ICS Materials. Towards a re-Interpretation of material qualities through interactive, connected, and smart materials.

The domain of materials for design is changing under the influence of an increased technological advancement, miniaturization and democratization. Materials are becoming connected, augmented, computational, interactive, active, responsive, and dynamic. These are ICS Materials, an acronym that stands for Interactive, Connected and Smart. While labs around the world are experimenting with these new materials, there is the need to reflect on their potentials and impact on design. This paper is a first step in this direction: to interpret and describe the qualities of ICS materials, considering their experiential pattern, their expressive sensorial dimension, and their aesthetic of interaction. Through case studies, we analyse and classify these emerging ICS Materials and identified common characteristics, and challenges, e.g. the ability to change over time or their programmability by the designers and users. On that basis, we argue there is the need to reframe and redesign existing models to describe ICS materials, making their qualities emerge

A Method for Generating Dynamic Responsible AI Guidelines for Collaborative Action

To improve the development of responsible AI systems, developers are increasingly utilizing tools such as checklists or guideline cards to ensure fairness, transparency, and sustainability. However, these tools face two main challenges. First, they are static and are not meant to keep pace with the latest responsible AI literature and international standards. Second, they tend to prioritize individual usage over fostering collaboration among AI practitioners. To overcome these limitations, we propose a method that enables easy updates of responsible AI guidelines by incorporating research papers and ISO standards, ensuring that the content remains relevant and up to date, while emphasizing actionable guidelines that can be implemented by a wide range of AI practitioners. We validated our method in a case study at a large tech company by designing and deploying a tool that recommends interactive and actionable guidelines, which were generated by a team of engineers, standardization experts, and a lawyer using our method. Through the study involving AI developers and engineers, we assessed the usability and effectiveness of the tool, showing that the guidelines were considered practical and actionable. The guidelines encouraged self-reflection and facilitated a better understanding of the ethical considerations of AI during the early stages of development, significantly contributing to the idea of "Responsible AI by Design" -- a design-first approach that considers responsible AI values throughout the development lifecycle and across business roles.Comment: 26 pages, 5 figures, 4 table

The Role of Cajoling Strategies in Path Creation

Carving out new pathways can be challenging, particularly for established organizations resistant to change. Although research has identified the important role of peripheral entrepreneurs in path creation, identifying innovative ideas, and for being motivated to change the organization, less is known about what strategies peripheral entrepreneurs apply when moving ideas from the periphery to the center. This study examines how peripheral entrepreneurs, despite limited resources, effectively employed cajoling strategies over a 20-year span to instigate organizational change. Leveraging the rise in digitalization, these peripheral entrepreneurs utilized three distinct digital cajoling strategies: coaxing, enticing, and teasing to transform organizational structures, revamp work processes, and change established design regimes and traditional mindsets. We discuss the consequences of cajoling as it can be used for both good and bad purposes

Rethinking the role of ICTs - Digital transformation and Culture enjoyment continuity

This document will analyse recent trends and evolution of the use of ICTs in the field of cultural heritage from a different standpoint, the service provision in the age of digital transition and pandemic. The initial focus is on the usual approach in the field of goods, proper design to elicit a positive feeling by potential customers. Recently a new type of good has been identified, service. Services grown up incredibly in the pandemic, goods delivery, food delivery, and more. So, thinking at services like a good we must design them to better the appreciation by customers as since the early XX century the people did with objects and merchandise. Appling the same approach to digital services a design phase is required together with all the different components that will provide a positive feedback from the user, this means to deal with interaction design, user centred approach, usability guidelines and the overall concept of positive user experience. Recent trends and reborn technologies like the path from edutainment to serious games and gamification, the new approach to immersive interactive technologies in a nonintrusive format. Last but relevant the need to take the momentum to ensure the culture enjoyment continuity in case of crisis

Identifying Five Archetypes of Interaction Design Professionals and Their Universal Design Expertise

Systems and services based on Information and Communications Technology (ICT) are now prevalent in our daily lives. Digital transformations have been, and are still being, initiated across private and public sectors. As such, the consequences of digital exclusion are severe and may block access to key aspects of modern life, such as education, employment, consumerism and health services. In order to combat this, regions and countries such as the USA, Canada, EU and Scandinavia have all legislated universal design (UD) in relation to ICT, in order to ensure as many citizens as possible have the opportunity to access and use digital information and services. However, there has been limited research into how higher educational programs address legislated accessibility responsibilities. This paper looks into the discipline of interaction design (IxD). IxD is the design domain focused on ‘how human beings relate to other human beings through the mediating influence of products’ (Buchanan, R. (2001) Designing research and the new learning. Des. Issues, 17, 3–23). The study presents an analysis of Norwegian higher educational programs within IxD. Based on document analysis, we map the skillsets the study programs state to deliver and investigate to what degree UD expertise is included. Our findings indicate the study programs do not deliver adequate training in UD, in order to fulfill the professional responsibilities related to ICT accessibility. From our findings, we extrapolate five ‘archetypes’ of interaction designers. These personas-like analytical constructs hold slightly different characteristics. For each of the five, we propose UD expertise fitting key skillsets. We hope our contributions are useful both for the higher education sector and the industry and will contribute to raised awareness of UD skills so they can educate interaction designers in their different industry roles with required competences.acceptedVersio

