Towards a Situated Action Calculus for Modelling Interactions

Formal modelling of situated actions and context is a worthwhile endeavor if it provides a framework for verifying requirements correctness and generates principles for building interfaces for fluid interactions. The paper argues that action sequences, rather than states, are a suitable representation for this problem, and proposes a situated action calculus based on a new material implication relation among contexts. The situated action calculus extends in two respects a story-telling theory for embedding the user requirements in meaningful contexts. First, it provides a formalism and a set of operators that allow the designer to verify that stories told by different actors generate a safe and live representation; and second, it allows partitioning such representation in a succession of scenes which can be aggregated to define for each actor an interface that unfolds with the task and the context.

[1]  Austin Henderson,et al.  Interaction Analysis: Foundations and Practice , 1995 .

[2]  Daniela Giordano,et al.  Between Narration and Drama: Information Systems Modelling Revisited , 1997, ECIS.

[3]  Daniela Giordano,et al.  From user's mental models to information system's specification and vice versa by extended visual notation , 1995, 1995 IEEE International Professional Communication Conference. IPCC 95 Proceedings. Smooth Sailing to the Future.

[4]  Lucy Suchman.  Plans and situated actions: the problem of human-machine communication , 1987 .

[5]  Andrew F. Monk,et al.  Discount Dialogue Modelling with Action Simulator , 1994, BCS HCI.

[6]  H. Johnson,et al.  Task knowledge structures: Psychological basis and integration into system design ☆ , 1991 .

[7]  John McCarthy,et al.  SOME PHILOSOPHICAL PROBLEMS FROM THE STANDPOINT OF ARTI CIAL INTELLIGENCE , 1987 .

[8]  Karen Holtzblatt,et al.  Making customer-centered design work for teams , 1993, CACM.

[9]  J. Turner.  A theory of social interaction , 1988 .

[10]  Morten Kyng,et al.  Making representations work , 1995, CACM.

[11]  J. Ivey,et al.  Ann Arbor, Michigan , 1969 .

[12]  Lucy A. Suchman,et al.  Response to Vera and Simon's Situated Action: A Symbolic Interpretation , 1993, Cogn. Sci..

[13]  Rom Harré,et al.  Motives and Mechanisms: An Introduction to the Psychology of Action , 1985 .

[14]  Giorgio P. Faconti,et al.  Visual Representation of Formal Specification: an Application to Hierarchical Logical Input Devices , 1994, DSV-IS.

[15]  Riichiro Mizoguchi,et al.  Task analysis interview based on task ontology , 1995 .

[16]  Colin Potts,et al.  Using schematic scenarios to understand user needs , 1995, Symposium on Designing Interactive Systems.

[17]  John M. Carroll,et al.  Scenario-based design: envisioning work and technology in system development: john wiley & sons , 1995 .

[18]  Giuseppe Pappalardo,et al.  ECCS and LIPS: two languages for OSI systems specification and verification , 1989, TOPL.