Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Fig. 3.5
Main elements of an
information ecology
Physical
tool
Digital
document
Physical
document
Digital
tool
User
Now the question is: how do people perform cognitive activities in such an ecol-
ogy? And how does the ecology deal with technological changes that are necessarily
created by novel design solutions?
We base our discussion on two theories that provide answers to these questions:
Distributed Cognition [42, 125, 39] and Information Ecologies [100]. Although both
theories are quite different in their approach, they commonly advocate a systemic
view focusing on the interrelations between actors, technology and given practices
for understanding the use of technology in work settings. They argue that this per-
spective is the key for understanding and supporting knowledge work in a given
context. Both theories provide different insights that are key to designing for docu-
ment work.
Distributed Cognition is a theory about human cognitive processes. It provides
a theoretical and methodological framework for analysis of collaborative work pro-
cesses that include the use of technological artifacts and tools. The basic assumption
is that cognition is not restricted to an individual nor restricted to the brain. Instead,
cognition also occurs in the interactions between an individual and his or her envi-
ronment (comprising other individuals and artifacts). Cognition is therefore embod-
ied and situated within the work processes in which it occurs. Hence, the material
world takes on a central rather than a peripheral role for cognition, as the work ma-
terial becomes an element of the cognitive system itself. For instance, by arranging
paper documents in a meaningful way on the desk, the user performs an embodied
cognitive activity.
Cognitive activities take place in a 'functional system': “a collection of individu-
als and artifacts and their relations to each other in a particular work practice” [125].
Examples of functional systems include cockpits of airplanes, call centers and com-
puter programmer teams. A cockpit, for instance, consists of pilots, of artifacts, such
