Maarten Van Mechelen

Effects of coffee management intensity on composition, structure and regeneration status of Ethiopian moist evergreen Afromontane forests

The effect of arabica coffee management intensity on composition, structure, and regeneration of moist evergreen Afromontane forests was studied in three traditional coffee-management systems of southwest Ethiopia: semiplantation coffee, semiforest coffee, and forest coffee. Vegetation and environmental data were collected in 84 plots from forests varying in intensity of coffee management. After controlling for environmental variation (altitude, aspect, slope, soil nutrient availability, and soil depth), differences in woody species composition, forest structure, and regeneration potential among management systems were compared using one way analysis of variance. The study showed that intensification of forest coffee cultivation to maximize coffee production negatively affects diversity and structure of Ethiopian moist evergreen Afromontane forests. Intensification of coffee productivity starts with the conversion of forest coffee to semiforest coffee, which has significant negative effects on tree seedling abundance. Further intensification leads to the conversion of semiforest to semiplantation coffee, causing significant diversity losses and the collapse of forest structure (decrease of stem density, basal area, crown closure, crown cover, and dominant tree height). Our study underlines the need for shade certification schemes to include variables other than canopy cover and that the loss of species diversity in intensively managed coffee systems may jeopardize the sustainability of coffee production itself through the decrease of ecosystem resilience and disruption of ecosystem services related to coffee yield, such as pollination and pest control.

Participatory design for serious game design: truth and lies

While the importance of participatory design has been acknowledged broadly within the field of HCI, its use in serious games is less frequent. This workshop will explore the underpinning reasons for this gap and advance the identification of philosophical, methodological and pragmatic opportunities as well as challenges. The workshop will serve as a venue for synthesizing productive practices and a future agenda that will benefit serious game design processes.

Applying the CHECk tool to participatory design sessions with children

To encourage ethical practices in participatory design with children the CHECk tool was created. This paper reports on an expert review of the CHECk tool and a validating case study. Four main challenges to the CHECk tool are identified: (1) how to inform children on the research and their role herein, (2) distinguishing between project values and designer or researchers personal values, (3) accounting for the dynamic nature and social constructedness of values in design, and (4) the emergence of values in all stakeholders including child design partners. We advocate complementing CHECk with interactive storytelling and show how this narrative can be used to not only inform participation and achieve ethical symmetry, but also to negotiate values with child design partners.

Multimodal Analysis in Participatory Design with Children: A Primary School Case Study

We describe a multimodal method for the analysis of co-design outcomes in participatory design (PD) with children. The multimodal approach we take allows researchers to treat both verbal (notes, writings) and tangible material out-comes as complementary ways of communicating design ideas. We argue that an integrated approach in which both PD outcomes are compared and contrasted can result in a richer analysis, in which underlying values can be identified more clearly. To illustrate the method, we describe a PD process with primary school children.

The GLID method: Moving from design features to underlying values in co-design

This study is part of the EMSOC project (grand number nml 100027), funded by IWT (Agency for Innovation by Science and Technology) and two PhD projects funded by Hasselt University (grand number 5/DWO/2007/11/B011) and iMinds (Interdisciplinary institute for Technology), a research institute founded by the Flemish Government. The goal of EMSOC project is to critically assess the belief of the user being empowered in a social media culture. The research is structured according to three main areas of interest in society where user (dis)empowerment is taking place related to social computing: inclusion, literacy and privacy. An interdisciplinary team from Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Universiteit Gent and KU Leuven collaborate to provide well-funded answers to the challenging assumptions and principles of the EMSOC research project.

