Book release (2004): About the new book: MIT press About the new book: Usability News Look inside the book Book release (2006): About the new book: Viva Books (for distribution in India, Bangladesh, Burma, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, and Pakistan only) Book release (2008): New 2. edition in Danish About the book (in Danish) Rewarded as a number one reading by Computerworld (in Danish)

The MUST Research Program Roskilde University User-Driven IT Innovation Bldg. 43.2, P.O. Box 260, DK-4000 Roskilde, Denmark Tel: +45 46 74 38 48 Fax: +45 46 74 30 72 email: simonsen@ruc.dk URL: http://www.must.ruc.dk

The research program MUST is a framework for a number of projects conducted since 1989 at Computer Science, Roskilde University, Denmark. The purpose of the program was to develop theories of and approaches to systems design. MUST is a Danish acronym for theories of and methods for design activities.


The research program has developed a state-of-the-art coherent method, the MUST method, for participatory design.

The MUST method has been developed during a decade and throughout 13 projects in Danish and American organizations. It has been evaluated and adopted by information technology (IT) professionals within three large Danish organizations. The method is inspired by ethnographic approaches, and by Scandinavian participatory design approaches. The MUST method supports - by its conceptual framework, its techniques, and tools - IT-professionals in analysing organizations in order to clarify needs and design new IT. We have e.g. designed IT support for 9 people on an editorial board of a film company and for 50 people working in a research and development lab; we have designed multimedia support for 140 people working at a radio station. All the work domains can be characterized as professional work in complex organizational settings.

The MUST program ended on December 31, 1999. Our research is documented in many research papers. The MUST method is described in a Danish book ("Professionel IT-forundersøgelse - grundlaget for bæredygtige IT-anvendelser", Samfundslitteratur, 2000) and in English ("Participatory IT Design - Designing for Business and Workplace realities", MIT Press, 2004).

The MUST method is now used in courses at all Danish Universities as well as by a number of private companies and public organizations.

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