Technical Communication in China:Studies on the User Experience of Technical Documentation

Technical communication is the process of conveying complex information to a varied audience, including both technical and non-technical individuals. It aims to make information usable and accessible. The dissertation provides an in-depth examination of technical communication's evolution in China, with a focus on enhancing user experience with technical documentation.The dissertation is organized into seven chapters, beginning with the current state of technical communication in China, followed by three parts covering five research studies on various aspects of technical documentation, including the roles of technical communicators who create technical documentation, the design and evaluation of developer documentation, and the application of emotional design in user manuals. It concludes by summarizing key findings, discussing theoretical and practical implications, and suggesting future research directions.This dissertation aims to answer five research questions. The first focuses on the state of the art of TC in China. The other four questions explore specific angles on TC in a Chinese context. The five research questions are:• RQ1. What is the development of technical communication as a professional discipline in China?• RQ2. What are the learning habits, information journey, and expectations of Chinese developers regarding developer documentation?• RQ3. What are key factors influencing the effectiveness of searching and finding technical documentation?• RQ4. What are effective strategies for evaluating performance and user experience of developer documentation?• RQ5. What is the impact of emotional design on user experience and effectiveness in technical documentation?<br/

User research in product development in business to business software as a service

Customers are more empowered to make purchasing decisions than ever before, and customer experience has become a critical decision factor. Business to business (B2B) software as a service (SaaS) companies are changing their strategies and ways of working to become more customer-centric and stay competitive. To understand users, their needs, motivations and the problems that they are facing, companies do user research and involve users in product development. This thesis explores how B2B SaaS organizations utilize user research when developing products. It aims to answer some of the most fundamental questions: which user research methods companies use, how they involve internal stakeholders in user research and how they select the users and motivate them to take part in product development. A qualitative multiple case study approach was used in this thesis to answer the research questions. The literature review aims to provide a broad overview of the topic. Six B2B SaaS companies and two service design companies were interviewed to learn about user research in B2B SaaS field. The results of the thesis show that less customer-centric organizations do ad-hoc user research. More customer-centric companies incorporate user research into the development process. Both approaches are valuable for developing a product that fits customer needs but incorporated user involvement is necessary for achieving a better outcome. Customer-centric organizations include various stakeholders in user research to increase the transparency of findings and create empathy towards users. Furthermore, qualitative user research is essential for customer-centric product development. Regarding the users, while they are motivated to take part in product development, it was discovered that in the B2B field the process of approaching users can be challenging. This thesis compares how different B2B SaaS companies do user research. It reveals the best practices, challenges and opportunities of user involvement. This information can be useful for organizations that aim to become customer-centric. The findings contribute to the literature by providing insights into successful examples and the challenges of user involvement in product development in B2B SaaS organizations

Service Systems Design : Developing Human-centric Systems in Organizational to Ecosystemic Scales

