IFI7159 M4

1. [M4]
modern theories
in general

2. situated action

3. situated action
Food Practices as Situated Action: Exploring and
designing for everyday food practices with households

4. 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.

5. ethnography and
ethnomethodology

6. ethnography and
ethnomethodology
Exploring the Use of the Human-Artifact Model for
Studying Ubiquitous Interactions

7. 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?
What were the methods and techniques used for data collection and analysis?
ethnography; artifacts were analyzed with the help of Human-Artifact Model; examples of personas and techsonas were studied
What were the outcomes?
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.
Any implications? Conclusions drawn?
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.

8. CSCW & related theories
and frameworks

9. CSCW & related theories
and frameworks
Using Social Psychology to Motivate Contributions to
Online Communities

10. Context/ setting
Online movie recommending community
Research problem
Under-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 questions
The 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

11. activity theory

12. activity theory
Prototyping in Game Design: Externalization and
Internalization of Game Ideas

13. 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?
What were the methods and techniques used for data collection and analysis?
Empirical - Interviews (semi-structured), recorded, transcribed. Analytical - qualitative content analysis. Interpreted -
activity theory and Activity checklist.
What were the outcomes?
Prototypes are used as communication tools.
Any implications? Conclusions drawn?
Prototype in game design is an artefact used in the process of internalisation and externalisation (as communication
tool).

14. grounded theory

15. grounded theory
Persona Cases: A Technique for Grounding Personas

16. 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?
What were the methods and techniques used for data collection and analysis?
Grounded theory model is induced using data elicited from interviews or ethnographic research.
What were the outcomes?
Both personas were used to help elicit policy requirements.
Any implications? Conclusions drawn?
These findings suggest the re-use potential for other Grounded Theory models towards the design of personas.

17. hybrid theories

18. Group assignment

19. Group work: phase I
Expert groups (3 people)

20. 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?
What were the outcomes?
Any implications? Conclusions drawn?
Template in shared folder!

21. Papers assigned to groups
Group 1 - Situated Action
Group 2 - CSCW
Group 3 - Activity Theory
Group 4 - Grounded Theory
Group 5 - Ethnography

22. Group work: phase II
3 mixed groups - consisting of 5 experts on
different theories

23. Explain the theory you focused on in the expert
groups to your new group members.
Each group will be assigned a research
challenge scenario.

24. Scenarios

25. 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.

26. 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.

27. 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.

28. 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

29. 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.).