Designing and Learning: joining the concepts in work practices

Information and communication technologies are the new power for innovation in organizations nowadays. However the technology by itself is not able to promote improvements in organizations, which depends on how the employees learn and make sense of the technology in their workplace. In this paper we argue that the learning process in organizations could be tied to the design process that results in computational tools to be embedded in work practices. The approach integrates Participatory Design (PD) and Organizational Semiotics (OS) techniques in a coordinated work involving designers, users and the Human Resources (HR) department of the organization. This approach is illustrated with the design of the Pokayoke system highlighting its relations with learning opportunities.