2021 3rd International Multidisciplinary Information Technology and Engineering Conference (IMITEC), 2021
in the wake of digitalization, technology has changed the world, connecting people with informati... more in the wake of digitalization, technology has changed the world, connecting people with information and services at the touch of a finger. Regular Internet access, smartphones, and other technological advances have made the world a global village by bringing people from various geographical locations together. Despite the positive changes, the pace and scale of this technological revolution have created space for nefarious actors. Namibia has been grappling with issues centring on cyber security education, policy, and lack of online safety awareness. In recent years, Namibians have experienced identity theft, data breaches, fake news, phishing, hacking, money laundering, and child abuse initiated on online platforms. As such, this study developed an interactive video game to teach online safety in Namibia to combat online child abuse. An online survey, game design challenge workshops, and focus groups were used to gather information. A total of 84 relevant stakeholders (students, parents, teachers, and game developers) participated in two game design challenge workshops and the alpha and beta testing sessions. These workshops followed a solid co-design practice. We designed and developed two Namibian-inspired game prototypes that were combined into one game, which was implemented and tested during this study. All the game prototypes followed an iterative process of information gathering and sharing stories of online inappropriate behaviours, drawing storyboards, designing wireframes, and testing with cognitive walkthroughs and a think-aloud protocol, alpha and beta testing. The final game is called Onlinicus- Share your Story versioned in 2D and 3D. This game took an approach of user instructiveness and interaction in form of story-telling. The use of predefined personas and utilising participants’ own stories contributed to the richness of the stories and games developed.
Proceedings of the South African Institute of Computer Scientists and Information Technologists
The literature shows a growth in the number of publications on e-Government in some African count... more The literature shows a growth in the number of publications on e-Government in some African countries, but little is known on e-Government in Namibia. Furthermore, few studies evaluated e-Government from the citizens' perspective in an African context. The study argues that the focus on e-Government has to shift to the citizens' viewpoint and determine the impact on different segments of the population. Accordingly, this study investigates factors contributing to social exclusion in Namibia. Namibia has an e-Government framework for the years 2014 to 2018 and hence there is a need to evaluate the progress on e-Government implementation. The study is an exploratory case study in a governmental Ministry using questionnaires and interviews. Participants included citizens seeking services and government officials providing the services. The findings include the need for e-government services to be interactive, accessible and available on mobile phones.
Proceedings of the Second African Conference for Human Computer Interaction: Thriving Communities, 2018
In this installation paper, we present "Hard Struggle", an interactive career guidance ... more In this installation paper, we present "Hard Struggle", an interactive career guidance game that is co-designed and co-created with high school learners, university and vocational students as well as After School care givers. The aim of the "The Hard Struggle" game is to expose the youth to different career opportunities including the careers that are invisible to them. Participatory co-design workshops were conducted with the research target group and other stakeholders to design the game. In this paper, we discuss how the "Hard Struggle" game works, how it was developed through game design challenge workshops, the methods involved in the game prototype design and development.
Proceedings of the Second African Conference for Human Computer Interaction: Thriving Communities, 2018
Career counselling is one of the most pressing issues in Namibia. Some youth in Namibia expressed... more Career counselling is one of the most pressing issues in Namibia. Some youth in Namibia expressed that they do not receive career guidance at all in their high schools. Besides the lack of general career guidance systems, high school students are also not exposed to other sources of information as well as career and educational opportunities. However, given the proliferation of smart mobile phones and cost-effective data plans a gamified career counselling system for mobile devices was developed to complement the existing career systems in Namibia. In this paper we discuss how stakeholders i.e. university and high school students, and career counselors contributed to an interactive career guidance mobile game through participatory co-design workshops. This was done through a game design challenge approach, several workshops and an eventual prototype that will undergo testing in a gameathon soon.
Electronic government (e-Government) is expected to play a critical role of enabling the attainme... more Electronic government (e-Government) is expected to play a critical role of enabling the attainment of best practices of governance. Despite various efforts to implement e-Government, its use by the populace remains low. There are claims that e-government promotes social exclusion of those in under-served rural communities on technical, language, costs and culture grounds. As such, this study assumes a co-designing and co-creation approach in an attempt to incorporate different contextual factors resulting from cultural surroundings, capacities and skills among rural population. The aim is to promote electronic participation by rural based citizens and attain social inclusivity. Users based in under-served rural communities shall be engaged in identifying characteristics of e-Government and issues with rural ICT. The study makes use of solar powered technology (mobile phone and internet access) provided by the "Fusion Grid" project. Selected e-Government services are used ...
Proceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 2017
Reports of gender-based violence (GBV) in Namibia have increased dramatically over the last years... more Reports of gender-based violence (GBV) in Namibia have increased dramatically over the last years. The First Lady of the Republic of Namibia has initiated a national campaign to fight GBV recognizing the seriousness of the matter. However, with the phenomena being researched but with no successful interventions and not having explored the power of technology and interactive installations, the campaign risks to be yet just another awareness campaign not addressing the root causes of the matter. Thus we are presenting an explorative interactive technology installation as part of the campaign, to provoke and trigger transformation while at the same time collecting essential data to inform the next steps of the campaign. While mixing research and intervention in the real life ensures high impact, yet it is open for criticism on a methodological and ethical level.
Proceedings of the First African Conference on Human Computer Interaction, 2016
This panel seeks to further explore among multiple diverse HCI educators and researchers on how t... more This panel seeks to further explore among multiple diverse HCI educators and researchers on how to proceed with the establishment of an HCI living curriculum that integrates different cultural contexts and requirements from the bottom up, in an emic way. The panelists will focus particularly on their own perspectives in relation to the indigenous appropriation of the HCI curriculum not only in Africa but in the Global South. The main goal of the panel is to generate a discussion around opportunities and challenges in the co-design and innovation of a locally meaningful HCI curricula.
Proceedings of the First African Conference on Human Computer Interaction, 2016
This panel discussion will explore what the current situation of innovation and design in a varie... more This panel discussion will explore what the current situation of innovation and design in a variety of African countries are. A number of innovation and design labs as well as community innovation initiatives have appeared in numerous countries across Africa. Higher Education Institutions also drive this innovation and design revolution through establishing innovation and design hubs in their universities that incubates among others tech start-ups. The panelists will share their insights and explore innovation and design on the continent and how technology enables it.
2021 3rd International Multidisciplinary Information Technology and Engineering Conference (IMITEC), 2021
in the wake of digitalization, technology has changed the world, connecting people with informati... more in the wake of digitalization, technology has changed the world, connecting people with information and services at the touch of a finger. Regular Internet access, smartphones, and other technological advances have made the world a global village by bringing people from various geographical locations together. Despite the positive changes, the pace and scale of this technological revolution have created space for nefarious actors. Namibia has been grappling with issues centring on cyber security education, policy, and lack of online safety awareness. In recent years, Namibians have experienced identity theft, data breaches, fake news, phishing, hacking, money laundering, and child abuse initiated on online platforms. As such, this study developed an interactive video game to teach online safety in Namibia to combat online child abuse. An online survey, game design challenge workshops, and focus groups were used to gather information. A total of 84 relevant stakeholders (students, parents, teachers, and game developers) participated in two game design challenge workshops and the alpha and beta testing sessions. These workshops followed a solid co-design practice. We designed and developed two Namibian-inspired game prototypes that were combined into one game, which was implemented and tested during this study. All the game prototypes followed an iterative process of information gathering and sharing stories of online inappropriate behaviours, drawing storyboards, designing wireframes, and testing with cognitive walkthroughs and a think-aloud protocol, alpha and beta testing. The final game is called Onlinicus- Share your Story versioned in 2D and 3D. This game took an approach of user instructiveness and interaction in form of story-telling. The use of predefined personas and utilising participants’ own stories contributed to the richness of the stories and games developed.
Proceedings of the South African Institute of Computer Scientists and Information Technologists
The literature shows a growth in the number of publications on e-Government in some African count... more The literature shows a growth in the number of publications on e-Government in some African countries, but little is known on e-Government in Namibia. Furthermore, few studies evaluated e-Government from the citizens' perspective in an African context. The study argues that the focus on e-Government has to shift to the citizens' viewpoint and determine the impact on different segments of the population. Accordingly, this study investigates factors contributing to social exclusion in Namibia. Namibia has an e-Government framework for the years 2014 to 2018 and hence there is a need to evaluate the progress on e-Government implementation. The study is an exploratory case study in a governmental Ministry using questionnaires and interviews. Participants included citizens seeking services and government officials providing the services. The findings include the need for e-government services to be interactive, accessible and available on mobile phones.
