Young People, Mobile Technology and the Task Artefact Cycle
Steve Howard, Jennie Carroll, Frank Vetere, Jane Peck, John M. Murphy · 2001
What happens during the earliest stages of technology use? How do users make sense of novel technologies? Why do some people persist in the use of an artefact, when others reject it? On the basis of empirical research, we are capturing the processes followed by young people during their earliest stages of technology use, stages we have called ‘appropriation’. Depending on the balance between what young people desire, the capabilities and implications of technology and the situations of use that young people inhabit, we have observed non-appropriation, appropriation and disappropriation. Design for the longterm persistent use of technology, requires the design process to be mindful of appropriation. In the paper we discuss how such mindfulness can be achieved through scenario-based design and we situate our model of appropriation within the task-artefact cycle.