28]

Effective user involvement in product development by improving the analysis of user needs. Behaviour & Information Technology. v27 i6. 457-473.

Digital Library

[29]

Identifying and selecting users for user-centered design. In: Proceedings of the NordiCHI 2004 Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, ACM Press, New York. pp. 297-303.

Digital Library

[30]

User advocacy in participatory design: designers' experiences with a new communication channel. Computer Supported Cooperative Work. v7 i3&4. 291-313.

Digital Library

[31]

Shaping technology across social worlds: groupware adoption in a distributed organization. In: Proceedings of the GROUP '03 Conference on Supporting Group Work, ACM Press, New York. pp. 284-293.

Digital Library

[32]

Technochange management: using IT to drive organizational change. Journal of Information Technology. v19 i1. 4-20.

[33]

Change agentry - the next IT frontier. MIS Quarterly. v20 i4. 385-407.

Digital Library

[34]

Participation in development and implementation - Updating an old, tired concept for today's IS contexts. Journal of the Association for Information Systems. v5 i11&12. 514-544.

[35]

A design theory for systems that support emergent knowledge processes. MIS Quarterly. v26 i3. 179-212.

Digital Library

[36]

Participatory design: the third space in HCI. In: Sears, A., Jacko, J.A. (Eds.), The Human-Computer Interaction Handbook: Fundamentals, Evolving Technologies and Emerging Applications, Erlbaum, New York. pp. 1061-1081.

[37]

Taxonomy of PD practices: a brief practitioner's guide. Communications of the ACM. v36 i6. 26-27.

[38]

What makes a representative user representative? A participatory poster. In: Adjunct Proceedings of the CHI 2001 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, ACM Press, New York. pp. 101-102.

Digital Library

[39]

Designing Human Systems for New Technology: The ETHICS Method. Manchester Business School, Manchester, UK.

[40]

Usability Engineering. Academic Press, Boston, MA.

[41]

Nielsen Company, 2006. Minerva Snap-Shot, Nielsen Company, Hellerup, DK.

[42]

Nygaard, K., 1979. The "iron and metal project": trade union participation. In: Sandberg, í. (Ed.) Computers Dividing Man and Work, Swedish Center for Working Life, Stockholm, SE, pp. 94-107.

[43]

User involvement in system design: an empirical test of alternative approaches. Information & Management. v4 i4. 183-196.

[44]

What active users and designers contribute in the design process. Interacting with Computers. v16 i2. 377-401.

[45]

From small scale to large scale user participation: a case study of participatory design in e-government systems. In: PDC 2004: Proceedings of the Eighth Biennial Participatory Design Conference, ACM Press, New York. pp. 173-182.

Digital Library

[46]

Essentials of Marketing Research. fourth ed. Pearson, Harlow, UK.

[47]

Diffusion of Innovations. fifth ed. Free Press, New York.

[48]

Usability Engineering: Scenario-based Development of Human-Computer Interaction. Morgan Kaufmann, San Francisco, CA.

Digital Library

[49]

The missing concepts of user participation: an empirical assessment of user participation and information system success. Scandinavian Journal of Information Systems. v2 i1. 25-42.

Digital Library

[50]

Champions for radical new inventions. Harvard Business Review. v41 i2. 77-86.

[51]

The work of IT system developers in context: an organizational case study. Human-Computer Interaction. v13 i1. 37-71.

Digital Library

[52]

Constructing identity and participation during technological change. Human Relations. v58 i9. 1141-1166.

[53]

Selection of variables in multiple regression: Part I. A review and evaluation. International Statistical Review. v46 i1. 1-19.

[54]

From implementation to design: Tailoring and the emergence of systematization in CSCW. In: Proceedings of the CSCW'94 Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, ACM Press, New York. pp. 45-54.

Digital Library

[55]

Lead users: a source of novel product concepts. Management Science. v32 i7. 791-805.

Digital Library

[56]

Usability engineering: our experience and evolution. In: Helander, M. (Ed.), Handbook of Human-Computer Interaction, Elsevier, Amsterdam. pp. 791-817.

[57]

Helping and hindering user involvement - a tale of everyday design. In: Proceedings of the CHI'97 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, ACM Press, New York. pp. 178-185.

