Topics at a Glance

Activity Theory

Ethnography

Participatory Design

Prepared by Neill A. Kipp, Martha L. Haigler, and Linda S. van Rens.

1. Precis

Activity Theory Ethnography Participatory Design

Activity theory is the philosophy based on the premis that people's actions cannot be seen separately from the environment in which they work, play, or learn and the circumstances under which that activity takes place.

Ethnography refers to an approach used to develop understandings of everyday work practice and technologies in use. An ethnography may be the process of conducting field research or the written result itself.

Participatory design is a way of designing in which the systems engineer and those who will be affected by the new technology (usually the end-users) work together on the design of a system, thereby combining the knowledge of two different fields.

Activity Theory	Ethnography	Participatory Design
Activity theory is the philosophy based on the premis that people's actions cannot be seen separately from the environment in which they work, play, or learn and the circumstances under which that activity takes place.	Ethnography refers to an approach used to develop understandings of everyday work practice and technologies in use. An ethnography may be the process of conducting field research or the written result itself.	Participatory design is a way of designing in which the systems engineer and those who will be affected by the new technology (usually the end-users) work together on the design of a system, thereby combining the knowledge of two different fields.

2. Scientific Foundations

Activity Theory Ethnography Participatory Design

Born in Russia in the early twentieth century, Activity Theory is rooted in social Marxism. Through its founder Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky, activity theory began as a study of how children learn through play and social interaction. Activity Theory traveled to the West with the translation of Vygotsky's Thinking and Speech in 1962, where it achieved prominence in developmental psychology and later with those who study psychology of learning in the workplace.

There are three reasons for the emerging of ethnography and HCI. First, the growing awareness that isolated individuals using computational artifacts were inadequate. Second the realization that human intelligence was socially constituted and achieved and could not be recreated in the lab. Lastly, there was a growing interest in developing computer technologies that supported the nature of human activity.
Participatory Design is based on Activity Theory and Software Engineering. If you are designing a computer system to automate work processes, then you first need to have a general understanding of what these work processes look like. Now it follows from Activity Theory that in order to get a good understanding of the work activities, you need to look at their environment and the circumstances under which they are carried out. The person who knows most about this, is the end user of the computer system. Involving the end user in the development process enables you to get a better understanding of the user's work processes which in turn helps you to design a better system.

Activity Theory	Ethnography	Participatory Design
Born in Russia in the early twentieth century, Activity Theory is rooted in social Marxism. Through its founder Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky, activity theory began as a study of how children learn through play and social interaction. Activity Theory traveled to the West with the translation of Vygotsky's Thinking and Speech in 1962, where it achieved prominence in developmental psychology and later with those who study psychology of learning in the workplace.	There are three reasons for the emerging of ethnography and HCI. First, the growing awareness that isolated individuals using computational artifacts were inadequate. Second the realization that human intelligence was socially constituted and achieved and could not be recreated in the lab. Lastly, there was a growing interest in developing computer technologies that supported the nature of human activity.	Participatory Design is based on Activity Theory and Software Engineering. If you are designing a computer system to automate work processes, then you first need to have a general understanding of what these work processes look like. Now it follows from Activity Theory that in order to get a good understanding of the work activities, you need to look at their environment and the circumstances under which they are carried out. The person who knows most about this, is the end user of the computer system. Involving the end user in the development process enables you to get a better understanding of the user's work processes which in turn helps you to design a better system.

Some may argue that the science of Ethnography began just after the dark ages with European emperialism. It has roots in anthropology, sociology, psychology, cultural linguistics, and a cornucopia of general applications.

3. Results

Activity Theory Ethnography Participatory Design

An ontology results from the study of Activity Theory. Primary is the Zone of Proximal Development: through the self-effacing design of a social scaffolding by the more knowledgeable other, learners in a social situation actualize the distance between what they know and what their potential is for knowing.

Studies of the relation between ethnography and system design have developed into three general ares: (1) studies of work, (2) studies of particular technologies in use and (3) participatory design.
The results of using Participatory Design techniques so far look promising. However, it has not been used in a sufficient number of different areas and large-scale projects yet to be certain about the appropriateness of Participatory Design in different situations.

Activity Theory	Ethnography	Participatory Design
An ontology results from the study of Activity Theory. Primary is the Zone of Proximal Development: through the self-effacing design of a social scaffolding by the more knowledgeable other, learners in a social situation actualize the distance between what they know and what their potential is for knowing.	Studies of the relation between ethnography and system design have developed into three general ares: (1) studies of work, (2) studies of particular technologies in use and (3) participatory design.	The results of using Participatory Design techniques so far look promising. However, it has not been used in a sufficient number of different areas and large-scale projects yet to be certain about the appropriateness of Participatory Design in different situations.

