Exploring the Use of the Human-

Artifact Model for Studying

Ubiquitous Interactions
Ilya Shmorgun, David Lamas
Institute of Informatics
Tallinn University
Introduction
As people have access to more devices it is becoming
increasingly important to consider the ways in which
those devices and services are used and how they can
co-exist with newly designed digital artifacts.
Activity Theoretical HCI, with its focus on purposeful
activities mediated by artifacts, can be used as a
framework for analyzing activities supported by
technology to inform the design of new artifacts.
Conducting ethnography in the context of use with the
Human-Artifact Model can further help understand the
dynamics in ecologies of artifacts.
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The Human-Artifact Model
The Human-Artifact Model is an
Activity Theoretical HCI based
analytical tool, which helps
understand the dialectical
relationship between the user and
the artifact.
Analysis with the Human-Artifact
Model focuses on 3 levels of
Activity Theory: activities, actions,
and operations.
The model helps provide answers
to the questions of Why?, What?,
and How?
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Case Study
Expectations of using many different devices for supporting
activities are becoming more commonplace, also in schools.
A rapid ethnographic study in the context of the LearnMix project
has been conducted in 5 Estonian schools with advanced
technology usage.
A pilot study was conducted in May 2013, main study in October
2013.
The Human-Artifact Model was used for analyzing the collected
data and structuring the findings.
The study identified the activities commonly taking place, the
artifacts used in those activities, the roles of the artifacts, and the
potential issues and tensions that arise during use.
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Findings
Although every classroom had at least some available
technology, such as a projector and a computer, non-
digital artifacts and especially paper still played an
important role, being used alongside digital artifacts.
Artifacts were used for guiding the lesson, showing
information to the class, doing assignments, finding
and managing information, and communicating.
The primary motivations for choosing which artifacts to
use were convenience and ease of use.
A lot of the tensions were related to learning how to
use an artifact, being efficient in carrying out tasks, or
being satisfied with the activity.

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Discussion
The keywords used to code the collected data
were produced by the researchers and still need
to be validated by users to avoid gaps in the
findings.
Structuring and analyzing data with the Human-
Artifact Model produces a lot of information,
which may become difficult to manage. While
using spreadsheets and coding could be used,
other approaches should be considered.
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Conclusion
Using the Human-Artifact Model for studying
ubiquitous interactions helped maintain a focus on the
underlying activities mediated by artifacts. The
perspectives of different users were highlighted and
the potential tensions occurring during use were
identified.
Insights were provided on how different artifacts can
work together, what are their roles, what motives they
serve, and how they are meant to be used.
These insights can help interaction designers to
produce artifacts that work better with existing tools
and result in less breakdowns.

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