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W. Chu et al.
the designed artefacts change over time? Are these changes triggered by designers’
intentions or users’ practices? What effects do these changes have?
Historical development: Activity systems are not static, but under a dynamic
development and transition process over time (Kuutti 2019). The way we carry out
a specific activity at a specific point of time under a specific context is the result
of the historical evolution of the relevant activities and tools (Kaptelinin and Nardi
2006). AT’s development perspective thus is used in design to describe how the
target activities and the use of artefacts change over time. Artefacts, as mentioned
earlier, can shape the activities that people carry out. In turn, the artefacts themselves
are also shaped and under a constant development process as the activities keep
evolving (Gay and Hembrooke 2004). For example, mobile phones were originally
designed as verbal communication devices that bring convenience to people’s daily
communication. However, nowadays the mobile phone has evolved into a digital
platform that incorporates features such as cameras, notebooks, music players, credit
cards and gamepads.
When applied to design artefacts that foster people’s sustainable activities, the
historical analysis and the development view can enable designers to assess future
design opportunities and interventions in terms of facilitating sustainability from a
more holistic perspective (Kuutti 2011). To be more specific, it provides designers
a way to understand not only about how people perform their doings in the current
situation, but also what has happened in the past, and how these past designs may
potentially influence the future. This characteristic is in accordance with the feature
of sustainable design—to solve the current and emerging problems and design for
new forms of engagement (Kaptelinin and Nardi 2012). For example, in the investigation of the role that information system (IS) can play in tackling climate change
adaptation, Hasan et al. (2017) pointed out that a historical development perspective
is particularly useful to investigate sustainability problems which are often characterized by complexity and uncertainty. We encourage designers to reflect on: What
were the artefacts that have been used in the target activity in the past? What are the
artefacts that are currently being used? What are the changes/impacts that these artefacts will bring to people’s current activity systems? And what are the corresponding
possible future ways of carrying out the activity?
Sociocultural contexts: While the historical development perspective can inform
a temporal lens to identify existing or potential sustainability problems within the
target activities, the sociocultural context can offer a spatial and hierarchical lens
which helps designers to zoom in or zoom out to investigate where sustainability
problems may take place in three contextual levels: the macro sociocultural level,
the specific action level, and the detail operation level (see Fig. 6.1).
For example, in a project of promoting socio-ecological sustainability in a local
community in Chile, Aguayo and Eames (2017) applied AT to understand the sociocultural factors surrounding the potential use of information communication technology (ICT) as a mediating tool for community learning. It was reported that the
AT-informed sociocultural understandings helped researchers to integrate the specific
sustainability design solutions with the practical needs of the local community.
Similar findings were also reported in another study which used ICT to promote
W. Chu et al.
the designed artefacts change over time? Are these changes triggered by designers’
intentions or users’ practices? What effects do these changes have?
Historical development: Activity systems are not static, but under a dynamic
development and transition process over time (Kuutti 2019). The way we carry out
a specific activity at a specific point of time under a specific context is the result
of the historical evolution of the relevant activities and tools (Kaptelinin and Nardi
2006). AT’s development perspective thus is used in design to describe how the
target activities and the use of artefacts change over time. Artefacts, as mentioned
earlier, can shape the activities that people carry out. In turn, the artefacts themselves
are also shaped and under a constant development process as the activities keep
evolving (Gay and Hembrooke 2004). For example, mobile phones were originally
designed as verbal communication devices that bring convenience to people’s daily
communication. However, nowadays the mobile phone has evolved into a digital
platform that incorporates features such as cameras, notebooks, music players, credit
cards and gamepads.
When applied to design artefacts that foster people’s sustainable activities, the
historical analysis and the development view can enable designers to assess future
design opportunities and interventions in terms of facilitating sustainability from a
more holistic perspective (Kuutti 2011). To be more specific, it provides designers
a way to understand not only about how people perform their doings in the current
situation, but also what has happened in the past, and how these past designs may
potentially influence the future. This characteristic is in accordance with the feature
of sustainable design—to solve the current and emerging problems and design for
new forms of engagement (Kaptelinin and Nardi 2012). For example, in the investigation of the role that information system (IS) can play in tackling climate change
adaptation, Hasan et al. (2017) pointed out that a historical development perspective
is particularly useful to investigate sustainability problems which are often characterized by complexity and uncertainty. We encourage designers to reflect on: What
were the artefacts that have been used in the target activity in the past? What are the
artefacts that are currently being used? What are the changes/impacts that these artefacts will bring to people’s current activity systems? And what are the corresponding
possible future ways of carrying out the activity?
Sociocultural contexts: While the historical development perspective can inform
a temporal lens to identify existing or potential sustainability problems within the
target activities, the sociocultural context can offer a spatial and hierarchical lens
which helps designers to zoom in or zoom out to investigate where sustainability
problems may take place in three contextual levels: the macro sociocultural level,
the specific action level, and the detail operation level (see Fig. 6.1).
For example, in a project of promoting socio-ecological sustainability in a local
community in Chile, Aguayo and Eames (2017) applied AT to understand the sociocultural factors surrounding the potential use of information communication technology (ICT) as a mediating tool for community learning. It was reported that the
AT-informed sociocultural understandings helped researchers to integrate the specific
sustainability design solutions with the practical needs of the local community.
Similar findings were also reported in another study which used ICT to promote