Toward Integrating Our Research Scope: A Sociocultural Field Methodology

Clay Spinuzzi The University of Texas at Austin

Abstract

Technical communicators have recently become interested in user-centered design (UCD) for designing and evaluating technical genres. Yet, a critical examination of the field methods of UCD suggests that they suffer from unintegrated scope: an undesirably limiting focus on a particular level of scope (either the macroscopic level of human activity or the mesoscopic level of goal-directed action) in their theoretical underpinnings and data collection and analysis. This focus is often paired with the assumption that this particular level of scope causally affects what happens at the other levels. Both the focus and the assumption are at odds with sociocultural theories of human activity. This article lays out the problem of unintegrated scope and examines it through critical analyses of two field methods used in UCD research. It concludes by proposing an integrated-scope research methodology for UCD research, with roots in both sociocultural theory and the central issues of technical communication.

Journal
Journal of Business and Technical Communication
Published
2002-01-01
DOI
10.1177/1050651902016001001
CompPile
Search in CompPile ↗
Open Access
Closed
Topics
Export

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (12)

  1. Written Communication
  2. Computers and Composition
  3. Written Communication
  4. Computers and Composition
  5. Written Communication
Show all 12 →
  1. Written Communication
  2. Communication Design Quarterly
  3. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  4. Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  5. Technical Communication Quarterly
  6. Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  7. Journal of Business and Technical Communication

References (80) · 6 in this index

  1. The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays
  2. 10.5749/j.ctt22727z1
  3. Speech Genres and Other Late Essays
  4. 10.1207/s15327884mca0404_6
  5. Shaping Written Knowledge: The Genre and Activity of the Experimental Article in Science
Show all 80 →
  1. Genre Knowledge in Disciplinary Communication: Cognition/Culture/Power
  2. Contextual Design: Defining Customer-Centered Systems
  3. Design at Work: Cooperative Design of Computer Systems
  4. Context and Consciousness
  5. 10.1207/s15327051hci1103_2
  6. Through the Interface: A Human Activity Approach to User Interface Design
  7. 10.1017/CBO9781139174077.006
  8. Participatory Design: Principles and Practices
  9. Field Methods Casebook for Software Design
  10. 10.1207/s15327051hci0901_2
  11. The Psychology of Human-Computer Interaction
  12. 10.1080/01449298908914556
  13. Field Methods Casebook for Software Design
  14. Cultural Psychology: A Once and Future Discipline
  15. Participatory Design: Principles and Practices
  16. Design at Work: Cooperative Design of Computer Systems
  17. Design at Work: Cooperative Design of Computer Systems
  18. 10.1080/10749039509524699
  19. Interactive Expertise: Studies in Distributed Working Intelligence
  20. Learning, Working, and Imagining: Twelve Studies in Activity Theory
  21. 10.1207/s15327884mca0404_3
  22. Field Methods Casebook for Software Design
  23. Perspectives on HCI: Diverse Approaches
  24. Design at Work: Cooperative Design of Computer Systems
  25. Design at Work: Cooperative Design of Computer Systems
  26. Writing Technology: Studies on the Materiality of Literacy
  27. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication
  28. User and Task Analysis for Interface Design
  29. CSCW '96 Conference Proceedings
  30. Field Methods Casebook for Software Design
  31. 10.1145/153571.214830
    Communications of the ACM  
  32. JBTC
  33. Cognition in the Wild
  34. User-Centered Technology: A Rhetorical Theory for Computers and Other Mundane Artifacts
  35. Computers and Technical Communication: Pedagogical and Programmatic Perspectives
  36. 10.1145/153571.163286
  37. Methods and Methodology in Composition Research
  38. Computers and Design in Context
  39. Activity, Consciousness, and Personality
  40. Problems of the Development of Mind
  41. 10.1145/289444.289505
  42. 10.1145/153571.163268
  43. 10.1080/10749039909524725
  44. Quarterly Journal of Speech
  45. JBTC
  46. Participatory Design: Principles and Practices
  47. 10.1145/153571.255960
    Communications of the ACM  
  48. Field Methods Casebook for Software Design
  49. Context and Consciousness: Activity Theory and Human-Computer Interaction
  50. 10.1201/b15703
  51. Written Communication
  52. Field Methods Casebook for Software Design
  53. Field Methods Casebook for Software Design
  54. Journal of Computer Documentation
  55. Field Methods Casebook for Software Design
  56. Reconceiving Writing, Rethinking Writing Instruction
  57. Written Communication
  58. 10.1207/s15327884mca0404_2
  59. Written Communication
  60. JBTC
  61. Participatory Design: Principles and Practices
  62. 10.2307/358761
  63. “Designing for Lifeworlds: Genre and Activity in Information System Design and Evaluation.”
  64. 10.1145/318372.318385
  65. Computers and Composition
  66. 10.1145/344599.344646
  67. 10.1017/CBO9780511625510.007
  68. Opening Spaces: Writing Technologies and Critical Research Practices
  69. The Wealth of Reality: An Ecology of Composition
  70. Written Communication
  71. Field Methods Casebook for Software Design
  72. Field Methods Casebook for Software Design
  73. Control through Communication: The Rise of System in American Management
  74. 10.1145/318372.318388
  75. In the Age of the Smart Machine: The Future of Work and Power