A Collaborative Approach to the Design of Interactive Systems for the Documentation of Dance

This research relates to a doctoral project for the development of LabanAssist as a prototype application [2]. To facilitate its development participatory design methods that involve users in the design process assist in capturing a subjective account of user needs and requirements. The research considers an approach that enables the knowledge of mutual design decisions during task analysis workshops, to be made explicit, based on the collaboration and agreement between potential users of the system and designer. It is suggested that a combination of visual tools may be utilized to facilitate the representation of this information and communicate knowledge of the underlying design rationale and decision-making process. In this way methods of participatory design may be enhanced to enable a shared knowledge of design criteria to be made explicit for productive interaction and its evaluation.