From Co-Design to Co-Care : Designing a Collaborative Practice in Care

• The design of digital artifacts in general and mobile apps in particular has not been investigated fully from a practice perspective. Mobile apps are commonly designed from a distant, armslength relationship where they are developed without taking the users' practices into account.This paper problematizes this notion and takes the point of departure from a collaborative design (co-design) process where the goal was to design a mobile app supporting grocery shopping forthe home care sector. We analyse the role of designing a mobile app as a facilitator for collaboration between the elderly's everyday practice and the caregivers work practice and investigatehow these two practices become intertwined. The research questions are: How can the design process be organized in order to foster the formation of a prospective collaborative care practice? What aspects are important to consider when designing with a boundary practice perspective? The findings of this study indicate that organizing the design activities in a certain collaborative manner empowered the elderly and their caregivers and led to the formation of a common, collaborative care practice (herein called co-care). The focus of the design process thereby shifted from designing the digital artifact (framed as a boundary object) to designing the co-carepractice (framed as a boundary practice). Our contribution is discussed in terms of design considerations,which can be applied for the facilitation of a collaborative boundary practice. The considerations are of particular relevance for settings where two or more practices are to collaborate and where new conditions are to be created for future co-practice.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Medie- och kommunikationsvetenskap -- Systemvetenskap, informationssystem och informatik med samhällsvetenskaplig inriktning (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Media and Communications -- Information Systems, Social aspects (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Co-design

boundaries

boundary practice

practice-oriented research

home care

platforms

platformization

mobile apps

Work Integrated Learning

Arbetsintegrerat lärande

Informatik

Informatics

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

art (ämneskategori)