How Users Matter: The Co-Construction of Users and Technology (Inside Technology)
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.56 (704 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0262651092 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 352 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2017-01-05 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Nelly Oudshoorn is Professor of Science and Technology Studies at the University of Twente in the Netherlands.
(Ben Schneiderman American Scientist) . The relationships between technologies and their users are intimate and important. This fine collection of essays will engage readers in fields as diverse as sociology of technology, cultural history, and marketing. (Donald MacKenzie, School of Social and Political Studies, University of Edinburgh)An important book that thoughtfully and rigorously draws attention to user-oriented studies of technology
Five Stars Excellent book about user-oriented studies
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 III examine the role of users in different phases of the design, testing, and selling of technology. 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.. The essays in this volume look at the creative capacity of users to shape technology in all phases, from desig