Moving from cultural probes to agent-oriented requirements engineering

The cultural probe approach is becoming a valuable observational method in social contexts. Based on cultural probe work on intergenerational play, this paper proposes a method for moving forward from these results towards a requirements analysis, while retaining valuable aspects of the cultural probe approach, like subjectivity and interpretation. Since requirements elicitation techniques are often determined by the modeling scheme used, we chose the most apparently appropriate modeling scheme for social contexts, the Agent Oriented Software Engineering (AOSE) methodology, ROADMAP. We believe to have contributed the ability to include AOSE in the cycle from cultural probe observation to production of informed technology, reflecting designer motivation and intention, for re-immersion into the situational context. The method facilitates the transition from data collection in social environments via cultural probes to socially oriented requirements analysis for informed technology production.