Social: Theories and Models - Foundations for Designing User-Centered Systems - page 266

Fig. 9.6 A Rich picture for
the work context in a hospital
neonatal intensive care unit
(adapted from Baxter et al.
2005 )

CLINICAL SERVICES
MANAGER

Outside world:
labs, other depts.,
specialist staff,
other hospitals
etc.

OUTREACH
NURSES

LEAD
NURSE

SENIOR NURSES
NURSES

WARD
CLERKS

PATIENTS

PHARMACIST

CONSULTANTS
REGISTRARS
JNR DOCTORS (SHOs)

PORTERS

PARENTS

Communication Frequency:
High
Medium
Low

The problem with many design methods, however, including Rich Pictures, is
that they require a lot of time and effort to carry them out properly. Nielsen ( 1993 ),
Monk ( 1998 ), and Lewis and his colleagues (Blackmon et al. 2002 ; Lewis and
Reiman 1998 ) have all proposed a range of lightweight or discounted methods that
can inform design in a timely manner, without a massive investment in time, effort,
and other resources. These lightweight methods are simplified versions of the
larger methods.
Lightweight rich pictures provide a useful way of showing the roles and
responsibilities of the various system stakeholders along with any concerns they
may have about the work system. To get a complete picture of the social and work
contexts, it is useful to supplement rich pictures with background reading and,
where possible, informal visits and meetings to the place where the system will be
deployed; this is sometimes referred to as bootstrapping into the domain.
As befits most pragmatic methods, lightweight rich pictures should be thought
of as a framework rather than as a set of rules that have to be rigidly followed and
applied. When carrying out a case study of a neonatal intensive care unit, for
example, Baxter and his colleagues (Baxter et al. 2005 ) found that staff did not
report any concerns. The rich pictures for the work context were drawn as two
separate diagrams, highlighting the two most important aspects of the work con-
text: communication and the use of written records. Both of these are social
activities, and carrying out a rich picture analysis made it much quicker to see the
importance of communication. Because communication is very much a social
activity, and was central to the operation of the unit, it was important that the
proposed new system did not detract from the existing levels of communication or
block any communication channels.