This book has two purposes. First, to introduce the study of work and the workplace as a method for informing the design of computer systems to be used at work. We primarily focus on the predominant way in which the organization of work has been approached within the field of human-computer interaction (HCI), which is from the perspective of ethnomethodology. We locate studies of work in HCI within its intellectual antecedents, and describe paradigmatic examples and case studies. Second, we hope to provide those who are intending to conduct the type of fieldwork that studies of work and the workplace draw off with suggestions as to how they can go about their own work of developing observations about the settings they encounter. These suggestions take the form of a set of maxims that we have found useful while conducting the studies we have been involved in. We draw from our own fieldwork notes in order to illustrate these maxims. In addition we also offer some homilies about how to make observations; again, these are ones we have found useful in our own work. Table of Contents: Motivation / Overview: A Paradigmatic Case / Scientific Foundations / Detailed Description / Case Study / How to Conduct Ethnomethodological Studies of Work / Making Observations / Current Status

Graham Button gained his PhD in 1976 from the University of Manchester where he was the Faculty Research Assistant. He joined the then Plymouth Polytechnic, subsequently The University of Plymouth, in 1975 where he worked as lecturer, senior lecturer, and principal lecturer until 1992. During 1980 and 1985 he was visiting faculty at the University of California, Los Angeles and Boston University, respectively. In 1992 he joined the Cambridge laboratory of Xerox's Palo Alto Research Centre, as Principal Scientist and was appointed Director in 1999, and subsequently Laboratory Director of Xerox's European Research Centre in Grenoble, France, in 2003. In 2005 he took up the position of Executive Dean of Faculty at Sheffield Hallam University, and is now Pro-Vice Chancellor for Arts, Computing, Engineering and Sciences.Wes Sharrock has been at the University of Manchester UK since 1965. He was a graduate student from 1965-7 then worked as assistant lecturer, lecturer, senior lecturer, reader and professor in the Department of Sociology. During 1972-3 he was a visiting associate professor at the University of British Columbia, in 1989-90 he was Visiting Senior Scientist as the Cambridge laboratory of Xerox's Palo Alto Research Centre, and in 2008 was a visiting senior scientist at the Microsoft laboratory in Cambridge UK. Current research includes studies of development work in online ontology building and of data sharing in collaborations between research scientists and visualization specialists.