Trading off between control and autonomy: a narrative review around de-design

ABSTRACT

In this work, we provide an overview of contemporary perspectives of design that may challenge the traditional design of IT and socio-technical systems. Our starting metaphor is that of ‘wicked problems’, where the singularity, incompleteness and intrinsic uncertainty of real world settings foregrounds how the worldview that designers offer to practitioners may be optimal in theory but useless in practice. To go beyond traditional notions of design and designer, we intercepted insights coming from minoritarian voices in both theoretic and practice-based design fields. ‘De-design’ is a term we coined to encompass this wide spectrum of approaches that make more resilient and sustainable information artifact, de-emphasize design as a theoretical construct, and reconsider practice as the leading principle of digital innovation. This paper is a narrative review of voices in an extensive array of fields: from Information Systems to Human-Computer Interaction, from End-User Development to Critical Design, from Software Design to Design Studies. Our contribution retraces the motivational roots of de-design and tries to characterise de-design by filling relational gaps between disparate approaches and by bringing them back to IT and socio-technical design, to make digital artifacts sustainable in all of the new environmental, organisational and cultural spaces near to come.     

Special issue on hybrid pedagogies editorial

ABSTRACT

An increasing awareness of the potential biases and problematic impacts of digital technologies is driving a renewed focus on social responsibility and ethical considerations within the fields of engineering and the computer and data sciences. Similarly, a renewed sense of complicity in our socio-technical environments has encouraged scholars from a range of design, humanities, and social science disciplines to engage more directly in public-facing work, often through prototyping, exhibitions, and hands-on educational activities. This special issue on hybrid pedagogies contributes to this developing and ongoing conversation in a resolutely interdisciplinary way.     

Systems scenarios: a tool for facilitating the socio-technical design of work systems

Abstract

The socio-technical systems approach to design is well documented. Recognising the benefits of this approach, organisations are increasingly trying to work with systems, rather than their component parts. However, few tools attempt to analyse the complexity inherent in such systems, in ways that generate useful, practical outputs. In this paper, we outline the ‘System Scenarios Tool’ (SST), which is a novel, applied methodology that can be used by designers, end-users, consultants or researchers to help design or re-design work systems. The paper introduces the SST using examples of its application, and describes the potential benefits of its use, before reflecting on its limitations. Finally, we discuss potential opportunities for the tool, and describe sets of circumstances in which it might be used.

Practitioner Summary: The paper presents a novel, applied methodological tool, named the ‘Systems Scenarios Tool’. We believe this tool can be used as a point of reference by designers, end-users, consultants or researchers, to help design or re-design work systems. Included in the paper are two worked examples, demonstrating the tool’s application.     

Weaving semiotic engineering in meta-design: A case study analysis

The work presented in this paper aims at investigating how semiotic engineering and meta-design could be combined to support the development of socio-technical environments that enable End-User Development (EUD). In particular, I investigate the relationships existing between domain experts, playing the role of end-user developers, and meta-designers, mediated by EUD environments, and between end users and end-user developers mediated by EUD products. To this end, three case studies are considered, which belong to the recent research experience in EUD of the author. The case studies are concerned with three different application domains, namely physical prototyping of social products, accumulation and sharing of territory knowledge for first aid intervention, development of e-government services for the citizens of a municipality. The analysis is carried out both on the design process, by adopting a meta-design perspective, and on the product developed in each project, according to a semiotic engineering perspective. The analysis allows to shed light on the human and technical actors involved in EUD and on their communication processes, in order to understand which kinds of interaction visual languages and social conditions should be defined to encourage a continuous user-system co-evolution. As a result, the paper finally proposes some operative indications for the design of systems enabling EUD, which capitalize on semiotic engineering and meta-design ideas.     

Systems of representation: a pedagogical model for design education in the information age

Abstract

The course SDR: Sistemas de Representación(Systems of Representation), is the last stage of a line of work which has the objective of integrating information technologies in the education of architecture in a meaningful way. A distinctive mark of this pedagogic approach has been to look upon computer technology as an opportunity to rethink the methods, contents and goals of architecturaleducation,in thelight of contemporary culture.

