Landscapes of Practice: Bricolage as a Method for Situated Design

Abstract

This paper proposes a bricolage' approach to designing systems forcooperative work. This involves users, participatory designers andethnographers in a continuing cycle of design and revised work practice,often in settings where resources are limited and short-term results arerequired. If exploits the flood to market of hardware, software and services.The approach is illustrated with results from a project with a practice oflandscape architects. Their work is analysed in terms of communities ofpractice and actor networks. These perspectives help to identify thesocilities' of people and technologies and of the relationships betweenthem. They help to distinguish different forms of cooperation with differingsupport needs, opportunities and vulnerabilities. They inform the designof technical support, the assessment of outcomes, and the design of furthersolutions, in a cycle of `situated experimentation'.