ABSTRACT
This paper argues that a new paradigm for HCI research, which we label the 'practice' perspective, has been emerging in recent years. This stands in contrast to the prevailing mainstream HCI paradigm, which we term the 'interaction' perspective. The 'practice turn', as it has been dubbed in the social sciences, provides a conceptual frame to organize a variety of issues emerging in more recent HCI research. While this approach has been present in certain strands of HCI research for some time, it has not been articulated fully to date. In this paper, we provide a short account of the main tenets of this perspective, and then show how it can illuminate some of the recent debates within HCI. Our argument is one which does not seek to replace extant HCI theories, but rather to provide an alternative, complementary theoretical lens which may illuminate the present confusion among both researchers and practitioners as to the direction of HCI. The paper articulates a set of issues which can help direct HCI research programs, as well as highlighting the potential contribution of the HCI field to this practice approach itself, in terms of a more nuanced understanding of emerging practices.
- Bannon, L. J. Reimagining HCI: Toward a More Humancentered Perspective. interactions 18 (4) (July): 50--57. (2011). Google ScholarDigital Library
- Bannon, L., & S. Bødker, S. Beyond the interface: Encountering artifacts. In J. Carroll (Ed.), Designing Interaction: Psychology at the Human Computer Interface (pp. 227--253). New York: Cambridge University Press (1991). Google ScholarDigital Library
- Bentley, R., J. A. Hughes, D. Randall, T. Rodden, P. Sawyer, D. Shapiro, & Sommerville, I. "Ethnographically-Informed Systems Design for Air Traffic Control." In Proc. of ACM CSCW'92, pp. 123--129. (1992) Google ScholarDigital Library
- Beyer, H. and Holtzblatt, K. Contextual design: Defining customer-centered systems. Morgan Kaufmann, San Francisco. (1997) Google ScholarDigital Library
- Bjerknes, G., Ehn, P. & Kyng, M. ed. Computers and Democracy - a Scandinavian Challenge. Gower Publishing Ltd., Avebury, (1987).Google Scholar
- Bødker, S. A human activity approach to user interfaces. Human Computer Interaction 4: 171--195. (1989) Google ScholarDigital Library
- Bødker, S. "When Second Wave HCI Meets Third Wave Challenges." In Proc. of the 4th NordiCHI Conference, 1--8. (2006). Google ScholarDigital Library
- Bødker, S. & Andersen, P. B. "Complex Mediation." Human-Computer Interaction 20 (4): 353--402. (2005). Google ScholarDigital Library
- Carroll, J. M. (Ed.). Designing interaction: Psychology at the human-computer interface (Vol. 4). Cambridge Univ. Press, New York (1991). Google ScholarDigital Library
- Dourish, P. Where the action is: the foundations of embodied interaction. The MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass. (2004).Google Scholar
- Ehn, P. Work-Oriented Design of Computer Artifacts. Arbetslivscentrum, Stockholm. (1988).Google Scholar
- Forlizzi, J. The product ecology: Understanding social product use and supporting design culture. International Journal of Design, 2(1), 11--20. (2007).Google Scholar
- Gaver, B., Dunne, T., & Pacenti, E. Design: cultural probes. interactions, 6(1), 21--29. (1999). Google ScholarDigital Library
- Gross, S., Bardzell, J., & Bardzell, S. Structures, forms, and stuff: the materiality and medium of interaction. Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, 1--13. (2013). Google ScholarDigital Library
- Jung, H., Stolterman, E., Ryan, W., Thompson, T., & Siegel, M. Toward a framework for ecologies of artifacts: how are digital artifacts interconnected within a personal life?. In Proc. of the 5th NordiCHI Conference (pp. 201--210). ACM. (2008). Google ScholarDigital Library
- Kaptelinin, V. & Bannon, L. J. Interaction Design Beyond the Product: Creating Technology-Enhanced Activity Spaces. Human-Computer Interaction, vol 27, no. 3, pp. 277--309, (2012)Google Scholar
- Kaptelinin, V., & Nardi, B. Activity theory in HCI: Fundamentals and Reflections. Synthesis Lectures Human-Centered Informatics, 5(1), 1--105. (2012). Google ScholarDigital Library
- Kuhn, T.S. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, (1962).Google Scholar
- Kuutti, K., Activity Theory as a potential framework for human-computer interaction research, in B. Nardi (Ed.) Context and Consciousness: Activity Theory and Human Computer Interaction, MIT Press: Cambridge. p. 17--44. (1996). Google ScholarDigital Library
- Kuutti, K. "The Concept of Activity as a Basic Unit of Analysis for CSCW Research." In Proc. of the 2nd ECSCW Conference, pp. 249--264. (1991). Google ScholarDigital Library
- Landauer, T.K. "Let's Get Real: A Position Paper on the Role of Cognitive Psychology in the Design of Humanly Useful and Usable Systems." In J. M. Carroll (Ed.) Designing Interaction, 60--73. Cambridge University Press, New York. (1991). Google ScholarDigital Library
