This dissertation outlines a perspective in Human Factors in which artifacts play a central, but subordinate role. It lies at the intersection of (a) influences from information systems development, (b) an ecological approach to cognition, (c) practical problems faced by human factors design in complex systems, and (d) methodological inspirations from industrial design and ethnography.

Central to this perspective is the notion of agent-environment mutuality and the perception-action coupling. The implications of considering cognition embodied and contextual on design are far reaching. It changes the nature of 'design problem' from an objective entitity to a relational property that needs to be examined from multiple perspectives. Methodological inspiration is borrowed from analytical ethnography to manage the issue of uncovering the practitioners' cognitive ecology, while influences from Scandinavian participatory design and scenario-based design are synthesized into a technique for managing envisioned fields of practice.

As a result of this perspective, artifacts are used as tools of discovery and as hypotheses of usefulness. A technique called 'guided storytelling' is presented which allows designers and practitioners to jointly assess expectations of the impact of new technology on a field of practice. Examples of its use are presented which show its potential to uncover both opportunities for innovative design and shortcomings in our understanding of a field of practice.