Implementing computer-aided design: the transition of nonusers

Prior research on the social impacts of computer-aided design (CAD) has treated nonusers, those still using manual methods, as control groups to which users are compared. The assumption is that nonusers´ worklives are essentially unchanged by the implementation of CAD. It is argued that nonusers can also be affected by their organization´s transition to CAD. It is hypothesized that CAD has primarily job-enhancing effects for the work lives of designers selected to use CAD and primarily negative effects for the work lives of nonusers, who might fear their manual skills would soon be obsolete. Data were collected in two large manufacturing firms through a survey of 74 CAD users and 30 nonusers and through a smaller number of interviews at each site. The results indicate that, compared with CAD users, nonusers were significantly older and spent more time on support and maintenance of old designs and relatively little time on conceptual design work and new design projects