ABSTRACT
The many realizations of an innovation reflect properties of the innovation-in-use, properties that emerge only in practice. These properties may seem ephemeral, based as they are on particularities of settings, but they are the only ones that matter for evaluation, for redesign of the innovation, for selecting appropriate settings of use, or for predicting future results of use. The examples in this book show the power of the social context to affect the ultimate uses of a new technology. How the features of the technology interact with human needs, expectations, beliefs, prior practices, and alternative tools far outweighs the properties of the technology itself. Thus, when we analyze the effects of an innovation, we must consider much more than an aggregate result such as the “average impact of the typical implementation.”
We see situated evaluation as a new framework for understanding innovation and change. This framework has several key ingredients. It emphasizes contrastive analysis and seeks to explore differences in use. It assumes that the object of study is neither the innovation alone nor its effects, but rather, the realization of the innovation—the innovation-in-use. Finally, it produces hypotheses supported by detailed analyses of actual practices. These hypotheses make possible informed plans for use and change of innovations.
