In this conceptual article, we review experience-centered approaches to the design of personal digital interactive technologies, with a view to exploring how these approaches might be of value in understanding the experience-in-use and the responsible design of today's highly networked, data-rich, and ubiquitous software technologies. Experience-centered design research leans heavily on pragmatist philosophy for its conceptual underpinnings, particularly John Dewey's accounts of aesthetic experience and of inquiry. After reviewing this body of work, we argue that these foundations could be usefully extended to also include Dewey's approach to ethics as an empirical, situated act of moral imagination. In addition, we look to other researchers for perspectives that complement and extend Deweyan experiential pragmatics. In particular, we look to the ways in which Susan Leigh Star's account of socio-technical infrastructures and dialogical approaches to human relations together can provide important insights into the experience-in-use of today's digital infrastructure and can critically highlight issues of boundaries and privacy. We also offer pragmatic and methodological concepts that may be of value to the field of responsible software design and engineering.
The rise of big data and smart sensing, with the promise of more educated and informed decisions, has fuelled a shift towards more data-driven decision-making in local and national government. However, we are observing a disconnect between the people who are affected by these decisions and their access to tools and resources to collect data in order to provide the needed evidence for change. To truly democratise this process and for citizens to become active prosumers of data, new mechanisms of citizen data production are needed. In this paper we report on a two-year ethnographic and iterative co-design process with the local community. This work encompassed the design, development and deployment of SenseMyStreet (SeMS), a bespoke sensor commissioning toolkit that enables citizens and community groups to use and commission a city's scientific-grade environmental monitors, determining where they will be located on their streets and collecting data to evidence hyper-local issues. Unlike prior research, which creates alternative data sources to contest city data, our toolkit helps integrate citizen commissioned data into the city datasets used by citizens and decision-makers. Reflecting on the design process and evaluating the ways people engaged with the digital tools of the toolkit, we highlight how commissioning can be configured to promote equity in the smart city, empower citizens to take ownership of issues and facilitate the creation of community networks that utilise the data for local benefit.
Healthcare services face difficulties in using structured methods for service design and having patient participation in such processes. There are few models on healthcare service design and even less focused on Primary Health Care (PHC) in the literature. Therefore, this paper contributes to this domain by presenting the proposal of a co-creative model to design PHC services. The proposed model was constructed based on the study of reference models in PHC and co-design. Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle and the Experience-Based Co-Design approach were used to structure the model. The resulting model contributes to (a) continuous improvement, (b) improvement analysis and registry, (c) identification and solution of PHC users' real needs, (d) community participation and empowerment, (e) creation of experience-focused and patient-centred services. The model's use of co-creation enables patients and PHC staff to understand each other's needs and challenges, and to create together appropriate solutions to their communities and act toward more satisfying services.
Abstract Experience Based Co-Design (EBCD) has become a popular way of using experience for healthcare service improvement. Despite its popularity, there are few comparative studies on the use of the approach evaluating its enablers and barriers. Here we analyse the barriers and enablers found in literature and of seven projects that used EBCD in the United Kingdom’s National Health Service (NHS) and identify scenarios that may contribute to project success. Thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews with EBCD project facilitators showed that the main project barriers were human and organizational barriers, and main enablers were the project facilitator role, the use of narratives, full organizational support, pre-intervention actions and the relationship between service and patients. We conclude that EBCD improvement projects are likely to be successful when key enablers are in place and that active management participation in the process facilitates implementing changes.
The rapid development of failure management systems in modern aircraft has led to a general migration of cognitive functions away from human agents to electronic machine agents. A number of human factors phenomena associated with these developments have been, difficult to understand using conventional human engineering perspectives. Using a new framework which views systems as Distributed Information Resources, we compare two hypothetical failure management systems similar to those found in today's commercial aircraft. The analysis reveals an under resourcing in some areas of electronic systems.
