ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book is centered around the computer applications or computer-based artifact. The artifacts are employed by users in use activities to create some product or achieve some goal. The use activity and the intended product is, on the one hand, part of determining how the artifact can be employed. On the other, the actual construction of the artifact is part of determining which use situations and products can be created. Similar dialectic relations exist between the design activity and the computer-based artifact, between the design situation and the design methods that can be employed, and so on. The book presents the overall theoretical framework that is illustrated by examples from the empirical studies. It focuses on design of user interfaces and discusses various design methods and their way of handling the user interface design.
