Interaction What cognitive science has to offer for research on appropriation and end-user development Antti Salovaara Ubiquitous Interaction research group Helsinki Institute for Information Technology HIIT Finland

Ubiquitous Interactionwww.hiit.fi/uix Design as a science Scientific practice: – Requires theory-building – Requires studies on how theories manifest themselves in the real world Translation to HCI context: – Creating theories of good design – Studying how different designs are actually used by their users – Observation studies to validate the design theories

Ubiquitous Interactionwww.hiit.fi/uix Meta-design and appropriation Meta-design: – User as a designer, programmer or a customizer – Design at design time and use time Appropriation: – Refers to the evolution of new purposes of use: Exploration and sense-making of the artifact’s functionalities Artifact’s incorporation into daily activities – Artifact’s functionalities as such may not always change (cf. meta- design and EUD) Knowledge about appropriation would contribute to developing meta-design theories

Ubiquitous Interactionwww.hiit.fi/uix Appropriation: previous research Studies carried out mostly within sociology and CSCW: – Importance of people who promote and invent new uses – Dependence on a successful worker-manager dialogue – Appropriation tends to proceed in a step-wise manner – Users do not often follow “rules” that designers have built into the systems How about studies on the cognitive level?

Ubiquitous Interactionwww.hiit.fi/uix Opportunities for research Perception and action: – Representations of artifact and their effect on cognition and action – Development of representations (Neisser, 1976)

Ubiquitous Interactionwww.hiit.fi/uix Opportunities for research (cont’d) Mental models: – “How do the systems work on a functional level?” – Research focused on people’s concepts of world dynamics – No studies yet on “What can the system used for?” Learning: – Appropriation is learning: most representational changes can be understood as events of learning – Research could learn from studies on experiental learning and self- directed learning

Ubiquitous Interactionwww.hiit.fi/uix Opportunities for research (cont’d) Creativity and insight: – What are the steps in an individual’s processes when s/he discovers a new use? – What factors contribute (in environment, context, thinking style, perception) to creative findings?

Ubiquitous Interactionwww.hiit.fi/uix Discussion Appropriation is a relevant research topic for EUD researchers – But also for cognitive science and ecological psychology Appropriation from a cognitive perspective is an uncharted research territory – A lot to be gained for a bold researcher! The presented approaches have already a history of methods and theory development – EUD and appropriation researchers should make use of it – This would provide a firm basis to the science of design

Interaction Antti Salovaara