Alma Leora Culén

Innovation in HCI: what can we learn from design thinking?

Design thinking, a methodology originating from the design disciplines, oriented towards problem solving through a human-centered approach, rapid prototyping and abductive reasoning, has huge impact on innovation in business, education, health and other crucial domains. Many similarities, and differences, can be found between design thinking and a Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) design approach to innovation. The aim of the workshop is to explore these similarities and differences, with a goal of re-thinking possibilities, including combining practices towards increased impact of HCI in shaping innovative technologies for the future.

Design and Interaction in a Smart Gym: Cognitive and Bodily Mastering

Being physically active is perhaps the most important factor influencing the health of elderly people. As a consequence, technologies that support and encourage physical activity have been developed. In this paper, we study a “smart gym” in a residential care building. Our findings indicate that the “smart gym” does not address the complexities of exercise for an elderly person: in order to exercise one has to master the gym equipment and its technology, cognitively as well as bodily. Both the equipment and the smart technology turn out to be difficult to master by its elderly users. Our study reports these difficulties and suggests a more nuanced concept of mastery as a way to address the challenges in designing for elderly users. We unfold physical and bodily dimensions of mastery and consider how these differ between individuals, and within the context and situation.

Creating Competitive Advantage in IT-Intensive Organizations: A Design Thinking Perspective

In this paper, we consider the role of design thinking and human computer interaction design (HCID) in shaping conditions for a long-term health of technology intensive organizations. Design thinking is gaining acceptance in management, strategy and leadership and is increasingly seen as a way towards finding solutions to complex problems of today’s economy. We present our view on relationships between HCID and design thinking on one hand, and creative leadership, vision, values, knowledge and organizational culture on the other, as factors in shaping the competitive advantage for IT-intensive organizations. We find that, while HCID is systematically contributing to design of innovative technological solutions, it does so at a micro level, while design thinking holds a central position in our competitive advantage framework. Through a small case of innovation in the academic library, we provide insight in how design thinking and HCID facilitated changes in how the library sees its users, products, services and how it, subsequently, started changing its organizational vision, values, culture and knowledge.

The Digital Life of Vulnerable Users: Designing with Children, Patients, and Elderly

Vulnerability is about being at risk and it is often understood as the effect of limited physical or cognitive capabilities, such as age, frailty or illness. Vulnerable people are frequently excluded from the design of technologies that could in fact support them in tackling these risks. This paper explores designing with three vulnerable groups: children with special needs, chronically ill teenage patients, and isolated, or afraid of being so in the near future, elderly adults. We choose three distinct groups in order to show the breadth and variations in the ways in which people may be vulnerable. We looked at their digital lives and possible new risks and dependencies created by the use of digital technologies. Designing with vulnerable people is practically, methodologically, and ethically challenging. We show how methodological and reflexive sensibilities help to address these challenges and keep the design process on track.

Designing Interactive Technologies with Teenagers in a Hospital Setting

This chapter describes a design process with teenagers with chronic health challenges. The design activities were related to two main themes, the transition from paediatrics to adult healthcare and patient-oriented social networking, and were implemented with a group of young patients who were members of the Youth Council, an advisory body to the hospital. We describe two design strategies, Design Stations and Continuous Participation Platform. Design Stations facilitate a design process that uses the time with the teens effectively and caters also to the teens’ creativity and attention span. The Continuous Participation Platform contributes to maintaining consistency and continuity between the Design Station meetings. The process consisted of four design workshops, which took place in a hospital, and online activities in between these workshops. Nine small research projects were implemented, using a range of diverse participatory methods and tools. In the chapter we analyse and discuss the results using the SHARM framework, our Participatory Design methodology for designing with and for teenagers with chronic health challenges. SHARM focuses on situation-based action, having a say, adaptability, respect, and mutual learning. We found that our participants switch between their identity as a patient and as a teenager. Building and strengthening a third identity, namely that of a co-designer, may further improve the design efforts when designing with this particular group of participants.

