| Intro | Schedule | Guide | Program | Venue | Organizers | Proceedings | For Participants |
For two decades, the activity theory framework has gained increasing popularity within the IT-design communities (software, IS, HCI, CSCW, PD, ...), but it has mostly been applied as a conceptual framework for researchers. The collection "Context and Consciousness" (MIT press 1996) intended to fill the gab between academic theorizing and practical design, but did not quite succeed in being a genuine resource for practical design. Based on the long list of successful applications of AT in this domain we believe it is time to extract a collection of methods.
The purpose of the workshop is to discus and refine methods for IT design based on activity theory. Thereby, we will stimulate the evolution of true design methods beyond particularistic analyses, and general perspectives. The workshop is open to participants who have been invited based on their submission of a practical AT based method or technique for IT-design.
Submissions should be composed of two parts. The first part is a description of the method or technique itself, in a format that would be suitable for a textbook for practitioners. The second part is a short paper, reflecting the method, how it is based on activity theory, its history, how it has been used in practice etc.
After the workshop, we will make an edited collection based on the workshop contributions. The main part of each chapter will consist of the actual method description and it will be supplemented with the parts of the reflective paper to if it fits the style of presentation. In addition to the method chapters, the book may have a few purely reflective or case based chapters. The intended audience: practitioners in it-design and systems development, students (the book will would be useful as a text book for a specialized interaction design course), and researchers. We will aim to have a version of the whole collection ready by the end of next year.
Olav W.
Bertelsen
Mikko Korpela
Anja Mursu