Implementing Ethics for a Mobile App Deployment

This paper discusses the ethical dimensions of a research project in which we deployed a personal tracking app on the Apple App Store and collected data from users with whom we had little or no direct contact. We describe the in-app functionality we created for supporting consent and withdrawal, our approach to privacy, our navigation of a formal ethical review, and navigation of the Apple approval process. We highlight two key issues for deployment-based research. Firstly, that it involves addressing multiple, sometimes conflicting ethical principles and guidelines. Secondly, that research ethics are not readily separable from design, but the two are enmeshed. As such, we argue that in-action and situational perspectives on research ethics are relevant to deployment-based research, even where the technology is relatively mundane. We also argue that it is desirable to produce and share relevant design knowledge and embed in-action and situational approaches in design activities

Using ChatGPT in HCI Research -- A Trioethnography

This paper explores the lived experience of using ChatGPT in HCI research through a month-long trioethnography. Our approach combines the expertise of three HCI researchers with diverse research interests to reflect on our daily experience of living and working with ChatGPT. Our findings are presented as three provocations grounded in our collective experiences and HCI theories. Specifically, we examine (1) the emotional impact of using ChatGPT, with a focus on frustration and embarrassment, (2) the absence of accountability and consideration of future implications in design, and raise (3) questions around bias from a Global South perspective. Our work aims to inspire critical discussions about utilizing ChatGPT in HCI research and advance equitable and inclusive technological development

Interactive skin through a social- sensory speculative lens

This paper uses a speculative lens to explore the social and sensory trajectories of Interactive Skin, a class of skin-worn epidermal devices that augment the human body in ways that are significant for affective techno-touch. The paper presents and discusses the use of a speculative narrative on Interactive Skin futures produced through an exploratory research-collaboration with a Human–Computer Interaction (HCI) lab, combining data from speculative methods (cultural probe returns and a future-orientated workshop) with an ethnographic sensitivity to writing. The speculative narrative is in the form of a found archive of fictional fragments that are research provocations in their own right. We discuss their potentials, including the ability to foster interdisciplinary dialogue between social and HCI researchers and to agitate the socio-technological space of interactive skin futures, as well as their limitations. The paper concludes that a socially orientated speculative approach can provide useful insights on the interconnection between the senses, society, and technology in the context of emergent affective techno-touch technologies

In a New Land:Mobile Phones, Amplified Pressures and Reduced Capabilities

Framed within the theoretical lens of positive and negative security, this paper presents a study of newcomers to Sweden and the roles of mobile phones in the establishment of a new life. Using creative engagement methods through a series of workshops, two researchers engaged 70 adult participants enrolled into further education colleges in Sweden. Group narratives about mobile phone use were captured in creative outputs, researcher observations and notes and were analysed using thematic analysis. Key findings show that the mobile phone offers security for individuals and a safe space for newcomers to establish a new life in a new land as well as capitalising on other spaces of safety, such as maintaining old ties. This usage produces a series of threats and vulnerabilities beyond traditional technological security thinking related to mobile phone use. The paper concludes with recommendations for policies and support strategies for those working with newcomers

HCI 2020: Looking Back to the Future

In March, 2007, a forum entitled HCI 2020: Human Values in a Digital Age, was held in Sanlúcar la Mayor, Spain, just outside Seville. Its purpose was to gather luminaries in computing, design, social sciences, and scientific philosophy to discuss, debate and help formulate an agenda for human-computer interaction (HCI) over the next decade and beyond. This resulted in a detailed report, released in April 2008, in the form of a book called Being Human: Human-Computer Interaction in the Year 20201, authored by 45 members of the wider HCI community. In this panel, we shall build from four core questions. How successfully did the HCI 2020 forum and report recognize trends and shape HCI? What major trends or issues did they fail to anticipate? How valuable to the HCI community, to the participants, and to the sponsoring organizations was the forum and the report? And finally, what does this history suggest about both the process and the ultimate value to HCI, to computing in general, and to the world, of creating a HCI 2035 vison?

Expanding modes of reflection in design futuring

Design futuring approaches, such as speculative design, design fiction and others, seek to (re)envision futures and explore alternatives. As design futuring becomes established in HCI design research, there is an opportunity to expand and develop these approaches. To that end, by reflecting on our own research and examining related work, we contribute five modes of reflection. These modes concern formgiving, temporality, researcher positionality, real-world engagement, and knowledge production. We illustrate the value of each mode through careful analysis of selected design exemplars and provide questions to interrogate the practice of design futuring. Each reflective mode offers productive resources for design practitioners and researchers to articulate their work, generate new directions for their work, and analyze their own and others’ work.

Worse Than Spam: Issues In Sampling Software Developers

Background: Reaching out to professional software developers is a crucial part of empirical software engineering research. One important method to investigate the state of practice is survey research. As drawing a random sample of professional software developers for a survey is rarely possible, researchers rely on various sampling strategies. Objective: In this paper, we report on our experience with different sampling strategies we employed, highlight ethical issues, and motivate the need to maintain a collection of key demographics about software developers to ease the assessment of the external validity of studies. Method: Our report is based on data from two studies we conducted in the past. Results: Contacting developers over public media proved to be the most effective and efficient sampling strategy. However, we not only describe the perspective of researchers who are interested in reaching goals like a large number of participants or a high response rate, but we also shed light onto ethical implications of different sampling strategies. We present one specific ethical guideline and point to debates in other research communities to start a discussion in the software engineering research community about which sampling strategies should be considered ethical.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, Proceedings of the 2016 ACM/IEEE International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement (ESEM 2016), ACM, 201

Sensitive Pictures:Emotional Interpretation in the Museum

Museums are interested in designing emotional visitor experiences to complement traditional interpretations. HCI is interested in the relationship between Affective Computing and Affective Interaction. We describe Sensitive Pictures, an emotional visitor experience co-created with the Munch art museum. Visitors choose emotions, locate associated paintings in the museum, experience an emotional story while viewing them, and self-report their response. A subsequent interview with a portrayal of the artist employs computer vision to estimate emotional responses from facial expressions. Visitors are given a souvenir postcard visualizing their emotional data. A study of 132 members of the public (39 interviewed) illuminates key themes: designing emotional provocations; capturing emotional responses; engaging visitors with their data; a tendency for them to align their views with the system's interpretation; and integrating these elements into emotional trajectories. We consider how Affective Computing can hold up a mirror to our emotions during Affective Interaction.Comment: Accepted for publication in CHI 202