Designing Tailorable Groupware for the Healthcare Domain

Abstract. In this paper we present a theory-based approach to designing tailorable groupware for the healthcare domain. Both literature and empirical data show the need, and difficulty, of designing groupware that is adaptable to match the dynamic requirements of real-life co-operation in telemedicine. We apply an existing social theory, the Information Foraging Theory, to explain natural tailoring behaviour and state the implications for groupware design. To improve the usability of tailoring, we integrate this theoretical foundation with a groupware design approach to compose groupware behaviour out of individual building blocks and apply this to the healthcare domain. The results are a conceptual architecture and design guidelines that help groupware developers create tailorable groupware. An important contribution of our research is the concept of task-oriented groupware patches that help co-operating healthcare professionals in selecting, combining and fine-tuning those groupware ...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2003
• Where: CRIWG
• Authors: Robert Slagter, Margit Biemans
• Keywords: CRIWG 2003, CRIWG 2007, Groupware, Groupware Design, Tailorable Groupware