Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, 2021
An increasing number of people around the world are forced to leave their homes due to the climat... more An increasing number of people around the world are forced to leave their homes due to the climate catastrophe, regional conflict or poverty. In their new host countries however, refugees and migrants are frequently met by a wide range of challenges, including wider societal participation. The difficulties migrants and refugees face have also increasingly become the topic of HCI and CSCW work. In this paper we report on a three year-long project, involving refugees, migrants and activist supporters in a co-design project to develop tools that aid the process of resettling. Several aspects have challenged equal participation in the project, including divergent motives, unequal power distribution and cultural heterogeneity. Despite these challenges the project outcomes are in use and maintained beyond the project runtime through voluntary actors. We reflect on this discrepancy between process and outcome drawing on the concept of care.
CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION 2. RESEARCH BACKGROUND AND RELATED WORK 2.1. Energy Management in Organi... more CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION 2. RESEARCH BACKGROUND AND RELATED WORK 2.1. Energy Management in Organizations: Drivers, Benefit and Research Directions 2.2. The work to make digital networks work 2.3. C...
ABSTRACT We present the design and evaluation of a lightweight mobile S.O.S. system that facilita... more ABSTRACT We present the design and evaluation of a lightweight mobile S.O.S. system that facilitates ad-hoc communication between first responders and victims in emergency situations. Our approach leverages established protocols and standards in unforeseen ways to provide a platform supporting the creation of short-lived communication links. The system comprises two mobile applications: one victim application that allows the broadcasting of distress signals by a novel use of Wi-Fi SSIDs; and a responder application that allows first responders to discover and trace the people broadcasting the signals. The main difference of our system with other platforms enabling communication in crisis situations is that our system is independent from existing network infrastructure and runs on off-the-shelf, commercially available smartphones. We describe the results of our evaluation process in the context of both a design evaluation during a real-world emergency response exercise and of two user workshops in preparation for an upcoming large-scale exercise.
Techno:Phil – Aktuelle Herausforderungen der Technikphilosophie, 2019
In this paper, we describe the feminist perspectives that have informed design in the HCI communi... more In this paper, we describe the feminist perspectives that have informed design in the HCI community, and develop an argument for an approach that translates these broad commitments into a pragmatic design space, drawing on emancipatory agendas such as participatory design. As designers of technologies, we regard creating research infrastructures that offer safe spaces for the development of user-centered artifacts based on diverse and critical perspectives as not only a utopian vision, but as a practical contribution to a more equal society. Shaowen Bardzell stresses this point when she states that in envisioning utopias, we are “seeking not so much to predict the future, but rather to imagine a radically better one”. Recognizing that technology shapes social life and amplifies social practices both good and bad, research in the field of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) increasingly focuses on how technology has been developed in the past, and how constructive futures may be envisaged. More and more, academics are inviting multidisciplinarity and embracing ethnographic methods as part of the design of networks and technical artifacts, realizing that innovation cannot be user-centered if designers employ a bird’s-eye perspective. This leads to an approach that advocates designing socially embedded technologies in real world environments. Thus, for some time now, collaboration and participatory design approaches have provided a means for enacting positive social and technological change. If we agree that “those who design technologies are […] designing society”, new questions arise in terms of responsibility for the future shape of the world: How do we design technologies to design a better society for people of all genders?
ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction, 2021
It is sometimes argued that there is hardly a place in the world in the 21st century left untouch... more It is sometimes argued that there is hardly a place in the world in the 21st century left untouched by global capitalism [111, 112]. Even so, some places remain at the periphery, participating in this system without being fully absorbed by it. In this article, we take a detailed look at the economic life of such a “pericapitalist” [161] community in the Brazilian Amazon region. We detail how the community increasingly participates in global systems and supply chains, yet also organizes economic life around local and traditional values. We pay special attention to the role of digital technologies in the community, including mobile phones and internet. The contribution of the article is as follows: firstly, it provides a detailed analysis of the material practices of a community at the edge . Secondly, it draws attention to the heterogeneous nature of responses to global capitalism, formed from the relationship between specific material practices, new technology, and elements of cultu...
Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, 2019
For migrants and refugees, settling in a host country often proves hugely problematic. The abilit... more For migrants and refugees, settling in a host country often proves hugely problematic. The ability to communicate marks a significant step in the process of resettlement. The current high number of migrants coming to Europe has therefore meant that the need to improve and increase the availability of language provision has become more pressing. Nevertheless, due to the complexity of financial and legal regulations and of policy restrictions, access to and information about available courses are in practice hard to find, and non-funded volunteer initiatives are scarcely visible at all. To address this problem, a newly developed language-course wizard provides orientation for refugees and migrants. Findings indicate that its visual representation is apt to span a broad range of cultural as well as educational backgrounds. Our work demonstrates the need for a detailed approach to understanding the challenges that refugees and other migrants face in practice. Failing this, services freq...
Proceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies, 2018
A key issue for smart home systems is supporting non-expert users in their management. Whereas fe... more A key issue for smart home systems is supporting non-expert users in their management. Whereas feedback design on use cases (such as energy feedback) have gained attention, current approaches to providing awareness on the system state typically provide a rather technical view. Long-term investigations of the practices and resources needed for maintaining Do-It-Yourself smart home systems, are particularly scarce. We report on a design case study in which we equipped 12 households with DIY smart home systems for two years and studied participants' strategies for maintaining system awareness, from learning about its workings to monitoring its behavior. We find that people's needs regarding system accountability changed over time. Their privacy needs were also affected over the same period. We found that participants initially looked for in-depth awareness information from the dedicated web-based dashboard. In the later phases of appropriation, however, their interaction and in...
Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction
Past and current research has shown that Knowledge and Expertise Sharing (KES) is central to the ... more Past and current research has shown that Knowledge and Expertise Sharing (KES) is central to the appropriation of enterprise software such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems. ERP implementation projects in Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) are often driven by research and practice. However, they tend to focus on the 'go live' moment rather than on the subsequent, much longer post-implementation phase. This, we argue, results in decreased utilisation over time and an increased need for workarounds. In this paper, we draw on an empirical study within four organisations which exposes the limitations of KES in ERP implementation projects in SMEs, especially in regard to the preparation of key users. Our findings suggest that, despite key users' essential role in these projects, they are often chosen haphazardly and are ill-prepared. As a result, they cannot fulfil their role of facilitating KES with end users, who end up appropriating ERP systems mostly th...
Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, 2021
An increasing number of people around the world are forced to leave their homes due to the climat... more An increasing number of people around the world are forced to leave their homes due to the climate catastrophe, regional conflict or poverty. In their new host countries however, refugees and migrants are frequently met by a wide range of challenges, including wider societal participation. The difficulties migrants and refugees face have also increasingly become the topic of HCI and CSCW work. In this paper we report on a three year-long project, involving refugees, migrants and activist supporters in a co-design project to develop tools that aid the process of resettling. Several aspects have challenged equal participation in the project, including divergent motives, unequal power distribution and cultural heterogeneity. Despite these challenges the project outcomes are in use and maintained beyond the project runtime through voluntary actors. We reflect on this discrepancy between process and outcome drawing on the concept of care.
CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION 2. RESEARCH BACKGROUND AND RELATED WORK 2.1. Energy Management in Organi... more CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION 2. RESEARCH BACKGROUND AND RELATED WORK 2.1. Energy Management in Organizations: Drivers, Benefit and Research Directions 2.2. The work to make digital networks work 2.3. C...
ABSTRACT We present the design and evaluation of a lightweight mobile S.O.S. system that facilita... more ABSTRACT We present the design and evaluation of a lightweight mobile S.O.S. system that facilitates ad-hoc communication between first responders and victims in emergency situations. Our approach leverages established protocols and standards in unforeseen ways to provide a platform supporting the creation of short-lived communication links. The system comprises two mobile applications: one victim application that allows the broadcasting of distress signals by a novel use of Wi-Fi SSIDs; and a responder application that allows first responders to discover and trace the people broadcasting the signals. The main difference of our system with other platforms enabling communication in crisis situations is that our system is independent from existing network infrastructure and runs on off-the-shelf, commercially available smartphones. We describe the results of our evaluation process in the context of both a design evaluation during a real-world emergency response exercise and of two user workshops in preparation for an upcoming large-scale exercise.
