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UNIVERSIDADE da MADEIRAConstantine & Lockwood, Ltd.

Activity Modelingand Service Innovation

Larry Constantine IDSADirector, Lab:USE, University of Madeira

Laboratory for Usage-centered Software Engineering

1 © 2008, Constantine & Lockwood, Ltd.

UNIVERSIDADE da MADEIRA

Innovation in Context

Engagement with products and services always takes place in a larger context of human activity.

other peoplevaried artifactsother activities

Innovation is easy.Effective innovation depends on insight into the activity context.Service engineeringneeds to model what people are really doing.



The Business Process Perspective

Business processesSet of interconnected “activities” transforming information or artifacts into more valuable forms.Performed by human actors and/or systems.Decomposable into elementary business processes:

one person at one time adding significant value and resulting in a consistent state.

Series of steps to produce a product or serviceordered in time and spacestructured, boundedembodying business logicdefined inputs and outputs

Various notations, but primarilyprocess decompositionprocess flow now

in

UML



An Activity Perspective

Human activityloosely ordered collections of actions having distinct but disparate goals contributing to a shared or common purpose

performed by human actorsmediated by artifacts

flexible, adaptive, changeableshaped by and highly dependent on context and changing conditionsoperationalized through practiceorganized by established and emergent social, cultural, and personal rules and guidelines as well as formally defined ones

So, what do you think of activity theory?

So, what do you think of activity theory?



Activity Theory Condensed

Created by early 20th century Russian psychologists Rubinshtein, Leontiev, and Vygotsky.More recently popularized by Bonnie Nardi and others.*Not so much a theory as a conceptual framework.Some prior attempts to systematize and operationalize.**Hierarchical structure of activity (three levels of analysis):

activities are motivated, purposive, and consist ofactions directed toward a distinct, specific conscious goal, comprisingoperations—ways of executing actions, either deliberately or reflexively, adapted to conditions

ACTIVITY – PURPOSE

ACTION – GOAL

OPERATION – CONDITIONS

Somewhat complicated and

a little vague!

* Nardi (ed.) Context and Consciousness. 1996.Gay & Hembrooke. Activity-Centered Design. 2004.Nardi & Kaptelinin, Acting with Technology. 2006.

** Duignan, Noble, & Biddle, 2006Kaptalinin, Nardi, & Macaulay, 1999



constrained by rules and differentiated responsibilities or roles within a community.

in a transformational process yielding a result(outcome)

Activity Theory Condensed

* after Engeström, 1999

TOOL

SUBJECT OBJECT

RULES COMMUNITY ROLES

OUTCOMETRANSFORMATIONALPROCESS

All human activity is mediated by tools.Supporting activity requires designing effective tools.Designing effective tools requires insight into activity.

TOOL

Human activity* is performed by actors (subjects) motivated by purposes (objects) and mediated by tools(artifacts)



Project Archeology

Resource – 8 design projects over 13 years, including two very large (50 and 1000+ developer-years)

Investigation – digging into relevance and effect of activity context from recall, review of design artifacts -

evident impact on interaction designpotential improvement if better understoodevidence of ad hoc modeling

Notation and notions revised through two rounds of feedback from colleagues.Most needed modeling:

composition/aggregation of tasks (use cases) into activitiestemplates of salient aspects of activitiessimple pictures of activity context.

© 2008, Constantine & Lockwood, Ltd.



Activity Map

A diagram showing how focal activities (engaging with service or product) and other activities (connected and unconnected) are related.

traveling (in transit)

making travel arrangements

participating in overseas conference/meeting

last-minute preparing

getting reimbursed

participating (after arrival)

On-line travel booking service.

includes

precedesprecedes

includes

precedes

Always more complicated than it seems!Consider…

includes



Participation Map

Diagram showing how actors engaged with product or service and other participants are involved with each other and with artifacts within activities.

travelarranger

invoice

itinerary ticket/e-ticket

otherparties

reimburser

travelsite

bookingsystem

CCnetwork

repayment


getting reimbursed

Consider proximal activities…

calendar

budget

meetingplan



Activity Profile

A template-based description of aspects of an activity salient for service or product design.

PurposePurpose – set up convenient, affordable travel in reasonable amount of time Place and TimePlace and Time – typically office, may be last minute, usually some time pressureParticipationParticipation –some experience likely, more if not traveler; artifacts include calendar, budget, tickets, payment, meeting/conference agenda, other sites,…PerformancePerformance – complicated, unpredictable, multidimensional process, multiple input parameters and constraints; exploring alternative schedule, carriers, routes; easy to make mistakes, costly, hard to find




A diagram (or matrix) showing the tasks involved in an activity.

Performance Map

finding problem in KBquick/memory answer

escalating problem

sending/reading IM/emailconferencing w/associate

passing situation/record

learning/clarifying problem

greeting customergiving solution/answer

getting next queued calllogging call/issue/resolution

getting customer details

getting answer from FAQs

1. |get caller identifying information|

2. give caller identifying information

4. |confirm ID with caller|5. select customer

3. offer customers with confirming information

6. offer details, history of selected customer

getting customer details1. |get caller identifying

information|2. give caller identifying

information4. |confirm ID with caller|5. select customer

3. offer customers with confirming information

6. offer details, history of selected customer

getting customer details

question answering

independent problem solving

providing telephone technical support

collaborative problem solving

includes

precedes

A diagram (or matrix) showing the tasks involved in an activity. Tasks (use cases) may also be detailed Operationally in essential form.



Process Modeling or Activity Modeling

Business process modeling promotessystems and processes in chargeprocess embedded in systems, executable, simulatedlock-step performancedumbing down human activitycomplicating the system

Activity modeling promoteshumans in controlflexible performancethoughtful system/service boundariespeople do what people do bestsystems do what systems do best



Human Activity Modeling in Sum

Activities provide larger context within which systems and services are engaged with and experienced.Human Activity Modeling anchors experience design and service engineering with use case modeling in firm foundations of established activity theory.Systematic, integrated definitions and notation enable concise, precise models of complete context.Common notation and vocabulary link service design and system/software design.Fuller consideration of larger activity context highlights opportunities for service innovation and guidesservice engineering.



Selected Resources

Constantine, L. L. (2004) “Beyond User-Centered Design and User Experience.” Cutter IT Journal, 17, 2: 2-11; also at foruse.com

Constantine, L. L. (2008) “Human Activity Modeling” In Seffah, A., Vanderdonckt, J. and Desmarais, M. (Eds.) Human-Centered Software Engineering. Vol. II. Springer-Verlag; also at foruse.com

Duignan, M., Noble, J., & Biddle, R. (2006) “Activity theory for design.”Proceedings, HWID 2006. University of Madeira.

Engeström, Y., Miettinen, R. & Punamäki, R-L. (Eds.) (1999). Perspectives on Activity Theory. Cambridge University Press.

Gay, G. & Hembrooke, H. Activity-Centered Design. (2004) MIT Press.Kaptalinin, V., Nardi, B. A., & Macaulay, C. (1999)

“The Activity Checklist.” Interactions 6, 4: 27-39Nardi, B. (ed.) (1996) Context and Consciousness. MIT Press.Nardi, B., and Kaptelinin, V. (2006) Acting with Technology:

Activity Theory and Interaction Design. MIT Press. Norman, D. (2005) “Human-Centered Design Considered

Harmful.” Interactions,12, 4: 14-19; also at jnd.com

Larry Constantine

Technology

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