First International Workshop on Activity Theory Based Practical Methods for IT Design  ATIT2004      

A submission to the workshop consist of two parts

• A practical description of (or guide to) the method and how to use it.
• A brief academic description and reflection on the background and history of the method and its use.

Papers that merely reflect on a project where AT was involved without the explicit extraction of a method practitioners can use; analyses of state of the art of AT in IT-design, and other submissions not conforming to this guide will not be accepted.

In the following the term method is used in the broad meaning of a description of how to perform one or more (or all) sub-activities in a design IT-project.

Practical description

(Max 12 pages in the specified format - approximately10000 words - preferably less)

The practical description should aim to have a form suitable for a methods handbook. I.e. ideally readers should be able to assess the suitability of the method for their actual needs in a design project, and they should be able to apply the method based on the description.

The method description should aim to account for most of the following details:

• What is the motivation for the method - its aim or purpose?
• What is the outcome of applying the method? (e.g. issues for improvement of a system, requirements specification, running application, insights into the application domain).
• What form does the outcome have? (e.g. report, form, diagram, running software.)
• Which phase of a design process is the method used for (e.g. early requirements analysis, detailed interface evaluation, the general development process, systems documentation.)
• What kind of systems is the method suitable for? (e.g. office automation systems, CAD/CAM systems, mobile systems, CSCW systems.)
• What kind of development processes can the method be applied in? (e.g. in-house development, re-design, participatory design.)
• Who perform the method? (e.g. designers, usability specialists, users, consultants)
• Which competencies, regarding AT and otherwise, are required for the various people participating in the application of the method?
• Describe the procedure of applying the method. The description should have enough detail to enable the reader to perform all phases of the method.
• Describe documents/tools and other artefacts used in the method. If the method relies on specific forms, software (or other) tools, etc. these should be described in details, software tools and other resources that cannot be included in the paper should be linked to with a URL.
• Important concepts and grounding in AT.
• An illustrative example of the use of the method.

The method description should be as brief and concise as possible within the described level of detail.

Academic reflection

(Max 4 pages in the specified format - approximately 3000 words incl. references.)

In addition to the practical description a short paper reflecting on the method should be submitted. It should describe and reflect on the method and report on practical experience with its use. It should outline the historical background of the method including how its realistic applicability has been investigated. Where was it developed? Where has it been applied? How has it been evaluated? How is the method grounded in activity theory?

Formatting and submitting your contribution

Formatting

The workshop shares the format for SIGCHI-sponsored conferences' paper publications. The documents templates not only describe this format, but they also appear in the conference format. You can replace the content with your own to help you follow the formatting rules. Styles are used to make it easy to adhere to the format. The template is available for word, RTF and Frame Maker

• Microsoft Word : For version 6 and higher, both Macintosh and Windows.
• Rich Text Format (RTF) : For earlier versions of Word.
• Maker Interchange File (MIF) : For Frame Maker.

Important note about references

Preferably, use the Harvard system for referencing. References should be cited in the text by name and date, for example (Apperley 1989) or (Benbow 1980, Papert 1980). A list of cited references should be included at the end as a separate unnumbered section, in alphabetical order of author name, and then chronologically within author name.

Submitting

Submit the two papers for the workshop by sending them as an attachment to an email with the
Subject: "ATIT submission"
To:
Date: no later than April 30, 2004