1. Activity Theory
Mike Long
!
@mblongii

2. What is Activity Theory?
- Activity Motive
- Action Goal
- Operation Automatic

3. Who invented this stuff?
- A. N. Leontyev
- “The old psychology was concerned only
with internal processes, with the activity of
the consciousness.”
- Activity and Consciousness
Source: Philosophy in the USSR, Problems of Dialectical Materialism,
1977, pp. 180- 202
- Vygotsky: Socio-cultural psychology

4. Human Activity System
- Engström - Scandinavian AT
- Distribution of cognition
- Sharing of knowledge and work

5. Modern Times
- Nardi
- Norman

6. Human Activity System
Activity
Action
Operation
Tools & Artifacts
Outcomes
Subjects
Activity
Rules
Objects
Division of Effort
Community

7. Engström
- Organizational Learning
- “Communities of Practice”

8. Tools
- Tools are created in a social context to
support purposeful human activity
- At-hand tools
- Near-hand tools

9. Tools & Desire
- “First-to-Mind Wins”
!
- “The degree to which a company can utilize
habit-forming technologies will
increasingly decide which products and
services succeed or fail.”
http://www.nirandfar.com/2012/03/how-to-manufacture-desire.html

10. Tools
- Microbiologists prefer Awk
- What the fawk is awk?

11. Tools
Tools often define
communities of
practice
I am close to completing a doctoral dissertation at Harvard University.
!
My greatest achievement at Harvard has been the identification of DNA
polymorphisms through massive parallel sequencing. This work has involved
specialized computational tools and custom C++ and Awk scripting. My
discoveries will feature in three manuscripts in preparation, with more to come.

12. Tools
- MB1: How do I create an index of my
chromosome and constrain the output to
only 10 genes?
- MB2: Use Awk

13. Tools
- MB1: I’ve heard of Awk. How would I use it
for my problem?
- MB2: First, you have to learn Awk. I have a
500 page book; it has nothing to do with
microbiology (grins)
- MB1: What is Awk though?
- MB2: You use it to process and manipulate
large text files

14. Tools
- MB1 (to self): I process large text files. I will
use Awk

15. Getting Real
- Complex contexts
- Focus on the subjects (people)

16. Problem 1
- Loss of user context in story-driven
development process
- Story too granular, myopic

18. Crime Lab
- Activity Evidence Processing
- Subjects Evidence Receiving Clerk; Lab Analyst; and Director
- Objects Provide accurate findings to law enforcement agencies
- Tools Latent print development chambers (for ballistic testing);
microscopes
- Outcomes Evidence-based prosecution of criminals

19. A Model
Manage a Crime Lab
Gentian
Activity Model
Receive Payment for
Services
Receive Evidence
Create New Case
Analyze Evidence
Report Evidence Analysis
Accept container(s)
and submission form
from agency
Assign case
identification number
Check out evidence
container(s)
Write formal report
Enter billing for
analysis performed
Look for an existing
case using different
defining details
Maintain
practice
env
Compare container(s)
with what is listed on
form
Record requesting
agency information
Verify evidence
container(s) content
against purported
contents
Have draft reviewed by
colleague
Collect bills from all
lab departments
View matching results
Analyze
Catalog officers
associated with the
case
Catalog evidence items
in container(s)
Add any additional
documentation in
support of report
Create invoices for all
bills
Preview case status,
demographic and
ownership information
View
per
Record witnesses
associated with the
case
Complete requested
analysis
Turn in final, signed
report and submission
form to requesting
agency
Send invoices to
corresponding
agencies
Find out status of case
Report parties
involved with the case
Record notes while
performing analysis
File copy of signed
report and submission
form on file
Receive payments
Check evidence items
associated with case
Record purported
contents and
containers
Document noted
offenses associated
with case
Check evidence
container(s) back in
Enter Payment
information
View outcome of
evidence analysis
Request Analysis from
appropriate lab
department
Cite related cases
Allocate payments to
invoices
Attach additional
documentation
Mark invoices as paid
Obtain chain of
custody
Assign case number
Create new
submission event
Label evidence
Store evidence in
vault
Deposit payments in
account
Monitor account aging
Search
Monitor

20. Problem 2
- Lack of focus during group ideation
- Frame the problem through perspective of
the Activity

21. Problem 3
- Lack of context about what to measure
- We can’t measure everything
- We can measure the most important
customer flow that impacts business drivers

22. Activity
Tracking
Project
Progress
Subject
(actor)
Team
Member
Object
(goal)
Communicate
Customer
Value
Communicate
Progress
Tools
Story Card
Card Wall
Outcome
Shared
Understanding
& Visibility

23. Wrap up
- Keep an eye on the big picture
- Set context through purposeful, motivated
human context
- Understand why (or why not) your product
is “first-to-mind”