Investigação sobre a pertinência de uma plataforma computacional para condução de práticas participativas

Abstract

The involvement of stakeholders in a democratic and horizontal way is essential for the design of groupware, since these systems need greater attention to requirements of interactivity and awareness among users. The Participatory Design provides techniques for the preparation, collection and documentation of such activities. However, most of these practices are conducted in person, consequently such practices are limited to co-located stakeholders, also, and despite of the already evaluated positive results of such practices, collecting data is a hard activity due to the simultaneous actions of the stakeholders during the conduction of the techniques. Therefore, this work investigated the effectiveness of using a collaborative system to support the Participatory Design techniques. We developed the PDS tool (Participatory Design Support), based on the Engeström’s activity model (1987), which was used to define and demonstrate the features, context and relationships, whether consonant or conflicting. The 3C Model was also used in this research for representating such relationships, and the activities present in collaborative situations. Results involved conducting in- person and remote participatory practices through the PDS, with students of the UTFPR for a comparative evaluation, whose discussions have shown promising for the future research in the area.