Frameworks

Rabardel (1995) went back to Vygotsky’s ideas and made a distinction between the “physical object” and the “physical object which in used” by introducing a new concept called Instrument.

A key concept of activity theory is “contradictions”. Engeström also used this concept to guide the notion of “expansion”. The concept of “contradictions” can be applied to different levels of analysis.

Based on three levels of activity and HCI researchers’ methods, Spinuzzi suggested “Macroscopic”, “Mesosopic”, and “Microsopic” for describing three levels of analysis for empirical research.

Yrjö Engeström upgraded the activity theory from the individual activity level to collective activity level with a conceptual model of “activity system” in order to apply activity theory to educational settings, organizational development and other fields