User-centred design of a virtual meeting environment for ordinary people

As a User Centred Design group placed centrally in a larger company, one is regularly confronted with the question of transferring competence to other functions within the organisation. These requests will be motivated by the need for expanding the activities or spreading the mind-set of user orientation. Frequently regular development and marketing staff move into usability related tasks and look for training. So, it is not seldom that we as user centred design specialists are asked upon to convey our skills to others. An activity which is likely to fall in a dilemma between teaching 'easy-to-learn methods' (methods which are cooked up by others and a bit old from when we did a presentation last) or a user centred design attitude (so that the learners can design their own methods through continuous experimenting and learning). The latter is definitely richer but much more difficult to convey. This is the dilemma we would like to address in our position paper. Work practices are rapidly changing User Centred Design is a very fast moving field, both technologically and in terms of work practices for design and user involvement. If we want to stay on the leading edge we need to adopt a practice of continuous experimentation and improvement of the way of involving users in product development. The Danfoss User Centred Design group has worked with user involvement in product development for eight years. Looking back, our methodology has changed radically over the years: Starting from a mechanical design methodology basis [Buur et.al. 1991] with user interviews, via a cognitive engineering approach [Rasmussen et.al. 1994] favouring usability testing, to a participatory design philosophy [Kyng & Greenbaum 1991] with user involvement in design workshops [Binder ; Brandt & Horgen & Zack 1998] [Buur & Bagger 1999]. Along the way we have experimented with a range of methods from the HCI community to improve the usability of our products; use scenarios, drama, ethnographic field studies and design games among them. Some methods are now part of the work practice of the group, others vanished after a few years. Today the User Centred Design group at Danfoss is firmly embedded in (and an active developer of) the Scandinavian tradition; with the user considered an active participant throughout every product design process.