User involvement in the design of human-computer interactions: some similarities and differences between design approaches

This paper presents a general review of user involvement in the design of human-computer interactions, as advocated by a selection of different approaches to design. The selection comprises User-Centred Design, Participatory Design, Socio-Technical Design, Soft Systems Methodology, and Joint Application Design. The review reports a preliminary identification of non-configurable and configurable 'attributes' of user involvement in design, and their associated 'values', which characterize the similarities and differences between the design approaches. The attributes and values are intended to support practitioners in the longer term to better understand, and to make more informed choices about the configuration of user involvement in design practice. Requirements are proposed for future research on understanding and configuring user involvement.