The benefits of digitalizing public services can only be met if citizens adopt digital services w... more The benefits of digitalizing public services can only be met if citizens adopt digital services while at the same time stop using expensive traditional channels. Still, many citizens keep using traditional channels. Studies on channel choice and IT adoption have addressed what factors influence citizens’ channel behavior. However, they have omitted the interplay between citizens’ perceptions of public services and their channel choices, as well as how the design of digital services and citizens' experience of using self-service applications affect their channel choice. In addition, the technological optimism of digital government may have caused us to overlook the important question whether all public services are suitable for digitalization. In this ongoing research paper, we present the outline of a research project starting this summer, in which we will critically analyze – from the perspectives of citizens and public sector organizations – what public services are suitable f...
For many years we have been pondering the question where we might find the gender perspectives in... more For many years we have been pondering the question where we might find the gender perspectives in informatics. In doing this, we feel squeezed between two opposing groups, between feminists researchers who seem to believe that informaticians are male whatever sex they may be, and women working within technological disciplines who
Proceedings of the 13th Participatory Design Conference on Short Papers, Industry Cases, Workshop Descriptions, Doctoral Consortium papers, and Keynote abstracts - PDC '14 - volume 2
In this paper we report from a project where high school students were involved in design for doi... more In this paper we report from a project where high school students were involved in design for doing their taxes. Young people show little interest and engagement in doing taxes, and we cannot presuppose their engagement and active participation in the design. Our aim for the design process was to increase their interest in and knowledge about doing taxes by giving them a say in the design. When added to the PD techniques, the concepts ability, motivation and trigger from persuasive design were found to be helpful in motivating the students and increasing their ability to actively participate. The students' design suggestions varied from political aspects of taxes to personal services and tax games.
Research in social & administrative pharmacy : RSAP, Jan 27, 2018
Data from large electronic databases are increasingly used in epidemiological research, but golde... more Data from large electronic databases are increasingly used in epidemiological research, but golden standards for database validation remain elusive. The Prescription Registry (IPR) and the National Health Service (NHS) databases in Iceland have not undergone formal validation, and gross errors have repeatedly been found in Icelandic statistics on pharmaceuticals. In 2015, new amphetamine tablets entered the Icelandic market, but were withdrawn half a year later due to being substandard. Return of unused stocks provided knowledge of the exact number of tablets used and hence a case where quality of the data could be assessed. A case study of the quality of statistics in a national database on pharmaceuticals. Data on the sales of the substandard amphetamine were obtained from the Prescription Registry and the pharmaceuticals statistics database. Upon the revelation of discrepancies, explanations were sought from the respective institutions, the producer, and dose dispensing companies...
Doing civic duties is neither paid work nor leisure: it is a private, work-like activity. Digital... more Doing civic duties is neither paid work nor leisure: it is a private, work-like activity. Digital services enrol customers in doing work tasks. Also digital public services delegate work to citizens, but there are important differences between automation for citizens doing their civic duties and services that customers choose to use. In this paper, we discuss how digitally automated services remove some tasks but also introduce new work tasks for citizens and how citizens handle these. We present a study of citizens’ calls to a public service provider (the tax authorities) requesting help carrying out their civic duties. The analysis of citizens’ problems with doing their taxes is a basis for suggesting an alternative design of digital tax services that can increase citizens’ mastery and autonomy when doing their taxes. We suggest an approach for designing coherent tasks for the citizen, and how doing one’s civic duties can be seen as work—and as a part of life. We argue that designing for automated public services need to apply a citizen-centric perspective in order to maintain a basis for citizens to participate in democratic processes in society.
Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing, 2012
An ambition for a democratic information society is providing services that maintain and even enh... more An ambition for a democratic information society is providing services that maintain and even enhance citizens’ mastery and control of their environment. Analyzing public services from a citizen autonomy perspective can indicate where the service and its IT-systems do not support user autonomy. We analyze a public service and discuss it as a sociomaterial entanglement. Based on our data on citizens’ use of a public service we identify a need to distinguish between entanglements and imbrications and suggest a notion of disentangling in order to characterize the way in which the public service advisors help the citizens. Experiencing the service as an imbrication enables the citizen to see and act, while an entanglement seems impossible to handle without a certain level of competence. Different types of entanglements need different types of competencies to address them. Finally, we discuss how the notion of disentangling tax issues can support citizen autonomy.
In Norway today there are many schemes to recruit women to computer science disci-plines. However... more In Norway today there are many schemes to recruit women to computer science disci-plines. However, statistics indicate that the number of female students in computer tech-nology disciplines is not substantially increasing. It may be that we have reached a limit for the ...
There are many reasons why artifacts and systems are difficult to use in practice. In this paper,... more There are many reasons why artifacts and systems are difficult to use in practice. In this paper, we investigate such difficulties as a basis for design for ease of use. Difficulties may stem from the artifact or system itself, or from the artifact or system in use in its real use context. Technology introduces new tasks, and both learning new tasks and unlearning old habits can be challenging. We discuss how users' previous knowledge and habits can be used to understand how and why an artefact is difficult to use. This understanding is useful for designing artefacts that are easy to use. We end the paper with presenting a conceptual framework for design for coherence and simplicity from the users' perspective, where users' habits and bodily knowledge act as resources for design.
Methods for data collection in research and design of digital technologies seem similar, but lead... more Methods for data collection in research and design of digital technologies seem similar, but lead to different results. In this paper we suggest a conceptual framework for characterising, planning, evaluating, and reporting knowledge produced when doing research and design. We characterise research based on the three paradigms positivist, interpretive, and critical. We suggest three simple questions that can be used for characterising and reflecting on the possible underlying philosophical assumptions (paradigms) and methodologies: 1) who owns the problem, 2) whose meaning is represented, and 3) who delineates the fieldwork. These three questions help us address similarities and differences of research methodologies and the kind of knowledge produced. We discuss how this conceptual framework allows for clarity and flexibility in research design.
Proceedings of the 16th Participatory Design Conference 2020 - Participation(s) Otherwise - Volume 1, 2020
Designing for interacting with data-driven approaches is a new challenge that PD will have to add... more Designing for interacting with data-driven approaches is a new challenge that PD will have to address. This paper presents a case of prototyping for automation of editors’ manual curating of the online front-page of a large newspaper. The editors make decisions about the presentation and placement of article teasers on the front-page. A new data-driven tool, which automates curating the front-page based on quantitative rankings, is about to be introduced. We have developed a prototype to discuss with the editors how they want support for carrying out their judgment-based decisions for a front-page with a good mix of news topics. We present concepts for discussing how manual tasks that interact with data-driven automation can be designed to be meaningful for people in their work.
This paper describes a qualitative study that seeks to give a rich description of the experiences... more This paper describes a qualitative study that seeks to give a rich description of the experiences and viewpoints of elderly about their use of digital technologies in general and videoconferencing in particular. Interviews and workshops were methods for data collection. The workshops included a discussion group session in addition to a session of trying out gesturing as a response to a videoconference call. A prototype of a gestures-based interface for interacting with a videoconference system intended for use in their homes was tried out. The participants had clear views of technologies they used and liked, and they wanted to maintain physical fitness as long as possible. Although they found the gestures easy to perform, they did not want to use this technology in their homes. This apparent self-contradictory response is discussed. Keywords-elderly; videoconference; gestures; Kinect; design.
