Proceedings of the 34th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences - 2001
Designing User Interfaces using Activity Theory
Lorna Uden, Neil Willis
School of Computing
Staffordshire University,
Beaconside,
Stafford, ST18 0AD. UK
Phone +44 (0) 1785 353271
Fax +44 (0) 1785 353497
E-mail: L.uden@staffs.ac.uk
N.willis@staffs.ac.uk
Abstract
passive elements in a system, not an autonomous agent
that has the capacity to regulate and co-ordinate his or
her behaviour. Secondly, the problem of using
The mainstream framework of computer-interaction
predetermined fixed requirements for product design.
research of cognitive psychology has come under
Instead of considering only a single individual,
increasing criticism lately because of the gap between
features of co-operation, communication, and co-
research results and practical design. According to
ordination are often vital in the successful performance
Kuutti [8], the main criticism is that traditional
of tasks. Thirdly, restricted and artificial laboratory
cognitive psychology of design is not able to penetrate
experiments have been the trend instead of work
the human side of the interface. To overcome these
practices. Finally, there is a growing recognition that
limitations, an alternative approach to interface
the actual use of a system is a long-term process that
design is necessary. Activity Theory, which originated
cannot be adequately understood by studying just the
within Soviet psychology, appears to have much to
initial steps of usage.
offer. Activity Theory incorporates notions of
There is an emerging consensus among researchers
intentionality, history, mediation, motivation,
that the cognitive approach to HCI may be limited. It
understanding, culture and community and it is these
does not provide an appropriate conceptual basis for
aspects that have proved attractive to interface design.
studies of computer use in its social, organisational
We believe that Activity Theory offers several benefits
and authorial context, in relation to the goals, plans
to interface design, compared to the traditional
and values of the user or in the context of
cognitive psychology approach.
development.
This paper describes a case study involving the use
In this paper, we present a case study involving the
of Activity Theory for the design and evaluation of a
design of an information tourist kiosk using Activity
tourist information kiosk.
Theory. To make activity theory useful, we also
applied an activity checklist to guide us in the specific
areas when trying to understand the context in our
1. Introduction
design and evaluation. The paper is in four parts. We
start with this introduction, followed by a brief review
Researchers in recent years have criticised the gap
of activity theory in section two. In section three, we
between research results and practical design in HCI.
describe the case study. Section four concludes our
Bennon [1] lists several limitations of the traditional
paper.
cognitive psychology approach. Firstly, in the
traditional approach, the human actors are simply
2. An overview of activity theory
0-7695-0981-9/01 $10.00 (c) 2001 IEEE
1
Proceedings of the 34th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences - 2001
motivates the existence of an activity [8]. An object
Activity Theory is a philosophical and cross-
can be material thing, but it can also be less tangible
disciplinary framework for the study of different
such as a plan, or totally intangible such as a common
forms of human practices as development progresses,
idea, as long as it can be shared for manipulation and
with both individual and social levels interlinked at
transformation by the participants of the activity. It
the same time [8]. In Activity Theory, a minimal
is possible that the object and motive themselves will
meaningful context for individual activities must be
undergo changes during the process of an activity.
included as the basic unit of analysis. This entity is
The relationship between subject and object of
called an activity.
activity is mediated by a tool. An activity always
An activity is undertaken by a subject (individual or
contains various artefacts (e.g., instruments, signs,
subgroup) using tools to achieve an object (objective)
procedures, machines, methods, laws, and forms of
thus transforming objects into outcomes as illustrated
work organisation).
in Figure 1. Transforming the object into an outcome
Tool
Subject
Object
Figure 1. Mediated Relationship at the Individual Level
Activities are realised as individual and co-operative
Activity Theory does not accept a 'dualistic conception of
actions and networks of such actions are related to each
an isolated, independent mind'. Cognitive processes are
other by the same overall object and motive. Participating
interdependent and flexible processes. The subject will
in an activity is performing conscious actions with defined
transform the object, which will itself affect the subject.
goals. An activity may be realised using different actions,
This internal activity will have a corresponding external
depending on the situation. One and the same action can
manifestation that will also affect the internal activity.