This paper discusses how characteristics of experience-centred and collaborative design can be translated to larger scales. We describe Metro Futures, a region-wide public consultation on the design of new light rail trains, where we followed an experience-centred co-design approach supported by digital media and tools to develop findings with a core group of 20 ?co-researchers' and ~4000 public participants. The paper discusses how the characteristics of a focus on experience, and collaborative design exploration were achieved with co-researchers and, at scale, through online and face-to-face interactions using various digital media and tools. Whilst not at the depth of smaller scales, there are opportunities to retain characteristics of experience-centred co-design at scale to produce findings that can usefully inform ensuing design work, and avoid the averaging of public contributions often evident in large scale public consultations.
Approaches to cross-cultural learning within education curricula have predominantly focused on events of history, object, rituals and practices. We argue that there is a need to encourage deeper approaches of learning that engage affective and cognitive aspects, and that digital tools have an important role in scaffolding this form of learning. We ran a digitally supported Enquiry Based Learning (EBL) activity in two schools in India and England. Students in the two schools conducted real-world research and used the information to design a knowledge artefact using a digital content-creation tool. Our study establishes that a combination of EBL and relevant digital tools nurtures peer-based, real-world enquiry and fosters deep learning which we reckon are key requisites to embed meaningful cross-cultural knowledge in school curriculum.
Recent HCI research has investigated how digital technologies might enable citizens to identify and express matters of civic concern. We extend this work by describing JourneyCam, a smartphone-based system that enables powered wheelchair users to capture video and sensor data about their experiences of mobility. Thirteen participants used JourneyCam to document journeys, after which the data they collected was used to support discussions around their experiences. Our findings highlight how the system facilitated the articulation of complex embodied experiences, and how the collected data might have particular value in surfacing these experiences to help inform urban design and policymaking. Participants valued the ways in which JourneyCam's moving image and sensor data made hard-to-express sensations apparent, as well as how it enabled them to surface previously unrecognised issues. We conclude by highlighting future opportunities for how such tools might enable citizens to inform and influence civic governance.
Human Computer Interaction has developed great interest in the Maker Movement. Previous work has explored it from various perspectives, focusing either on its potentials or issues. As these are however only fragmented portrayals, this paper aims to take a broader perspective and interconnect some of the fragments. We conducted a qualitative study in the context of two Maker Faires to gain a better understanding of the complex dynamics that makers operate in. We captured the voices of different stakeholders and explored how their respective agendas relate to each other. The findings illustrate how the event is co-created at the nexus of different technological, social and economic interests while leaving space for diverse practices. The paper contributes a first focused analysis of Maker Faire, probes it as a site for research and discusses how holistic perspectives on the Maker Movement could create new research opportunities.
This paper describes a process of collaborative sense-making through co-designing a reflective poster. We used this method in the 'Empowering Hacks' project which gathered two non-academic individuals with disabilities (authors 2 & 3) and a non-disabled HCI researcher (author 1) around DIY/Making by, for and with people with disabilities. To collectively review the achievements and challenges we experienced in this project, we designed a timeline which allowed us to equally engage in reflective thinking and curatorial discussions on how to present and explain identified key moments. We see the instance of this co-created poster as an opportunity to discuss with the CHI-community the potential and relevance of including research participants in analysis processes.
HCI has a tradition of engaging in democratic practices and contributing to public service innovation. Working with complex socio-political realities presents significant challenges for HCI researchers, which are amplified by the current democratic and economic crisis. In this article, we present insights from a longitudinal study where we worked with multiple stakeholders in the context of an austerity-driven transformation of public parks service in a city in the North East of England. Over the course of 20 months, we developed a participatory socio-technical process designed to create collaborative spaces between communities and institutions to re-envision and re-shape the city's public parks service. The study contributes to HCI research concerned with developing tools and processes that aim at connecting across the boundaries between communities and institutions. Our process and the resulting analysis expose the practical complexities of transformation and co-creation processes and the troubles that come with opening spaces for wider participation within highly contested and political settings. We provide an orientation for HCI design research aspiring to contribute to social innovation and democratic practices in troubled times.
