Making Claims

Human-centered informatics (HCI) is a young discipline that is still defining its core components, with approaches rooted in engineering, science, and creative design. In the spirit of this book series, this book explores HCI as an intersection point for different perspectives of computing and information technology, seeking to understand how groups of designers can communicate with an increasingly diverse set of colleagues on a broadening set of problems. In so doing, this book traces the evolution of claims as a way to capture and share knowledge, particularly in comparison to other approaches like patterns and issues. Claims can be a centrally important aspect in HCI design efforts, either consciously by targeted design techniques or through ingrained habits of experienced designers. An examination of claims, their uses in design, and the possibilities for explicit use in future collaborative design endeavors seeks to inspire their further development use in HCI design.