Sisse Finken

Social media as a platform for participatory design

In this paper we explore social media as a new arena for participation. The explorations are informed by an ethnographic oriented PD project that follows a PD method and its process of translation within a digital setting. This process is exemplified through outcomes from a Future Workshop that unfolds on Facebook with a group of participants who feed in to a new design of a digital photo-archive on mobile phones. With an explicit focus on translation and use of this PD method the paper presents experiences and challenges encountered during the process in this emerging PD environment. Within this, the paper looks at facilitation of distributed users, heterogeneity of users, and fluidity of participation. In subjecting the experiences and challenges to related works the paper sheds light upon matters that can serve as resources for future translations of PD methods.

Design and Interaction in a Smart Gym: Cognitive and Bodily Mastering

Being physically active is perhaps the most important factor influencing the health of elderly people. As a consequence, technologies that support and encourage physical activity have been developed. In this paper, we study a “smart gym” in a residential care building. Our findings indicate that the “smart gym” does not address the complexities of exercise for an elderly person: in order to exercise one has to master the gym equipment and its technology, cognitively as well as bodily. Both the equipment and the smart technology turn out to be difficult to master by its elderly users. Our study reports these difficulties and suggests a more nuanced concept of mastery as a way to address the challenges in designing for elderly users. We unfold physical and bodily dimensions of mastery and consider how these differ between individuals, and within the context and situation.

Balancing Work Practices and Protocols in the Design of EMR Systems: The Case of Developing an EMR System for Antenatal Care Services in Malawi

Implementing ICTs in healthcare settings has proved to be very challenging such that progress towards widespread adoption and use of Electronic Medical Record (EMR) systems has been slow. The challenges of implementing these technologies have been described as complex, diverse, and locally situated. One of the challenging aspects of designing EMR systems is the need for inscribing standardised protocols whilst taking into account local work practices. Previous research has called for the need to balance work practices and protocols in the design of EMR systems. We present an attempt to balance the work practices and protocols in the development of an EMR system for antenatal care in a developing country, Malawi. This was done through implementing weak inscriptions of the protocols in some cases and strong inscriptions in other cases. The study highlights the important role that clients play in healthcare work and thus, influence the design of EMR systems.

Visualising Actor Network for Cooperative Systems in Marine Technology

Awareness is a concept familiar to specialists within the field of Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW). It is superior for analysing and describing some of the ad hoc work activities that unfold in cooperation. Such informal activities are outside the scope of engineers’ formal models, which are created to tackle challenges concerning human activities and their social interactions with regards to safety concerns in operation. This paper draws on fieldwork conducted in a marine setting of offshore operations. It presents an attempt to visualise the importance of cooperative work activities that shape computer systems. The aim, thus, is to portray cooperative work in a way that can be valuable for engineers implementing marine technology. We do so by way of presenting a transferring technique (2T) using insights from the CSCW field and Actor Network Theory (ANT).

A Skirt for Well Aged Ladies with Cognitive Loss

In this paper, we consider design of skirts for well-aged ladies with cognitive loss. In line with recent trends, a graduate student project, which we supervised, focused on monitoring solutions for those suffering from dementia. The result of the project was a skirt. We found ourselves intrigued by the proposed solution and started unpacking, using a phenomenological approach, the meaning of the skirt, when losing cognition. Our conclusion is that skirts for dement ladies should never be viewed as unimportant, or as the new interfaces for assistive technology. Rather, they may be viewed as an opportunity for design to support body, mind and emotions of the person whose cognition is weakening. Aesthetically appealing garments, which improve self-image, designed for ease of dressing, engaging hands, may provide comfort. From the ethical standpoint, embedding skirts or other garments with technology, should be consented to prior to loosing the ability to reason well.

Performing Elderliness – Intra-actions with Digital Domestic Care Technologies

We discuss the process of meeting digital technology when entering a senior age, by taking a closer look at how different modes of independence and elderliness are (co-)constituted in relation to digital domestic care technologies. Specifically, we suggest reading independence and elderliness as shaped by both the discursive and the material. Our starting point is the notion of intra-action as introduced in Feminist Technoscience. Thinking through use and design of digital technology from a standpoint of Feminism prompts us to widen the perspective on living with such technologies and, thusly, to raise questions about the process of coming of age as an independent person with such care technologies.

Becoming-with in Participatory Design

We draw on feminist technoscience to analyze actions and activities performed between participants in a Participatory Design workshop that unfolds in a realm of e-government. Stepping into this empirical site we want to show how participants (invited persons, researchers, methods, artifacts, gender stereotypes) become with each other. With such take on research endeavors we feed into current discussion in feminist research by illustrating how theory and practice intertwine and create realities.

From Offshore Operation to Onshore Simulator: Using Visualized Ethnographic Outcomes to Work with Systems Developers

This paper focuses on the process of translating insights from a Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW)-based study, conducted on a vessel at sea, into a model that can assist systems developers working with simulators, which are used by vessel operators for training purposes on land. That is, the empirical study at sea brought about rich insights into cooperation, which is important for systems developers to know about and consider in their designs. In the paper, we establish a model that primarily consists of a ‘computational artifact’. The model is designed to support researchers working with systems developers. Drawing on marine examples, we focus on the translation process and investigate how the model serves to visualize work activities; how it addresses relations between technical and computational artifacts, as well as between functions in technical systems and functionalities in cooperative systems. In turn, we link design back to fieldwork studies.

The Embodiment of Relationships of Adult Facebookers

In the last decade we have seen a rise of social media. Within this landscape of online services Facebook plays an immense role in facilitating and creating bonds between people. In this paper we enter a qualitative study conducted with a small group of adult Facebookers over 58. We do so in an effort to understand what kind of relationships one can have through this digital media. The theoretical lens used is Phenomenology, which we find fruitful for more carefully looking into relationships between humans and technology.