A Workshop at CHITALY (http://www.architettura.uniss.it/chitaly2011/index.php/)
Date: 13 September 2011 - Alghero
Organisers:
Cristiano Storni, Liam Bannon, Luigina Ciolfi (University of Limerick, Ireland), Francesca Bria (Imperial College London, UK)
Background
This workshop will explore the emerging paradigm of end-user empowerment across a variety of application areas, in order to extend current HCI and Interaction Design research towards a better understanding of the implications of the notion of empowerment for user-centered design in different domains.The issue of empowerment surfaces at many levels and it challenges some of the traditional separations in a variety of discourses: from that concerned with policy-making and the idea of empowered citizens, to that concerned with innovations and the idea of user-driven design; from arguments in favor of open-source and online crowd-sourcing, to the idea of empowering the patient in health care practices.A series of recent studies in design and technological innovation have also started to question the traditional idea of a passive end-user and to challenge a clear-cut separation between design and use. In HCI research, Moran (2002) introduced the notion of Everyday Adaptive Design arguing that everyday adaptation in the use of interactive systems should be regarded as a form of design itself. Similarly, Dourish (2003) proposes the notion of appropriation as a form of customization that changes everyday practices at a deeper level. With a more clear concern about implications for design, scholars have generated a series of provoking concepts extending the original idea of ‘design in use’ (Henderson et al. 1991; Bodker, 1999): design for hackability (Galloway et al. 2004), design for appropriation (Dix, 2007), or Meta-design for end-user development (Fisher et al., 2004).Innovation and new media studies have also discussed this idea in length and put forward a series of notions that resonate with theories of social shaping of technology (Wajcman and McKenzie, 198) and that support the emergence of new ways to re-think and broaden the notion of end-users: user-led innovation (Von Hippel, 2005), Pro-am revolution (Leadbeater and Miller, 2006), personal fabrication (Gershenfeld, 2005), or the idea of people as prod-user (Bruns, 2008), prosumer (Talpscott and Williams, 2006) or, indeed, empowered users (Pierson et al. 2011).Technology has obviously a role to pay in these discourses, as there is an increasing interest on experimenting and inscribing new forms of engagement and participation in the technology itself with: open-source software and hardware, Web 2.0, user-generated content and crowdsourcing platforms, fabrication labs and hackerspaces, user-development kits and DiY technology (Storni, 2009).
Workshop Themes
What is the impact of these new ways of thinking and new technologies for User Centred Design? How are these new practices and technologies challenging the traditional assumptions of UC design and evaluation methods?
In these rapidly changing scenarios, the notion of empowerment confronts us with questions regarding interdependencies between different social groups and their domains of knowledge and expertise. Here the idea of user-centered design acquires a whole set of new meanings that go well beyond its traditional focus and concerns about end-user interface or usability. In this perspective, usability could paradoxically even represent a strategy to keep users passive and frustrate their agency (Gillespie, 2006). Indeed, the new forms of user-, citizens-, visitors- or patient- empowerment confronts us with deeper questions about the role of designers, users, and their relationship whose practical implications for design are largely unexplored.
We invite the submission offering room for reflections on how to rethink UCD and technology for user-empowerment. Submissions can refer to case studies, work-in-progress, design framework and guidelines, or literature review that support a discussion on the notion of user empowerment and its implication for design and HCI. Also submissions addressing barriers to user empowerment (e.g. organizational, ideological, technological, social, political, etc…) are welcome. Suggested topics include but are not limited to:
Empowered users - Fablabs, hackerspace and DIYLabs are diffusing all over the world along with open source movement and technological mas-ups opening up new opportunities for anyone to develop one’s own design. Even large corporation experiment with user’s devkit enabling the bottom up creating of new software application. What are the implication for the interaction/collaboration between design and use?
Empowered visitors - The possibility to have proactive audiences in public spaces (e.g. cities and museums) thanks to the diffusion of mobile technology and locative media asks to rethink some of the assumptions of the traditional separation between – for instance – curators and visitors. What are the implications and the new assumptions for user-centred design in the field of tourism and education?
Empowered citizens - The idea of citizens being more actively engaged in civil society suggests scenarios of e-democracy and participatory governance where technology could rebalance traditional separations. At the same time, it also seems to assume more control and security threatening our privacy. What is the role of design and technology in this area? What are the challenges for citizen empowerment?
