Officers
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Co-chair
Flore Barcellini Full Professor in Ergonomics Research Center on Work and Development CNAM – Conservatoire National des Arts et Metiers – Paris – France flore.barcellini [at] lecnam.net
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Co-chair
Stéphane Safin Professor of ergonomics and work psychology Research Center on Work and Consumer Psychology ULB – Université Libre de Bruxelles – Bruxelles – Belgium stephane.safin [at] ulb.be |
Mission
The Technical Committee on Collaboration & Design Activities Through Technology aims to advance knowledge on how people collaborate and create with the support of technologies, and how technologies can be designed to effectively support collaboration, design and creativity in work, organizational and everyday settings.
The Committee adopts a broad understanding of collaboration, encompassing the diverse collective activities carried out by workers and users across domains of work and daily life. It also embraces a broad perspective on design and creativity, considering the contributions of multiple stakeholders involved in innovation and transition processes. The Committee assumes that collaborative design activities are essential to developing and renewing human capacities to transform environments and address contemporary challenges such as sustainability and digitalization. Understanding, modelling and supporting these activities is therefore considered a core concern for human factors and ergonomics as a design discipline.
The Committee focuses not on technology itself, but on how people collaborate and create together, how technologies are mobilized as resources for these activities, and how they contribute to efficiency, safety, health, well-being and human development. Particular attention is given to the ways rapidly evolving technologies shape, constrain or prescribe collaborative and creative activities, whether explicitly or implicitly.
Scope
The Committee brings together researchers and practitioners working on two complementary themes:
Collaboration and collective activities
- Dynamics and quality of collaboration
- Methods and frameworks for analysing collaborative activities
- Design and evaluation of collaborative technologies and platforms
- Emotional, social and psychosocial dimensions of collaboration
- Human implications of emerging technologies for collaborative work
These topics are addressed across multiple levels, from interpersonal interactions to organizational and societal processes, and across domains such as industry, healthcare, agriculture, education and leisure.
Design and creative activities
- Design practices and their contemporary challenges
- Creativity and creative experience in design
- Collaborative creativity, co-design, co-creation and participatory design
- Argumentation and decision-making in design processes
- Technological support for creativity and design activities
Particular attention is paid to how emerging technologies enable professionals and non-professionals alike to engage more deeply in creative design activities, generate relevant ideas and make informed design decisions.
While collective design and collaborative creativity are central concerns, collaboration and design are also investigated as distinct areas of inquiry.
Activities
The Committee promotes knowledge exchange through scientific and professional events, aiming to:
- Share empirical findings from field studies and experimental research;
- Exchange practical experiences from real-world settings;
- Develop and discuss methods for analysing and supporting collaborative and creative activities;
- Advance theoretical models that explain, represent and support such activities, including within participatory ergonomics approaches;
- Examine the implications of emerging technologies for collaboration, design and creativity.