Digital Library

Cited By

Zahlsen ØSvanæs DDahl Y(2023)Representative Participation in a Large-Scale Health IT ProjectComputer Supported Cooperative Work10.1007/s10606-022-09457-032:3(507-544)Online publication date: 1-Sep-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s10606-022-09457-0
Maehigashi AMiwa KAoki HSuzuki T(2018)Investigation of Factors Affecting the Usability Evaluation of an Adaptive Cruise Control SystemEngineering Psychology and Cognitive Ergonomics10.1007/978-3-319-91122-9_36(445-456)Online publication date: 15-Jul-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/978-3-319-91122-9_36
Kusumo DNugroho ALv JZhang HBabar M(2015)Understanding differences in process perspectives between developers and acquirers in off-the-shelf-based custom software projects undertaken in IndonesiaProceedings of the 19th International Conference on Evaluation and Assessment in Software Engineering10.1145/2745802.2745828(1-6)Online publication date: 27-Apr-2015
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2745802.2745828
Show More Cited By

Selecting users for participation in IT projects: Trading a representative sample for advocates and champions?
1. Applied computing
  1. Enterprise computing

Recommendations

Empowered participation of users with disabilities in R&D projects

This paper provides an introduction to empowered participation of users with disabilities in research and development (R&D). It is based on the experiences of the European project FORTUNE (B hler, 2000). Introductory experiences about the state of the ...
Measuring user participation, user involvement, and user attitude

Defining user participation as the activities performed by users during systems development, user involvement as the importance and personal relevance of a system to its user, and user attitude as the affective evaluation of a system by the user, this ...
Successful strategies for user participation in systems development
Special section: Strategic and competitive information systems

Past MIS research has indicated a mixed relationship between user participation and user satisfaction with system development projects, suggesting that user participation is not equally effective in all situations. This has led researchers to ...

Comments

Please enable JavaScript to view thecomments powered by Disqus.

Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

cover image Interacting with Computers

Interacting with Computers Volume 23, Issue 2

March, 2011

82 pages

ISSN:0953-5438

EISSN:1873-7951

Issue’s Table of Contents

Copyright © Elsevier B.V. © 2011.

Publisher

Elsevier Science Inc.

United States

Publication History

Published: 01 March 2011

Author Tags

Qualifiers

Article

Contributors

Other Metrics

View Article Metrics

Bibliometrics & Citations

Bibliometrics

Article Metrics

4
Total Citations
View Citations
0
Total Downloads

Downloads (Last 12 months)0
Downloads (Last 6 weeks)0

Reflects downloads up to 19 Nov 2024

Other Metrics

View Author Metrics

Citations

Cited By

Zahlsen ØSvanæs DDahl Y(2023)Representative Participation in a Large-Scale Health IT ProjectComputer Supported Cooperative Work10.1007/s10606-022-09457-032:3(507-544)Online publication date: 1-Sep-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s10606-022-09457-0
Maehigashi AMiwa KAoki HSuzuki T(2018)Investigation of Factors Affecting the Usability Evaluation of an Adaptive Cruise Control SystemEngineering Psychology and Cognitive Ergonomics10.1007/978-3-319-91122-9_36(445-456)Online publication date: 15-Jul-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/978-3-319-91122-9_36
Kusumo DNugroho ALv JZhang HBabar M(2015)Understanding differences in process perspectives between developers and acquirers in off-the-shelf-based custom software projects undertaken in IndonesiaProceedings of the 19th International Conference on Evaluation and Assessment in Software Engineering10.1145/2745802.2745828(1-6)Online publication date: 27-Apr-2015
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2745802.2745828
Rasmussen RLuo GLiu JYang C(2012)Electronic whiteboards in emergency medicineProceedings of the 2nd ACM SIGHIT International Health Informatics Symposium10.1145/2110363.2110418(483-492)Online publication date: 28-Jan-2012
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2110363.2110418

View Options

View options

Login options

Check if you have access through your login credentials or your institution to get full access on this article.

Full Access

Get this Publication

Media

Figures

Other

Tables

View Issue’s Table of Contents