Design as a minority discipline in a software company: Toward requirements for a community of practice

Abstract

This paper provides a description of designers' work practices in a software company. We describe a participatory analysis of the diversity of working relations and roles of designers of IBM's Lotus software products. Designers are an example of a minority discipline - that is, a discipline whose members are often isolated in their work teams among coworkers with different training, backgrounds, and career paths. We explore differences between the practices of designers of Lotus software products and the published reports of design practices in group settings.