Acting With Technology

Acting With Technology
by Kaptelinin and Nardi

This is a book that has really changed my mode of thinking in terms of how to think about the effect of design. Most of my education has been based around usability testing–especially in a set laboratory setting. Nardi and Kaptelinin describe in detail how Activity Theory can inform interaction design (ID) to look beyond this close-minded view. This theory seeks to take the focus of interaction design off of the artifact and more towards preexisting activities. They give a great, abridged evolution of HCI over the last 30 years. In this, they show how the 80′s saw HCI based solely around the desktop computer, informed mainly by information processing techniques from cognitive psychology. As computers have gotten smaller and more ubiquitous, so must the theories that inform such designs. Computers can now reach beyond just the desktop and into our daily activities. As a result, designers must look more closely at these activities to find how design can work within these activities rather than create new activities in and of themselves.

This is an academic book and not recommended to a general audience. I would recommend it almost as required reading for those in the field of Interaction Design. I was discouraged to see so much “old-school” HCI this year at CHI and I think this is book is even more important if the field is to enter the new millenium.