Because we have been involved for many years in both the Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) and the Computer Supported Cooperative Learning (CSCL) research domains, we take particular interests in the results coming both from the human and the computer sciences. Thanks to this crossdisciplinary culture, we have understood that computer systems aim at supporting human activities and that these activities need systems better supporting their emergence. In other words, the systems we traditionally design lack in supporting the inevitable users emerging needs. This paper presents our new approach founded on the human science framework called the Activity Theory and some advanced software design techniques. It shows the results and promises we have found in intensively using the meta-level of the systems we design, thus better taking into account of the expansiveness property of the human activities we want to support.