Challenging group dynamics in participatory design with children: lessons from social interdependence theory

In this paper we explore whether Social Interdependence Theory (SIT) is a useful theoretical framework to anticipate on challenging intragroup dynamics in co-design with children. According to SIT, there are five principles that mediate the effectiveness of cooperation: positive interdependence, individual accountability, promotive interaction patterns, social skills and group processing. First, we theoretically ground six challenging group dynamics encountered in a previous study. Next, we introduce SIT and describe how we applied each of the five mediating principles in a new case study in which 49 children aged 9 to 10 were involved in a series of co-design sessions. Afterwards, we present our findings and reflect upon the SIT inspired co-design procedure. Finally we touch upon topics for further research and we make a call for more research on SIT in the Child Computer Interaction (CCI) community.

Faraway, so close: why the digital industry needs scholars and the other way around

Abstract The body of knowledge about children’s engagement with digital technologies has steadily grown in the last decade. Such rich evidence has begun to be used to inform policy-makers, (local) governments, parents, educators, awareness-raisers and even children themselves. However, other relevant stakeholders such as the industry seem to be taking less advantage of this rich knowledge base. Without industry collaboration, the work of media scholars presents a missed opportunity to ensure that children are better protected and empowered and that their rights are taken into consideration in the development of new digital products and services. Merely informing the industry is, however, not enough. Scholars must ensure that their knowledge translates into practical guidelines and concrete solutions to guarantee children`s better and safer digital experiences. This can only be achieved by keeping on building new knowledge, but also by exploring new avenues for cooperation and co-creation of child-centred solutions with partners such as the industry, but also with children themselves. Last, it remains to be seen whether the benefits outweigh the challenges and the costs involved in collaboration.

Analyzing Children's Contributions and Experiences in Co-design Activities: Synthesizing Productive Practices

Today, it has been broadly acknowledged in the CCI community that children are not only active learners and users of technology, but can also actively participate in the design process. However, it remains challenging to analyze childrens experiences and creative contributions resulting from co-design activities (e.g. stories, paper prototypes, enacted ideas). Broadly speaking, a distinction can be made between researchers looking for inspiration in the form of useful design ideas, and researchers that take a more interpretative stance by looking beyond the surface level of childrens ideas to better understand and empathize with them. This knowledge about children is often used to more accurately define the problem space at the early stages of design. Both perspectives to co-design can be seen as the opposite ends of the same continuum, and many researchers combine aspects of both depending on where they are in the design process (e.g. defining the design problem, prototyping stage). This workshop will explore different ways to analyze childrens (0 to 18 years) experiences and contributions in co-design activities, the perceived benefits and challenges of these approaches, and will serve as a venue for synthesizing productive practices that will move the CCI community forward.

Identifying Patterns in IDC Research: Technologies for Improving Children's Well-being Connected to Overweight Issues

How is technology being designed to improve childrens well-being? We address this question in connection to childhood overweight issues. On a global level, overweight and obesity among children and youth is recognized to be an alarmingly growing health challenge. We have conducted a literature review to explore how studies from the Interaction design and children (IDC) community frame health challenges related to overweight amongst children and youth. Based on the available IDC research focusing on aspects connected to overweight problems, we identify patterns in type of initiative, ages of children, context of use, kind of solution or technology, focus of the research activities and theoretical frameworks. We discuss the importance of increased research and development efforts in this area within the IDC community and call for a broader approach in terms of initiatives, research focus and application of philosophical paradigms and related theory to address a holistic understanding of childrens well-being.

Beyond the familiar?: exploring extreme input in brainstorms

This paper explores the potential of extreme input stimuli in brainstorming. Extreme stimuli contain unfamiliar, ambiguous, critical and or provocative elements. The instrumental use of extreme input has only recently been investigated as a promising technique in ideation to get participants to think beyond the already known. It is not clear, though, which extreme mechanisms are most likely to trigger creativity. To investigate this, four brainstorm sessions were organized, of which three relied on extreme input stimuli: Extreme Ideas, Extreme Characters and Extreme Personas. The fourth session did not employ extreme input. Four experts assessed the output via a creative-idea-count. The preliminary results suggest that using Extreme Ideas as input for brainstorming in the early ideation phase leads to more original ideas than employing Non-Extreme Ideas.