Design guidelines for dealing with breakdowns and repairs in collaborative work settings

We present the results of an investigation into collaborative work within UK breast screening centres. In particular, we focus on the ways in which the organization of breast screening work and the design of artefacts such as report forms afford the detection of breakdowns—i.e. situations calling for departures from the “standard” procedures—and their safe and efficient repair. We use this to devise a framework for classifying different breakdown–repair scenarios. These scenarios are distinctive in their repair costs and impacts and can be used to highlight the implications of design decisions in collaborative work settings. Finally, we show how, via a set of derived guidelines, the results of this analysis were applied to the design of artefacts, including a user interface and computer-generated documents, for a computer-aided image analysis system intended for application in the UK breast screening programme.