In the following decades, several projects in Scandinavia set out to find the most effective ways for computer-system designers to collaborate with worker organizations to develop systems that most effectively promoted the quality of work life. Researchers worked with union members at a locomotive repair shop, a daily newspaper, a metalworking plant, and a department store. As a result, the union conducted its own investigation into production planning, and called attention to significant problems with materials organization, job design, and overall planning that were hindering production efficiency. The project team explicitly sought to reinforce and enhance skilled workers' control over process and methods, focusing on computer assistance for page makeup and image processing for newspapers. Design must therefore be carried out by the common efforts of skilled, experienced users and design professionals.
Users possess the needed practical understanding but lack insight into new technical possibilities.
The designer must understand the specific labor process that uses a tool. Requirement specifications and systems descriptions based on information from interviews were not very successful. The idea that work tasks must be seen within their context and are therefore situated actions, whose meaning and effectiveness cannot be evaluated in isolation from the context 4. The recognition that work is fundamentally social, involving extensive cooperation and communication These principles apply in all workplaces, regardless of the specific interactions between workers and management. Today, some of the concepts of participatory design are becoming standard practice in the computing industry.