BIB_06: Johnson, R. R. (1998). User-centered technology: a rhetorical theory for computers and other mundane artifacts. Albany, NY: State University of New York at Albany.

In this book, Johnson addresses the problem of user-centered technology from a rhetorical perspective and explores the implications of the rhetoric of (user-centered) technology to technical communicators and, more importantly, the technical communicators' contribution to this conversation shared in various disciplines from sociology and history to philosophy and technical communication. The book starts with a theoretical discussion of the user and user-centered technology from a rhetorical perspective. Relying on classic rhetorical tradition (such as the Aristotelian idea of teche), Johnson refigures technology as art. By doing so, Johnson restores the user's status as "practitioner," "producer," and "citizen," and calls our attention to the important yet neglected and trivialized user's knowledge, especially the aspect which he calls metis or cunning intelligence/knowledge. Based on this rhetorical analysis of technology and user, Johnson creates a model for user-centered technology analysis called the "user-centered rhetorical complex of technology" that centers on the "user's situation" in technology use. In the second part, Johnson first reviews different user-centered perspectives in human factors, and points out their value, especially methodological value, in understanding user-centered technology. At the same time, he also points out their limitations, which precisely lie in their methodological focus. Johnson then "confronts technological determinism" by offering an critique of different types of technological determinism and anti-technological determinism perspectives across disciplines of sociology, history, and philosophy. It is followed by the third part, a discussion of user-centered issues and the application of user-centered rhetorical theory in technical communication, specifically, document development. Johnson concludes the book with a chapter addressing pedagogy from a user-centered perspective and the future of the discipline of technical communication in view of user-centered understanding of technology.

Johnson's book provides a solid rhetorical theoretical foundation of the user-centered perspective to understand the use and communication of technology. I found Johnson's model of the "user-centered rhetorical complex of technology" a great tool for analysis of user and the use of technology. By centering the user in the use of technology, the model reflects a great emphasis on the context of the user experience, or what Johnson calls the "user's situation." The idea of metis also a useful concept when we understand what Sun (2004) calls the "user localization" of technology.

Reference

Sun, H. (2004). Expanding the scope of localization: A cultural usability perspective on mobile text messaging use in American and Chinese contexts. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York.