Can Games Motivate Urban Youth for Civic Engagement

In this paper, we explore the possibility of using games as a way of engaging youth in environmentally-oriented participatory art or other cooperative urban projects. Our approach was design-led, and youth participated in evaluating games that we proposed from the perspective of motivation and engagement, both in the environmental issues in the games themselves and in the likelihood of subsequent real life involvement stimulated by the games. The findings show that ultimately, personal passion for the cause that the game represents, and not the game itself, would be the central factor in a youth’s decision to engage in real life. Social embeddedness was also valued high, as well as the possibility to make a real difference.

Later Life: Living Alone, Social Connectedness and ICT

The paper presents a qualitative, interview-based study that seeks to describe participants’ perceptions and experiences with information and communication technology. The participants in the study were active people, aged 67 and over, who live alone in an urban setting. Interactionist theory of loneliness was used to guide the inquiry, in particular regarding the perception of the relation between the quality and quantity of connections, loneliness, and technology. A set of visual tools such as communication maps and cards were made to aid reflections and associations during interviews.

A Skirt for Well Aged Ladies with Cognitive Loss

In this paper, we consider design of skirts for well-aged ladies with cognitive loss. In line with recent trends, a graduate student project, which we supervised, focused on monitoring solutions for those suffering from dementia. The result of the project was a skirt. We found ourselves intrigued by the proposed solution and started unpacking, using a phenomenological approach, the meaning of the skirt, when losing cognition. Our conclusion is that skirts for dement ladies should never be viewed as unimportant, or as the new interfaces for assistive technology. Rather, they may be viewed as an opportunity for design to support body, mind and emotions of the person whose cognition is weakening. Aesthetically appealing garments, which improve self-image, designed for ease of dressing, engaging hands, may provide comfort. From the ethical standpoint, embedding skirts or other garments with technology, should be consented to prior to loosing the ability to reason well.

Co-creating Interactive Obstacles and DIY Skateboarding Spaces

In this paper, we use research through design approach to introduce the skateboarding community to the makers culture. Our goal was to provide an opportunity for skaters to experience sketching with technology, sharing ideas on making obstacles embedded with technology, executing one of the ideas and participating in envisioning co-created DIY (Do-It-Yourself) urban skateboarding spaces. In total, twenty-eight skateboarders were actively involved in the process of sketching, ideation, and subsequently making and evaluating a sound-based interactive skateboarding obstacle. The contributions of this paper include the framework for supporting maker activities for and with skateboarders, the artefact itself and the knowledge that emerged from its use in the appropriate urban environment. Finally, the highlights from interviews with twelve highly skilled skaters are provided. The analysis of the interviews resulted in the improvement of the initial framework that was based on the five key principles of creativity in everyday life. Furthermore, the skaters shared their reflections on the use of the obstacle, the making process, and speculated around the emergence of participatory maker culture within the community and possibilities to create urban environments that include creative DIY projects, such as the described one.

The Smart City as Shared Design Space

Beyond the conceptual frameworks of open data and smart cities there is an emergent complex of digital environments to virtualize public sub-realms: neighborhood-level agoras or places of assembly with shared information, ideas and design. These environments can be used to simplify civic engagement in urban development processes—both on- and off-line. This paper presents different examples towards new strategies in this field. It presents and discusses projects using new Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools and methodologies targeting participation in urban development and urban re-design on numerous stakeholder groups. These include children, migrants, older people, professionals and non-professionals. The findings indicate that in today’s ICT-public-realm, public data must be offered as public information and citizens must be enabled to get in touch with the new digital tools to strengthen participatory processes. The examples show that the underlying processing tools must be accessible, user-as-producer-friendly and open to diverse groups of people. They also show that artistic, playful, creative and game-based settings can be an ideal starting point for this attempt. These strengthen acceptance among administrations and integrate social groups that are not addressed by existing participatory strategies.