I found that different chapters of the book appealed to different aspects of my persona. As a researcher in human-computer interaction (HCI), the chapters by Bannon (a critique of traditional HCI and Human Factors design approaches) and Ehn and Kyng (a demonstration that much can be accomplished with very simple prototypes) interested me most. The political-activist in me found the chapters by Wynn (an argument that the assumptions implicit in traditional systems analysis are both elitist and wrong) and Bodker, Greenbaum, and Kyng (a description of preconditions for effective worker participation and management support) to be the most interesting. The introductory chapter by the editors (Greenbaum and Kyng) is a very informative and interesting introduction to participatory design; readers who read only that will learn a great deal.
As I read the book, I made a list of criticisms to include in this review. When I got to the last chapter, an epilogue by the editors, I found that it includes a self-critique that already says everything I was planning to say. To summarize:
No direct contribution from users: The target users of the book are system and application designers, yet few such userssother than the authorsswere involved in the design of the book. In particular, the book may be...
Too academic The authors are mostly researchers, with a fairly academic orientation. The typical application designer isn't. The book's extensive reference to philosophical and linguistic t