Glenda Amayo Caldwell

Middle-out design: collaborative community engagement in urban HCI

This paper presents a collaborative approach for designing, implementing and deploying situated urban HCI interventions. It draws on field studies that use HCI technologies for collecting feedback from citizens. Based on an analysis of these field studies and a discussion of top-down and bottom-up initiatives currently used in community engagement we propose that both decision makers and local communities should be involved in the city making process. We relate our approach, which we refer to as middle-out design, to other co-design and participatory design movements in HCI and conclude on a discussion on how our work can contribute to the discourse around urban HCI particularly for the purpose of community engagement to inform change.

Guerrillas in the [Urban] Midst: Developing and Using Creative Research Methods--Guerrilla Research Tactics

Abstract This paper explores what we are calling “Guerrilla Research Tactics” (GRT): research methods that exploit emerging mobile and cloud-based digital technologies. We examine some case studies in the use of this technology to generate research data directly from the physical fabric and the people of the city. We argue that GRT is a new and novel way of engaging public participation in urban, place-based research because it facilitates the co-creation of knowledge, with city inhabitants, “on the fly.” This paper discusses the potential of these new research techniques and what they have to offer researchers operating in the creative disciplines and beyond. This work builds on and extends Gauntletts “new creative methods” (2007) and contributes to the existing body of literature addressing creative and interactive approaches to data collection.

Connecting the Space between Design and Research: Explorations in participatory research supervision

Abstract In this article we offer a single case study using an action research method for gathering and analysing data offering insights valuable to both design and research supervision practice. We do not attempt to generalise from this single case, but offer it as an instance that can improve our understanding of research supervision practice. We question the conventional ‘dyadic’ models of research supervision and outline a more collaborative model, based on the signature pedagogy of architecture: the design studio. A novel approach to the supervision of creatively oriented postgraduate students is proposed, including new approaches to design methods and participatory supervision that draw on established design studio practices. This model collapses the distance between design and research activities. Our case study involving Masters Research Students supervision in the discipline of Architecture, shows how ‘connected learning’ emerges from this approach. This type of learning builds strong elements of creativity and fun, which promote and enhance student engagement. The results of our action research suggest that students learn to research more easily in such an environment and supervisory practices are enhanced when we apply the techniques and characteristics of design studio pedagogy to the more conventional research pedagogies imported from the humanities. We believe that other creative disciplines can apply similar tactics to enrich both the creative practice of research and the supervision of HDR students.

Designing Participation for the Digital Fringe

Digital participation is emerging as a key issue for researchers, designers, educators, industry and others as government policy increasingly seeks to include people in decision-making about all aspects of their lives. Yet, that tends to focus predominantly on mainstream communities of highly urbanized settlements, often neglecting segments of society lacking access to resources, digital technology or telecommunications infrastructure. Likewise, people from diverse and marginalised backgrounds, or who are socially excluded, such as people living with disability, the elderly, disadvantaged youth and women, people identifying as LGBTI, refugees and migrants, Indigenous people and others, are particularly vulnerable to digital under-participation, thereby compounding disadvantage. This workshop proposes to identify practical, innovative, and sensitive design solutions to support digital participation for disadvantaged communities in urban and regional environments; foster digital skills within and across communities; investigate the role of proxies in digital inclusion; and discuss design strategies for sustaining digital inclusion in the long run.

Digital outreach: designing technologies for diversity, participation and social inclusion

Digital participation is fast becoming a core issue for researchers, designers, educators, industry and the government. Yet, academic research, industry practices and government policies still tend to focus predominantly on mainstream communities of highly urbanized settlements, often neglecting smaller cities, regional areas, suburbia and disadvantaged segments of society lacking digital literacy. Likewise, people from diverse and marginalised backgrounds, or who are socially excluded, such as people living with disability, the elderly, disadvantaged youth and women, people identifying as LGBTI, refugees and migrants, Indigenous people and others, are particularly vulnerable to digital under-participation. This workshop proposes to shift the discourse back into the discussion of: (a) design practices relevant to those communities; (b) identify shared challenges and opportunities; (c) uncover strategies for co-design with a wider range of demographics; and (d) devise a roadmap for a more inclusive research agenda around communities and technologies.

Enriching Architectural Design Education through Interactive Displays and Local Community Engagement

Abstract Designers have a social responsibility to deal with the needs, issues, and problems confronting their clients and communities. Students of design require opportunities to reflect on their role as social facilitators to develop an attitude towards community engagement through different phases and aspects of their careers. Current design courses are challenged by compressed timeframes and fragmented scenarios of different academic requirements that do not actively teach community engagement. This paper outlines a participatory and technological approach employed to address these issues within the teaching of architecture and urban design at the Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia. A multi-phase community-based research project with stakeholders was implemented over a two-year period. Approximately 150 students in the final year of the Bachelor of Design – Architecture, ten students in the Master of Architecture, and fifteen students in the Master of Design – Urban Design informed and influenced each others’ learning through the teaching and research nexus facilitated by this project. The technical approach was implemented in the form of a bespoke digital platform that supported the display and discussion of digital media on a series of interactive touch walls. The platform allowed students to upload their final designs easily onto large interactive surfaces, where visitors could explore the media and provide comments. Through the use of this technical platform and the introduction of neogeography, students have been able to broaden their level of interaction and support their learning experience through external structured and unstructured feedback from the local community. Students have not only been exposed to community representatives, but have been working in parallel on a specific case study providing each other, across different years and courses, material for reflection and data to structure their design activities.