Theoretical HCI

The work on theoretical HCI started in the Utopia project in the late 1980s. By designing user interfaces for skilled workers it became evident that new ways of understanding the interaction between human users and computers was necessary, instead of the models of novice use, or routine use situations known from first-generation HCI. Susanne Bødker's book (Through the interface, 1991) introduced activity theory as a basis for HCI, in particular focusing on the notion of mediation as the key to understanding the relationship between human, computer and work. Since then, several PhD projects has contributed to the development of the theoretical framework, and several international researchers have visited the group and contributed to the theory development. A major project was carried out 1997-2002, funded by the Danish Research Foundation. This Center for Human-Machine Interaction (CHMI) was a cooperation between University of Aarhus and the national research center, Risø. The group has contributed to the international research community with theoretical concepts, empirical cases and analysis/design techniques and methodology.
Currently the major challenges consist of two parts:
To provide a theoretical framework for understanding and designing ubiquitous interaction where novel interfaces are moveable and used in changing locations and configurations with other devices; different tasks are done through different technologies, and a wider repertoire of physical instruments than the keyboard and the mouse are available. And, to provide a theoretical framework for understanding and designing the cultural and aesthetics level of interaction, in particular in non-work situations.