Research on contextual design in human-computer interaction under the framework of activity theory

Abstract

To further explore the importance and research value of context in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) design, a research on Contextual Design (CD) under the Framework of Activity Theory (AT) was proposed. CD was divided it into three stages, which were contextual data exploring, contextual model building and contextual design converting. This paper proposed the process of CD under the framework of AT, and explained how to apply it in HCI design by a case named "Cycler". An experiment was conducted to evaluate the usability of the prototype, and to verify the effectiveness and practicality of contextual design process under the framework of AT. © 2013 Springer-Verlag.