Sofia Lundmark

Reflections on norm-critical design efforts in online youth counselling

We explore social norms embedded in interaction design, how different identity roles are made relevant during a specific design project and how norm-critical efforts are made by different actors during this design process. We have studied the development of the Swedish National Youth Counselling site to illustrate how interaction design may construct meaning, norms and values in design. We present an ethnographic study, the development of the Love Animation. Examples are shown in which interaction design unintentionally discourages the purpose of the intended message which suggests that there is a need for further understanding of how the content and the interaction design relates to each other. Using Science and Technology theories, the research join the emergent critical tradition in HCI and a critical perspective on technology as a co-constructing agent is applied.

Click-guides and panic buttons: Designed possibilities for youth agency and user empowerment in online youth counselling services

This study examines how possibilities for agency are designed into online youth counselling services, as well as how such possibilities are addressed by young prospective users during the design of the services. The data are drawn both from the design of a national website for youth clinics in Sweden and from a design project developing e-services for local youth clinics in a Swedish municipality. The agency of young users is here treated as a key concern for understanding how user empowerment is accomplished through the design of websites and e-services. Using combined research materials (i.e. two websites and focus group meetings), this study demonstrates how design features may both facilitate and restrict young people’s involvement and control over sensitive and private issues. In addition, we demonstrate how the designed possibilities for empowerment may allow young users to critically approach and effectively use such services.

Analogies in interaction: practical reasoning and participatory design

Abstract The present study examines a set of discussions among professional counselors in the area of youth counseling, as they participate in the development and design of an online video-mediated communication platform. With an overarching interest in how participatory design is performed through conversations, the analysis focuses on analogical reasoning through which the envisaged system is anchored to existing technologies and work practices. Three forms of analogical reasoning are identified: formulating design alternatives; challenging problem formulations; and telling stories. In various ways, these forms of analogical reasoning inform the ongoing design decision-making process, where the hypothetical technology and its organizational and work-related implications are evaluated. The study contributes to how analogical reasoning is done in interaction, and places the findings in the context of participatory design and studies of design reasoning.