Charlotte P. Lee
Research Scientist, Research Faculty

Department of Informatics
Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences
Donald Bren Hall 5074
University of California, Irvine
Irvine, CA 92697-3440

Phone: +1 (949) 824-9048
Fax: +1 (949) 824-4056
Email: cplee@ics.uci.edu

Despite the importance of collaborative design to both modern scientific practice and modern design practice, too little is known about the dynamics of complex work teams which are increasingly called upon to solve complicated problems. Collaborative design is a complicated activity that requires coordination, the use of shared representations, and joint learning. When complex activities require coordination amongst disciplines or across time or space, collaboration can be even more challenging. Understanding and theorizing work processes, tools, and organizations are at the heart of my research agenda. I use qualitative research methods, including ethnographic ones, to understand how people design collaboratively.

Regardless of domain, whether amongst neuroscientists, museum exhibition designers, or hobbyist collectors my research has followed a theme of uncovering and exploring the phenomenon of what I call partial alignment amongst collaborators. Partial alignment is functionally useful, but often temporary and incomplete mutual understanding of common tools and collaborative social structures. Partial alignments are distinct from standardized artifacts and practices, which have received a great deal more attention, and are important for understanding how innovative work takes place.

New technologies present a vast resource for supporting collaborative work. The advent of faster, smaller, and cheaper computers affords an exciting design space that is larger and more varied than before yet, at the same time, we must temper enthusiasm with caution. Altering processes and introducing new tools necessarily entails attempting to restructure social and institutional relationships. The importance of these restructurings must not be overlooked by designers or by researchers.