Reciprocal Research - Providing Value in Design Research from the Outset in the Rural United States.

Researchers in various fields have been discussing the ethics of field research, particularly their responsibility to provide concrete benefits to participants. For example, when designing technology for their participants the discussion has centered around how and whether the technology benefits participants. We argue, that design projects can be reoriented towards benefiting participants from the outset, by slightly changing the process, activities, and initial object of design. Focusing instead on how to immediately impact the goals of the participants, designers can then progressively introduce technology to scale their impact. In this paper we present an ongoing instantiation of this process in rural West Virginia, where we have been teaching computer classes at a local library. We have found that our participants and partners are more appreciative of our efforts, and that the data we are gathering is just as, if not more, rich than previous design methodologies that we have used.