Empowered Patients - The explosion of chronic disease as well as the need to contain the endlessly growing cost in health care systems suggest empowering affected individuals with tools to self-manage their diseases outside hospitals and clinics. What are the implications and the new assumptions for patient-centred design and patient empowerment?
Submissions
Participants are required to prepare a one-page position paper describing (1) a case of user empowerment and (2) its potential contribution for a reflection/criticism on user-centered design; position papers can also refer to work-in-progress, design framework and guidelines, or literature review that support a reflection on the notion of user empowerment and its implication for design and HCI.
Alternatively to a one page, participants can also prepare a poster or a collage addressing the same topic with different media.
In each case, the aim of the submitted material is to support a short presentation in the morning as well as to enable group's discussions and brainstorming.
In each case, the aim of the submitted material is to support a short presentation in the morning as well as to enable group's discussions and brainstorming.
Tentative program and structure
Workshop program depends on the number of participants and the nature and quality of their contributions. Therefore, the following program will be further defined as contributions will come along.
Position papers, poster or collages will be briefly presented in the morning and commented by the group. This will support the formation of thematic groups (reflecting participants' presentations and generated discussion).
Group sessions will be organized in the afternoon. Groups will be involved in design games, scenario development and brainstorming followed by a final discussion.
The workshop is aimed to host from 15 to 25 participants. A minimum of 15 participant is required.
This blog aims to give visibility to the workshop before and after the main conference. Before the workshop, this blog acts as an online workspace for the workshop’s participants and as a initial discussion forum, also making preliminary materials available to conference delegates and other interested parties. After the workshop, this blog will serve to disseminate themes discussed in the workshop, to report on its outcomes, and to act as a platform for future development.
Position papers, poster or collages will be briefly presented in the morning and commented by the group. This will support the formation of thematic groups (reflecting participants' presentations and generated discussion).
Group sessions will be organized in the afternoon. Groups will be involved in design games, scenario development and brainstorming followed by a final discussion.
The workshop is aimed to host from 15 to 25 participants. A minimum of 15 participant is required.
This blog aims to give visibility to the workshop before and after the main conference. Before the workshop, this blog acts as an online workspace for the workshop’s participants and as a initial discussion forum, also making preliminary materials available to conference delegates and other interested parties. After the workshop, this blog will serve to disseminate themes discussed in the workshop, to report on its outcomes, and to act as a platform for future development.
Workshop's follow up:
Depending on the material that will be collected and its quality a series of follow up strategies will be considered. A series of online publications, a collective paper or a special issue on design and empowerment will be considered for publication in 2012.
Deadlines and important dates:
- Early registration until 20th of July 2011;
- Contribution to the workshop due before the 27th of August 2011;
- Workshop 13th of September 2011.
Who to send the submission to:
Submissions to the workshop (1 page position paper) are due as soon as possible up to workshop registration deadline (2nd of September). Submissions should be send by email to Cristiano.storni at ul.ie or to empowerment.and.ucd at gmail.com .
List of cited works
- Bødker, S. (1999) Computer applications as mediators of design and use – a developmental perspective. DAIMI PB-542, Computer Science Department, Århus University, October, Galloway
- Bruns, A. (2008) Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Llife and beyonf: from production to produsage, New Your, Peter Lang
- Pierson, J., Mante-Meijer, E. and Loos, E. (2011) 'New Media Technologies and User Empowerment', Peter Lang Publishers, New York
- Dourish, P. (2003). The Appropriation of Interactive Technologies: some lesson from placeless documents. Journal of Computer Supported Cooperative Work, 12: 465-490.
- Dix, A. (2007). Designing for Appropriation. Proceedings of the 21st BCS HCI Group Conference, 2: 27-30.
- Fisher, T, Giaccardi, E., Ye, Y., Sutcliffe, A.G. and N. Mehandjiev (2004) Meta-design: a manifesto for end-user development, in Communication of the ACM, Sept., Vol. 47, No. 9
- Gershenfeld, N. (2005). FAB - The Coming Revolution on your Desktop - From Personal Computer to Personal Fabrication. New York, Basic Book.
