Practical exercise: Capturing the context of HCI with the Activity Checklist
During the practical exercise participants will be introduced to the Activity Checklist based on the principles of Activity Theory. The Checklist is a conceptual tool for identifying the most important factors influencing the use of computer technologies in a particular setting. By applying the Checklist to a series of examples, participants will get a hands-on experience of using Activity Theory as a framework for design and interpretation of studies of human computer interaction. The exercise will be organized into five phases:
In the first phase participants will be provided with some observational data which they will be asked to analyze, i.e., to indicate potential problems, formulate requests for further analysis, and provide some suggestions on how the problem can be solved.
In the second phase the Activity Checklist will be introduced. The general structure of the Checklist corresponds to the four main perspectives on the use of the technology to be evaluated:
focus on the structure of the user's activities -- the extent to which the technology facilitates and constrains attaining the user's goals and the impact of the technology on provoking or resolving conflicts between different goals;
focus on the structure of environment -- integration of target technology with requirements, tools, resources, and social norms of the environment;
focus on the structure and dynamics of interaction -- internal vs.