Aboard a sailboat, when the wind changes unfavourably for our course, we can adjust the sails. We... more Aboard a sailboat, when the wind changes unfavourably for our course, we can adjust the sails. We perform the operation of pulling a rope—but when the rope is fastened to the sail as a sheet, pulling the rope means adjusting the sail, while also paying attention to the wind, the sea current, the movements of the boat. The rope-with-sail is the very rope we are pulling: a sociomaterial entanglement as well as a physical element in that same entanglement. We can only know if the pulling is successful by looking at the sail and noticing how the boat reacts to the adjustment. We are able to handle the entanglement of the boat, the sail, the wind, the current as a whole while at the same time making small, incremental adjustments with the material rope. With both the whole and the material in mind we elaborate our position in the debate. In our paper ‘Conditions for Autonomy in the Information Society: Disentangling as a public service’ (this issue) we argue that the tax advisors of the ...
There are many reasons why artifacts and systems become difficult to use. In this paper, we inves... more There are many reasons why artifacts and systems become difficult to use. In this paper, we investigate difficulties as a basis for design for ease of use. Difficulties may stem from the artifact or system itself, or from the artifact or system in use in context. Technology introduces new tasks, and both learning new tasks and unlearning the old ways pose challenges. We propose that users’ habits and previous knowledge are used as resources for design, and present a conceptual framework for design for coherence and simplicity from a user’s perspective.
For many years we have been pondering the question where we might find the genderperspectives in ... more For many years we have been pondering the question where we might find the genderperspectives in informatics. In doing this, we feel squeezed between two opposinggroups, between feminists researchers who seem to believe that informaticians are malewhatever sex they may be, and women working within technological disciplines whoclaim that there is no gender perspectives in science: science and technology are neutral.We think otherwise.As female informaticians we believe that there are gender aspects in informatics, and thatquestioning these is interesting from both a feminist and an informatics point of view. Inorder to be able to pose or understand feminist critique of technology, an understandingof gender aspects is necessary. The article aims at clarifying what a feminist critique ofthe discipline is or can be. There is very little discussion about these issues among ourcolleagues, even among our female colleagues. Our own attempt to raise a discussionwith feminist researchers ten ...
This paper presents a study of work practice at the Norwegian Agency for Quality Assurance in Edu... more This paper presents a study of work practice at the Norwegian Agency for Quality Assurance in Education (NOKUT), a Norwegian agency working with recognition of foreign education. Through ethnographic field studies and methods from service design, we explore, analyze and visualize the steps of a digital case handling practice. We show how cases and case handling practice vary in complexity due to different circumstances, and how levels of complexity are not dependent on the type of case handling system used. Further, we discuss how this rich variety of cases would benefit from different levels of digital system support in order to support and not hamper the case handling process. KeywordsCSCW; Practice; Ethnography; Service Design;
There are many reasons why artifacts and systems are difficult to use in practice. In this paper,... more There are many reasons why artifacts and systems are difficult to use in practice. In this paper, we investigate such difficulties as a basis for design for ease of use. Difficulties may stem from the artifact or system itself, or from the artifact or system in use in its real use context. Technology introduces new tasks, and both learning new tasks and unlearning old habits can be challenging. We discuss how users’ previous knowledge and habits can be used to understand how and why an artefact is difficult to use. This understanding is useful for designing artefacts that are easy to use. We end the paper with presenting a conceptual framework for design for coherence and simplicity from the users’ perspective, where users’ habits and bodily knowledge act as resources for design. Keywords—usability; habits; automated behaviour; automation; participatory design.
An ambition for a democratic information society is providing services that main - tain and even ... more An ambition for a democratic information society is providing services that main - tain and even enhance citizens' mastery and control of their life situation. Analyzing pub - lic services from a citizen autonomy perspective can indicate where the service and its IT-systems do not support user autonomy. We analyze a public service and discuss it as a sociomaterial entanglement. Based on our data on citizens' use of a public service we identify a need to distinguish between entanglements and imbrications and suggest the notion of disentangling in order to characterize the way in which the public service advi - sors help the citizens. From at a design perspective we look for openings for change and improvement. Different types of entanglements need different types of competencies to address them. We make a distinction between entanglement and imbrication to open up a space for change. Finally, we discuss how the notion of disentangling tax issues can support citizen autonomy.
