Myriam Lewkowicz

Project Memory in Design

Learning from past projects allows designers to avoid past errors and solve problems. A number of methods define techniques to memorize lessons and experiences from projects. We present in this chapter an overview of these methods by emphasizing their main contributions and their critical points.

Design and evaluation of activity model-based groupware: methodological issues

This article presents methodological issues on evaluation related to the design process of the tool being evaluated. We emphasize the different variables which are important to take into account, and the links between them. We illustrate our approach with the presentation of a groupware for collective sensemaking (Sum it up) based on a theoretical activity model coming from social sciences, and a first evaluation of this groupware.

Practices Analysis and Digital Platform Design: An Interdisciplinary Study of Social Support

People are turning increasingly to the Internet to find support and share their experience and feelings when they are undergoing hardships such as medical problems. The aim of our ongoing research project is to design innovative online social support services. In order to pave the way for this complex undertaking, several interdisciplinary studies were conducted in this framework: discourse analysis was carried out on online discussions focusing on social support, observers attended support group meetings attended by family caregivers, and interviews were conducted with these caregivers. The application of our findings to our design project is discussed.

AnT&CoW: Share, Classify and Elaborate Documents by means of Annotation

As collective and mediated work spread out, digital data, and particularly documents, become predominant. In this paper, we describe how to support document management and especially document classification within a mechanical engineering design team working in an asynchronous and distributed way. The team members exchange comments to plan their project, to share documents, and to elaborate new documents. These comments are annotations linked together and linked to document(s). Annotations enable users to understand who is playing which role in the project and how collaborators understand a document and classify it. Observing this team led us to design an annotation tool (AnT&CoW) that we have implemented to support its collective activity. We conclude this article by focusing on the classification functionality, based on the use of natural language processing tools.

An annotation service for e-library: enhancing collaborative reading

Libraries are places to share and to exchange information. As well, e-libraries can facilitate information access to digital documents and then improve knowledge exchanges and social interaction between members of communities on the Web. This article presents AnT&CoW (annotation tool for collaborative work), an annotation plug-in. Its design is based on scenarios. AnT&CoW supports discussions between users of an e-library; it enables document and annotation indexation according to a community classification schemes. User interactions might result in new document creation, so the tool also supports document creation

Simulation des pratiques collaboratives pour la conception des SI basés sur les processus métiers

On the basis of the fact that work processes are by nature collaborative, and after a review of process modelling, and a critic of Business Process Management (BPM), we propose an approach which appears better to us to take into account social process which is necessary when collaboration between several actors occurs, and the important role of interpersonal communication. Our contribution relates to modelling and simulation of work practices which would come to supplement work processes modelling by articulating strategic processes with strong stake with human interactions which make these processes powerful.