Taking Practice Seriously

Abstract

Practice is both "doing" and "understanding" that enables doing. As used in the title, practice has a double—no, a single—well, a double and a single meaning. It is what the system designer does at the designing job, and what the prospective users do at the jobs which, traditionally, the designer might transform with computer technology. Because it is what both kinds of people do at their jobs, it is a single thing. Because we make a distinction between the significance of the designing job and the job under design, practice, in practice, splits into two possible meanings: the practice of system design and the practice of everything else. Practice is more accurately stated as "practices". The term practices has a particular meaning in the context of a phenomenological view of human intelligence and action. The "background of practices" in which actions or utterances are situated—play a part, have a name, derive meaning—is the "ordinary behavior" of a group.