Jörn Messeter

Contextualizing mobile IT

Information and communication technologies are moving into the era of ubiquitous computing, with increased density of technology and increased mobility and continuity in use. From a design perspective, addressing the accommodation and coordination of multiple devices and services in situated use across different contexts is becoming increasingly important. In the COMIT project, ethnographic fieldwork has been combined with participatory design engaging users, designers and researchers in order to explore mobile IT use as well as the design of mobile IT concepts. Four seclected scenarios from the project are presented and discussed regarding implications for the design of mobile IT devices, with particular focus on (1) coping with multiple social contexts, and (2) the configuration and connectivity of mobile devices.

Evaluating ambient displays in the wild: highlighting social aspects of use in public settings

A prominent issue for evaluating ambient displays has been the conflict between the relative intrusiveness of evaluation methods and the intention to keep the display at the periphery of the users attention. There is a general lack of research discussing the difficulties of evaluating ambient displays in the wild, and in particular social aspects of use has received little attention. This paper presents a case study of an ambient light display designed for a public setting. Based on results from a non-intrusive in situ evaluation, we argue that viewing ambient displays as features of a broader social setting may aid our understanding of issues regarding the evaluation of ambient displays in the wild.

Negotiation of values as driver in community-based PD

Community-based PD projects are often characterized by the meeting of conflicting values among stakeholder groups, but in research there is no uncontested account of the relation between design and conflicting values. Through analysis of three community-based PD cases in Denmark and South Africa, this paper identifies and discusses challenges for community-based PD that exist in these settings based on the emergence of contrasting and often conflicting values among participants and stakeholders. Discussions of participation are shaped through two theoretical perspectives: the notion of thinging and design things; and different accounts of values in design. Inspired by the concept of design things, and as a consequence of the need for continuous negotiation of values observed in all three cases, we suggest the concept of thinging as fruitful for creating productive agonistic spaces with a stronger attention towards the process of negotiating values in community-based PD.

Writing participatory design: a workshop on interpreting, accounting and novel forms of reporting

This workshop asks participatory designers and researchers to consider how they write about their work and what role there is for novel approaches to expression, forms drawn from other disciplines, and open and playful texts. As we bring social science and humanities sensibilities to bear on designing with others; as we conduct experiments in infrastructuring and sociotechnical assemblages; as we ask what participation means in different contexts and types of futuring, can we find voice to match our innovations? How do reflexivity, positionality, autobiography and auto-ethnography fit into our reflections on designing? How far are we making our practice even as we write? Is the page a contemplative or collaborative space? Does the tyranny of the conference paper overwrite everything? Join us for this day of reading, writing and discussion about how we tell the stories that matter most to us.

Mobilizing Senior Citizens in Co-Design Work

This paper addresses methodological considerations of participation in design for ageing. Based on the notions of design culture, communities of everyday practice and situated elderliness we present accounts from two settings and discuss methodological issues related to mobilizing senior citizens in co-design work.

Social Media Use as Urban Acupuncture for Empowering Socially Challenged Communities

Abstract This paper explores potential roles of social media in community empowerment, based on a study of a non-profit NGO in a socially challenged suburb of Cape Town, South Africa. In particular, it focuses on the relation between online and offline behavior, and how the use of social media can counteract negative influences in the community, e.g., drug abuse and gangsterism. Interviews with staff and participants reveal that using social media in a socially challenged community results in different social media use and different connections between online and offline activities than earlier social-media research reported.. These differences may inform design and social innovation for disruptive interaction to address negative influences, such as drugs and gangsterism, in socially challenged communities.