BackgroundScalable weight loss maintenance (WLM) interventions for adults with obesity are lacking but vital for the health and economic benefits of weight loss to be fully realised. We examined the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of a low-intensity technology-mediated behavioural intervention to support WLM in adults with obesity after clinically significant weight loss (≥5%) compared to standard lifestyle advice.Methods and findingsThe NULevel trial was an open-label randomised controlled superiority trial in 288 adults recruited April 2014 to May 2015 with weight loss of ≥5% within the previous 12 months, from a pre-weight loss BMI of ≥30 kg/m2. Participants were self-selected, and the majority self-certified previous weight loss. We used a web-based randomisation system to assign participants to either standard lifestyle advice via newsletter (control arm) or a technology-mediated low-intensity behavioural WLM programme (intervention arm). The intervention comprised a single face-to-face goal-setting meeting, self-monitoring, and remote feedback on weight, diet, and physical activity via links embedded in short message service (SMS). All participants were provided with wirelessly connected weighing scales, but only participants in the intervention arm were instructed to weigh themselves daily and told that they would receive feedback on their weight. After 12 months, we measured the primary outcome, weight (kilograms), as well as frequency of self-weighing, objective physical activity (via accelerometry), psychological variables, and cost-effectiveness. The study was powered to detect a between-group weight difference of ±2.5 kg at follow-up. Overall, 264 participants (92%) completed the trial. Mean weight gain from baseline to 12 months was 1.8 kg (95% CI 0.5-3.1) in the intervention group (n = 131) and 1.8 kg (95% CI 0.6-3.0) in the control group (n = 133). There was no evidence of an effect on weight at 12 months (difference in adjusted mean weight change from baseline: -0.07 [95% CI 1.7 to -1.9], p = 0.9). Intervention participants weighed themselves more frequently than control participants and were more physically active. Intervention participants reported greater satisfaction with weight outcomes, more planning for dietary and physical activity goals and for managing lapses, and greater confidence for healthy eating, weight loss, and WLM. Potential limitations, such as the use of connected weighing study in both trial arms, the absence of a measurement of energy intake, and the recruitment from one region of the United Kingdom, are discussed.ConclusionsThere was no difference in the WLM of participants who received the NULevel intervention compared to participants who received standard lifestyle advice via newsletter. The intervention affected some, but not all, process-related secondary outcomes of the trial.Trial registrationThis trial is registered with the ISRCTN registry (ISRCTN 14657176; registration date 20 March 2014).
The digital heritage sector has become a highly significant part of the development of cultural heritage. Cultural organisations are increasingly using interactive technology to support the understanding of cultural heritage. This research aims to provide an approach for digital cultural heritage researchers and digital museologists to establish an appropriate position within digital cultural heritage. In this paper, the authors have undertaken a qualitative evaluation of data based on interviews, workshops and fieldwork focusing on potential transcultural audiences, and Chinese/non-Chinese puppetry stakeholders. From these findings, the authors have presented several design suggestions for cultural preservation to surmount transcultural barriers.
Recent HCI research has investigated how digital technologies might enable citizens to identify and express matters of civic concern. We extend this work by describing JourneyCam, a smartphone-based system that enables powered wheelchair users to capture video and sensor data about their experiences of mobility. Thirteen participants used JourneyCam to document journeys, after which the data they collected was used to support discussions around their experiences. Our findings highlight how the system facilitated the articulation of complex embodied experiences, and how the collected data might have particular value in surfacing these experiences to help inform urban design and policymaking. Participants valued the ways in which JourneyCam's moving image and sensor data made hard-to-express sensations apparent, as well as how it enabled them to surface previously unrecognised issues. We conclude by highlighting future opportunities for how such tools might enable citizens to inform and influence civic governance.
In recent years, digital cultural heritage has attracted much attention in the HCI domain, but there are currently few studies that focus on enhancing the appreciation of intangible cultural heritage content amongst cross-cultural audiences. This article reports on the development of a Digital Gesture Library to support cross-cultural appreciation of traditional Chinese puppetry. We describe fieldwork with professional puppeteers to understand their practices and art form, which informed the development of the Digital Gesture Library, which uses a three-perspective archive of puppetry gestures and a tangible interface to support cross-cultural audiences’ appreciation of puppetry and encourages further exploration of Chinese culture. We present findings on the efficacy of the Digital Gesture Library from qualitative and quantitative user studies and, from this, discuss the opportunities and challenges for developing digital technology for cross-cultural appreciation of intangible heritage.