Activity-based prototyping of ubicomp applications for long-lived, everyday human activities

We designed an activity-based prototyping process realized in the ActivityDesigner system that combines the theoretical framework of Activity-Centered Design with traditional iterative design. This process allows designers to leverage human activities as first class objects for design and is supported in ActivityDesigner by three novel features. First, this tool allows designers to model activities based on concrete scenarios collected from everyday lives. The models form a context for design and computational constructs for creating functional prototypes. Second, it allows designers to prototype interaction behaviors based on activity streams spanning time. Third, it allows designers to easily test these prototypes with real users continuously, in situ. We have garnered positive feedback from a series of laboratory user studies and several case studies in which ActivityDesigner was used in realistic design situations. ActivityDesigner was able to effectively streamline a ubicomp design process, and it allowed creating realistic ubicomp application prototypes at a low cost and testing them in everyday lives over an extended period.