IFI7159 M4

[M4]modern theories

in general

situated action

situated action

Food Practices as Situated Action: Exploring and

designing for everyday food practices with households

Context/ setting

Food purchasing, preparation and consumption. It involves multiple settings, such as homes, workplaces, mobile spaces, and sites for food

purchasing and consumption. Participants and collaborators, such as partners, children, extended family, and friends, are also taken into

account. A wide range of issues, such as food provisions and budget, personal preference and habit, scheduling and time management,

shopping list creation, access to food, self-efficacy, family demands etc. are explored.

Research problem

Many people are unable to effectively respond to challenges in their food environment to maintain diets considered to be in line with national

and international standards for healthy eating. Recognizing food practices as situated action helps to identify and design for practied local and

achievable solutions to such food problems. They also research what people consider as healthy diet.

Research questions

1. What are the food practices in households (fitting food, stocking up, food value transitions, having fun with others)?

2. How HCI might respond to these practices through issues of social fooding, the presence of others, conceptions about food practices and

food routines?

What were the methods and techniques used for data collection and analysis?

1. Interviews (audio-recorded, transcribed). Analysed using thematic analysis approach.

2. Shop-a-longs (audio-recorded, with observational notes). Participants did their shopping as they normally do, but were asked to talk about it

while doing.

What were the outcomes?

After the contextual inquiry, several patterns of situated food practices were outlined, ranging from implicit planning and fitting food to stocking

up on food, outsourcing and the social effects on food consumption. Some of these patterns suggested e.g. that people tend to pay more

attention to food when they're cooking with or to others, as well as that people are aware of the general principles of balanced eating, but usually

chose not to follow them for various reasons.

Any implications? Conclusions drawn?

Food practices are complex procedures and they're highly influenced by different factors - the daily/weekly/monthly timetables of households,

whether there are kids in the household or not, whether the subject is cooking for him-/herself or for another person etc. That gives lots of

possibilities to provide design solutions, which could help people tackle different food-related misconceptions. HCI should attend to food

practices - not only as a context for design, but also as a site for the understanding of everyday life.

ethnography and

ethnomethodology

ethnography and

ethnomethodology

Exploring the Use of the Human-Artifact Model for

Studying Ubiquitous Interactions

Context/ setting

5 estonian schools with advanced technology usage/from 2nd to 12th grade/ subjects observed during the visits were Estonian, Russian and

English languages, informatics, math, biology, history, society studies, and geography

Research problem

what to take into consideration when designing new digital artifacts for using alongside existing ones (both digital and physical), considering

long-term developmental changes in users, technology, interactions, and the overall context

Research questions

How a data collection and analysis procedure can be carried out with the use of Human-Artifact model?

What activities are taking place during the lesson? What artifacts are being used to support these activites? How are the artifacts being used to

support these activities?


ethnography; artifacts were analyzed with the help of Human-Artifact Model; examples of personas and techsonas were studied


27 techsonas and 5 personas.Based on collected data were composed Structured techsona for teacher's computer, Personas( 2 teachers: a

younger and older teacher, 3 student personas to cover primary, secondary and high school). research provided insights into how applying

Human-Activity Model can highlight the different ways in which artifacts could work together as a whole, what are their specific roles, what

motive do they serve, how are they meant to be used, and what are their affordance.


Using Human-Artifact model for structuring and analyzing data helped identify specific aspects related to artifact usage in the context of the

observed schools. The model facilitated a focus on underlying activities, which the artifacts are mediating.

Helped highlight the perspectives of different personas and the particular tensions they might face.

Information gained from the analysis can help the interaction designer become aware of what potential breakdowns can occur in artifact usage

and suggest potential ways for minimizing the impact of those issues on the overall user experience.

CSCW & related theories

and frameworks

CSCW & related theories

and frameworks

Using Social Psychology to Motivate Contributions to

Online Communities

Context/ settingOnline movie recommending community

Research problemUnder-contribution at online communities leads to providing low-quality service. The specific problem to be tackled with is the under-contribution

in an online community MovieLens

Research questionsThe authors propose two questions: does reminding the users their uniqueness and benefit they provide increase contribution? does having

goals (both, individual and group related) increase contribution?

