Influencing Software Usage

Technology designers often strive to design systems that are flexible enough to be used in a wide range of situations. Software engineers, in particular, are trained to seek general solutions to problems. General solutions can be used not only to address the problem at hand, but also to address a wide range of problems that the designers may not have even anticipated. Sometimes designers wish to provide general solutions, while encouraging certain uses of their technology and discouraging or precluding others. They may attempt to influence the use of technology by “hard-wiring” it so that it only can be used in certain ways, licensing it so that those who use it are legally obligated to use it in certain ways, issuing guidelines for how it should be used, or providing resources that make it easier to use the technology as the designers intended than to use it in any other way. This paper examines several cases where designers have attempted to influence the use of technology throu...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 1998
• Where: CORR
• Authors: Lorrie Faith Cranor, Rebecca N. Wright
• Keywords: CORR 1998, Designers, Education, General Solutions, Technology