Techno:Phil – Aktuelle Herausforderungen der Technikphilosophie, 2019
In this paper, we describe the feminist perspectives that have informed design in the HCI communi... more In this paper, we describe the feminist perspectives that have informed design in the HCI community, and develop an argument for an approach that translates these broad commitments into a pragmatic design space, drawing on emancipatory agendas such as participatory design. As designers of technologies, we regard creating research infrastructures that offer safe spaces for the development of user-centered artifacts based on diverse and critical perspectives as not only a utopian vision, but as a practical contribution to a more equal society. Shaowen Bardzell stresses this point when she states that in envisioning utopias, we are “seeking not so much to predict the future, but rather to imagine a radically better one”. Recognizing that technology shapes social life and amplifies social practices both good and bad, research in the field of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) increasingly focuses on how technology has been developed in the past, and how constructive futures may be envisaged. More and more, academics are inviting multidisciplinarity and embracing ethnographic methods as part of the design of networks and technical artifacts, realizing that innovation cannot be user-centered if designers employ a bird’s-eye perspective. This leads to an approach that advocates designing socially embedded technologies in real world environments. Thus, for some time now, collaboration and participatory design approaches have provided a means for enacting positive social and technological change. If we agree that “those who design technologies are […] designing society”, new questions arise in terms of responsibility for the future shape of the world: How do we design technologies to design a better society for people of all genders?
ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction, 2021
It is sometimes argued that there is hardly a place in the world in the 21st century left untouch... more It is sometimes argued that there is hardly a place in the world in the 21st century left untouched by global capitalism [111, 112]. Even so, some places remain at the periphery, participating in this system without being fully absorbed by it. In this article, we take a detailed look at the economic life of such a “pericapitalist” [161] community in the Brazilian Amazon region. We detail how the community increasingly participates in global systems and supply chains, yet also organizes economic life around local and traditional values. We pay special attention to the role of digital technologies in the community, including mobile phones and internet. The contribution of the article is as follows: firstly, it provides a detailed analysis of the material practices of a community at the edge . Secondly, it draws attention to the heterogeneous nature of responses to global capitalism, formed from the relationship between specific material practices, new technology, and elements of cultu...
Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, 2019
For migrants and refugees, settling in a host country often proves hugely problematic. The abilit... more For migrants and refugees, settling in a host country often proves hugely problematic. The ability to communicate marks a significant step in the process of resettlement. The current high number of migrants coming to Europe has therefore meant that the need to improve and increase the availability of language provision has become more pressing. Nevertheless, due to the complexity of financial and legal regulations and of policy restrictions, access to and information about available courses are in practice hard to find, and non-funded volunteer initiatives are scarcely visible at all. To address this problem, a newly developed language-course wizard provides orientation for refugees and migrants. Findings indicate that its visual representation is apt to span a broad range of cultural as well as educational backgrounds. Our work demonstrates the need for a detailed approach to understanding the challenges that refugees and other migrants face in practice. Failing this, services freq...
Proceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies, 2018
A key issue for smart home systems is supporting non-expert users in their management. Whereas fe... more A key issue for smart home systems is supporting non-expert users in their management. Whereas feedback design on use cases (such as energy feedback) have gained attention, current approaches to providing awareness on the system state typically provide a rather technical view. Long-term investigations of the practices and resources needed for maintaining Do-It-Yourself smart home systems, are particularly scarce. We report on a design case study in which we equipped 12 households with DIY smart home systems for two years and studied participants' strategies for maintaining system awareness, from learning about its workings to monitoring its behavior. We find that people's needs regarding system accountability changed over time. Their privacy needs were also affected over the same period. We found that participants initially looked for in-depth awareness information from the dedicated web-based dashboard. In the later phases of appropriation, however, their interaction and in...
Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction
Past and current research has shown that Knowledge and Expertise Sharing (KES) is central to the ... more Past and current research has shown that Knowledge and Expertise Sharing (KES) is central to the appropriation of enterprise software such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems. ERP implementation projects in Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) are often driven by research and practice. However, they tend to focus on the 'go live' moment rather than on the subsequent, much longer post-implementation phase. This, we argue, results in decreased utilisation over time and an increased need for workarounds. In this paper, we draw on an empirical study within four organisations which exposes the limitations of KES in ERP implementation projects in SMEs, especially in regard to the preparation of key users. Our findings suggest that, despite key users' essential role in these projects, they are often chosen haphazardly and are ill-prepared. As a result, they cannot fulfil their role of facilitating KES with end users, who end up appropriating ERP systems mostly th...
In ''The Man Who Fell To Earth&... more In ''The Man Who Fell To Earth''[1, 2], a university professor Dr. Bryce, is stunned by the rapid development, adoption and deployment of a number of technologies—including, for example,''self-developing''photographic film. Bryce is shocked by the fact that these advances have passed him by, become mundane artefacts in everyday use, without him noticing, in a field, a discipline, where he is supposed to be an expert. For many of us, it is not only the sheer pace of technology change that is so bewildering but also the impact of ...
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