AKADAM: Eliciting user knowledge to support participatory ergonomics

A participatory ergonomics approach to design requires knowledge of users, their tasks, and their task environments. User participation is a necessity because designers often misjudge the impact of design artifacts on users. As a consequence of misunderstanding their respective domains of expertise, designers may generate inappropriate solutions, and users may formulate cryptic descriptions and specifications. Because obtaining and incorporating users' knowledge is difficult, designers are increasingly emphasizing knowledge elicitation as a research issue. This paper presents the Advanced Knowledge And Design Acquisition Methodology (AKADAM), intended to elicit knowledge from domain experts (i.e., the users). Eight case studies applying AKADAM are described. The implications of these applications and directions for future research are discussed. The term ecography is introduced to highlight AKADAM's unique aspects.