Creating personas for political and social consciousness in HCI design

Personas have become an important tool for Human-Computer Interaction professionals. However, they are not immune to limitations and critique, including stereotyping. We suggest that while some of the criticisms to personas are important, the use of personas is open to them in part because of an unquestioned focus on explicating user needs and goals in traditional persona research and creation. This focus, while helping designers, obscures some other potentially relevant aspects. In particular, when the goal of the product or software being designed is associated with social and political goals rather than with bringing a product to the market, it may be relevant to focus personas on political aspirations, social values and the will or capacity of personas to take action. We argue that it is possible when producing personas (and associated scenarios) to partially move away from representing needs and embrace personas which more explicitly represent political or social beliefs and values. We also suggest that a phenomenographic approach to user data analysis is one way to achieve this. We provide empirical evidence for our position from two large-scale European projects, the first one in the area of Social Innovation and the second in the area of eParticipation

From Solution Trap to Solution Patchwork: Tensions in Digital Health in the Global Context

This paper problematizes underlying assumptions in Design Science Research – and Information Systems Research more broadly by conceptualizing the „solution trap“. The solution trap is caused by the incompatibility of co-existing solutions in complex socio-technical contexts. Information systems bring diverse cultures and theories together, causing tensions in the different institutional logics. We emphasize the need for a nuanced understanding of context unevenness and propose solution patchwork as a coordination approach to evade the solution trap. Substantiating the preliminary insights and propositions with a literature review and further empirical grounding will transition this research-in-progress to a full paper

From Solution Trap to Solution Patchwork: Tensions in Digital Health in the Global Context

This paper problematizes underlying assumptions in Design Science Research – and Information Systems Research more broadly by conceptualizing the „solution trap“. The solution trap is caused by the incompatibility of co-existing solutions in complex socio-technical contexts. Information systems bring diverse cultures and theories together, causing tensions in the different institutional logics. We emphasize the need for a nuanced understanding of context unevenness and propose solution patchwork as a coordination approach to evade the solution trap. Substantiating the preliminary insights and propositions with a literature review and further empirical grounding will transition this research-in-progress to a full paper

Promoting Bright Patterns

User experience designers are facing increasing scrutiny and criticism for creating harmful technologies, leading to a pushback against unethical design practices. While clear-cut harmful practices such as dark patterns have received attention, trends towards automation, personalization, and recommendation present more ambiguous ethical challenges. To address potential harm in these "gray" instances, we propose the concept of "bright patterns" - persuasive design solutions that prioritize user goals and well-being over their desires and business objectives. The ambition of this paper is threefold: to define the term "bright patterns", to provide examples of such patterns, and to advocate for the adoption of bright patterns through policymaking.Comment: For associated website, see https://brightpatterns.org/. Published to the CHI '23 Workshop: Designing Technology and Policy Simultaneousl

Lifelines

There is an imbalance across design disciplines in how the user is theorised, represented and ultimately configured. It is suggested that normative user-centred design, as practiced in product design and human-computer interaction (HCI), can lead to a lack-based approach which, when applied in a health and wellbeing context, tends to align unreflexively with a medicalised view of the person. In contrast, the use of self in research is a concept well-developed in health care ethics and care professions, while the interpersonal relationship is valued and analysed in psychotherapy and counselling research and practice. Inspired by these, this article presents a discussion on the sometimes deeply relational nature of doing design with users when viewed through the lens of the Person-Centred Approach (PCA) (Rogers 1961/1967). A case study is used to illustrate an encounter of relational depth as experienced by students working directly with individuals to design prosthetics. Lifelines is a creative project brief developed by Jivan Astfalck (2008; 2011), which asks students to represent ten significant moments in their own lives through the creative use of materials and found objects. In this case, the brief was altered so that another person (the ‘user’) would be represented. The aim was that the student designers would experience moving beyond implicit conceptions of the user as defined by a need or perceived (dis)ability, and that the intimate and personal nature of identifying and representing significant moments would raise questions about expectations of objectivity in design and research.  The case study demonstrates that working in this way can be experienced as profoundly moving, with powerful moments of personal transformation and interpersonal growth. In discussion, it is suggested that through such moments of encounter, it becomes possible to examine the qualities of the relational in action, and to analyse not only problematic processes of othering, but also their converse - meetings at relational depth. The Lifelines brief is proposed as a transformative way for designers to re-engage with the whole person, as both substantial (self-realising) and relational (in time, with others and the world), and as one creative exercise in a potential suite of tools for the strengthening of the “ethical reflex” necessary in Design and HCI (Vandenberghe and Slegers 2016, 514)

Exploring Approaches to Data Literacy Through a Critical Race Theory Perspective

In this paper, we describe and analyze a workshop developed for a work training program called DataWorks. In thisworkshop, data workers chose a topic of their interest, sourced and processed data on that topic, and used that data to createpresentations. Drawing from discourses of data literacy; epistemic agency and lived experience; and critical race theory, we analyze the workshops’ activities and outcomes. Through this analysis, three themes emerge: the tensions between epistemic agency and the context of work, encountering the ordinariness of racism through data work, and understanding the personal as communal and intersectional. Finally, critical race theory also prompts us to consider the very notions of data literacy that undergird our workshop activities. From this analysis, we offer a series of suggestions for approaching designing data literacy activities, taking into account critical race theory

User Experience Design Professionals' Perceptions of Generative Artificial Intelligence

Among creative professionals, Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) has sparked excitement over its capabilities and fear over unanticipated consequences. How does GenAI impact User Experience Design (UXD) practice, and are fears warranted? We interviewed 20 UX Designers, with diverse experience and across companies (startups to large enterprises). We probed them to characterize their practices, and sample their attitudes, concerns, and expectations. We found that experienced designers are confident in their originality, creativity, and empathic skills, and find GenAI's role as assistive. They emphasized the unique human factors of "enjoyment" and "agency", where humans remain the arbiters of "AI alignment". However, skill degradation, job replacement, and creativity exhaustion can adversely impact junior designers. We discuss implications for human-GenAI collaboration, specifically copyright and ownership, human creativity and agency, and AI literacy and access. Through the lens of responsible and participatory AI, we contribute a deeper understanding of GenAI fears and opportunities for UXD.Comment: accepted to CHI 202