Sharing the design of a cognitive tool between researchers and potential users

Motivation -- Learning from the shared design process of a cognitive tool: how it promotes changes in designers' activities as well as in those of potential users, and how the tool evolves in such a process. Research approach -- Three groups of potential users worked in interaction with agronomist researchers who had designed the tool's concepts, and ergonomists who assisted them in building this interaction and in the debriefings. After explorative surveys to build a prototype of the cognitive tool in line with users' activities, this prototype was used in collective groups of agronomists and potential users and then put into the hands of the users for a two-week period to give them a personal view of the tool. Data collected during this "test" period were then analysed to further develop the tool and to discuss with the users the changes they encountered in their activity, in relation to the process as a whole. Findings/Design -- The interface but also the concepts underlying the tool were altered profoundly, thus raising new scientific questions for agronomists. The users developed a new understanding of their cognitive task. We suggest that this was achieved by (i) group discussions around the prototype between actors with diverse points of view; and (ii) the way the users were asked to "play" with the prototype by focusing specifically on cognitive dimensions of their activity. Take-away message -- We explored three dimensions of tool design, namely crystallization, plasticity and development, as well as their evolution over time. This we did by examining a cognitive task, along with a prototype for supporting it, in a dialogical process between potential users and designers.