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Just FYI -- I am in the midst of field research for my dissertation, which is on exactly what Mattias requested: the theories-in-action of interaction designers. I will be following projects at three different interaction design consultancies in San Francisco and Silicon Valley. One of the interesting debates among the designers I've been following, which adds another level to the question, is whether it makes sense to differentiate between interaction and experience design, and if so, what would that difference be? Another interesting question: how are definitions of interaction design implemented in practice, when designers with various self-identities (service designer, interaction designer, visual designer, etc) are assigned duties on different projects? In any case, I concur with all of the previous recommendations, and would also recommend the 2nd edition of Lucy Suchman's classic Plans and Situated Actions, now retitled Human-Machine Reconfigurations. Liz On 11/13/10 5:47 AM, Mattias Arvola wrote: > Evan and Leonardo, > > I think Jon is working on on a second edition... I guess he could, if he's lurking on this list, tell us when it will appear in an online bookshop near you . :-) > > When it comes to defining the nature of interaction... I don't think you can find one definitive source. It depends on the theoretical stance you take. It differs if you look at it from a situated action perspective. Or an socio-cultural perspective. Or a phenomenological perspective. Or a cognitive perspective. Or a distributed cognitive perspective. Or a cognitive systems perspective. Or... Well you get the picture. > > It doesn't get any easier when you also consider that these perspectives aren't completely unrelated. Now, this is of course theory, and these theories about the nature of interaction design don't tell us much about interaction designers' theories-in-action. That is, I guess, a rather good research question for anyone to take up. > > Cheers, > // Mattias > ps. Leonardo, you can check the glossary and the theoretical chapter in my already old phd thesis for some definitions. You can find it here: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-5019 ds. > -- > MATTIAS ARVOLA, Ph.D. > Sr. lecturer in Interaction Design. > Linköping University and Södertörn University. > www.arvola.se >