People, Activity, Context, Technologies

Ebba Thora Hvannberg

Objective

• To be able to analyse situations with respect to People, Activities, Technologies and Context (PACT) to scope design projects.

PACT examples

• People use technologies to undertake activities in contexts. – For example, teenagers use mobile (cell) phones to

send text messages to their friends whilst sitting on a bus.

– Secretaries use Microsoft Word to write documents in a firm of solicitors.

– Air traffic controllers work together to ensure the smooth operation of an airport.

– A woman in her seventies presses various buttons to set the intruder alarms in her house.

– People use MySpace to contact with other people when sitting in an Internet café.

Activites and technologies

Activities in context Technologies

Requirements

Opportunities

People

People

• Physical differences such as height, weight, disabilities, visual and hearing impairment.

• In Europe there are 2.8 million wheelchair users so designers must consider where technologies are placed, and many people have dexterity impairments involving the use of their fingers.

– What if Apple designedATMs?

Psychological differences

• Memory• Spacial intelligence• Communication• Languages• Attention

Mental models

Activities • First, you need to decide on the goal of the

activity • Temporal aspects (1-4)– How regular or seldom an activity is– Peaks, time pressure – Continous work – Response time

• Collaboration (5)• Complexity(6)

Triaging of casualities

Activities

• Safety dependent (7 og 8)– Can work lead to injuiry or death?– What consequences do errors and mistakes have?

• Nature of content (9 og 10) – What type of data are processed?– What steps are executed?

Context

• Physical context– Inside / outside – Wide/narrow, clean/dirty– How is the whether?

• Social context– Who is there to help? – Alone or in public

Different work environment

At a window

In a closed room

Organizational context

• Context of an organization – Hierarchy of power– Division of work – Different paths of communication and

management

A technological environment

• Ways and media which help us to finish an activity

• Which content do you work with

• Technology development is fast and hence it is important to be able to distinguish technology from other factors such as actvities, context and people.

People Activities Context Technologies

• In design you need to take into consideration all these factors (PACT)

• Who uses, what is he or she doing, in which context and what technology does he/she have?

Challenge

• Write down a quick PACT analysis for a point of sale system for a café at a motorway service station.