belong to different activities, in which case the different
This relationship inevitably leads to clashes and
motives of activities will cause the action to have a
contradictions.
different personal sense for the subject in the context of
Actions are planned in the conscious mind and are
each activity.
undertaken using a model consisting of orientation,
According to Kuutti [8], activities can be considered as
resources and chains of operation [8]. Initially each
having three hierarchical levels: activity, action and
operation is a conscious action, consisting of both the
operation, which can be individual or cooperative. They
orientation and execution phases, but when the
can be considered as corresponding to motive, goal and
corresponding model is good enough and the action has
conditions. An activity (global) may be achieved through
been practised long enough, the orientation phase faded
a variety of actions. The same action may be used as
and the action will be collapsed into operation. On the
contribution to different activities. Similarly, operators
other hand, when conditions change, an operation can
may contribute to a variety of actions. Kuutti [8], uses a
again ‘unfold’ and return to the level of conscious action.
simple example of these levels to describe the activity
An example of the action-operation dynamics is learning
(motive) of ‘building a house’ in which ‘fixing the roof’
to use a manual gearbox when driving a car. In the
and ‘transporting bricks by truck’ are at the action level
beginning, each step in the process is a conscious action.
and ‘hammering’ and ‘changing gears when driving’ are at
But soon the conscious actions begin to transform into
the operation level.
operations. The operations that make up the consciously
Every activity has an internal and external component
performed goal-oriented actions are usually
with the subject and object existing as part of a dynamic
sub-conscious and automatically performed.
and reciprocal relationship. According to Leont’ev [10],
0-7695-0981-9/01 $10.00 (c) 2001 IEEE
2
Proceedings of the 34th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences - 2001
As the structure of Figure 1 is too simple to fulfil the
Two new relationships are then formed: subject-
needs of a consideration of the systemic relations between
community and community-object. Both of them are also
an individual and his or her environment in an activity,
mediated as shown in Figure 2. There are three mutual
Engeström extended the basic structure to incorporate a
relationships between subject; object and community in
third component, community (who share the same object).
Figure 2.
Mediating artefact
Transformation
Subject
Object → Outcome
Process
Rules
Community
Division
of Labour
Figure 2: Basic structure of an activity
The subject/object relationship in an activity is
is the process of transformation and mediation of the
mediated by the tool or instrument. The
resulting conflicts, which is the key to the production
community/subject relationship is mediated by rules.
of a successful outcome. This process is completely
Rules, according to Kuutti, can be the explicit and
dynamic, in that what begins, as an object may become
implicit norms, conventions, and social relations
a tool during the lifetime of the activity.
within a community. The relationship between
According to Kuutti [8], because the context is
community and object is the “division of labour”.
included in the unit of analysis, the object of our
Activity is mediated by one or more tools, artefacts
research is always essentially collective even if our
or instruments that are simultaneously the products of
main interest is in individual actions. An individual
activity continually in a state of flux. Tools can be
can and usually does participate in several activities
physical, such as computers, pens or spanners, or
simultaneously. Objects in activities are transformed
psychological, such as language and ideas, and should
into outcomes through a process that typically consists
be understood in relation to how they are used in the
of several steps or phases.
group or community rather than how they are used by
the individual. Within Activity Theory the use of tools
2.1 Benefits of Activity Theory for HCI
and social interaction are the main factors in shaping
human cognition [12]. Kaptelinin [5] believes that all
There are several benefits that activity theory can
"human experience is shaped by the tools and sign
offer to HCI design. Among these are:
systems we use."
• it offers an approach to conceptualise
To exist, an activity must have an object. The objects
relationships between individuals,
constructed by subjects in an activity may overlap and
communities, technologies and activities;
yet also be in conflict. The subjects may not be fully
• it models expertise as an active, collective
aware of their motivation for undertaking an activity or
phenomenon, and in the importance it ascribes
desiring an outcome. Indeed, they may have a number
to collective learning;
of motivations, which may be in conflict themselves. It
0-7695-0981-9/01 $10.00 (c) 2001 IEEE
3
Proceedings of the 34th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences - 2001
• it provides the understanding of context in
the computer. Users are acting through the interface
which computer-supported activities take
[2].
place during design and evaluation.