The course is structured in six themes, each one standing for a ‘system of representation’: ‘text’, ‘figure’, ‘object’, ‘image’, ‘space’ and ‘light’. Within every system, a variety of issues dealing with the concept of ‘representation’ are addressed in an interdisciplinary manner. It is a compulsory course lasting three semesters, in the second and third year of a five-year architectural program. It has been offered since the academic year 1999/2000.     

Innovation in the fringes of software ecosystems: the role of socio-technical generativity*

ABSTRACT

Understanding the way information systems grow and change over time and the role of different contributors in these processes is central to current research on software development and innovation. In relation to this, there is an ongoing discourse on how the attributes of software platforms influence who can innovate on top of them and the kind of innovations possible within the larger ecosystem of technologies and people these platforms are part of. This discourse has paid limited attention to innovation unfolding in the fringes of the ecosystems peripheral to and disconnected from where the central software components are developed and where the resources necessary for digital innovation are scarce. Drawing upon Zittrain’s characteristics of generativity and Lane’s concept of generative relationships, the key contribution of this paper is a socio-technical perspective on innovation and generativity in this setting. We build this perspective of socio-technical generativity based on a case study of software innovation activities in Malawi on top of the health information system software platform DHIS2 developed in Norway. This case illustrates how the technical attributes of the platform played a key role in concert with human relationships in shaping innovation activities in Malawi.     

Legitimate by design: Towards trusted socio-technical systems

Legitimacy or 'fairness' seems a key requirement for trust in computer-mediated social environments. Trust in turn seems necessary for productive community interactions like e-commerce. But unless legitimacy is built into social software, achieving trust may not be possible. This means expressing apparently vague social 'rights' as specific information system (IS) requirements, i.e. carrying out a legitimacy analysis. We suggest a framework for the systematic analysis of who 'owns' what in IS design, assuming basic object types and actions. This analysis not only allows social legitimacy concepts to be expressed in IS design terms, but could also reveal socio-technical system design choices for public review. The technique is illustrated by case examples. Legitimacy analysis can apply to wide variety of social software, from chat rooms to virtual realities. It could lead to future global standards for virtual social environment design, perhaps necessary for the emergence of a global online community.     

Plus size and obese workers: anthropometry estimates to promote inclusive design

Abstract

A significant proportion of the adult population globally is overweight, obese or classed as ‘plus size’. This has led to variability in size and shape across the working population and exclusion in the workplace. A new dataset of the anthropometry of plus size people has been created. Length dimensions were similar to other data, but breadth, circumference, and depth measurements were substantially larger. The hip breadth and abdominal depth were important for predicting largeness in this population. These data help explain the high exclusion rates from design and the number of fit, reach, posture and clearance issues reported by participants with a high BMI: generally, the higher the BMI the greater prevalence of problems. It is hoped that a better understanding of the anthropometric characteristics of the plus size worker will inform the design of safe, productive work environments to promote inclusion for a wider range of people.

Practitioner Summary: A new anthropometry dataset of plus size people has been created. The higher the BMI the greater the problems with design in the workplace for fit, reach, posture and clearance. To ensure inclusion and reduce stigma it is important to understand more about the size and shape of this population.     

Animistic design: how to reimagine digital interaction between the human and the nonhuman

ABSTRACT

This article puts forward the notion of animistic design as an uncertainty-driven strategy to reimagine human–machine interaction as a milieu of human and nonhuman. Animistic design is suggested as capable of fostering affects, sensibilities and thoughts that capitalize on the uncertain, the unpredictable and the nonlinear, and their capacity to trigger creative pathways. Informed by post-human philosophies, theories of mediation and materiality, as well as by affect, agency and aesthesia, animistic design eschews the anthropomorphic and the cute playfulness often associated with animism. Instead, it proposes a practical–theoretical framework to articulate the nexus of digital innovation, interaction design practices, technical materialities and affective responses already emerging in the digital cohabitation of the human and the nonhuman. Using a ‘research through making’ approach, the article describes in detail a series of animistic design experiments and prototyping methods that explore ways of rethinking interaction as an open-ended and creative enterprise. Animistic design offers an investigative strategy that exploits degrees of collaboratively curated uncertainty and unpredictability to imagine forms of digital interaction, and to engender creative human–nonhuman relationships within a given digital milieu.     