- Light, A., & Wright, P. The panopticon and the performance arena: HCI reaches within. In HumanComputer Interaction-INTERACT 2009 (pp. 201--204). Springer Berlin Heidelberg. (2009). Google ScholarDigital Library
- Lyytinen, K.J., and O.K. Ngwenyama. "What Does Computer Support for Cooperative Work Mean" A Structurational Analysis of Computer Supported Cooperative Work.? Accounting, Management and Information Technologie 2 (1): 19--37. (1992).Google ScholarCross Ref
- Macy, M.W. & Flache, A. Beyond Rationality in Models of Choice. Ann. Rev. Sociol., vol 21, pp. 73--91. (1995).Google ScholarCross Ref
- March, J. G. How Decisions Happen in Organizations. Human-Computer Interaction, Vol. 6, pp. 95--117. (1991) Google ScholarDigital Library
- Miettinen, R., Samra-Fredericks, D. & Yanow, D. "Re-Turn to Practice: An Introductory Essay." Organization Studies 30 (12): 1309--1327. 2009.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Nicolini, D. Practice Theory, Work, & Organization. An Introduction. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK. (2013).Google Scholar
- Orlikowski, W.J. "The Duality of Technology: Rethinking the Concept of Technology in Organizations." Organization Science 3 (3): 398--427. (1992).Google ScholarDigital Library
- Orlikowski, W.J., and S.V. Scott. "Sociomateriality: Challenging the Separation of Technology, Work and Organization." Annals of the Academy of Management 2 (1): 433--474. (2008).Google ScholarCross Ref
- Pierce, J., Strengers, Y., Sengers, P., and Bødker, S. Introduction to the special issue on practice-oriented approaches to sustainable HCI. ACM Trans. ComputerHuman Interaction 20, 4, Article 20 (September 2013), 8 pages. (2013). Google ScholarDigital Library
- Reckwitz, A. "Toward a Theory of Social Practices: A Development in Culturalist Theorizing." European Journal of Social Theory 5 (2): 243--263. (2002).Google ScholarCross Ref
- Rogers, Y. HCI Theory. Morgan & Claypool Publishers, San Rafael, Ca. (2012).Google Scholar
- Salovaara, A., Höök, K., Cheverst, K., Twidale, M., Chalmers, M., & Sas, C. Appropriation and creative use: linking user studies and design. In Proc. of CHI 2011 Extended Abstracts (pp. 37--40). ACM. (2011). Google ScholarDigital Library
- Schatzki, T. R., Knorr-Cetina, K. & Savigny, E. Von. The Practice Turn in Contemporary Theory. Routledge, London. (2001).Google Scholar
- Schmidt, K. The concept of 'practice': What's the point? To be published in the Proc. of 11th International Conference on the Design of Cooperative Systems (COOP 2014). (forthcoming 2014)Google Scholar
- Schmidt, K. Cooperative Work and Coordinative Practices. Contributions to the Conceptual Foundations of Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW). Springer, London. (2011) Google ScholarDigital Library
- Schmidt, K. & Simone, C. "Coordination Mechanisms: Towards a Conceptual Foundation of CSCW Systems Design." Computer Supported Cooperative Work 5 (2/3): 155--200. (1996). Google ScholarDigital Library
- Thomas, J. C., & Kellogg, W. A. Minimizing ecological gaps in interface design. Software, IEEE, 6 (1), 78--86. (1989). Google ScholarDigital Library
- Stevens, G., Pipek, V., & Wulf, V. Appropriation infrastructure: mediating appropriation and production work. Journal of Organizational and End User Computing (JOEUC), 22(2), 58--81. (2010). Google ScholarDigital Library
- Vines, B. W., Wanderley, M. M., Krumhansl, C. L., Nuzzo, R. L., & Levitin, D. J. Performance gestures of musicians: What structural and emotional information do they convey?. In Gesture-based communication in human-computer interaction (pp. 468--478). Springer Berlin Heidelberg. (2004).Google Scholar
- Wiberg, M., Ishii, H., Dourish, P., Vallgårda, A., Kerridge, T., Sundström, P., & Rolston, M. Materiality matters -- experience materials. interactions, 20(2), 5457. (2013). Google ScholarDigital Library
- Wulf, V., M. Rohde, V. Pipek, and G. Stevens. "Engaging with Practices: Design Case Studies as a Research Framework in CSCW." In Proceedigns of CSCW 2011, ACM, pp. 505--512. (2011). Google ScholarDigital Library
Index Terms
- The turn to practice in HCI: towards a research agenda
Recommendations
Towards Informed Practice in HCI for Development
Our paper provides an enriched understanding of the relationship between research and practice through the study of practitioners variously engaged in field research on technology interventions in the context of global development. By conducting a ...
Affordances for practice
This paper argues that Gibson's concept of affordance inserts a powerful conceptual lens for the study of sociomateriality as enacted in contemporary organizational practices. Our objective in this paper is to develop a comprehensive view of affordances ...
Engaging Feminist Solidarity for Comparative Research, Design, and Practice
Research in the fields of Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) and Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) is increasingly embracing and moving across borders. While universalism in such research is widely rejected, sole focus on the "particular'' is also ...
Comments