Ready-to-hand Information and Computer-mediated Activity: Challenges, Opportunities, and Methods

The theme of the workshop, coping with information, participation and collaboration overload assumes that access to information, participation, and collaboration is somehow problematic and probably more for older than younger people. In this position paper I will explore and discuss the problem along one line of research I have been involved in, addressing one problem (information overload) and generating another (participation overload). Then, I will describe a case study in co-creation in the domain of customer engagement and discuss the methods we used for understanding participation and collaboration, using a mixed methods approach. Implications for design (i.e. technology; human organization) to address the problems will be suggested as points for discussion in the workshop.