Experimental zones: two cases of exploring frames of participation in a dialogic museum

Abstract

A matter of concern for dialogic institutions such as museums is the struggle to find appropriate ways of integrating social media and digital technologies into dialogues with visitors. This paper addresses how co-creation and experimental methods may be applied in a situated, natural environment, exploring how these technologies may be shaped to support museum visitor relations. The concept ‘experimental zone’ is suggested as a format for a collaborative design space where digital media-based dialogues are explored in line with professional practices. This concept is discussed in relation to two design experiments undertaken in collaboration with the Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology.     

Correction to: Investigating socially assistive systems from system design and evaluation: a systematic review

Purpose The development of assistive technologies that support people in social interactions has attracted increased attention in HCI. This paper presents a systematic review of studies of Socially Assistive Systems targeted at older adults and people with disabilities. The purpose is threefold: (1) Characterizing related assistive systems with a special focus on the system design, primarily including HCI technologies used and user-involvement approach taken; (2) Examining their ways of system evaluation; (3) Reflecting on insights for future design research. Methods A systematic literature search was conducted using the keywords “social interactions” and “assistive technologies” within the following databases: Scopus, Web of Science, ACM, Science Direct, PubMed, and IEEE Xplore. Results Sixty-five papers met the inclusion criteria and were further analyzed. Our results showed that there were 11 types of HCI technologies that supported social interactions for target users. The most common was cognitive and meaning understanding technologies, often applied with wearable devices for compensating users’ sensory loss; 33.85% of studies involved end-users and stakeholders in the design phase; Four types of evaluation methods were identified. The majority of studies adopted laboratory experiments to measure user-system interaction and system validation. Proxy users were used in system evaluation, especially in initial experiments; 42.46% of evaluations were conducted in field settings, primarily including the participants’ own homes and institutions. Conclusion We contribute an overview of Socially Assistive Systems that support social interactions for older adults and people with disabilities, as well as illustrate emerging technologies and research opportunities for future work.

     

Developing multiagent systems for design activity analysis

Engineering design is a complex socio-technical activity characterized by co-evolution of problem and solution. However, the actual design theories are not well-suited to represent and model the complexity of design activity, the co-evolution and its dynamics. Therefore, there is a need to develop design activity reasoning theories and tools, which can theorize and simulate the model of co-evolution and its dynamics. Multiagent systems have the capacity to play an important role in developing and analyzing models and theories of interactivity in socio-technical societies, particularly in design. This paper first addresses a theory for design activity reasoning. Then, it will present a multiagent system, called ADEA (Agents-based DEsign activity Analysis), in order to model, simulate and analyze this theory. The agents of the ADEA platform formalize the necessary design roles, characterizing the design activity as well as the relationship between design parameters in the design space. ADEA’s platform shows that cognitive limitation of role agents has been overcome, considering their relationship with the design space modeled as a network of design parameter agents.     

‘You can dance your prototype if you like’: independent filmmakers adapting the hackathon

Hackathon-style events are increasingly used to facilitate cross-disciplinary learning and innovation in the media industries. Based on an observational study of a hackathon organized as part of the film festival Nordic Panorama (NP) we analyse the challenges in using the hackathon format to facilitate cross-disciplinary learning and innovation for filmmakers, developers and designers. We find that many participants experienced frustrations resulting from a lack of programming skills and their expectation that the hackathon should result in ‘something digital’. Additionally, ideals for authorship embedded in the working cultures of film and TV professionals impeded the team’s ability to involve all participants on an equal footing. As implications for future hackathons we suggest organizers should consider using tools for end-user development and generative toolkits to facilitate digital making and collaborative learning. We also suggest similar events should avoid including project owners if the group work is based on existing projects.     