The benefits of digitalizing public services can only be met if citizens adopt digital services w... more The benefits of digitalizing public services can only be met if citizens adopt digital services while at the same time stop using expensive traditional channels. Still, many citizens keep using traditional channels. Studies on channel choice and IT adoption have addressed what factors influence citizens’ channel behavior. However, they have omitted the interplay between citizens’ perceptions of public services and their channel choices, as well as how the design of digital services and citizens' experience of using self-service applications affect their channel choice. In addition, the technological optimism of digital government may have caused us to overlook the important question whether all public services are suitable for digitalization. In this ongoing research paper, we present the outline of a research project starting this summer, in which we will critically analyze – from the perspectives of citizens and public sector organizations – what public services are suitable f...
For many years we have been pondering the question where we might find the gender perspectives in... more For many years we have been pondering the question where we might find the gender perspectives in informatics. In doing this, we feel squeezed between two opposing groups, between feminists researchers who seem to believe that informaticians are male whatever sex they may be, and women working within technological disciplines who
Proceedings of the 13th Participatory Design Conference on Short Papers, Industry Cases, Workshop Descriptions, Doctoral Consortium papers, and Keynote abstracts - PDC '14 - volume 2
In this paper we report from a project where high school students were involved in design for doi... more In this paper we report from a project where high school students were involved in design for doing their taxes. Young people show little interest and engagement in doing taxes, and we cannot presuppose their engagement and active participation in the design. Our aim for the design process was to increase their interest in and knowledge about doing taxes by giving them a say in the design. When added to the PD techniques, the concepts ability, motivation and trigger from persuasive design were found to be helpful in motivating the students and increasing their ability to actively participate. The students' design suggestions varied from political aspects of taxes to personal services and tax games.
Research in social & administrative pharmacy : RSAP, Jan 27, 2018
Data from large electronic databases are increasingly used in epidemiological research, but golde... more Data from large electronic databases are increasingly used in epidemiological research, but golden standards for database validation remain elusive. The Prescription Registry (IPR) and the National Health Service (NHS) databases in Iceland have not undergone formal validation, and gross errors have repeatedly been found in Icelandic statistics on pharmaceuticals. In 2015, new amphetamine tablets entered the Icelandic market, but were withdrawn half a year later due to being substandard. Return of unused stocks provided knowledge of the exact number of tablets used and hence a case where quality of the data could be assessed. A case study of the quality of statistics in a national database on pharmaceuticals. Data on the sales of the substandard amphetamine were obtained from the Prescription Registry and the pharmaceuticals statistics database. Upon the revelation of discrepancies, explanations were sought from the respective institutions, the producer, and dose dispensing companies...
Doing civic duties is neither paid work nor leisure: it is a private, work-like activity. Digital... more Doing civic duties is neither paid work nor leisure: it is a private, work-like activity. Digital services enrol customers in doing work tasks. Also digital public services delegate work to citizens, but there are important differences between automation for citizens doing their civic duties and services that customers choose to use. In this paper, we discuss how digitally automated services remove some tasks but also introduce new work tasks for citizens and how citizens handle these. We present a study of citizens’ calls to a public service provider (the tax authorities) requesting help carrying out their civic duties. The analysis of citizens’ problems with doing their taxes is a basis for suggesting an alternative design of digital tax services that can increase citizens’ mastery and autonomy when doing their taxes. We suggest an approach for designing coherent tasks for the citizen, and how doing one’s civic duties can be seen as work—and as a part of life. We argue that designing for automated public services need to apply a citizen-centric perspective in order to maintain a basis for citizens to participate in democratic processes in society.
Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing, 2012
An ambition for a democratic information society is providing services that maintain and even enh... more An ambition for a democratic information society is providing services that maintain and even enhance citizens’ mastery and control of their environment. Analyzing public services from a citizen autonomy perspective can indicate where the service and its IT-systems do not support user autonomy. We analyze a public service and discuss it as a sociomaterial entanglement. Based on our data on citizens’ use of a public service we identify a need to distinguish between entanglements and imbrications and suggest a notion of disentangling in order to characterize the way in which the public service advisors help the citizens. Experiencing the service as an imbrication enables the citizen to see and act, while an entanglement seems impossible to handle without a certain level of competence. Different types of entanglements need different types of competencies to address them. Finally, we discuss how the notion of disentangling tax issues can support citizen autonomy.
In Norway today there are many schemes to recruit women to computer science disci-plines. However... more In Norway today there are many schemes to recruit women to computer science disci-plines. However, statistics indicate that the number of female students in computer tech-nology disciplines is not substantially increasing. It may be that we have reached a limit for the ...
There are many reasons why artifacts and systems are difficult to use in practice. In this paper,... more There are many reasons why artifacts and systems are difficult to use in practice. In this paper, we investigate such difficulties as a basis for design for ease of use. Difficulties may stem from the artifact or system itself, or from the artifact or system in use in its real use context. Technology introduces new tasks, and both learning new tasks and unlearning old habits can be challenging. We discuss how users' previous knowledge and habits can be used to understand how and why an artefact is difficult to use. This understanding is useful for designing artefacts that are easy to use. We end the paper with presenting a conceptual framework for design for coherence and simplicity from the users' perspective, where users' habits and bodily knowledge act as resources for design.
Methods for data collection in research and design of digital technologies seem similar, but lead... more Methods for data collection in research and design of digital technologies seem similar, but lead to different results. In this paper we suggest a conceptual framework for characterising, planning, evaluating, and reporting knowledge produced when doing research and design. We characterise research based on the three paradigms positivist, interpretive, and critical. We suggest three simple questions that can be used for characterising and reflecting on the possible underlying philosophical assumptions (paradigms) and methodologies: 1) who owns the problem, 2) whose meaning is represented, and 3) who delineates the fieldwork. These three questions help us address similarities and differences of research methodologies and the kind of knowledge produced. We discuss how this conceptual framework allows for clarity and flexibility in research design.
Proceedings of the 16th Participatory Design Conference 2020 - Participation(s) Otherwise - Volume 1, 2020
Designing for interacting with data-driven approaches is a new challenge that PD will have to add... more Designing for interacting with data-driven approaches is a new challenge that PD will have to address. This paper presents a case of prototyping for automation of editors’ manual curating of the online front-page of a large newspaper. The editors make decisions about the presentation and placement of article teasers on the front-page. A new data-driven tool, which automates curating the front-page based on quantitative rankings, is about to be introduced. We have developed a prototype to discuss with the editors how they want support for carrying out their judgment-based decisions for a front-page with a good mix of news topics. We present concepts for discussing how manual tasks that interact with data-driven automation can be designed to be meaningful for people in their work.
This paper describes a qualitative study that seeks to give a rich description of the experiences... more This paper describes a qualitative study that seeks to give a rich description of the experiences and viewpoints of elderly about their use of digital technologies in general and videoconferencing in particular. Interviews and workshops were methods for data collection. The workshops included a discussion group session in addition to a session of trying out gesturing as a response to a videoconference call. A prototype of a gestures-based interface for interacting with a videoconference system intended for use in their homes was tried out. The participants had clear views of technologies they used and liked, and they wanted to maintain physical fitness as long as possible. Although they found the gestures easy to perform, they did not want to use this technology in their homes. This apparent self-contradictory response is discussed. Keywords-elderly; videoconference; gestures; Kinect; design.
