Knowledge and Communicative Aspects of Visualization in Action Case Research

The departure point of this paper is the use of visualization as a tool in action case research. In the action case research the researcher is balancing between interpretation of qualitative data and intervention to solve the problem of the research partner. The communicative and knowledge aspects of visualization are highlighted. The research partner in this paper, Flower Systems Ltd is a software company which has developed a document management system (ISOX 2000) especially designed to meet the needs of social services in local governments. The last year’s employees at different social services have complained about the usability and user-friendliness of ISOX. In the action case research two kinds of results are expected; concrete results as in taking action in some problem solving context (the usability problem with ISOX) and conceptual results as a list of proposed changes to a theoretical framework. The question raised in this paper is: What are the benefits from using visualization as a tool for building shared interpretations and mutual understandings between researchers and practice? The concrete result of the collaboration is a more user friendly, re-designed version of ISOX based on the use of different visualizations techniques and also a change of how FSL are working with re-design. The conceptual result is a list of proposed changes to the knowledge visualization framework based on the empirical findings and the theoretical framework of visualization.