Activity / Tom Moran / Ivrea Symposium / November 12-13, 2003 1

Activity Analysis, Design, and Management

Thomas P. Moran

IBM Almaden Research Center

San Jose, California USA

Symposium on the Foundations of Interaction Design

Interaction Design Institute Ivrea

November 12-13, 2003

Activity / Tom Moran / Ivrea Symposium / November 12-13, 2003 2

Activity in Interaction Design

Interaction = Artifact + Person + Motivation

Use Activity

Context Activities

Meta-Activity

Activity / Tom Moran / Ivrea Symposium / November 12-13, 2003 3

Many Views of Activity

• Behavioral / Social TheoryDistributed cognition, ethnography, activity theory, etc

• Timestream (history)• Activity Management (things to do)• Workflow Process

design, control, manage

• Organizational Change (process re-engineering)analyze, design, monitor, adapt

Activity / Tom Moran / Ivrea Symposium / November 12-13, 2003 4

Many Representations of Activity

• Behavioral / Social Theory account• Timestream (history) log• Activity Management (things to do) surrogate• Workflow Process program• Organizational Change analysis

(process re-engineering) plan

Activity / Tom Moran / Ivrea Symposium / November 12-13, 2003 5

Activity Management

overviewing, orienting

organizing, planning, scheduling

reminding, alerting

contextual opportunistic triggering

setting up

executingperipherally monitoring, switching

reporting, documenting

Activity / Tom Moran / Ivrea Symposium / November 12-13, 2003 6

Hypothesis

In order to be managed:activities need to be explicitly representedas personal / social / organizational entities.

Activity-Centered Work Environment:• Ephemeral activities represented activities• Juggling tools carrying out activities• Managing information managing activities

Activity / Tom Moran / Ivrea Symposium / November 12-13, 2003 7

Analysis

Activity / Tom Moran / Ivrea Symposium / November 12-13, 2003 8

Rationale for Activity Centeredness

Studies of time management show …• People put a lot of effort into

• Planning longer-term goals (periodically)

• Managing shorter-term tasks (continuously)

• Multiplicity of tools are used – but people are not satisfied• Electronic: lack of coordination, availability, reliability

• Physical are better (paper, post-its, walls, desks)

• ToDo items are distributed in the natural flow of work• In both physical and electronic space

• Calendar and email is used to manage ToDos

Activity / Tom Moran / Ivrea Symposium / November 12-13, 2003 9

An Activity in Time

Need

Planning is fuzzy.

Reminding is contextually distributed.

Activities are intermittent.

Activities need to be accounted for.

Plan ExecuteRemember

Report

Activity / Tom Moran / Ivrea Symposium / November 12-13, 2003 10

Multiple Activities

Coordinate: delegate, wait, notify.

Be aware: peripheral activities.

Adapt: respond to new, shuffle tasks.

Manage contexts: setup and switch.

Activity / Tom Moran / Ivrea Symposium / November 12-13, 2003 11

An Activity…

…consists of mental/physical/computational actions:• at different time scales (minutes…months)• by one or more people (agents)• having coherence

• conceptually (goal-directed)• contextually (eg, a group meeting)

• related to other activities• using resources (people, tools, information)• in a socio/cultural/organizational context• from the perspective of an individual

Activity / Tom Moran / Ivrea Symposium / November 12-13, 2003 12

Example of an Activity:Chairing an Awards Committee

Run awards committee1. Set up committee

2. Decide on winners

3. Announce, coordinate, present, etc.

4. Hand it off

Activity / Tom Moran / Ivrea Symposium / November 12-13, 2003 13

emailpeopledocuments

tightly coordinated activityloose, parallel activitiesscheduled, sequential activitiesreuse and refinehand off

Activity / Tom Moran / Ivrea Symposium / November 12-13, 2003 14

Design

Activity / Tom Moran / Ivrea Symposium / November 12-13, 2003 15

Intentions Commitments Possibilities

Original Planning Tableau

Activity / Tom Moran / Ivrea Symposium / November 12-13, 2003 16

Revised Tableau Categories Contexts Communication / Schedule

Activity / Tom Moran / Ivrea Symposium / November 12-13, 2003 17

Prototype Activity Tableau

Activity / Tom Moran / Ivrea Symposium / November 12-13, 2003 18

Activity Tableau (current)

Activity / Tom Moran / Ivrea Symposium / November 12-13, 2003 19

Some Actual Activity Spaces

Activity / Tom Moran / Ivrea Symposium / November 12-13, 2003 20

Tableau Integrated into Workplace

Activity / Tom Moran / Ivrea Symposium / November 12-13, 2003 21

Plan

Plan + Calendar Activity Strip

Activity Shelf Activities Today

Mobile Activities

Integrated Tableau Configurations

Activity / Tom Moran / Ivrea Symposium / November 12-13, 2003 22

Unification

Activity / Tom Moran / Ivrea Symposium / November 12-13, 2003 23

Enterprise Business process workflows

Team/group Places, project plans, bug lists, …

Interpersonal Email, “instant collaboration”

Personal ToDos, calendars

Levels involve:• scope of interaction• activity initiation, management, access, accounting• resource administration• degree of design

Levels of Activity Representations

Activity / Tom Moran / Ivrea Symposium / November 12-13, 2003 24

BAM regularize, monitor

TAM collect, share

IPAM coordinate

PAM plan, remember, respond

Levels need to be integrated …

… using activity structures as the common construct

Levels of Activity Representations

Enterprise

Team/group

Interpersonal

Personal

Activity / Tom Moran / Ivrea Symposium / November 12-13, 2003 25

Enterprise

Team/group

Interpersonal

Personal

Levels need to be integrated …

… using activity structures as the common construct

Levels of Activity Representations

Top down

Bottom up

Activity / Tom Moran / Ivrea Symposium / November 12-13, 2003 26

Facets of Activity-Centeredness

• Managing Personal Activities• Coordinating Inter-Personal Activities• Personalizing Business Processes• Reusing and Designing Activities

Activity / Tom Moran / Ivrea Symposium / November 12-13, 2003 27

Managing Personal Activities

ToDos must be extremely lightweight and flexible.• Provide an activity overview

for planning, monitoring,organizing, …

• Distribute activity structuresamong applications, components, and devices

• Allow emergent activities to be representedeasily, but optionally

• Collect resources into activity structuresboth manually and automatically

Activity / Tom Moran / Ivrea Symposium / November 12-13, 2003 28

Coordinating Interpersonal Activity

Jane’s Workplace

John’s Workplace

Johninformally

sharesactivity

withJane.

Activity / Tom Moran / Ivrea Symposium / November 12-13, 2003 29

Personalizing Business Processes

Activity

Activity

Activity

Activity

ActivityStart End

Business Process

Jane’s Workplace

John’s Workplace

Distributing control and adaptation: 1. Process generates activity for John.2. John alters activity to adapt it.3. John feeds back alterations, as well as results, to process.

Activity / Tom Moran / Ivrea Symposium / November 12-13, 2003 30

Reusing and Designing Activities

• Reusing activity structures• Making a copy• Using it as a template

• Designing by doing• Refining• Parameterizing• Publishing• Evolving

Activity / Tom Moran / Ivrea Symposium / November 12-13, 2003 31