Acting with Technology Victor Kaptelinin and Bonnie Nardi Chapter - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Acting with Technology

Victor Kaptelinin and Bonnie Nardi Chapter 4: Interaction Design Informed by Activity Theory Presented by: Serena Hillman

Discussion Topics

• 1. History
• 2. Ways activity theory has helped re-frame key HCI

concepts

• Transparency
• Affordance
• Direct Manipulation
• 3. Norman ABC/Opendoc
• 4. bodyWise Personal Trainer
• 5. Instrumental Genesis

HCI + Activity Theory History

• Russia 1920s
• In 1990s became known in HCI,

Information systems etc.

• Mostly theoretical as a tool to analyze

design of concrete technologies

• East-West HCI conferences solidified

its arrival

• Most HCI relied on looking at existing

systems retrospectively to illustrate conceptual claim

HCI + Activity Theory History

Question: Do you think activity theory could have been introduced earlier in HCI?

Rethinking Traditional HCI Concepts

Traditionally:

• Represents User Interface

Quality

• Meaning is described by

what it is not

• Allows user to do work while

the artifact remains “transparent” (metaphorically)

• 1. Transparency

Rethinking Traditional HCI Concepts

With Activity Theory: Good Design != Transparency

• Individuals are aware of their actions
• Transparency can not be built into the system or a fixed property
• Transparency can be accomplished via skill automatization
• Designers can only facilitate skill automatization
• ex. by mapping user interface components
• 1. Transparency

Rethinking Traditional HCI Concepts

Traditionally:

• Introduced by Shneiderman 1980s
• Attempt to describe features of a new type of user interface emerging
• Formulate criteria for designing successful interfaces of a new type
• WIMP – UI
• Act with objects in the

physical world

• 2. Direct Manipulation

Rethinking Traditional HCI Concepts

With Activity Theory:

• Users seldom operate on their objects of interest, such as documents directly
• In physical and virtual worlds users employ instruments which in turn produces

desired effect

• UI design should differentiate between domain objects (potential objects of

interest to the user) and interaction instruments (UI components which transform user actions into commands for the domain objects)

• Beadouin-Lafon – aim of design should be to provide an optimal integration of

domain objects and interaction instruments, rather than make interaction as direct as possible

• 2. Direct Manipulation

Rethinking Traditional HCI Concepts

Question: Can you think of an example of good UI based on optimal integration of domain

• bjects and interaction instruments?
• 2. Direct Manipulation

Rethinking Traditional HCI Concepts

Traditionally:

• Concept originally

introduced by Gibson within the framework of his ecological approach to visual perception

• Introduced in HCI by

Norman – Good UI design will implement affordance that provides strong visual clues to the operation of things

• 3. Affordance

Rethinking Traditional HCI Concepts

• 3. Affordance

Question:

How were the traditional concepts of affordance re-evaluated with the introduction of activity theory?

Norman and ABC

• Norman proposed a new approach – ABC Activity based computing
• Concept was to make it possible to have all material needed for an activity to be

ready at hand and available with little or no mental over head

• Turned Activity theory into a four-level hierarchy:

–

Activities, tasks, actions, operations

• ABC was closely linked to OpenDoc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFJdjk2rq4E Question: Why do you think ABC failed and OpenDoc was abandoned?

The bodyWise Personal Trainer

• First technology to be designed using activity theory that was actually implemented

as a concrete industrial prototype

• Motivation to workout includes the desire to appear physically and athletically

competent – resulted in fear of trying new exercise

• Activity theory had a unique impact on the device's design not attributed to industrial

design or HCI methods

• “Wristwatch like” device not only provided heart-rate and stopwatch features but

workout regime instructions Question: Can you think of another application or physical prototype that employees activity theory?

Instrumental Genesis

• Proposed by Pierre Rabardel (2000)
• Hybrid of Activity Theory and French Ergonomics
• Focuses on the integration of artifacts into the structure of human activities
• Stated that appropriation of humans and artifacts does not happen all at once
• Instrumentalization: users make changes to to artifacts and adjust them to their

specific needs Questions:

• How does design by users relate to convention design that is designed by

designers?

• Is web 2.0 “design-in-use” or “design-for-use”?