| Human-Centered Computing From Contextual Inquiry to Designable Futures: What Do We Need to Get There? (2008) | |||||||||||||||||
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| So, what is an end user, really? And what do we really mean by the procurement process? Human factors researchers often take certain agendas, terms, and theories for granted or rely on them out of habit. This essay takes a special look at contextual enquiry as a putatively (and indeed potentially) superior way of giving end users a serious say in the procurement process of complex cognitive systems. “End user” Human-centered systems result when software engineers or developers give attention to the orientations, expectations, and understandings of the people who will be part of the sociotechnical system. 1 But this is far easier said than done. What are the orientations, expectations, and understandings of the “end user”? The term presupposes that humans and machines can and should be treated separately—assessed by different criteria. “End user ” is a hangover label from computer science of the 1980s; it contradicts the systems stance of human-centered computing and the Triples rule, which specifies that stance. 2 Also, the term suggests that users involved in the design team are those, and only those, who will actually operate the machines. This is not necessarily true. | |||||||||||||||||
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