Furthermore, in Activity Theory, learning is defined via language, where learners must detach a concept from their experience, syntesize it with past knowledge and use it their language before they can understand it. This semiotic mediation (manipulation of the signs and symbols in language) in a social context leads to the development of higher-order thinking. Even the concept of ``time-out'' in kindergarten and early elementary school is a result of application activity theory-in-reverse --- the student is deprived of social interaction for a period of time when punishment for misdeeds is warranted.

4. Methods and Information

Activity Theory Ethnography Participatory Design

Practicing the principles of Activity Theory in a teaching environment is the straightforward process of setting up zones of proximal development and erecting social scaffolding through which learners may navigate.

The practice of ethnography consists of four basic presuppositions: (1) a commitment to studying activities in the "natural" setting in which they occur, (2) an interest in developing detailed descriptions of the lived experience, (3) a focus on what people actually do, and (4) understanding the relation between activities and environment.
To operationalize the principles of Participatory Design, there are many methods to choose from. These methods differ on two dimensions: whether the user participates in design activities or designer participates in user's world, and finding the best phase in development cycle for applying the method.

Activity Theory	Ethnography	Participatory Design
Practicing the principles of Activity Theory in a teaching environment is the straightforward process of setting up zones of proximal development and erecting social scaffolding through which learners may navigate.	The practice of ethnography consists of four basic presuppositions: (1) a commitment to studying activities in the "natural" setting in which they occur, (2) an interest in developing detailed descriptions of the lived experience, (3) a focus on what people actually do, and (4) understanding the relation between activities and environment.	To operationalize the principles of Participatory Design, there are many methods to choose from. These methods differ on two dimensions: whether the user participates in design activities or designer participates in user's world, and finding the best phase in development cycle for applying the method.

Two examples of Participatory Design methods are: (1) ``quick and dirty'' ethnography, in which the designer participates briefly in the user's world to collect system design requirements (best applied early in the development cycle), and (2) the PICTIVE low-tech prototyping method, in which the user participates in design activities and (best applied somewhere halfway through the development cycle).

5. Application Contexts

Activity Theory Ethnography Participatory Design

The principles of Activity Theory may be applied in the widest variety of learning and teaching situations; for HCI in particular: (1) in software design and analysis, and (2) in studying the effects of having computers in the workplace, learnplace, and playplace.

The application contexts of Ethnography in HCI are people working with computers and other technologies at work, at home, and at school.

You can find participatory design all the way through the software design lifecycle. It is particularly useful for letting the users tell what functionality they want in the system and for letting the users decide what they want their user interface to look like.

Activity Theory	Ethnography	Participatory Design
The principles of Activity Theory may be applied in the widest variety of learning and teaching situations; for HCI in particular: (1) in software design and analysis, and (2) in studying the effects of having computers in the workplace, learnplace, and playplace.	The application contexts of Ethnography in HCI are people working with computers and other technologies at work, at home, and at school.	You can find participatory design all the way through the software design lifecycle. It is particularly useful for letting the users tell what functionality they want in the system and for letting the users decide what they want their user interface to look like.

6. Limitations

Activity Theory Ethnography Participatory Design

Activity Theory is missing all counsel for how to set up the zone, what happens when the zone is too broad and the scaffolding is incomplete, but most importantly, it does not delve into how we learn things on our own and through books. It is relatively untested except that its adoption is widespread as the ``obvious choice'' for teacher and learners--- probably because teachers believe that active learning is best.

Ethnographically-based design will need to move from specific sites to more generic. Ethnographically-informed design projects will need to include larger projects that take several years to complete and involve various people. The power work site participants have in shaping their work situation (technologies included) is usually limited.

A limitation of Participatory Design is that we are not sure about the answer to the question whether users know what they need yet. The approach of Participatory Design is based on the assumption that users know best what their needs are. However, it still has to be shown that users are really the best ones to determine their own requirements. It is very well possible that this assumption does not hold, or does not hold in every situation.

Activity Theory	Ethnography	Participatory Design
Activity Theory is missing all counsel for how to set up the zone, what happens when the zone is too broad and the scaffolding is incomplete, but most importantly, it does not delve into how we learn things on our own and through books. It is relatively untested except that its adoption is widespread as the ``obvious choice'' for teacher and learners--- probably because teachers believe that active learning is best.	Ethnographically-based design will need to move from specific sites to more generic. Ethnographically-informed design projects will need to include larger projects that take several years to complete and involve various people. The power work site participants have in shaping their work situation (technologies included) is usually limited.	A limitation of Participatory Design is that we are not sure about the answer to the question whether users know what they need yet. The approach of Participatory Design is based on the assumption that users know best what their needs are. However, it still has to be shown that users are really the best ones to determine their own requirements. It is very well possible that this assumption does not hold, or does not hold in every situation.

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