About metaphorical expressions

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About metaphorical expressions

• The essence of a metaphor is understanding and
  experiencing one kind of things in terms of
  another
• Metaphor is pervasive in everyday life, not just
  in language but in thought and action
• Our ordinary conceptual system, in terms of
  which we both think and act, is fundamentally
  metaphorical in nature (Lakoff and Johnson,
  1980)
• i.e. You disagree ? Okay , shoot!
• The user as

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The user as a problem-solver

• The user is viewed as a mental processor who
  achieves a task (goals) by solving sub-goals
  using some device
• Focus on the logic or practice of the task
  users competence and performance-
• Human actions are characterized in terms of
  perceiving the world, represent it internally,
  manipulating it
• The model human processor provides a means of
  characterizing the various cognitive processes
  that are assumed to underlie the performance of a
  task
• Models of the user (hierarchical tasks analysis)
  seeks to model the internal representation and
  processing

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Cognitive Psychology
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The user as a component of a system

• The user is viewed as a part of a functional
  system
• The user is part of a collection of individuals
  and artifacts in the work setting
• Focus on the dynamic aspects of activity (i.e.
  the means by which knowledge is propagated and
  transmitted through the functional system) rather
  than static entities (e.g. the power and role
  structures within an organization)
• Human actions are characterized in terms of
  coordination of distributed structures

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Distributed Cognition
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The user as human actor

• The user is viewed as the active individual or
  sub-group whose agency is chosen as the point of
  view in the analysis of the activity system
• Users often wish to accomplish tasks, to
  understand what is going on, they are always
  struggling to make sense of their world
• Focus on what is the engine of human activity
• Human actions are always motivated and
  instrumented

7
Activity Theory
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The user as a reader

• The user is viewed as the subjective interpreter
• The user as a reader brings certain assumptions
  to a text based on the interpretive strategies
  s/he has learned in a particular interpretive
  community
• Focus on the user and her meaning-making process
• Instead of asking what the text means the
  question is on what the text does to the reader
• Different types of readers ideal reader, the
  intended reader, the real reader, the implied
  reader, and the resisting reader
• Human actions are characterized in terms of a
  dialectical process between the reader and the
  text

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Reception theory
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The user as a resourceful person

• The user is viewed as a situated person making
  use of resources (i.e. Plans)
• Focus on the ongoing users action, on located
  accountability of human action
• Focus on boundaries between persons and machines,
  but differences without separation
• Human action are emergent and contingent

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Situated action