Non-user centered design of personal mobile technologies

Abstract

During design and development of personal mobile communication technologies, various user centered design approaches are frequently used. Based on results from three ethnographic studies of bike messenger operations, bike police operation and field engineering operations, we argue that understanding of the non-user and the relation between the user and the non-user is important. The cellular telephone is used as an example of a personal mobile technology throughout the paper to talk about the role of the non-user and the relation between the user and the nonuser.