Page 197 -

184 CHAPTER 7 Case studies

case study for educational purposes. Based on the discussion and analysis found
in this chapter, how does an educational case study differ from a research case
study? Consider questions such as the type of study, the number of cases, the
data sources, and the analysis.

RESEARCH DESIGN EXERCISES

1. Sara's case study is an embedded, single-case study, with the individual tasks
as units of analysis. Suppose you wanted to conduct a literal replication of this
study with another blind person. Keeping in mind the potential differences in
living arrangements, lifestyles, and personal habits that might distinguish Sara
from other blind college students, describe the challenges that you might face
in conducting this replication. If you could ask the authors of the paper about
Sara for access to their notes and records, which items would be of particular
interest? How would these challenges differ if you were to do a theoretical
replication with another blind individual who was different from Sara in some
potentially important regard, such as a retired person?

2. Case studies often focus on groups or organizations as their units of analysis.
As specific details of group dynamics can influence the success or failure of
software tools, these studies can be very helpful for understanding the use of
tools for collaboration or other organizational goals. Design a case study aimed
at understanding the information sharing and management processes of your
research group. What would your underlying questions be? What hypotheses
would you wish to explore? Describe your units of analyses, data sources, and
analytic approach.

REFERENCES
Bilandzic, M., Foth, M., De Luca, A., 2008. CityFlocks: designing social navigation for urban
mobile information systems. In: Proceedings of the 7th ACM Conference on Designing
Interactive Systems. ACM, Cape Town.
Blythe, M., Monk, A., Park, J., 2002. Technology biographies: field study techniques for home
use product development. In: CHI '02 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing
Systems. ACM, Minneapolis, MN.
Cohene, T., Baecker, R., Marziali, E., Mindy, S., 2007. Memories of a life: a design case
study for Alzheimer's disease. In: Lazar, J. (Ed.), Universal Usability: Designing Computer
Interfaces for Diverse User Populations. John Wiley and Sons, London.
Davies, D.K., Vosloo, H.F., Vannan, S.S., Frost, P.E., 2008. Near real-time fire alert system in
South Africa: from desktop to mobile service. In: Proceedings of the 7th ACM Conference
on Designing Interactive Systems. ACM, Cape Town.
Druin, A., Weeks, A., Massey, S., Bederson, B.B., 2007. Children's interests and concerns when
using the international children's digital library: a four-country case study. In: Proceedings
of the 7th ACM/IEEE-CS Joint Conference on Digital Libraries. ACM, Vancouver, BC.