Aboard a sailboat, when the wind changes unfavourably for our course, we can adjust the sails. We... more Aboard a sailboat, when the wind changes unfavourably for our course, we can adjust the sails. We perform the operation of pulling a rope—but when the rope is fastened to the sail as a sheet, pulling the rope means adjusting the sail, while also paying attention to the wind, the sea current, the movements of the boat. The rope-with-sail is the very rope we are pulling: a sociomaterial entanglement as well as a physical element in that same entanglement. We can only know if the pulling is successful by looking at the sail and noticing how the boat reacts to the adjustment. We are able to handle the entanglement of the boat, the sail, the wind, the current as a whole while at the same time making small, incremental adjustments with the material rope. With both the whole and the material in mind we elaborate our position in the debate. In our paper ‘Conditions for Autonomy in the Information Society: Disentangling as a public service’ (this issue) we argue that the tax advisors of the ...
There are many reasons why artifacts and systems become difficult to use. In this paper, we inves... more There are many reasons why artifacts and systems become difficult to use. In this paper, we investigate difficulties as a basis for design for ease of use. Difficulties may stem from the artifact or system itself, or from the artifact or system in use in context. Technology introduces new tasks, and both learning new tasks and unlearning the old ways pose challenges. We propose that users’ habits and previous knowledge are used as resources for design, and present a conceptual framework for design for coherence and simplicity from a user’s perspective.
For many years we have been pondering the question where we might find the genderperspectives in ... more For many years we have been pondering the question where we might find the genderperspectives in informatics. In doing this, we feel squeezed between two opposinggroups, between feminists researchers who seem to believe that informaticians are malewhatever sex they may be, and women working within technological disciplines whoclaim that there is no gender perspectives in science: science and technology are neutral.We think otherwise.As female informaticians we believe that there are gender aspects in informatics, and thatquestioning these is interesting from both a feminist and an informatics point of view. Inorder to be able to pose or understand feminist critique of technology, an understandingof gender aspects is necessary. The article aims at clarifying what a feminist critique ofthe discipline is or can be. There is very little discussion about these issues among ourcolleagues, even among our female colleagues. Our own attempt to raise a discussionwith feminist researchers ten ...
This paper presents a study of work practice at the Norwegian Agency for Quality Assurance in Edu... more This paper presents a study of work practice at the Norwegian Agency for Quality Assurance in Education (NOKUT), a Norwegian agency working with recognition of foreign education. Through ethnographic field studies and methods from service design, we explore, analyze and visualize the steps of a digital case handling practice. We show how cases and case handling practice vary in complexity due to different circumstances, and how levels of complexity are not dependent on the type of case handling system used. Further, we discuss how this rich variety of cases would benefit from different levels of digital system support in order to support and not hamper the case handling process. KeywordsCSCW; Practice; Ethnography; Service Design;
There are many reasons why artifacts and systems are difficult to use in practice. In this paper,... more There are many reasons why artifacts and systems are difficult to use in practice. In this paper, we investigate such difficulties as a basis for design for ease of use. Difficulties may stem from the artifact or system itself, or from the artifact or system in use in its real use context. Technology introduces new tasks, and both learning new tasks and unlearning old habits can be challenging. We discuss how users’ previous knowledge and habits can be used to understand how and why an artefact is difficult to use. This understanding is useful for designing artefacts that are easy to use. We end the paper with presenting a conceptual framework for design for coherence and simplicity from the users’ perspective, where users’ habits and bodily knowledge act as resources for design. Keywords—usability; habits; automated behaviour; automation; participatory design.
An ambition for a democratic information society is providing services that main - tain and even ... more An ambition for a democratic information society is providing services that main - tain and even enhance citizens' mastery and control of their life situation. Analyzing pub - lic services from a citizen autonomy perspective can indicate where the service and its IT-systems do not support user autonomy. We analyze a public service and discuss it as a sociomaterial entanglement. Based on our data on citizens' use of a public service we identify a need to distinguish between entanglements and imbrications and suggest the notion of disentangling in order to characterize the way in which the public service advi - sors help the citizens. From at a design perspective we look for openings for change and improvement. Different types of entanglements need different types of competencies to address them. We make a distinction between entanglement and imbrication to open up a space for change. Finally, we discuss how the notion of disentangling tax issues can support citizen autonomy.
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