Context and its Representation

Abstract Recent work in HCI has argued that an adequate account of computer use and the user's understandings should pay attention to the contexts in which interactions take place. The paper reaffirms this claim and distinguishes some variants of it, but simultaneously argues that the specification of what is to count as ‘context’ is more problematic than is often supposed. Some empirical data in the form of a transcribed videotape of one interaction is discussed to illustrate the argument. Finally some implications for HCI are briefly considered.

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