DefinePK

Abstract

Activity theory is the conceptual framework that is derived from the socio-cultural tradition in Russian psychology. The foundational concept of the framework is ‘activity’, which is understood as purposeful, transformative, and developing interaction between subjects and the world. Activity theory used to enhance the understanding of the behavior and characteristics of the individual and how the relevant social entities interact with technology for daily activities. Reviews on the smart phone interface for the elderly is not something new and various research approaches were carried out to help the elderly to get use of the smart phone technology. Until recently, most of the interface design use user centered design as main methodology. Activity theory is seen as a potential method to help researchers to identify aspects where in activities that contribute to the inefficiency of the interface design activities. In the paper, we will explain why activity centered design (ACD) is selected from other Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) methodology commonly used to study the interface design. In addition, we will describe the challenges faced when using ACD as the main methodology of the study. The population selected for this study is populated urban area in Malaysia, a developing country in term of the use of technology.