2.2 Implications of activity theory for HCI
Another benefit of using Activity Theory in HCI is
that Activity Theory considers the computer as a
Kuutti [8] suggests that Activity Theory offers three
special kind of tool mediating human interaction with
perspectives for HCI. These are multilevleness,
the world. Meaningful goal-directed activities
interaction context and development. By using
constitute the context for both mental processes and
Activity Theory, we can discuss issues belonging to
external actions. Kaptelinin argues that human beings
different levels within an integrated framework, as
usually use computers not because they want to
shown in Figure 3.
interact with them, but because they want to reach
their goals beyond the situation of the ‘dialogue’ with
Activity Motive
Action Goal
Operation condition
Figure 3: The three levels of activity
Activity Theory, according to Kuutti [8] and the
only a border separating two entities, but also a link
concept of activity seem to be particularly suited to use
that provides the integration of a computer tool into
as the starting point in studying contextually embedded
the structure of human activity. The mechanisms
interactions. Features of Activity Theory that have
underlying this integration can be understood from the
implications for HCI include recognition of actions,
point of view of Activity Theory as the formation of a
mediator, historicity, constructivity, dynamics and
fundamental organ. The computer applications are,
others. Finally, Activity Theory offers a promising
therefore, the extensions of some pre-computer human
avenue for providing a framework and theories to deal
abilities. One of the most important functions of
with the developmental and dynamic features of
computer tools in the structure of human activity
human practices.
seems to be the extension of the cognitive structure
It is our belief that the tool mediation perspective
referred to within Activity Theory as the internal plane
has important theoretical implications for HCI. The
of action (IPA). The equivalent of the IPA in the
tool mediation perspective suggests a structure of
cognitive tradition is the mental space where mental
human-computer interaction that is radically different
models are located. The potential of computer
from the information-processing loop. The concepts
systems to create easily controllable models of target
of the structure should be not only the user and the
objects and to give the user the opportunity to evaluate
computer, but also the object the user is operating on
them and to manipulate them explains why such
through the computer application and the other people
applications as spreadsheets and word processor
with whom the user is communicating [2].
became so popular. We believe that an understanding
We agree with Kaptelinin [6] that the tool
of the mechanism underlying the use of computer tools
mediation perspective means that there are actually
as extensions of the IPA is directly relevant to the
two interfaces that should be considered in the study of
development of useful and usable systems.
computer use: the human-computer interface and the
computer-environment interface. According to
3. Case study
Kaptelinin [6], interface in the traditional sense is not
0-7695-0981-9/01 $10.00 (c) 2001 IEEE
4
Proceedings of the 34th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences - 2001
the stakeholders to contribute equally to the elicitation
Our case study is concerned with the development of
process. We believe that Activity Theory offers us an
a tourist information kiosk for the city of Singapore.
interesting framework for analysing human cognition
The information kiosk will provide tourists or the
and action. It allows the designer to consider
public with information about the city of Singapore.
individuals alone, but also in their relationships with
Users will be able to obtain information via the
other people in the context in which they attempt to
interface of the kiosk for the following types of
accomplish work activities. The focus is on what
information:
people do with computer systems, i.e. their purpose.
• General information about Singapore
Before we proceed with the process of requirements
• Street map of the city
elicitation, it is necessary for us to identify the subjects
• Route guidance
involved in the application. A list of questions was
• Accommodation
used to determine the necessary subjects. The
• Restaurants
following subjects are identified.
•
•
Entertainment
Tourist - a person who uses the information
•
kiosk to obtain information.
Places of attraction, and
•
• Singapore Tourist Board (STB)- the body that
Transportation Facilities
owns the system.
Subsequent sections describe how we applied
•
Activity Theory to the development of the information
Co-sponsor - bodies that wish to be part of the
kiosk for Singapore.
system in order to advertise their products.
The approach we have adopted is based on the
• Designers - the team developing the system.
participatory design approach of Ehn [4]. The whole
• Government - the government of Singapore.
situation was taken into account when designing and
Using Activity Theory, the process of requirements
the end users for whom the application was being
elicitation for the information kiosk can be defined as:
designed were involved in the design process.
