"A number of trends in the design of interactive and collaborative systems have resulted in significant attention being paid to the results of "ethnographic fieldwork" and related approaches. Unfortunately, much of the design discussion proceeds with very little understanding of what ethnography is (or might be) and where it came from. In a previous analysis, the author sets out his views on what ethnography is and what it can offer design. In the present paper, the focus is on the antecedents of ethnography and the shape which they have given current explorations. The areas reviewed are the ethnographic traditions of Cultural Anthropology, Sociology of Occupations and Work Practice Analysis. The paper concludes by relating the general themes explored to the previous discussion of the import of ethnography for the design of interactive and collaborative systems".

"This paper argues for a shift in perspective away from thinking of the activities of design, use and evaluation as quite distinct activities, but as activities that are necessarily interleaved and mutually constitutive. Adopting this view has implications for the organisation of design teams, and for the role of "evaluation" in the larger design process. After some discussion of these points, the paper reviews some recent evaluation studies in the area of CSCW and notes some methodological issues that need to be addressed in evaluation work".

"This paper discusses issues arising out of efforts to establish cooperation between users and developers in systems development projects. At first glance, many projects seem to present immense obstacles to user involvement. At the same time, there is a growing recognition of the need for greater user-developer cooperation and research projects are providing new tools and techniques that assist in engaging users as full participants in system development. Two projects serve as examples to frame a discussion of the nature of user involvement (or lack of involvement) in development projects. They indicate both the possibilities for, and the obstacles to, user participation. We believe that cooperative design will improve the quality of interactive computer applications. Achieving it requires overcoming serious obstacles. Users need to be involved early in the process and the agreements or contracts governing development need to be re-thought: Inflexibility hinders iterative design, independent of the type of project under consideration. Development contracts should be shaped as process contracts between user and development organizations with scheduled renegotiation points. We believe that the concern for quality products and processes requires that systems development assume more of a process focus than is currently evident".