Traditional models of usability assume that usability is a quality that can be designed into a particular artifact. Yet constructivist theory implies that usability cannot be located in a single artifact; rather, it must be conceived as a quality of the entire activity in which the artifact is used. This article describes a distributed approach to usability, based on activity theory and genre theory. It then illustrates the approach with a four-decade examination of a traffic accident location and analysis system (ALAS). Using the theoretical framework of genre ecologies, the article demonstrates how usability is distributed across the many official and unofficial (ad hoc) genres employed by ALAS users.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
EganD. E.RendeJ. R.GomerL. M.LandauerT. K.EberhardtJ., and LochbaumC. C., Formative Design-Evaluation of SuperBook, ACM Transactions on Information Systems, 7: 1, pp. 30–57, 1989.
2.
DumasJ. S. and RedishJ., A Practical Guide to Usability Testing, Ablex Publishing Corp., Norwood, New Jersey, 1993.
3.
RubinJ., Handbook of Usability Testing, John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1994.
4.
BeyerH. and HoltzblattK., Contextual Design: Defining Customer-Centered Systems, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, Inc., San Francisco, 1998.
5.
HoltzblattK. and BeyerH., Making Customer-Centered Design Work for Teams, Communications of the ACM, 36: 10, pp. 93–103, 1993.
6.
RavenM. E. and FlandersA., Using Contextual Inquiry to Learn About Your Audiences, Journal of Computer Documentation, 20: 1, pp. 1–13, 1996.
7.
HackosJ. T.HammarM., and ElserA., Customer Partnering: Data Gathering for Complex On-Line Documentation, IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, 40: 2, pp. 102–110, 1997.
8.
HackosJ. T. and RedishJ. C., User and Task Analysis for Interface Design, John Wiley and Sons, New York, 1998.
9.
AdlerP. S. and WinogradT. (eds.), Usability: Turning Technologies into Tools, Oxford University Press, New York, 1992.
10.
CarrollJ. M., Encountering Others: Reciprocal Openings in Participatory Design and User-Centered Design, Human-Computer Interaction, 11, pp. 285–290, 1996.
11.
DorazioP. and StovallJ., Research in Context: Ethnographic Usability, Journal of Technical Writing and Communication, 27: 1, pp. 57–67, 1997.
12.
JohnsonR. R., User-Centered Technology: A Rhetorical Theory for Computers and Other Mundane Artifacts, SUNY Press, New York, 1998.
13.
MirelJ. B., The Politics of Usability: The Organizational Functions of an In-House Manual, in Effective Documentation: What We Have Learned from Research, Doheny-FarinaS. (ed.), MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, pp. 227–298, 1988.
14.
MirelB., Beyond the Monkey House: Audience Analyses in Complex Workplaces, Writing in the Workplace: New Research Perspectives, SpilkaR. (ed.), Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale, 1993.
15.
MirelB., Analyzing Electronic Help Exchanges: An Inquiry Into Instructions for Complex Tasks, Technical Communication, 41, pp. 210–223, 1994.
16.
MirelB., ‘Applied Constructivism’ for User Documentation, Journal of Business and Technical Communication, 12: 1, pp. 7–49, 1998.
17.
RameyJ., Usability Evaluation and Its Relationship to Traditional Approaches in Research and Design, IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, 32: 4, pp. 207–209, 1989.
18.
PorterJ. E. and SullivanP., Working Across Methodological Interfaces: The Study of Computers and Writing in the Workplace, in Electronic Literacies in the Workplace: Technologies of Writing, SullivanP. and DaughtermannJ. (eds.), National Council of Teachers of English, Urbana, Illinois, pp. 294–322, 1996.
19.
SchriverK., Dynamics in Document Design: Creating Texts for Readers, John Wiley and Sons, New York, 1997.
20.
EngeströmY. and MiddletonD., Cognition and Communication at Work, Cambridge University Press, New York, 1996.
21.
HutchinsE., Cognition in the Wild, MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1995.
22.
NardiB. A. (ed.), Context and Consciousness: Activity Theory and Human-Computer Interaction, MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1996.
23.
NardiB. A. and O'DayV. L., Information Ecologies: Using Technology with Heart, MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1999.
24.
SpinuzziC., Designing for Lifeworlds: Genre and Activity in Information System Design and Evaluation, Unpublished Dissertation, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, 1999.
25.
VygotskyL. S., Thought and Language, MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1962.
26.
Leont'evA. N., Activity, Consciousness, and Personality, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1978.
27.
LeontyevA. N., Problems of the Development of Mind, Progress, Moscow, 1981.
28.
EngeströmY., Learning, Working, and Imaging: Twelve Studies in Activity Theory, Orienta-Konsultit Oy, Helsinki, 1990.
29.
EngeströmY., Interactive Expertise: Studies in Distributed Working Intelligence, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, 1992.
30.
BakhtinM. M., The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays, University of Texas Press, Austin, 1981.
31.
BahktinM. M., Problems of Dostoevsky's Poetics, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, 1984.
32.
BahktinM. M., Speech Genres and Other Late Essays, University of Texas Press, Austin, 1986.
33.
BahktinM. M., Art and Answerability: Early Philosophical Essays, University of Texas Press, Austin, 1986.
34.
BazermanC., Shaping Written Knowledge: The Genre and Activity of the Experimental Article in Science, University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, 1988.
35.
BazermanC., Systems of Genre and the Enactment of Social Intentions, in Genre and the New Rhetoric, FreedmanA. and MedwayP. (eds.), Taylor and Francis, Bristol, Pennsylvania, pp. 79–99, 1994.
36.
RussellD. R., Activity Theory and Its Implications for Writing Instruction, in Reconceiving Writing, Rethinking Writing Instruction, PetragliaJ. (ed.), Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah, New Jersey, pp. 51–77, 1995.
37.
RussellD. R., Rethinking Genre in School and Society: An Activity Theory Analysis, Written Communication, 14: 4, pp. 504–554, 1997.
38.
BødkerS., Through the Interface: A Human Activity Approach to User Interface Design, L. Erlbaum, Hillsdale, New Jersey, 1991.
39.
SpinuzziC., Pseudotransactionality, Activity Theory, and Professional Writing Instruction, Technical Communication Quarterly, 5: 3, 1996.
40.
SpinuzziC. and ZachryM., Genre Ecologies: An Open-System Approach to Understanding and Constructing Documentation, Journal of Computer Documentation, 24: 3, pp. 169–181, 2000.
