Andy Dearden

Pattern languages in HCI: A critical review

This article presents a critical review of patterns and pattern languages in human-computer interaction (HCI). In recent years, patterns and pattern languages have received considerable attention in HCI for their potential as a means for developing and communicating information and knowledge to support good design. This review examines the background to patterns and pattern languages in HCI, and seeks to locate pattern languages in relation to other approaches to interaction design. The review explores four key issues: What is a pattern? What is a pattern language? How are patterns and pattern languages used? and How are values reflected in the pattern-based approach to design? Following on from the review, a future research agenda is proposed for patterns and pattern languages in HCI.

The experience of enchantment in human–computer interaction

Improving user experience is becoming something of a rallying call in human–computer interaction but experience is not a unitary thing. There are varieties of experiences, good and bad, and we need to characterise these varieties if we are to improve user experience. In this paper we argue that enchantment is a useful concept to facilitate closer relationships between people and technology. But enchantment is a complex concept in need of some clarification. So we explore how enchantment has been used in the discussions of technology and examine experiences of film and cell phones to see how enchantment with technology is possible. Based on these cases, we identify the sensibilities that help designers design for enchantment, including the specific sensuousness of a thing, senses of play, paradox and openness, and the potential for transformation. We use these to analyse digital jewellery in order to suggest how it can be made more enchanting. We conclude by relating enchantment to varieties of experience.

Allocation of function: scenarios, context and the economics of effort

Abstract In this paper, we describe an approach to allocation of function that makes use of scenarios as its basic unit of analysis. Our use of scenarios is driven by a desire to ensure that allocation decisions are sensitive to the context in which the system will be used and by insights from economic utility theory. We use the scenarios to focus the attention of decision makers on the relative costs and benefits of developing automated support for the activities of the scenario, the relative impact of functions on the performance of the operators primary role and on the relative demands placed on an operator within the scenario. By focussing on relative demands and relative costs, our method seeks to allocate the operators limited resources to the most important and most productive tasks within the work system, and to direct the effort of the design organization to the development of automated support for those functions that deliver the greatest benefit for the effective operation of the integrated human–machine system.

Function allocation: a perspective from studies of work practice

Abstract Function allocation is a central component of systems engineering and its main aim is to provide a rational means of determining which system-level functions should be carried out by humans and which by machines. Such allocation, it is assumed, can take place early in design life cycle. Such a rational approach to work design sits uneasily with studies of work practice reported in the ACI and CSCW literature. In this paper we present two case studies of work in practice. The first highlights the difference between functional abstractions used for function allocation decision making and what is required to make those functions work in practice. The second highlights how practice and technology can co-evolve in ways that change the meanings of functions allocated early in design. The case studies raise a number of implications for function allocation. One implication is that there is a need for richer representations of the work context in function allocation methods. Although some progress has been made in function allocation methodologies, it is suggested that the method of Contextual Design might offer useful insights. A second implication is that there is a need for better theories of work to inform function allocation decision making. Activity Theory is considered as a possible candidate since it incorporates a cultural-historical view of work evolution. Both Contextual Design and Activity Theory challenge assumptions that are deeply embedded in the human factors and systems engineering communities. In particular, that functions and tasks are an appropriate unit of analysis for function allocation.

See no evil?: ethics in an interventionist ICTD

This paper considers some of the ethical questions that arise in conducting interventionist ICTD research, and examines the ethical advice and guidance that is readily available to researchers. Recent years have seen a growing interest from technology researchers in applying their skills to address the needs and aspirations of people in developing regions. In contrast to much previous research in Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICTD) which has sought to study and understand processes surrounding technologies, technology researchers are interested in finding ways to change the forms of these technologies in order to promote desirable social aims. These more interventionist research encounters raise distinctive ethical challenges. This paper explores the discussions that have been presented in the major ICTD journals and conferences and major development studies journals as well as examining codes of conduct from related fields of research. Exploration of this literature shows that the quantity, quality and detail of advice that directly addresses the challenges of interventionist ICTD is actually very limited. This paper argues that the there is an urgent need for the ICTD research community to investigate and debate this subject.

Evaluating pattern languages in participatory design

We present an evaluaion of pattern languages as tools for participatory design, based on three criteria, derived from the work of Christopher Alexander: empowering users, generative design and life-enhancing outcomes. Our results suggest that pattern languages can be used to enable users to participate in design, but that the role of facilitator and the form and physical presentaton of the pattern language are factors in success.

Beyond tokenistic participation: Using representational artefacts to enable meaningful public participation in health service design

A number of recent policies promote public participation in health service design. Yet, a growing literature has articulated a gap between policy aims and actual practice resulting in public participation becoming tokenistic. Drawing on theory from participatory design, we argue that choosing appropriate artefacts to act as representations can structure discussions between public participants and health professionals in ways that both groups find meaningful and valid. Through a case study of a service improvement project in outpatient services for older people, we describe three representational artefacts: emotion maps, stories, and tracing paper, and explain how they helped to mediate interactions between public participants and health professionals. We suggest that using such representational artefacts can provide an alternative approach to participation that stands in contrast to the current focus on the professionalisation of public participants. We conclude that including participatory designers in projects, to chose or design appropriate representational artefacts, can help to address the policy-practice gap of including public participants in health service design.

Representing older people: towards meaningful images of the user in design scenarios

Designing for older people requires the consideration of a range of design problems, which may be related to difficult and sometimes highly personal matters. Issues such as fear, loneliness, dependency, and physical decline may be hard to observe or discuss in interviews. Pastiche scenarios and pastiche personae are techniques that employ characters to create a space for the discussion of new technological developments and user experience. This paper argues that the use of fictional characters can help to overcome restrictive notions of older people by disrupting designers’ prior assumptions. In this paper, we reflect on our experiences using pastiche techniques in two separate technology design projects that sought to address the needs of older people. In the first pastiche scenarios were developed by the designers of the system and used as discussion documents with users. In the second pastiche personae were used by groups of users themselves to generate scenarios which were scribed for later use by the design team. We explore how the use of fictional characters and settings can generate new ideas and undercut the potential in scenarios, for weak characterisation of “the user” to permit scenario writers to fit characters to technology rather than vice versa. To assist in future development of pastiche techniques in designing for older people, we provide an array of fictional older characters drawn from literary and popular culture.

A Deeply Embedded Sociotechnical Strategy for Designing ICT for Development

Development is a social phenomenon. Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are a technical phenomenon. Therefore, ICT for development is inescapably a socio-technical phenomenon. For this reason, ICT design efforts that frame themselves with development objectives, require an analysis of their intervention strategies in explicitly socio-technical terms. In this article, the authors reflect on the strategies adopted by the Rural e-Services project, which has been working with a co-operative of marginal farmers in rural India to design new software and new practices using mobile camera phones to communicate with their agricultural advisors. By combining approaches from participatory development practice and participatory methods of ICT design, the project was able to manage a sustainable socio-technical reconfiguration of the operations of the co-operative.

User centered design and international development

This workshop explores User Centered Design (UCD) challenges and contributions to International economic and community Development. We are addressing interaction design for parts of the world that are often marginalized by the Global North as well as people in the Global North who are themselves similarly marginalized by poverty or other barriers. We hope to extend the boundaries of the field of Human Computer Interaction (HCI) by spurring a discussion on how existing UCD practices can be adapted and modified, and how new practices be developed, to deal with the unique challenges posed by this context.