The Design of Socio-Technical Practice

Austin Henderson
Pliant Research
home page

7:00pm
Wednesday, February 13, 2002
411 West Hall (Ehrlicher Room) directions...

The past decades have seen huge improvements in computer systems, but these have proved difficult to translate into comparable improvements in the usability and social integration of computers. We believe that the problem is a deeply rooted set of assumptions about how computer systems should be designed, and about who should be doing that design.

Human organizations are continually evolving to meet changing circumstances of resource and need. In contrast, computers are quite rigid, incapable of adaptation on their own. Therefore, when computer systems are incorporated into human organizations, those organizations must adapt the computers to changing circumstances. This adaptation is another human activity that technology should support, but our design philosophies are oddly silent about it.

Central to the problem is the approach that technologists adopt to the design of "systems": by training, interest and practice, they instinctively separate the technical system from its context of use. In particular this very partial viewpoint tends to limit solutions to those that are centrally technical, and is blind to users as system elements that are fully connected to the changing needs and values of the circumstances that the system serves.

This talk explores the origins of these problems in the norms developed for managing human organizations, proposes partial solutions that can be implemented with current systems technology, and speculates about the long-term potential for radical improvements in system design. It proposes the development of socio-technical practice that is fundamentally "pliant".

About the Speaker

Austin Henderson's background is in computer science (Ph.D., MIT), with experience in design and ethnography. His 30-year career in Human-Computer Interaction includes user interface research and architecture at Bolt Beranek and Newman, Xerox research (both PARC and EuroPARC), Apple Computer, and strategic industrial design with Fitch. He has worked in small research teams, managed research projects and laboratories, and led larger multi-divisional collaborations. Currently he is the principal of Rivendel Consulting & Design, working with corporate customers on interface, product, and strategic design, with a focus on explorations of ill-formed and emerging questions through observation, interactional interviewing, and reflective intervention. Austin is also a principal in Pliant Research, a research effort pursuing basic research in overcoming formality in computing. Professionally, Austin has participated in the activities and leadership of ACM's Special Interest Group on Human-Computer Interaction (ACM/SIGCHI) for over 15 years, including serving as Chair.