Context and consciousness: activity theory and human-computer interaction
Context and consciousness: activity theory and human-computer interaction
Designing for instrument-mediated activity
Scandinavian Journal of Information Systems - Special issue on information technology in human activity
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In the present paper we advocate that by adopting an evolving practice perspective and conducting an historical analysis, we may gain valuable insights on the inherent dynamics of a field of practice. By tracing back the co-adaptation between a field of practice and various artefacts introduced to it in the past, we may learn a lot more than what is being done today; past successful interventions, but more importantly unsuccessful ones, can provide insights about the nature of cognitive activities, their ontology and evolution. Such an investigation is particularly useful in the view of interventions in domains of practice guided more by human intentionality and historical causality than by a stable work domain structure based on natural or other laws. In order to illustrate the above, we present an example of such an analysis conducted in view of designing a software tool for the support of distant medical consultation.