From contextual inquiry to designable futures: what do we need to get there?

Human-centered systems result when software engineers or developers give attention to the orientations, expectations, and understandings of the people who will be part of the sociotechnical system. Human factors researchers often take certain agendas, terms, and theories for granted or rely on them out of habit. This paper takes a special look at contextual enquiry as a putatively (and indeed potentially) superior way of giving end users a serious say in the procurement process of complex cognitive systems.