• The activity: an information kiosk for the
Singapore Tourist Board
3.1 Requirements Specification
• The object of the activity: the not-yet-ready
information kiosk to be built
Before we can proceed with the design of the
• Subjects: the Singapore Tourist Board (STB),
application, it is necessary to identify the activities
the general public, and tourists visiting
involved. To do this we must carry out a requirements
Singapore, the Singapore government.
analysis. According to Brooks [3], the hardest single
• Outcome: a tourist information application
part of building a software system is deciding precisely
• Community: the team is the community
what to build.
sharing the object, perhaps joined by some
Requirements engineering is concerned with the
representatives of the general public and
identification of the goals to be achieved by the
government agencies
envisioned system, the operationalisation of such goals
• The motive of the activity: the designer and
into services and constraints, and the assignment of
the STB have different motives
responsibilities for the resulting requirements to agents
• The context: the economic, political, cultural
such as humans, devices, and software. It includes
and social environment influence the tourist
domain analysis, elicitation, specification, assessment,
information kiosk application
negotiation, documentation and evaluation [9].
• Rules – there is a set of rules covering what is
We believe that most systems fail because they do
legal law regarding advertising and other issues
not include analysis of the motives or goals that
Some of the rules may be specific – set by law and
stakeholders might have, or the context in which the
the government, others by the STB or the culture of
system exists. Soft methodologies have been
the country. Many are also implicit, either as part of
developed in an attempt to overcome these limitations.
the general working culture or developed as the
Major criticisms of soft system methodology (SSM) is
designer works together with users. Some rules may
that it lacks a practical framework and existence of
be constructed for this particular project, for example,
process, and the inherent assumption that poor
how the user representations of this particular
relationships will not substantially affect the ability of
customer shall be treated. In each of the
0-7695-0981-9/01 $10.00 (c) 2001 IEEE
5
Proceedings of the 34th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences - 2001
transformation processes – for example, analysis,
One of the main limitations of Activity Theory
methods, computers, programming tools, walk-
cited by Kaptelinin [6] is that it is not yet
through, or rules-of-thumb. The collection of these
operationalised enough. There are not enough
tools has a history. It is the result of a process of
methods and techniques that can be directly utilised to
cumulation and rejection at both company and team
solve specific problems. We believe that knowledge
level, and additions and deletions to it may occur
of the domain for which a system or application is
during the project.
being developed is critical if the system is to meet
Kaptelinin [5] argues that activities will probably
users' needs successfully. This knowledge is important
be polymotivational i.e. have a multiplicity of
in the early stages of development, when the product is
motivations. For example, our information kiosk may
being defined, but it is also useful on a continuing
address goals serving multiple motives in the
basis as the design evolves and is evaluated. We
application. These may include motivation such as
believe that that Acquired Cognitive Task Analysis
attraction of tourists to visit the country, increased
(ACTA) method can be used to capture the required
revenue for the government and providing useful
domain knowledge and activities needed for our
information for the tourists.
information kiosk.
We can apply Activity Theory in requirements
engineering in two categories: accidental problems that
3.2 ACTA
relate to poor control or management, and essential
ACTA is a streamlined cognitive task analysis
problems, which are more difficult to overcome, and
method developed for training practitioners and
are embedded in the elicitation process. We believe
system designers to elicit and represent cognitive
that in order to overcome these difficulties, inherent in
components of skilled task performance, the means to
the process of human comprehension and
transform those data into design considerations [11].
communication, there must be an approach that
Although ACTA is developed by designers to elicit
emphasises the context in which stakeholders or users
and represent cognitive components of skilled task
develop their activities and mediation tools. Human
performance, we believe that it can be effectively used
actions and processes should be analysed in a specific
as a method to elicit users' requirements from our
context in order to make their actions understandable.
clients. ACTA provides us with a structured interview
To apply the theoretical underpinnings of Activity
procedure that could easily be followed and executed
Theory to requirements elicitation, we have to gain an
by developers without previous training or experience.
initial declaration of the problem by:
In ACTA, there are three interview methods
• Identifying procedures in the system which can
provided to help developers to extract information
be classified as activities;
about cognitive demands and skills required for a task.
