¹School of Library and Information Science, San Jose State University, 800 N. State College Blvd., Fullerton, CA 92831, U.S.A.

Correspondence: Judith Weedman, School of Library and Information Science, San Jose State University, 800 N. State College Blvd., Fullerton, CA 92831, U.S.A. Tel.: +1 714 278 2295; E-mail: jweedman@slis.sjsu.edu

Received 13 May 2008; Accepted 6 September 2008.

Abstract

This paper reports a study of a design science research project in which researchers in computer science and earth science collaborated to attack a looming problem in the earth sciences – the need to analyze data of different types (satellite data at various resolutions, text, raster, and vector). The motivations of the two partners appeared complementary – the computer scientists needed a hard problem to solve to focus their research, and the earth scientists had a hard problem in need of solution. This study uses theory and research on design from the social sciences to explore the experience of users who are included as partners in a design project. It finds that it is very difficult for a client partner to enter the 'design world' as full collaborators.