In this paper, the authors deal with the challenge of designing in an information space that has both public and private components, an emergency room setting. The authors' goal is to draw upon empirical studies in order to present an initial theory that can be tested and used to develop design principles for information systems in the public and private realms.
The authors begin by conducting an ethnographic field study in an emergency room in the UK . They observe users' frustrations with long wait times, lack of knowledge about their expected wait and subsequent aggravation and even violence toward hospital staff. The authors observe the physical characteristics of emergency rooms, in addition to the actions of patients, staff, waiting room attendants, etc. They reported that patients who knew the estimated wait time were more patient, had less stress and were less aggravated with staff.
Therefore, they began to evaluate ways to provide patients with information about estimated wait times (public information) as well as information on the status of labs, results, etc. (private information).
To this end, they authors propose a theory based on public, social and private spheres and interaction spaces. The theory helps to map interaction spaces created by particular designs to the public, private and social information spheres.
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