• Identifying for each activity, subject, tool,
The first technique, the task diagram interview,
object, community, rules, division of labour and
provides the interviewer with a broad overview of the
results (representation of the systemic model of
task and highlights the different cognitive portions of
activity);
the task to be probed further with in-depth interview.
• From the systemic model of activity,
The subject matter expert is asked to break down the
decomposing the activities into actions and
tasks they perform into 3-6 smaller sub-tasks in the
operations.
order they occur. The task diagram for the
information kiosk is shown in Table 1.
Table1: Task Diagram interview
Feedback from interviewee
Task of Interest
Source information from an information
kiosk
Break task into 3 – 6 steps
1) Look for subject of interest
0-7695-0981-9/01 $10.00 (c) 2001 IEEE
6
Proceedings of the 34th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences - 2001
2) Point and click on the subject
3) Able to view information on the subject
Out of steps above, which require cognitive
Step (1)
skills – judgments, assessments, problem-
solving – thinking skills
The second technique, the knowledge audit, surveys
developing and knowing when to apply tricks of the
the aspects of expertise required for a specific task or
trade, improvising, metacognition, recognising
sub-task. The knowledge audit identifies ways in
anomalies, and compensating for equipment
which expertise is used in a domain and provides
limitations. The knowledge audit also employs a set of
examples based on actual experiences. It is organised
probes designed to describe types of domain
around knowledge categories that have been found to
knowledge or skill and elicit appropriate examples.
characterise expertise. These include: diagnosing and
Table 2 shows the knowledge audit diagram.
predicting, situation awareness, perpetual skills,
Table 2: Knowledge Audit interview – six basic and optional probes
Examples
Cues & Strategies
Why Difficult?
Past & Future: While looking
Look for BACK button or
May not know that the BACK
for information, you accidentally
backward arrow. Else provide
button can bring them back to
went into the wrong subject. How
some instruction to tell me at the their previous screen.
do you return to your previous
beginning what is the way to go
screen?
back to previous screen e.g. via
a Demo software.
Big Picture: Can you give me an
Provide information on how to
1) Not familiar with some term
example of what is important
get to my desired subject
or icons used i.e. a door with
about the Big Picture for this
quickly and come back to my
an arrow pointing doesn’t
task? What are the major elements current screen easily.
mean anything.
you have to know to keep track
2) Not all users aware that by
of?
clicking on the company logo
will bring you back to the
Home page.
3) “Home page” is already a
jargon used that public users
may not be familiar with.
Job Smarts: When you do this
Using the SEARCH engine to
Keyword to search may not be
task, are there ways of working
search for information quickly
used appropriately. Hence, search
smart or accomplishing more with
and easily.
can be redundant and confusing.
less – which you have found
especially useful?
Opportunities/Improvising: Can
Selection of an option should
Should be helpful instead
you think of an example when you tell me what I have selected and
especially to novice users.
have improvised in this task or
where it will bring me to and
noticed an opportunity to do
seek for confirmation before
something better?
bringing me to the destination.
0-7695-0981-9/01 $10.00 (c) 2001 IEEE
7
Proceedings of the 34th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences - 2001
The third technique, the simulation interview, allows
paper-and-pencil exercise, using maps or other
the interviewer to probe the cognitive processes of the
diagrams. Information elicited is recorded in a
subject matter experts within the context of a specific
simulation interview table as shown in Table 3.
scenario. The simulation can be in the form of a
Table 3: Simulation interview for source information
Feedback from interviewee
Job you are investigating: Source information from an information kiosk
Actions
Look for word or icon that represent the
information I want to source.
Situation Assessment
The system is searching for the link and brings me
to the desired information.
Critical Cues
The icons and the naming convention.
Potential Errors
Selected the wrong information and problem of
getting back to previous screen if navigation is
back.
We apply the three levels of activity to the design of
3.3 Design
our information kiosk. As example of using the three
level activity for printing information is shown in
Figure 4.
