As stated by the editors on the back cover:

This book aims to deepen our understanding of the relationships between users and designers both as they emerge in the wild and as a consequence of our attempts to intervene. Through a series of case studies, the book juxtaposes in-depth explorations of different perspectives and approaches to thinking about--and doing--user-designer relations, considering important implications for design and computer science more generally.

The book is Euro-centric and somewhat UK-centric, reflecting the experiences of the authors and editors, but the essential content is universal. There is an introductory chapter to set the tone, followed by eight chapters that reflect viewpoints, research, and case studies. The book ends with concluding remarks to summarize and look to the future. The material arose from the computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW) research community, with participatory design (PD) as a focus where ethnography and software engineering meet. Whereas American readers would likely expect to see references to information technology (IT), the book uses information and communications technology (ICT), but that is a minor point. Each of the ten chapters has a set of appropriate references at the end.

Chapter 2, by Toerpel et al., provides an overview of PD practices and how they have evolved. The point is that PD is not a unitary set of ideals, but rather is best described as a constellation of practices that are rich, heterogeneous, and fluid. Chapter 3, by Voss et al., focuses on the role of ethnographic studies, especially with the evolution of practices, as new technologies emerge. Incorporating ethnographic sensitivities into iterative and participatory design approaches may provide a constructive transformation in user-designer relations.

Chapters 4 to 9 report on empirical results across a range of disparate ICT projects. Chapter 4, by Jenkings, addresses the issue of scaling PD to an extremely large project, the Connecting for Health (CfH) project of the UK National Health Service. CfH is intended to provide the UK with a national system of electronic health records. Jenkings shows the value of technology-demonstrator visual tools in facilitating and enhancing user engagement. Chapter 5, by Bonner, reports on PD tools and techniques in conjunction with domestic appliance design. Chapter 6, by Hyysalo, reports on two innovative healthcare products. Both of these case studies demonstrate the evolving relationships between users and designers as a project goes . Chapter 7, by Martin et al., reports on the practical issues related to stakeholder participation in deploying a hospital information system. Chapter 8, by Büscher et al., reports on a project related to palpable computing, noting that the challenges of achieving ubiquitous, ambient, and component-based computing are still very significant. Chapter 9, by Pollock and Williams, addresses the adaptation issues related to working with generic systems, since organizations almost always have unique needs or desires with respect to deploying a software system.

Chapter 10, by the editors, provides concluding remarks to tie together the diverse topics, applications, and issues from the preceding chapters, as well as to point to future opportunities for studying and reporting on user-designer relations. Dimensions of engagement--context, timing, scale, and purpose--provide an emerging taxonomy of PD practices. A section on “user engagement in the wild” points out the challenges of achieving meaningful PD in real life. Reflections on the problems encountered in a wide range of situations help focus opportunities for future research to help improve effective participation of users in the design process.

The book is well organized and provides many insights for a variety of readers, from those with a research interest in user-designer relations to software engineers concerned about developing systems that address the needs of users in more than a cursory front-end fashion. The topics are highly diverse. While this may be somewhat disconcerting to some readers, it is actually the overall strength of the book, as this is not currently a simple, clean, and easily addressed subject area.