Facts4Workers: Requirements of workers and organisations

This blog post was originally posted at Facts4Workers and was written by Jonathan Denner and Alexander Richter.

The ultimate goal of the H2020 project “FACTS4WORKERS – Worker-Centric Workplaces in ” (FoF 2014/636778) is to develop and demonstrate sociotechnical solutions that support smarter work. We will provide employees with the necessary information to perform their day-to-day work thus improving decision making, supporting problem solving and in general strengthening employees’ position on the factory floor.

Whom are we designing for – all personas of our scenarios
Whom are we designing for – all personas of our scenarios

Figure: Whom are we designing for – all personas of our scenarios


Towards achieving this, the main objective of the deliverable D1.2 is to identify requirements for sociotechnical solutions meant to support the day-to-day work of workers in the contexts of six industrial partners (IPs).

In this document we firstly present the current state of the art in the companies. In the form of 23 problem scenarios, we describe how the actors (all displayed in figure 1) currently perform their work, and we point to critical issues in their daily activities that have potential for improvement. On this basis, we structure the identified requirements in the form of 23 activity scenarios that pick the identified issues and constitute suggestions of how the workers could be supported with a smart ICT infrastructure. Next, we present screen illustrations of eight prototypes that incorporate many or all of the suggestions.

This document also provides a detailed illustration of our methodical approach, which primarily includes the abovementioned types of boundary objects as the best possible way to avoid inconsistencies of the requirements, in order to provide a high level of transparency to all readers. As illustrated in this deliverable and also already in D 1.1, our methodical approach has been co-designed to accommodate all of the project stakeholders’ needs, which makes it especially iterative and agile. Consequently, on our ways towards achieving the ultimate project goal stated above, constant feedback from the IPs, especially the workers, has been essential, during our current progress.

This document is entitled “First version of requirements of workers and organisations” and represents Deliverable 1.2 of the H2020 project “FACTS4WORKERS – Worker-Centric Workplaces in Smart Factories” (FoF 2014/636778). You can download the document here.

Denner et al.(2015): “First version of requirements of workers and organisations”. Project Report – FACTS4WORKERS: Worker -Centric Workplaces in Smart Factories.