Third Generation Participatory Design - making participation applicable to large-scale information system projects

Abstract

Participatory Design (PD) methods have traditionally been oriented towards small, local workplaces with homogeneous user groups and thereby on a subset of IT applications. This study presents a renewed PD framework suited to the context of large organisations and the design of comprehensive IS, using design data from an IT project in the Swedish Trade Union Confederation and the participative design of an information system for all its 225 000 trade union shop stewards. The framework was developed in response to six major obstacles for success in PD projects, identified by participatory action research methods.