Activity Theory

My interpretation of Activity Theory.

This may help as a further explanation after one has gotten some initial idea about the theory and it is not intended as the starting point to understand activity theory.

The structure of an activity within the community (an annotated version based on Kuutti (1995)).

Unit of analysis

The activity is the unit of analysis. Meaning that, instead of thinking about the humans involved, their interactions, the functional system, or the outcome, we think of the activity. The activity is the smallest unit that can be isolated from everything else (all other factors) and still fully encompasses the issue under investigation. So for a single person doing the activity of reading for example (let's look at collaboration later), the activity involves the subject (the person), the object (the original idea that the author wants to communicate) and the tool (the book, ebook, or audio book, as a medium used to transform the idea into a form transferrable to the subject). The tool encompasses the history behind the tool and how it is developed. Another term used in AT is objectification. The book itself is an objectification of the author's ideas. It is the result or outcome of the writing activity. The outcome of many activities is a tool to be used in another activity.

Activity levles

Activity levels: a good user interface element helps shift more actions into operations, which helps the user to focus on the higher level activity

Activities, actions, and operations

In addition to the activity as the unit of analysis, two interesting aspect of AT are the actions and operations. The action is the minimum conscious act that is performed to satisfy a certain goal. While performing an action, a user is usually involved in a number of subconscious acts that are carried out as 'subconscious' reactions to different conditions. If an action is repeated over and over again, it might itself be turned into an operation (internalization of actions). On the other hand, if while carrying out a 'subconscious' operation, some problem (or breakdown) occurs, the user has to think consciously about what she is doing, and the operation is transformed back into an action. As an example, when reading a sentence full of words that one understands, her focus will be on the idea behind the sentence and not the words or the grammar. If there is a word that the reader does not know, or if the grammatical structure of the sentence is too complicated, then the attention of the reader shifts from the main idea behind the sentence down to the word, or grammar level. Another example: a novice user writing on the computer keyboard considers typing each key as an action because she has to look for the location of the key on the keyboard. With practice, and specially with blind typing practice, this action is transformed into subconscious operations. the user is no longer searching for keys but is rather typing without thinking of locating the keys. The user is thinking of the higher level activity and that is thinking of what to type, rather than how to type it. If this same person is given a keyboard with a slightly different layout (for example the German keyboard where the z and y chars are swapped), then the minute the user types z and sees y on the screen, a breakdown condition occurs and this subconscious operation gains all the user's attention to look for the location of z and this becomes an action.

A good user interface design helps in transforming as much actions into operations as possible. On the other hand, breakdowns are in many cases associated with instances of learning, so they should not always be thought of as harmful.

Collaboration

While the tool is the mediator between the subject and the object when working individually, division of labor is the mediator between the community and the object. Division of labor is used as the mediator between the community and the object. If the task is building a house, the community is the the construction workers, and the house cannot be build unless the labor is divided, with each member of the community given his own tasks and roles, only then can the activity be accomplished.

The other part of the triangle is related to how the community rules affect the behavior of people. This makes it clear that our behavior in the community is affected by the rules (traditions) of the community we live in. A community of researchers has its own rules, a community of students has its own rules, and so on.

Useful References

There are many good references on activity theory, but these are among the most useful.

  • Kari Kuutti. Activity theory as a potential framework for human-computer interaction research. In Context and Consciousness: Activity Theory and Human-Computer Interaction, pages 17–44. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1995.
  • Susanne Bødker. A human activity approach to user interfaces. Human-Computer Interaction, 4 (3):171–195, 1989.
  • Christine A. Halverson. Activity theory and distributed cognition: or what does CSCW need to do with theories? Computer Supported Cooperative Work, 11(1-2):243–267, 2002.
  • Victor Kaptelinin. Activity theory: implications for human-computer interaction. In Context and Consciousness: Activity Theory and Human-Computer Interaction, pages 103–116. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1995.
  • Bonnie A. Nardi. Studying context: a comparison of activity theory, situated action models, and distributed cognition. In Context and Consciousness: Activity Theory and Human-Computer Interaction, pages 69–102. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1995.