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The rapid development and integration of IoT, AI, and digital twin technologies into work environments create new demands and challenges for organisations, including the need to upskill and prepare their workforces for new technological applications and capabilities. The collaborative design tradition draws upon participatory notions of joint inquiry to help people in the ideation and conception of alternative futures; however, given the novelty and the rapidity of the technological transformations, there is an opportunity to engage people unfamiliar with technology and design in the ideation and conceptualisation of work-oriented improvements using these technologies.

This dissertation investigates what dimensions are necessary to support participatory processes for identifying and creating work-oriented improvements with technology and how design practitioners can apply these dimensions to stage these joint inquiry situations. To achieve these aims, explorations of and reflections on design are guided by a research-through-design approach that builds on three collaborative design cases that address real-world situations in a variety of contexts and participants: the joint inquiry processes of factory workers in the ideation, conceptualisation and prototyping of IoT work-oriented improvements; the joint inquiry process of ideation and conceptualisation of a digital twin in a manufacturing environment; and the joint inquiry processes of workers (predominantly from the healthcare sector) in ideating, conceptualising, and prototyping roles, skills, and products relying on IoT and AI technologies for their work futures. 

The research and design practice is guided by Deweyan pragmatism, underscoring the role and nature of materials (design methods, tools, and practices) in participatory design processes. Drawing from the three collaborative design cases and these theoretical notions, this thesis addresses two research questions: “What dimensions are needed to support participants in creating work-oriented improvements using technology?” and “How can these dimensions inform designers in staging joint inquiry situations of work-oriented improvements using technology?” The research methods consist of audio-recorded interviews, field notes, and collective reflective sessions to analyse the empirical material and video recordings. 

The main contributions are the identification of dimensions that underscore technology and work-oriented themes in joint inquiry and the framework of “thinking with and through technology”, which integrates these dimensions into a guided reflective and analytical design process. These contributions can help design and innovation practitioners and researchers prepare and stage materials, methods, and perspectives of joint inquiry situations concerning technology. The framework presents a “thinking with” perspective that underscores the material properties of technology and what the technology can offer to participants, and a “thinking through” perspective to contest the role of technology in organisations and open the design space to consider more sustainable and responsible futures. These results contribute to the collaborative design domain by developing knowledge and new nuances when staging joint inquiry situations of work-oriented improvements with technology. New understandings of these dimensions can contribute to an organisational landscape where workers can exercise their creativity, upskill their capacities, and voice their ideas and concerns concerning the technologies being integrated into their work environments.