David G. Hendry

Creating, comprehending and explaining spreadsheets

Ten discretionary users were asked to recount their experiences with spreadsheets and to explain how one of their own sheets worked. The transcripts of the interviews are summarized to reveal the key strengths and weaknesses of the spreadsheet model. There are significant discrepancies between these findings and the opinions of experts expressed in the HCI literature, which have tended to emphasize the strengths of spreadsheets and to overlook the weaknesses. In general, the strengths are such as allow quick gratification of immediate needs, while the weaknesses are such as make subsequent debugging and interpretation difficult, suggesting a situated view of spreadsheet usage in which present needs outweigh future needs. We conclude with an attempt to characterize three extreme positions in the design space of information systems: the incremental addition system, the explanation system and the transcription system. The spreadsheet partakes of the first two. We discuss how to improve its explanation facilities.

The envisioning cards: a toolkit for catalyzing humanistic and technical imaginations

We introduce the Envisioning Cards - a versatile toolkit for attending to human values during design processes - and discuss their early use. Drawing on almost twenty years of work in value sensitive design, the Envisioning Cards are built upon a set of four envisioning criteria: stakeholders, time, values, and pervasiveness. Each card contains on one side a title and an evocative image related to the card theme; on the flip side, the card shows the envisioning criterion, elaborates on the theme, and provides a focused design activity. Reports from the field demonstrate use in a range of research and design activities including ideation, co-design, heuristic critique, and more.

An informal information-seeking environment

When an opportunistic searcher encounters an over-de- or ‘‘evolving,’’ ‘‘contracting’’ and ‘‘expanding’’ — is termined information system, less than ideal search available, then searching is potentially richer because the strategies often ensue. The mismatch can be addressed chances improve that the searcher will be prompted to by reducing the determinacy of the system, thereby mak- reformulate and abandon plans, backtrack to points of ing it more amenable to informal problem-solving prac- task deferral or significant decision, and compare things tices. This claim is investigated by designing an information-seeking environment, where search techniques are side-by-side. When aspects of the search process are exrepresented with a data-flow notation and where the ternalized, both prospective memory, plans for the future, searcher has control of layout; thus, to seek information, and retrospective memory, tasks completed, are supis to manage space. Search plans can be represented ported. In programming environments, support for these on the display, and perceptual cues about search progbasic cognitive tasks is considered essential because they ress are captured while searching. With elements of search activity visible, opportunistic problem-solving allow people to work the way they want to — opportunisshould be well supported. The interface is designed to tically ( Visser, 1994 ) . There is no a priori reason to think be extensible so a wide range of search techniques can they are any less important in environments for informabe represented, and emphasizes search material, such tion seeking; indeed, planning, backtracking, and comparas queries, results, and notes, rather than system conison are at the heart of search tactics and strategies ( Bates, trols.

A value sensitive action-reflection model: evolving a co-design space with stakeholder and designer prompts

We introduce a design method for evolving a co-design space to support stakeholders untrained in design. Specifically, the purpose of the method is to expand and shape a co-design space so that stakeholders, acting as designers, focus not only on the form and function of a tool being envisioned but also on the social context of its use and values that lie with individuals, groups, and societies. The method introduces value sensitive stakeholder prompts and designer prompts into a co-design process, creating a particular kind of reflection-on-action cycle. The prompts provide a means for bringing empirical data on values and theoretical perspective into the co-design process. We present the method in terms of a general model, the Value Sensitive Action-Reflection Model; place the model within discourse on co-design spaces; and illustrate the model with a discussion of its application in a lo-fi prototyping activity around safety for homeless young people. We conclude with reflections on the model and method.

Improving the safety of homeless young people with mobile phones: values, form and function

By their pervasiveness and by being worn on our bodies, mobile phones seem to have become intrinsic to safety. To examine this proposition, 43 participants, from four stakeholder groups (homeless young people, service providers, police officers, and community members), were asked to consider how homeless young people could use mobile phones to keep safe. Participants were asked to express their knowledge for place-based safety and to envision how mobile phones might be used to improve safety. Detailed analysis of the resulting data, which included value sketches, written value scenarios, and semi-structured discussion, led to specific design opportunities, related to values (e.g., supporting trust and desire to help others), function (e.g., documenting harms for future purposes), and form (e.g., leveraging social expectations for how mobile phones can be used to influence behavior). Together, these findings bound a design space for how mobile phones can be used to manage unsafe situations.