A domain-oriented end-user design environment for generating interactive 3D virtual chemistry experiments

Three-dimensional virtual worlds are potentially feasible for building virtual educational environments. However, educators face technical challenges to apply these technologies because creating virtual educational environments based on virtual worlds demands 3D modeling and programming skills. This paper proposes a method to lower the technical barriers through domain-oriented interfaces with languages and environments that are familiar to educators. A domain-oriented end-user design environment, iVirtualWorld, is designed and developed to implement the proposed method in a specific educational domain, namely introductory chemistry experiments. This web-based environment provides end-users with domain-oriented building blocks, which can be assembled to create 3D virtual chemistry experiments. A usability evaluation and a comparative case study are designed to evaluate the system among chemistry educators, who are the target audience. The usability evaluation contains a task requiring participants to create a 3D virtual chemistry experiment and a voluntary semi-structured interview. The case study compares a virtual experiment generated using iVirtualWorld with an experiment in a commercial virtual chemistry laboratory system. The results show that 1) the domain-oriented end-user design environment enables participants to generate the 3D virtual chemistry experiment within 30 min; 2) participants gain confidence on creating 3D virtual experiments by themselves using iVirtualWorld; 3) participants confirm the usefulness of applying the system in introductory chemistry education; and 4) iVirtualWorld is considered more intuitive and straightforward for students to focus on finishing the experiment without being distracted than the commercial virtual chemistry laboratory system. Areas that can benefit from the system most and areas where the system is less effective are identified by participants. The responses also reveal the limitations of the current system and suggest directions for future improvement.     

Creative Control: digital labour,superimposition, datafication,and the image of uncertainty

ABSTRACT

In this paper I will peruse a specific cinematic example of an uncertain-image, i.e. that of the film Creative Control (Dickinson B, dir. 2015. USA: Ghost Robot | Greencard Pictures | Mathematic | Magnolia Pictures | Amazon Studios). My interest in this film lies not, or at least not per se, or not solely, in its representationalism, but rather in its capturing of various kinds of uncertainty, to which I will here attend by situating the film against the backdrop of three different, yet interrelated, problematics related to the ubiquitous presence of digital imaging technologies: i.e., first, the concerns over digital or immaterial labour and the loss of eros; second, the use of contemporary cinematics (and the superimposition effect in particular) to address these and other issues related to living in ‘information-intensive mixed-reality environments;’ and third, the film's own suggestive counter-image, which is that of the characters’ partly defection, and, arguably, that of the image's own withdrawal from the world.     

Inclusive development: Software engineering requirements for universally accessible interactions

The notion of ‘universal access’ reflects the concept of an Information Society in which potentially anyone (i.e. any user) will interact with computing machines, at anytime and anyplace (i.e. in any context of use) and for virtually anything (i.e. for any task). Towards reaching a successful and cost effective realization of this vision, it is critical to ensure that the future interface development tools provide all the necessary instrumentation to support inclusive design, i.e. facilitate inclusive development. In the meantime, it is crucial that both tool developers and interface developers acquire awareness regarding the key development features they should pursue when investigating for the most appropriate software engineering support in addressing such a largely demanding development goal (i.e. universally accessible interactions). This paper discusses a corpus of key development requirements for building universally accessible interactions that has been consolidated from real practice, in the course of six medium-to-large scale research projects, all completed, within a 10 years timeframe.     

Some pitfalls in the promises of automated and autonomous vehicles

Differing forms of self-operating transportation are already among us and some have been in operation now for an extended period of time. From elevators and escalators to airport transit trams, we already use many fully automatic systems. Now such technologies are very publicly and prominently penetrating into the on-road environment of everyday personal vehicle usage. The present article raises and addresses a number of the specific and more general human factors/ergonomic issues associated with such an evolutionary step. One particular concern is that of identified responsibility when such systems fail to perform flawlessly. The ways in which this (r)evolution will impact the social and cultural fabric of affected societies is also considered. Further observations as to the vector of the future characteristics of these vehicular forms and how they and other autonomous systems will affect our world are examined. The very future of the human experience depends upon the ways in which such systems are designed, enacted and integrated into everyday life and these are fundamentally ergonomic endeavours.Practitioner’s Summary: The prominence of practitioners working on advanced human-machine systems will increase with public concerns surrounding self-driving vehicles. Driverless cars are not only a technological step but they will also exert widespread effects throughout society. Practitioners should prepare for these broad socio-technical challenges in an evolving, autonomous world.     

A survey of experienced user perceptions about software design patterns

ContextAlthough the concept of the software design pattern is well-established, there is relatively little empirical knowledge about the patterns that experienced users consider to be most valuable.AimTo identify which patterns from the set catalogued by the ‘Gang of Four’ are considered to be useful by experienced users, which ones are considered as not being useful, and why this is so.MethodWe undertook a web-based survey of experienced pattern users, seeking information about their experiences as software developers and maintainers. Our sampling frame consisted of the authors of all of the pattern papers that we had identified in a preceding systematic review of studies of patterns.ResultsWe received 206 usable responses, corresponding to a response rate of 19% from the original sampling frame. Most respondents were involved with software development rather than maintenance.ConclusionWhile patterns can provide a means of sharing ‘knowledge schemas’ between designers, only three patterns were widely regarded as valuable. Around one quarter of the patterns gained very low approval or worse. These observations need to be considered when using patterns; teaching students about the pattern concept; and planning empirical studies about patterns.     

A review of the methodology and applications of anthropometry in ergonomics and product design

Abstract

Anthropometry is a key element of ergonomic studies for addressing the problem of fitting the tasks/products to user characteristics, but there is a gap between anthropometric data and their application for designing ergonomic products and environments. This research was conducted to review the literature on the methodology and applications of anthropometry for the ergonomic design of products and environments, and to identify where further research is needed to improve its application and evaluation protocols. One hundred and sixteen papers meeting the inclusion criteria were reviewed. Although a number of anthropometric investigations have been conducted to improve the design of products/environments for different users, further research seems to be necessary, particularly for special groups, such as children, the elderly and people with disabilities. Different anthropometric measurement methods/techniques and fitting criteria are discussed regarding their applicability for various design applications. This review also highlights methodological issues (sampling considerations and prototype evaluation and testing) that should be considered in future research to ensure a user-centred approach of the design process.

Practitioner Summary: A literature review was conducted on the methodology and applications of anthropometry for the ergonomic design of products/environments. This review emphasises the need for anthropometric research to design for special groups, such as children, the elderly and people with disabilities, and methodological issues that should be considered in future research.

Abbreviations: 1D: one-dimensional; 2D: two-dimensional; 3D: three-dimensional; HF/E: Human Factors/Ergonomics; PCA: Principal Components Analysis; CA: Cluster Analysis; DHM: Digital Human Modelling     

Software design patterns classification and selection using text categorization approach

ContextNumerous software design patterns have been introduced and cataloged either as a canonical or a variant solution to solve a design problem. The existing automatic techniques for design pattern(s) selection aid novice software developers to select the more appropriate design pattern(s) from the list of applicable patterns to solve a design problem in the designing phase of software development life cycle.GoalHowever, the existing automatic techniques are limited to the semi-formal specification, multi-class problem, an adequate sample size to make precise learning and individual classifier training in order to determine a candidate design pattern class and suggest more appropriate pattern(s).MethodTo address these issues, we exploit a text categorization based approach via Fuzzy c-means (unsupervised learning technique) that targets to present a systematic way to group the similar design patterns and suggest the appropriate design pattern(s) to developers related to the specification of a given design problem. We also propose an evaluation model to assess the effectiveness of the proposed approach in the context of several real design problems and design pattern collections. Subsequently, we also propose a new feature selection method Ensemble-IG to overcome the multi-class problem and improve the classification performance of the proposed approach.ResultsThe promising experimental results suggest the applicability of the proposed approach in the domain of classification and selection of appropriate design patterns. Subsequently, we also observed the significant improvement in learning precision of the proposed approach through Ensemble-IG.ConclusionThe proposed approach has four advantages as compared to previous work. First, the semi-formal specification of design patterns is not required as a prerequisite; second, the ground reality of class label assignment is not mandatory; third, lack of classifier’s training for each design pattern class and fourth, an adequate sample size is not required to make precise learning.