Proceedings of the Second African Conference for Human Computer Interaction: Thriving Communities, 2018
In this installation paper, we present "Hard Struggle", an interactive career guidance ... more In this installation paper, we present "Hard Struggle", an interactive career guidance game that is co-designed and co-created with high school learners, university and vocational students as well as After School care givers. The aim of the "The Hard Struggle" game is to expose the youth to different career opportunities including the careers that are invisible to them. Participatory co-design workshops were conducted with the research target group and other stakeholders to design the game. In this paper, we discuss how the "Hard Struggle" game works, how it was developed through game design challenge workshops, the methods involved in the game prototype design and development.
Proceedings of the Second African Conference for Human Computer Interaction: Thriving Communities, 2018
Career counselling is one of the most pressing issues in Namibia. Some youth in Namibia expressed... more Career counselling is one of the most pressing issues in Namibia. Some youth in Namibia expressed that they do not receive career guidance at all in their high schools. Besides the lack of general career guidance systems, high school students are also not exposed to other sources of information as well as career and educational opportunities. However, given the proliferation of smart mobile phones and cost-effective data plans a gamified career counselling system for mobile devices was developed to complement the existing career systems in Namibia. In this paper we discuss how stakeholders i.e. university and high school students, and career counselors contributed to an interactive career guidance mobile game through participatory co-design workshops. This was done through a game design challenge approach, several workshops and an eventual prototype that will undergo testing in a gameathon soon.
Electronic government (e-Government) is expected to play a critical role of enabling the attainme... more Electronic government (e-Government) is expected to play a critical role of enabling the attainment of best practices of governance. Despite various efforts to implement e-Government, its use by the populace remains low. There are claims that e-government promotes social exclusion of those in under-served rural communities on technical, language, costs and culture grounds. As such, this study assumes a co-designing and co-creation approach in an attempt to incorporate different contextual factors resulting from cultural surroundings, capacities and skills among rural population. The aim is to promote electronic participation by rural based citizens and attain social inclusivity. Users based in under-served rural communities shall be engaged in identifying characteristics of e-Government and issues with rural ICT. The study makes use of solar powered technology (mobile phone and internet access) provided by the "Fusion Grid" project. Selected e-Government services are used ...
Proceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 2017
Reports of gender-based violence (GBV) in Namibia have increased dramatically over the last years... more Reports of gender-based violence (GBV) in Namibia have increased dramatically over the last years. The First Lady of the Republic of Namibia has initiated a national campaign to fight GBV recognizing the seriousness of the matter. However, with the phenomena being researched but with no successful interventions and not having explored the power of technology and interactive installations, the campaign risks to be yet just another awareness campaign not addressing the root causes of the matter. Thus we are presenting an explorative interactive technology installation as part of the campaign, to provoke and trigger transformation while at the same time collecting essential data to inform the next steps of the campaign. While mixing research and intervention in the real life ensures high impact, yet it is open for criticism on a methodological and ethical level.
Proceedings of the First African Conference on Human Computer Interaction, 2016
This panel seeks to further explore among multiple diverse HCI educators and researchers on how t... more This panel seeks to further explore among multiple diverse HCI educators and researchers on how to proceed with the establishment of an HCI living curriculum that integrates different cultural contexts and requirements from the bottom up, in an emic way. The panelists will focus particularly on their own perspectives in relation to the indigenous appropriation of the HCI curriculum not only in Africa but in the Global South. The main goal of the panel is to generate a discussion around opportunities and challenges in the co-design and innovation of a locally meaningful HCI curricula.
Proceedings of the First African Conference on Human Computer Interaction, 2016
This panel discussion will explore what the current situation of innovation and design in a varie... more This panel discussion will explore what the current situation of innovation and design in a variety of African countries are. A number of innovation and design labs as well as community innovation initiatives have appeared in numerous countries across Africa. Higher Education Institutions also drive this innovation and design revolution through establishing innovation and design hubs in their universities that incubates among others tech start-ups. The panelists will share their insights and explore innovation and design on the continent and how technology enables it.
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Papers by Anicia Peters