Web 2.0-facilitated collaborative design as an emergent process: an actor-network theory perspective

Abstract

In this article, we demonstrate the efficacy of Actor-Network Theory’s (ANT) moments of translation as a methodological approach to understand the emergent nature of Web 2.0-facilitated collaborative design process. The aim was to contribute to design research by developing an ANT methodological framework for studying designers at work. The article is based on a study of Web 2.0-facilitated collaborative design project carried out from 2014 to 2016. The study traced a small group of four to five undergraduate engineering students as they collaborated on a design problem in the Web 2.0 platform of their choice. Latour’s concept of translation and Callon’s four translation moments are used to analyze the network building during in situ. The analysis followed both human and non-human actors as they participated in the collaborative design process. The study reveals that Web 2.0-facilitated collaborative design is an elusive process whose path cannot be determined a priori. The process emerges from drawing things together through the translation of designers’ thoughts, ideas, opinions, drawings and goals embedded into a network of relationships. The article concludes that ANT’s moments of translation could be used to illuminate the emergent nature of Web 2.0-facilitated collaborative design process.