Collaborative bibliography

A bibliography is traditionally characterized by the judgments, bounded by explicit selection criteria, made by a single compiler. Because these criteria concern the attributes ascribed to a work and the needs of readers, bibliographic work is largely conceptual even across technological eras and domains. Yet, the development of networked information services, made possible by WWW infrastructure, has enabled very large numbers of people to discover, organize, and publish information, including bibliographies. Indeed, bibliographies, or at least bibliography-like artifacts, are a common genre of website, often published by people without specialized skills in information organization who follow nonrigorous selection procedures. Nevertheless, even if the items from these lists are poorly selected and described, this publishing activity is fundamentally important because it structures information locally, creating a patchy network of secondary access points. In turn, these access points enable information discovery, the formation and development of communities of interest, the estimation of document relevance by search engines, and so on. In sum, this activity, and the enabling technical infrastructure, invites bibliographies to take on new interactive possibilities. The aim of this article is to extend the traditional view of bibliography to encompass collaborative possibilities for wide, or narrow, participation in the shaping of bibliographies and the selection of items. This is done by examining the nature of bibliography on the Web, by proposing a conceptual model that opens bibliography to participatory practices, and by discussing a case study where a team sought to develop a bibliography of electronic resources. This examination reveals splendid opportunities for expanding the notion of bibliography with participatory policies while remaining true to its ancient roots.

Designing ubiquitous information systems for a community of homeless young people: precaution and a way forward

Drawing upon and distinguishing themselves from domestic, public, work, and natural settings, homeless communities offer new cultural frontiers into which ubiquitous computing could diffuse. We report on one such frontier, a community of homeless young people, located in Seattle, WA, seeking both to foresee the consequences of pervasive access to digital media and communications and to prepare for its seemingly inevitable uptake. The community consists of hundreds of young people living without stable housing, often in the public, and an alliance of nine service agencies that seek to stabilize youth and equip them to escape homelessness. We examine the opportunities for ubiquitous computing in this community by, in part, developing a precautionary stance on intervention. This stance is then used to critically examine a scenario in which information about the service agencies is made public. From this scenario, and a description of the social and material constraints of this community, we argue that “precaution” offers productive counsel on decisions on whether and how to intervene with ubiquitous computing. A precautionary point of view is especially important as ubiquitous computing diffuses into communities that, by their social and material conditions, are vulnerable. In such communities, the active avoidance of harms and plans for their mitigation is particularly important.

Public participation in proprietary software development through user roles and discourse

The opportunity for users to participate in design and development processes has expanded in recent years through such communication and information technologies as mailing lists, bug trackers, usage monitoring, rich interactions between users and service-center staff, remote usability testing, and so on. A key question, therefore, is deciding how to engage users in design and development through such technologies. This paper addresses this question by reviewing literature on end-user programming and open source development to develop a framework concerning user roles and discourse. The framework makes two claims: (1) user roles and a social structure emerge after the introduction of a software application (role differentiation); and (2) different roles demand different kinds of discourse for deciding what to do and for reflecting upon intended and unintended consequences (role discourse demands). To show its application, the framework is used to analyze the development of del.icio.us, a breakthrough application for social bookmarking. This development process is notable because it is a characteristic of open source software development in some respects, but the code is not made available publicly. This hybridization appears to be widely applicable and suggests how design and development processes can be structured as a service where the design and development of the system proceeds simultaneously with the formation and nurturing of a community of users.

Homeless young people and living with personal digital artifacts

This paper reports on an investigation of how homeless young people hold themselves in relation to personal digital artifacts. Twelve participants, aged 19-29, took part in semi-structured interviews. Participants answered questions about the acquisition and disposition of personal artifacts, digital and non-digital, including mobile phones, music players, and wallets. The analysis of the interview transcripts reveals that young people often part with their digital artifacts in order to meet immediate needs, including the need to create and reciprocate goodwill. This contingent holding of personal artifacts illuminates both the ordinary and extraordinary circumstances of homelessness. The paper concludes with a discussion of constraints and implications for the design of information systems for improving the welfare of homeless young people.

Conceptual Models for Search Engines

Search engines have entered popular culture. They touch people in diverse private and public settings and thus heighten the importance of such important social matters as information privacy and control, censorship, and equitable access. To fully benefit from search engines and to participate in debate about their merits, people necessarily appeal to their understandings for how they function. In this chapter we examine the conceptual understandings that people have of search engines by performing a content analysis on the sketches that 200 undergraduate and graduate students drew when asked to draw a sketch of how a search engine works. Analysis of the sketches reveals a diverse range of conceptual approaches, metaphors, representations, and misconceptions. On the whole, the conceptual models articulated by these students are simplistic. However, students with higher levels of academic achievement sketched more complete models. This research calls attention to the importance of improving students’ technical knowledge of how search engines work so they can be better equipped to develop and advocate policies for how search engines should be embedded in, and restricted from, various private and public information settings.