- Gillespie, T. (2006) Designed to 'Effectively frustrate': Copyright, technology, and the agency of users, in New Media & Society, 8, 4: 651-669
- Henderson, A. and Kyng, M. (1991) There is no place like home: continuing design in use, in Greenbaum and Kyng ‘Design at work: cooperative design of computer systems’, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, New Jersey
- Leadbeater, C. and Miller, P. (2004). The Pro-Am Revolution, How enthusiasts are changing our economy and society. Demos, London. Available at: http://www.demos.co.uk/files/proamrevolutionfinal.pdf?1240939425
- Mackenzie, D. and Wajcman, J. (1985/1999) The social Shaping of technology, Open University Press, Buckingham and Philadelphia
- Moran, T. P. (2002). Everyday Adaptive Design. Proceedings of DIS 2002, 13-14
- Pierson, J., Mante-Meijer, E. and Loos, E. (2011) New media technologies and User empowerment, Peter Lang, New York
- Pierson, J., Mante-Meijer, E. and Loos, E. (2011) New media technologies and User empowerment, Peter Lang, New York
- Storni, C. (2009) The ambivalence of engaging technology: artifacts as products and processes, in Proceedings of NORDIC Design Research Conference 2009, Oslo (available at: http://ocs.sfu.ca/nordes/index.php/nordes/2009/paper/view/198/127)
- Tapscott, D. and Williams, A. (2006) Wikonomics, Atlantic Books, London
- Von Hippel, E. (2005). Democratising Innovation. Cambridge, Mit Press.
Organizers' Bios
Organizers' Bios
Cristiano Storni holds a PhD in Information Systems and Organization at the faculty of Sociology in the University of Trento (Italy). After working at Interaction Design Centre as post-doc research fellow (FutureComm project), Cristiano is now Lecturer in Interaction Design at Computer Science and Information Systems department. Cristiano has studied Science and Technology Studies (STS), Actor Network Theory (ANT), Social studies of Information Systems (SSIS), Organizational Studies, Ethnography, Interaction and Participatory Design. His original background is on HCI and Cognitive science (he is graduated at the University of Siena, Faculty of Communication Science). His current research interests concern the social shaping of technology, the concept of empowerment and appropriation, and the future of ICT and new media in different domains such as Health Care, web 2.0, open software and hardware. His is currently focused on self-care practices and technology in the context of chronic and less-known disease.
Liam Bannon is former Director of the IDC, adjunct professor of Computer Science, Dept. of Computer Science & Information Systems, Limerick University; and hon. Professor at Aarhus University. Liam is interested in improving the utility, usability, and desireability of the computational artifacts we design. He has been involved in examining alternative conceptual and methodological frameworks for understanding human activities, and their mediation by various technologies. This quest for more adequate explanatory frames has lead him to examine aspects of activity theory, ethnomethodology, and phenomenology. Liam takes an understanding of use as being a prerequisite for design, and wishes to understand human practices. He also wishes to encourage a more participative approach towards the design field. Liam emphasizes the cooperative nature of human work and its implications for design, and has played a major role in developing CSCW issues in Europe - being a founding editor of the CSCW Journal. More recently, he has become involved in exploring the field of Interaction Design, as an emerging, and distinct interdisciplinary field that has particular pertinence in this age of ubiquitous technology. Together with the rest of the IDC team, Liam is exploring how to create novel interactive media and infrastructures that will hopefully enhance different aspects of people's lives.
Luigina Ciolfi is a lecturer at the Interaction Design Centre, Dept. of Computer Science and Information Systems, University of Limerick, Ireland. Her main research interests focus on people’s experience of technology in the physical world, notions of space and place and situated conduct, particularly in the context of cultural heritage sites. She has worked on several research projects designing technology in these settings, with particular attention towards facilitating active participation and community building in places of heritage. She is also guest co-editor of a special issue of the CSCW Journal on “Settings for Collaboration: the Role of Place”. She is particularly interested in developing new methodological approaches for understanding situated interactions and new design approaches to engender new forms of collaboration, participation and collective understanding in heritage settings.
Francesca Bria is is currently a PhD Researcher at Imperial College Business School. In her research she's investigating how design-driven methodologies can foster the direct involvement of users and communities in co-designing and co-producing future urban systems and services. She's also looking at the way ubiquitous and pervasive urban technology will impact collaborative creativity and socio-economic practices. Francesca has an Msc in E-business and Innovation from the University College of London, Birkbeck and she is currently working as Tutor in Business Strategy and Organisational Change at Queen Mary University in London. She is political consultant and expert on Innovation policy, Media and the Information Society for the Region of Lazio, the Province of Rome and the European Commission. Francesca has a background working as video journalist, writer, filmmaker and network activist and she’s an advocacy adviser on access to knowledge and collaborative production in the digital economy.
