 |
|
|
Item Details
| Title:
|
HOW USERS MATTER
THE CO-CONSTRUCTION OF USERS AND TECHNOLOGY |
| By: |
Nelly Oudshoorn (Editor), Trevor Pinch (Editor) |
| Format: |
Paperback |
| List price:
|
£26.00 |
|
We currently do not stock this item, please contact the publisher directly for
further information.
|
|
|
|
|
|
| ISBN 10: |
0262651092 |
| ISBN 13: |
9780262651097 |
| Publisher: |
MIT PRESS LTD |
| Pub. date: |
12 August, 2005 |
| Series: |
Inside Technology |
| Pages: |
352 |
| Description: |
A collection of essays that examines how users shape and are shaped by technology in all phases, from design to use. |
| Synopsis: |
Users have become an integral part of technology studies. The essays in this volume look at the creative capacity of users to shape technology in all phases, from design to implementation. Using a variety of theoretical approaches, including a feminist focus on users and use (in place of the traditional emphasis on men and machines), concepts from semiotics, and the cultural studies view of consumption as a cultural activity, these essays examine what users do with technology and, in turn, what technology does to users. The contributors consider how users consume, modify, domesticate, design, reconfigure, and resist technological development -- and how users are defined and transformed by technology.The essays in part I show that resistance to and non-use of a technology can be a crucial factor in the eventual modification and improvement of that technology; examples considered include the introduction of the telephone into rural America and the influence of non-users of the Internet. The essays in part II look at advocacy groups and the many kinds of users they represent, particularly in the context of health care and clinical testing. The essays in part III examine the role of users in different phases of the design, testing, and selling of technology. Included here is an enlightening account of one company's design process for men's and women's shavers, which resulted in a "Ladyshave" for users assumed to be technophobes. Taken together, the essays in How Users Matter show that any understanding of users must take into consideration the multiplicity of roles they play -- and that the conventional distinction between users and producers is largely artificial. |
| Illustrations: |
11 illus. |
| Publication: |
US |
| Imprint: |
MIT Press |
| Returns: |
Returnable |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
No Cheese, Please!
A fun picture book for children with food allergies - full of friendship and super-cute characters!Little Mo the mouse is having a birthday party.
|
My Brother Is a Superhero
Luke is massively annoyed about this, but when Zack is kidnapped by his arch-nemesis, Luke and his friends have only five days to find him and save the world...
|
|
|
|
|