Bert Vandenberghe

NewSchool: Studying the Effects of Design Fiction through Personalized Learning Scenarios

We present two design fictions about future online learning environments, inspired by future scenarios presented in the learning analytics literature. The design fictions explore specific aspects of this future technology, its adoption and social consequences. We use Symmetry Theory to analyze the design fictions in terms of the relationship between the readers of the fictions on the one hand, and the fictional characters and technology, on the other. We argue that these relationships determine to what extent a design fiction can stimulate the reader to reflect on the future technology. As such, we present Symmetry Theory as a useful tool to analyze how an existing design fiction can stimulate reflection, and to plan the writing process of design fiction.

Anthropomorphism as a Strategy to Engage End-Users in Health Data Ideation

Recent innovations in data technology hold great promise for new products or applications. However, creating meaningful data applications can be challenging. This is especially the case in a user-centered design or participatory design approach as most end-users find it difficult to grasp the essence and opportunities of an abstract concept such as data technology. This paper presents method to engage end-users in data ideation that draws on peoples tendency to anthropomorphize technology. It uses a metaphor for health data by introducing the imaginary concept of omniscient, benign little people residing in ones body. Participants are facilitated in a step-by-step process to formulate questions they would like to ask these little people and the answers they expect to receive. This approach, illustrated with a study on personal health information, resulted in insights for developing meaningful data applications.

Designing for Others, and the Trap of HCI Methods & Practices

HCI research often (cl)aims to do good for others, but does it actually? We discuss two cases that exemplify how designing for others can in fact be harmful: the Games Against Health paper by Linehan et al. and the Uninvited Guests video by Superflux. We feel that user-centered methods are often considered as a safe-conduct, simply because the end-user is involved one cannot do wrong. We plead for explicit transparency about the origin of research projects and technology designs to put a critical reflection about underlying values of the work into practice.

Designing a Patient Portal for Patient-Centered Care: Cross-Sectional Survey

Background In recent literature, patient portals are considered as important tools for the delivery of patient-centered care. To date, it is not clear how patients would conceptualize a patient portal and which health information needs they have when doing so. Objective This study aimed (1) to investigate health information needs, expectations, and attitudes toward a patient portal and (2) to assess whether determinants, such as patient characteristics, health literacy, and empowerment status, can predict two different variables, namely the importance people attribute to obtaining health information when using a patient portal and the expectations concerning personal health care when using a patient portal. Methods We conducted a cross-sectional survey of the Flemish population on what patients prefer to know about their digital health data and their expectations and attitudes toward using a patient portal to access their electronic health record. People were invited to participate in the survey through newsletters, social media, and magazines. We used a questionnaire including demographics, health characteristics, health literacy, patient empowerment, and patient portal characteristics. Results We received 433 completed surveys. The health information needs included features such as being notified when one’s health changes (371/396, 93.7%), being notified when physical parameters increase to dangerous levels (370/395, 93.7%), observing connections between one’s symptoms or diseases or biological parameters (339/398, 85.2%), viewing the evolution of one’s health in function of time (333/394, 84.5%), and viewing information about the expected effect of treatment (349/395, 88.4%). Almost 90% (369/412) of respondents were interested in using a patient portal. Determinants of patients’ attachment for obtaining health information on a patient portal were (1) age between 45 and 54 years (P=.05); (2) neutral (P=.03) or interested attitude (P=.008) toward shared decision making; and (3) commitment to question physicians’ decisions (P=.03, R2=0.122). Determinants of patients’ expectations on improved health care by accessing a patient portal were (1) lower education level (P=.04); (2) neutral (P=.03) or interested attitude (P=.008) toward shared decision making; and (3) problems in understanding health information (P=.04; R2=0.106). Conclusions The interest in using a patient portal is considerable in Flanders. People would like to receive alerts or some form of communication from a patient portal in case they need to act to manage their health. Determinants such as education, attached importance to shared decision making, difficulties in finding relevant health information, and the attached importance in questioning the decisions of physicians need to be considered in the design of a patient portal.

Shedding light on an unknown reality in solid organ transplant patients’ self-management: A contextual inquiry study

Traditional quantitative and qualitative research methods inadequately capture the complexity of patients’ daily self‐management. Contextual inquiry methodology, using home visits, allows a more in‐depth understanding of how patients integrate immunosuppressive medication intake, physical activity, and healthy eating in their daily lives, and which difficulties they experience when doing so. This mixed‐method study comprised 2 home visits in 19 purposively selected adult heart, lung, liver, and kidney transplant patients, asking them to demonstrate how they implement the aforementioned health behaviors. Meanwhile, conversations were audio‐taped and photographs were taken. Audio‐visual materials were coded using directed content analysis. Difficulties and supportive strategies were identified via inductive thematic analysis. We learned that few patients understood what “sufficiently active” means. Physical discomforts and poor motivation created variation across activity levels observed. Health benefits of dietary guidelines were insufficiently understood, and their implementation into everyday life considered difficult. Many underestimated the strictness of immunosuppressive medication intake, and instructions on handling late doses were unclear. Interruptions in routine and busyness contributed to nonadherence. We also learned that professionals often recommend supportive strategies, which patients not always like or need. This contextual inquiry study revealed unique insights, providing a basis for patient‐tailored self‐management interventions.

Bot Personas as Off-The-Shelf Users

This alt.chi paper proposes the concept of bot personas. These interactive personas act as off-the-shelf users, as they allow design teams to interact with rich user data throughout the design process. Bot personas, as always-on participants, hold several opportunities to address some practical and ethical challenges of involving real-human-users. Therefore, bot personas could be a refreshing technological approach to lower the barriers of involving users, and thus bridge labor intensive academic practices and the realities of a corporate context.

Sharing Methods for Involving People with Impairments in Design: Exploring the Method Story Approach

The concept of method stories was proposed as an approach to document how design research methods are made to work in practice. Sharing the creation process of methods is especially valuable when working with people with impairments, as participation (on equal footing) is often challenged by the impairment. In addition, it is necessary to continuously adapt the design approach to the setting and characteristics of individual participants. The aim of this workshop is to bring together researchers and designers who have involved people with cognitive or sensory impairments in design and to explore how the creation and adaptation process of their methods could be documented and shared through method stories.

Oh, What a Night! Effortless Sleep Monitoring at Home

As sleep is considered an important aspect of our health, a range of products that would benefit our sleep is brought to market. Like many of these products, smart wristbands or fitness trackers make promises to improve the user’s quality of life by improving sleep quality. We performed a sensitizing diary study followed by a user experience evaluation comparing sleep-tracking features of the Fitbit Flex, Jawbone Up, Misfit Shine, and Polar Loop products with six users. We summarize their findings in three recommendations for sleep-tracking functionalities: find the right balance between automation and control, make data intelligible for users, and acknowledge the role of emotions. These design recommendations should make sleep trackers more transparent, and thus more usable and useful to the users in their endeavor to sleep well.