Johnson –Chapter 3

Not Just for Idiots Anymore:

Practice, Production, and Users’ Ways of Knowing

Of the idea of “dumbing down” – “It represents users as being dumb—as having no knowledge of their own”

“Therefore, this attitude implies, users must have everything provided to them in an easy to use format that asks little of them in return”

“In addition, the idea that users are provided with already digested knowledge relegates them to a subservient role” (p. 44)

Three aspects of user knowledge

User as practitioner

User as producer

User as citizen

User as practitioner – “takes for granted that users are merely using an already implemented technology toward some fairly defined end” (p. 46).

“On one hand, when users are viewed as only the mere implementors of technology, there is little room for a user epistemology other than as ‘idiot’ who receives technology and then puts it to use” (p. 46)

“On the other hand, there is knowledge involved with practice that should be highly valued. In particular, there is a cunning intelligence involved with practice that has been virtually overlooked” (p. 46). N

Metis, or what is also called cunning intelligence, is the ability to act quickly, effectively, and prudently within ever-changing contexts” (p. 53).

User as producer

“The user not only ‘practices the technology’ but is also involved with knowledge that constructs the technological artifact or system” (p. 46)

“Users as producers are capable of being designers and maintainers of technology” (p. 46).

User as Citizen

“This final aspect of user knowledge will invest users in the social fabric of technology as being contributing, and equally responsible, members of the technological enterprises of our culture” (p. 46).