Client Centred Design: A case study on collaboration with clients, in community interaction and learning design

Abstract In this paper the Human Computer Interaction (HCI) Research Group reports on the pre-phase of an e-learning project, which was carried out in collaboration with the client. The project involved an initial exploration of the problem spaces, possibilities and challenges for an online accredited Continued Medical Education (CME) programme at the Lundbeck Institute. The CME programme aims at end-users, which are primarily general practitioners, but also specialists (psychiatrist and psychologists), from all over the world. The assumption was that it would be possible to identify and build on resources and competencies already existing in the client organisation. We asked: What is it we know? Uncovering the prerequisites and background of and with the client allowed us concurrently to identify: What do we not know? Working iteratively in collaboration with the client, allowed us to build on existing resources and networks, suggesting a design, which also included end-users community needs and work-context. Our argument is that if a preparation phase both seeks to confirm knowledge and contemplate what is not yet known, giving attention to the context and need of the client (i.e. not only end-users,) then it is possible to build on existing resources within the client organisation, leading to grounding of design decisions and a match between the e-learning environment designed and the capabilities of the client.