What were the methods and techniques used for data collection and analysis?Data collection: sending motivating emails by mentioning user’s “uniqueness” or “benefit”. then tracking their activity ,during the week of the

email, by keeping logs of their ID, movie rated, scores given and time of rating.

Data analysis: descriptive analysis

What were the outcomes?Initial hypotheses were proven to be true. (collective effort model) - reminding both individual and others benefit works and not these separately

Any implications? Conclusions drawn?Mining social science theory to source of principles for design is a useful general strategy

activity theory

activity theory

Prototyping in Game Design: Externalization and

Internalization of Game Ideas

Context/ setting

Prototyping in Interaction design. Game development, gaming companies.

Research problem

Prototyping practice has been unaccounted for in empirical studies

Research questions

How do game designers work with prototypes and what roles do the prototypes play in activity of game design?


Empirical - Interviews (semi-structured), recorded, transcribed. Analytical - qualitative content analysis. Interpreted -

activity theory and Activity checklist.


Prototypes are used as communication tools.


Prototype in game design is an artefact used in the process of internalisation and externalisation (as communication

tool).

grounded theory

grounded theory

Persona Cases: A Technique for Grounding Personas

Context/ setting

Personas are archetypes that represent the needs and goals of users and are thus used as the reference point in

different approaches of design.

Research problem

A personas legitimacy can be threatened by challenging its characteristics. If some aspects of a persona are refuted or

argued, the validity of a persona, used in design, can be called into question.

Research questions

How can qrounded theory be used to develop a theory from which personas are derived? How can one validate the

personas? How to overcome the semantic difference of creating personas (using grounded theory) and using them in

practice to elicit requirements in focus groups?


Grounded theory model is induced using data elicited from interviews or ethnographic research.


Both personas were used to help elicit policy requirements.


These findings suggest the re-use potential for other Grounded Theory models towards the design of personas.

hybrid theories

Group assignment

Group work: phase I

Expert groups (3 people)

Read the assigned papers in your group.

Discuss and prepare yourselves to explain the theory

and case study. Focus on:

Context/ setting

Research problem

Research questions

What were the methods and techniques used for data

collection and analysis?



Template in shared folder!

Papers assigned to groups

Group 1 - Situated Action

Group 2 - CSCW

Group 3 - Activity Theory

Group 4 - Grounded Theory

Group 5 - Ethnography

Group work: phase II

3 mixed groups - consisting of 5 experts on

different theories

Explain the theory you focused on in the expert

groups to your new group members.

Each group will be assigned a research

challenge scenario.

Scenarios

Scenario 1

In the digital age, the museum experience can be

enhanced using digital technologies and expanded

beyond the time and space of the visit. Instead of being

just passive viewers in the exhibition, visitors can be

engaged in creating and sharing digital artefacts and

stories as a result of augmented museum experience.

However with some exceptions, designing ICT solutions

for museums is currently a variety of black art. While

there are some extraordinary museum exhibits and

settings designed by skilled and creative people, the

results of the design processes related to the domain of

cultural heritage are far too often discouraging.

Scenario 2

Timeliner is an Internet based tool designed to support

collaborative scientific writing. The need for Timeliner

rises from daily challenges regarding collaborative

scientific writing processes. Challenges faced by our

selves but also elaborated upon by both our local

research community as well as by members of our

international research projects’ teams. The problem we

address by offering Timeliner is about supporting

collaborative scientific writing with minimal disruption of

concurrent practices and workflows.

Scenario 3

Human Computer Interaction as a body of knowledge

has been investigated successfully by academics for

decades and various findings have been discussed and

published in notable conferences and conference

proceedings and published in top journals. It is however

uncertain if these results, although delivered to the

software industry, are being implemented as most

designs, services and software still fall short of

considerations of HCI. This study aims to investigate

the constraints faced by the software industry in

implementing HCI approaches and values.

So, given the research challenge

assigned to your group…

What theoretical framework would you use to guide the

research?

How and Why?

You should mention the context, problem and

possible research questions; which methods and

techniques would you use for data collection and

analysis; expected outcomes

By the end of the session give an overview of

the status of the group work i.e. results so far (3

min)

Write up the proposed solution and post it to

one of your blogs or share as a document in

the course folder (1 page, i.e. 350 words or

2500 char) by Monday (incl.).

Education

IFI7159 M4