Print information Acquire permanent information
Click on printer get hardcopy of information
- move mouse over must print at the printer icon and click
to printer icon
- point at the icon
- click on the icon
Figure 4: The three level activity for printing information
3.4 Activity Checklist
computer technology in a real-life setting. The activity
checklist can be used to identify the most important
The activity checklist [7] is intended to elucidate the
issues, for instance, potential trouble spots, that
most important contextual factors of human-computer
designers can address.
interaction. It is a guide to the specific areas to which
The checklist covers a large space. It is intended to
a research or practitioner should be paying attention
be used first by examining the whole space for area of
when trying to understand the context in which a tool
interest, then focusing on the identified area of interest
will be or is used. It can be used at early phases of
in as much depth as possible. The general strategy is
system design or for evaluating existing systems.
breadth-first consideration of the relevant areas of
There are two versions of the checklist, the evaluation
context enumerated in the checklist, followed by a
version and the design version. Both versions are used
‘drilling down’ into specific areas that should yield
as organised sets of items covering the contextual
rich results given the tools and problems at hand. The
factors that can potentially influence the use of
Structure of the checklist reflects the five basic
0-7695-0981-9/01 $10.00 (c) 2001 IEEE
8
Proceedings of the 34th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences - 2001
principles of Activity Theory: Object-orientedness;
Learning, cognition and articulation - internal
hiearchical structure of activity; internalisation and
versus external components of activity and support for
externalisation; Mediation and development. Since the
their mutual transformations with target technology.
checklist is intended to be applied in analysing how
Development - developmental transformation of the
people use a computer technology, the principle of
foregoing components as a whole.
tool mediation is strongly emphasized. This principle
We used the activity checklist to help us identified
has been applied throughout the checklist and
the most relevant issues to be covered in the interview
systematically combined with the other four principles.
and to make sure that important problems are not
It results in four sections corresponding to four main
overlooked in a discussion of empirical data in our
perspectives on the use of the target technology to be
observational study. The linear structure of the
evaluated or designed.
checklist does not imply that it should be used linearly,
Means and ends - the extent to which the technology
by focusing on isolated items one by one,
facilitates and constrains the achievement of users’
We must be familiar with the checklist and should
goals and the impact of the technology on provoking
understand why the checklist is used.
or resolving conflicts between different goals.
We used the activity checklist to evaluate our
Social and physical aspects of the environment -
information kiosk. Table 4 shows a sample of our use
integration of target technology with requirements,
of the activity checklist for evaluation.
tools, resources and social values of the environment.
Table 4: Activity Checklist for Information Kiosk
Evaluation
Means/ends Environment
Learning/cognition/
Development
articulation
1) Economical, easy to
1) Begin the program and
1)i) REQUIREMENTS:
1) Tourists that visit
maintain, quick to
view Demo software.
Use cases, Interview
Singapore
implement.
(ACTA) Questionnaires,
Observation, Activity
Theory
ii) ANALYSIS &
2)a) Target Goal: ease of
2) Printing facility.
2) Demo software
DESIGN: OVID,
use
Storyboarding, Prototyping,
Activity Theory.
Subgoals:
3) i) Information kiosk and
3) Immediate and watch the
iii) IMPLEMENTATION:
i) simple design
printing facility.
demo.
Visual Basic 6.0, MS Access
2000
ii) simple language used
ii) Information kiosk and
4) Use of standardised icons
iv) TESTING: User testing,
receipt of brochures.
Expert testing, Demo to
Expert user, System testing.
Besides the use of ACTA as a method in our design,
readers, please refer to Roberts et al [13]. We have
we also adopted the object, view, interaction design
developed our information application using Visual
[13] method in making the activity theory into
Basic, because it provides us with a good graphical
operational reality. It is beyond the scope of this paper
user interface to our design. An example of the screen
to describe the complete methodology. For interested
shot is shown in Figure 5.
0-7695-0981-9/01 $10.00 (c) 2001 IEEE
9
Proceedings of the 34th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences - 2001
Figure 5: A Sample Screen Shot of the Information Kiosk
status of human beings and computer technology in a
4. Conclusion
theoretical framework of HCI.
