*Rank Xerox EuroPARC, 61 Regent Street, Cambridge CB2 1AB, UK
Department of Sociology, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, UK
SYNOPSIS
We argue that a start on the systematic analysis of the social organisation of design activity can be made by identifying three main 'dimensions' of the design process. We call these the dimensions of (a) design-in-organisation, (b) design-in-interaction and (c) design-insequence and try to give some content to these distinctions through illustrations from a case study. Design-in-organisation draws out the multifarious ways in which working on a given design problem is suffused by considerations generated by the organisational environment of the activity. Design-in-interaction turns attention to the ways in which working on the design problem is embedded in the interpersonal relations of the participants. Design-in-sequence refers to the working out, in step-by-step activities, of the design problem
KEYWORDS
Design, Collaboration, Organisations, Interaction, Sequence, Sociology