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Tracing Genres Through Organizations: A Sociocultural Approach to Information Design Clay Spinuzzi. 2003. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. [ISBN 0-262-19491-0. 246 pages, including index. $35.00 USD.]
Clay Spinuzzi's new book examines information design through the application of workplace research and academic theories. The resulting work provides technical communicators in both industry and academia with a new perspective for evaluating and understanding information design.
This book is based on Spinuzzi's observations of workers in Iowa using iterations of a computer-based system (called ALAS) for traffic accident data. In his review of perspectives on user-centered design in Chapter 1, Spinuzzi shows that users are often seen as victims in need of rescue, and designers are seen as heroes who save the day. Spinuzzi argues against this hero-victim dichotomy and builds on the argument throughout the book. Using insights from genre theory and activity theory, he develops a perspective on information design with the goal of giving users open systems that they can modify and adapt to their particular needs.
Chapter 2 lays out Spinuzzi's research methodology, which he calls genre tracing. Although technical communicators might tend to think of genres as standardized, repeatable forms (manuals, online help, proposals, and so on), Spinuzzi focuses...