In our case study, we have showed that Activity
There is an emerging consensus among researchers
theory has provided us with an alternative approach to
that the cognitive approach to HCI may be limited. It
the design of our application. In our experience,
does not provide an appropriate conceptual basis for
Activity theory helps us with the identification of users
studies of computer use in its social, organisational
and stakeholders in the system.. It enables us to draw
and political context, in relation to the goals, plans and
up different set of rules, tools for our community of
values of the user or in the context of development. In
users. It also provides us with the division of labour
order to overcome this limitation, we need an
for the different tasks in the development. In addition,
alternative theoretical framework to analyse the
we believe that the activity theory checklist provides
context of computer use.
us a useful memoir and a tool for reflexivity, helping
us to be aware of where we were in our design. It also
One of the main claims of Activity Theory for HCI is
provides a flexible and non-prescriptive way of
that the nature of any artefact can be understood only
maintaining an awareness of potentially relevant
within the context of human activity - by identifying
aspects of activity theory to design concern. It also
the ways people use this artefact, the needs it serves
helps us to focus on relevant items and ignore
and the history of its development. We believe that
irrelevant ones in the design of our information
Activity Theory is a special kind of artefact. By
application.
considering Activity Theory as a special kind of tool
does not imply that we exclude other approaches and
References
reject the usefulness of other conceptual schemes.
However, the general conceptual position of Activity
[1] Bennon, L. (1991). From Human Factors to Human
Theory is radically different from that of the cognitive
Actors: the role of psychology and human-computer
approach. Activity Theory does not allow for an equal
interaction studies in system design. In J. Greenbaum &
0-7695-0981-9/01 $10.00 (c) 2001 IEEE
10
Proceedings of the 34th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences - 2001
H.M Kyng (eds.), Design at Work: Cooperative Design of
Computer Systems. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum
[8] Kuutti, K. (1996). Activity Theory as a potential
Associates.
framework for Human-computer interaction research/ In
B.A. Nardi, (ed.), context and consciousness: Activity
[2] Bodker, S. (1990). Through the Interface - A human
Theory and Human-Computer Interaction. Cambridge, MA:
activity approach to user interface design. Hillsdale, NJ:
MIT press.
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
[9] Lamsweerde, A.V. (2000) Requirements engineering in
[3] Brooks, F.P. (1987). No Silver Bullet: Essence and
the Year 00: A research perspective. 22nd
Accidents of Software Engineering. IEEE Computer 20(4),
pp 10-19.
[10] Leont'ev, A.N. (1974). The problem of activity in
psychology. Soviet Psychology, 13(2): 4-33.
[4] Ehn, P. (1988). Work-oriented Design of computer
[11] Militello, L.G., & Hutton, R.J.B. (1998). Applied
Artefacts. Stockholm: Swedish Centre for Working Life.
Cognitive Task Analysis (ACTA): a practitioner's toolkit for
understanding cognitive task demands. Ergonomics,4(11),
[5] Kaptelinin, V. (1996a). Activity Theory: Implications for
1618-1641.
Human-Computer Interaction. In B.A. Nardi (ed.), Context
and Consciousness: Activity Theory and Human-Computer
[12] Nardi, B.A. (1996). Context and consciousness:
Interaction. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Activity Theory and human-computer Interaction.
Cambridge, MA: MIT press.
[6] Kaptelinin, V. (1996b). Computer-Mediated Activity:
Functional Organs in Social and Developmental Contexts.
[13] Roberts D., Berry, D. Isensee, S. & Mullaly, J. (1998).
In B.A. Nardi (ed.), Context and Consciousness: Activity
Designing for the User with OVID: Bridging user interface
Theory and Human-Computer Interaction. Cambridge, MA:
design and software engineering. Indianapolis: Macmillan
MIT Press.
Technical Publishing.
[7] Kaptelinin, V., Nardi, B.A. & Macaulay, C. (1999). The
Activity Ckecklist: A tool for representing the “space” of
context. Interactions, 6(4), p27-39.
0-7695-0981-9/01 $10.00 (c) 2001 IEEE
11
|