From artefact to instrument

Abstract

Classical research and development within Human–Computer Interaction usually have considered computers to be developed and introduced into organizations as ‘ready-mades’. Further development of these systems within organizations often is considered to be the task of special computer departments within such organizations. It is, of course, known that users modify the use of their computers, in particular that they only use a subset of available functions. In this special issue we focus on users’ appropriation of their computers as artefacts. We ask how users develop their own activities, as well as adapt their computer artefacts to the new conditions that use of the artefacts implies or allows. Understanding these phenomena and taking them into account in a framework of artefacts and organizations requires theoretical models and empirical research centered on peoples' activities and on their appropriation and development processes. In fact, the traditional models of human factors have been developed in order to characterise the human component in human–machine systems. However, this kind of research dwells upon the characteristics of human beings, concerning for instance characteristics of perceptual systems and cognitive mechanisms, independent of humans' involvement in an activity. Thus these models do not allow for more than a partial prediction of users’ activities where these are affected by (as well as affecting) the current situation.