Reaching hard-to-reach users using online media to get a glimpse of work in marine contexts

from fundamental interaction techniques to detailed screen layouts. To design for marine contexts like this, the designer needs to know the domain, understand the work carried out and the technology used, and appreciate the experiences of workers on the site. An obvious approach to gain such insights is fieldwork involving on-site observation and interviews with users [3]. However, doing fieldwork in these kinds of environments is a challenge. Sites are often situated in faraway places, and access to them can be stringently controlled and may require specific safety certificates that designers normally do not have. New Avenues for Inquiry into the Maritime Workplace Faced with these limitations, the designers and researchers in the UBC project have begun conceiving of new ways of getting the inside story on ship's bridge environments and the people working there. On-line media, such as blogs, forums, and social networking sites, allow anyone with access to the Internet to write about their work. This has lenging place to work and live, but it is not that well known that ships have become advanced technological environments. In such places, traditional seamanship is no longer sufficient to do a good job. Mariners also need to understand how the advanced technology works. Yet several studies report that understanding and using this technology is a difficult task, and that the design of the working environment and equipment does not support the mari-ners in a satisfactory manner [2]. In a design research project called the Ulstein Bridge Concept (UBC), we are designing the future ship's bridge of offshore service vessels. The bridge is the place from which the captain and the deck officers control the ship. Offshore service vessels are ships that support the oil industry, for example platform supply vessels, specially designed to bring cargo to and from offshore oil platforms, and anchor-handling tug supply vessels, mainly used to tow rigs to a location and anchor them up. The aim of the UBC project is to take a completely new look at the bridge environment of such vessels and redesign everything from the The wind was 75kts give or take and I was on watch at the time but had just been relieved by the other DP operator. Suddenly the wind shifted just enough to push the bow from the required heading. This is fairly common during these extreme conditions but at the time this happened a 15-meter wave hit …