Grounded Design: A Research Paradigm in Practice-based Computing

Introduction Computer science is a young, but extremely successful academic discipline. It has developed into a discipline which nowadays has its organizational instantiations in almost every academic area. At one time, the hardware of mainframe computers needed to be run in specific (parts of) buildings and interaction with machines was restricted by specific coding devices such as punch cards. However, computers today are radically different. They are mobile and ubiquitous and along with this a multiplicity of interaction techniques have been developed. Looking at the various fields of application, the origins of computer science were strongly related to scientific applications during the Second World War and the Cold War. In the business world, computing rose to importance in the already well formalized world of book keeping and accounting. However, computing technologies today, as we all know, are on their way to supporting all aspects of life.