Getting around the task-artifact cycle
- 1 April 1992
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) in ACM Transactions on Information Systems
- Vol. 10 (2), 181-212
- https://doi.org/10.1145/146802.146834
Abstract
We are developing an “action science” approach to human-computer interaction (HCI), seeking to better integrate activities directed at understanding with those directed at design. The approach leverages development practices of current HCI with methods and concepts to support a shift toward using broad and explicit design rationale to reify where we are in a design process, why we are there, and to guide reasoning about where we might go from there. We represent a designed artifact as the set of user scenarios supported by that artifact and more finely by causal schemas detailing the underlying psychological rationale. These schemas, called claims , unpack wherefores and whys of the scenarios. In this paper, we stand back from several empirical projects to clarify our commitments and practices.Keywords
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