ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines work on envisioned users and how it has matured over the years. It focuses on studies on the topic in science and technology studies (STS) that examined innovation processes as emergent phenomena, agnostic to the presumed onto-logical status of objects, subjects, visions, and economics in the seamless web of 'technology in the making'. The envisioning of the user of a technology in the making can predate, even by decades, the actual people to use it. The most common understanding of the user can be found in design, information systems research and human-computer interaction, where the user is commonly associated with real 'people out there'. For many novel technologies, there is no stable and generous awaiting reality from which the needed user requirements can be readily collected by the means of user research. Regulatory demands present the source area for user representations that can be found in the research literature.