Customer Experience is becoming an increasingly important factor in defining the success of organizations and their efforts. The hard systems approaches from inherent in the efficiency-oriented IT and engineering disciplines should be augmented with soft systems approaches which can add the development of experiental, human issues to the mix. This thesis proposes the concept and practices of Service Systems Design as a solution to the challenge of integrating hard and soft systems approaches. The concept is built on theory from the field of Service Science including Service-Dominant Logic from Vargo and Lusch and adding approaches from Service Design and Enterprise Architecture. Service Systems Design is defined as the Design of human-centered systems or Service Systems that can also be applied to developing Service Systems that span Service Ecosystems or multi-organizational collaboration. The MyData movement, which seeks to promote the social, legal and technical underpinnings of empowering a person-centric data economy, is one of the underpinnings of the research questions. MyData seeks to promote the development of data-based services in which data is not owned by the organization that provides the services but rather follows the person in question to enable digital ecosystemic services. The concept and practices of Service Systems Design are explored through MyData opportunities at ecosystemic and organizational contexts. The first empirical research question seeks to understand how to use Service Systems Design in developing a MyData Service Ecosystem Concept within a Professional Summer School. The second empirical research question explores Service Systems Design as a means of developing a Consent Service System Concept for Elisa Oyj which would enable customers to delegate responsibilies related to subscriptions to family members or other designated people. Based on the exploring the concept and practices Service Systems Design, further research that would look at the complete lifecycle of designing and delivering a Service System is proposed to understand and expand it to suit practical purposes. Digital Legal Design is also proposed as an area of future Service Systems Design research that deals with MyData.Asiakaskokemuksesta on tulossa enenevässä määrin tärkeämpi asia organisaatioiden menestystekijänä. IT:stä ja insinööritieteistä tuttujen tehokkuutta edistävien kovien järjestelmäkehityksen lähestymistapojen rinnalle kaivataan pehmeitä järjestelmäkehitysmenetelmiä, jotka voivat laajentaa aluetta lisäämällä kokemukselliset, ihmiskeskeiset seikat osaksi järjestelmäkehitystä. Palvelujärjestelmien muotoilun käsite ja sitä tukevat lähestymistavat saattavat olla ratkaisu kovien ja pehmeiden järjestelmäkehitysmenetelmien yhdistämiseksi. Käsite perustuu palvelutieteiden alueeseen, jossa Vargon ja Luschin palvelulogiikka on keskeisessä asemassa, sekä palvelumuotoilun ja kokonaisarkkitehtuurityön lähestymistapohin. Palvelujärjestelmien muotoilu määritellään ihmiskeskeisten järjestelmien tai palvelujärjestelmien muotoiluksi, jota voidaan hyödyntää myös moniorganisatorisissa ekosysteemeissä kehitettävien palvelujärjestelmien kehittämiseen. MyData-liike, joka pyrkii edistämään sosiaalista, lakiteknistä ja teknologista henkilökeskeistä datataloutta, on tutkimuskysymyksiä yhdistävä tekijä. MyData pyrkii edistämään datalähtöisten palveluiden kehittämistä, jossa data ei ole palveluita tuottavan organisaation omistamaa, vaan seuraa henkilöä digitaalisten ekosysteemeissä tuotettavien palveluiden kehittämiseksi. Palvelujärjestelmien muotoilun käsitettä ja käytänteitä tutkitaan MyData-mahdollisuuksien kautta sekä organisaation sisäisessä että ekosysteemisessä kontekstissa. Ensimmäinen empiirinen tutkimuskysymys pyrkii selvittämään, miten palvelujärjestelmien muotoilua voitaisiin käyttää MyDataan perustuvan palveluekosysteemin konseptoinnissa Professional Summer School -kontekstissa. Toinen empiirinen tutkimuskysymys tutkii palvelujärjestelmien muotoilua tapana kehittää valtuutuspalvelujärjestelmä Elisa Oyj:lle, jonka tavoitteena on tarjota asiakkaille mahdollisuuksia delegoida sopimuksiin ja tuotteisiin liittyviä vastuita perheenjäsenille ja muille soveltuville henkilöille. Palvelujärjestelmien muotoilua koskevan tutkimuksen perusteella ehdotetaan seuraavia tutkimuskohteita palvelun koko muotoilun ja tuottamisen elinkaaren kattavista lähestymistavoista, jotka tarkastelisivat paitsi prototypointia, mutta myös tapoja, joilla kehitetty palvelu saadaan aikaiseksi. Digitaalista lakimuotoilua ehdotetaan myös alueeksi, jossa MyDataa koskevaa palvelujärjestelmämuotoilututkimusta voitaisiin edistää

Feasibility documents as critical structuring objects:An approach to the study of documents in digital research production

This article has been published in "Convergence", Volume 29, Issue 3, 2022: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/13548565221111073 Abstract: Documents have been increasingly recognised as important objects of investigation in Science and Technology Studies (STS); however, so far, much less attention has been given to the study of documents produced in Digital Humanities. The author proposes therefore to use the method of the ‘STS of documents’ and analyse Feasibility documents that aim to assess technical and design requirements based on research questions and to organise a project workflow. Drawing on the ethnography of King’s Digital Lab, the article investigates Feasibility documents produced by the lab within the Agile-based Software Development Lifecycle framework. The article aims to show that Feasibility documents (1) inform ethnographic work about lab workflow and management and in doing so, are able to capture the interconnectedness of work layers and practices; (2) enable an empirical analysis of digital research projects and the process of translation from research questions, to methods, to technical solutions; (3) are critical structuring objects that structure the research process and relationships between involved actors and are structured by local institutional strategies and decisions. The author conducts a ‘feasibility analysis’ that reveals the project management and development stages: the analytical process (the translation of research questions into technical solutions); the production process (the move from technical and design practices to research answers) and the infrastructure and management process (project workflow and sustainability solutions). Drawing on Agre’s critical technical practice and Digital Humanities’ theories of critical production, the article seeks to shift attention from end-product digital artefacts towards the complex process of their creation, which can unpack a range of social, technological and management issues. In doing so, it also aims to provide a methodological framework for the analysis of documents produced in Digital Humanities that have the potential to unearth new questions about the socio-technical nature of digital production. The project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 891155. The article reflects only the author’s view, and that the Agency is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains