Do-It-Yourself Information Technology: Role Hybridization and the Design–Use Interface

Information technology designers and users are generally treated as interacting yet distinct groups. Although approaches such as participatory design attempt to bring these groups together, such efforts are viewed as temporary and restricted to a specific knowledge domain where users can share key information and insights with designers. The author explores case studies that point to a different situation, role hybridization. Role hybridization focuses on the ability of individuals to shift from one knowledge domain to another, thus allowing for simultaneous membership within two otherwise distinct social worlds. While some studies focus on the ability of designers to act as users, this study focuses on the opposite situation, users who become designers. Interview and participant observation data is used to explore hybrid user–designers in two case studies: frog dissection simulations used in K-12 biology education and human anatomy simulations used in medical education. Hybrid users as designers are one part of a larger design–use interface, illustrating the mutually constructive relationship between the activities of information technology design and use. Users as designers also challenge the traditional power relationship between designers and users, leading to a novel and exciting form of user-centered design