All too often simply the wrong software gets created. It may work but not as the users or stakeholders expected. Or it may solve the wrong problem altogether. Despite the vast improvements in the way how software teams create software since the Agile Manifesto was published in 2001 still many software projects fail in one way or another.

To many, the word design only describes how something looks but in fact it means how it works and looks. Well designed products are created based on a deep understanding of which activities users want to perform and are well engineered. This fitness makes these products superior to their competition and in some cases such products shake up an entire industry.

Activity-Theory traces its roots back to the thoughts of Goethe, Kant and Hegel. Being used by Russian and Finnish psychologists in the field of learning and children development it now is slowly finding its way into Interaction and Software Design.

This book shows how Activity Theory can be used to create smarter software. You will learn how a sucessful software development team can effectively work with users and stakeholders to deliver high quality solutions.