Designing Teenage Emotions with a Life of Their Own

In this chapter, two participatory design activities are described in which teenagers create lo-fi designs describing emotions and explain the rationale for their design choices. Designs annotating and describing emotions are categorised as anthropomorphic, abstract, object based, or biomorphic. The chapter concludes: (i) teenagers use a variety of visual metaphors to describe emotions, (ii) teenagers use anthropomorphic visual metaphors most often to describe emotions and (iii) teenagers make more use of abstract and biomorphic visual metaphors to describe ‘negative’ emotions. The effect of materials on designs is analysed, suggesting that teenagers are more likely to create designs describing emotions featuring anthropomorphic visual metaphors when using malleable three-dimensional materials. Suggestions are made for the use of externalisation and personification as part of interactive emotion displays within affective systems. A focus group evaluation of a prototype mobile app is described, which suggests that teenagers place more importance on an affective systems ability to support social relationships than they do its ability to support psychological development. This research will be of value to interaction designers and Child-Computer Interaction researchers seeking to understand how teenagers use different visual metaphors to describe different emotions

The Child-to-Child (C2C) Method: Participatory Design for, with and by Children in a Children's Museum

In this paper, we present the Child-to-Child method (C2C) for co-designing with children for children. The method is illustrated using a design case, where an interactive space for young children in Children’s Museum was designed. A three dimensional interactive books are envisioned and explored with children, and consequently embedded into the “Book Nook” exhibit. This interactive environment, intended for young children aged 3-5, was developed and prototyped by an intergenerational design team. The paper reflects upon challenges and opportunities provided by working with C2C method and presents results of preliminary investigation of an interactive space design that employs a novel concept of a 3D book. Further, we argue that C2C method is indeed a participatory design method for, with and by children. Reprint of a paper published in: IADIS International Journal on WWW/Internet Vol. 11, No. 2, pp. 92-113. Made available here with permission from IADIS. http://www.iadis.org

Designing Teenage Emotions with a Life of Their Own

In this paper two participatory design activities are described in which teenagers create lo-fi designs describing emotions and explain the rationale for their design choices. Designs annotating and describing emotions are categorised as anthropomorphic, abstract, object based, or biomorphic. The paper concludes that teenagers use a variety of visual metaphors to describe emotions, that teenagers use anthropomorphic visual metaphors the most to describe emotions and that teenagers make more use of abstract and biomorphic visual metaphors to describe 'negative' emotions. The effect of materials on designs is analysed, suggesting that teenagers are more likely to create designs describing emotions featuring anthropomorphic visual metaphors when using malleable threedimensional materials. Suggestions are made for the use of externalisation and personification as part of interactive emotion displays within affective systems. This research will be of value to interaction designers and Child Computer Interaction researchers seeking to understand how teenagers use different visual metaphors to describe different emotions. The contribution of this work is a categorisation of the visual metaphors teenagers use to express different emotions

Osallistava suunnittelu lasten kanssa: Uusi mobiili rahapalvelukonsepti

Increasingly younger children own a smartphone with an application store and in-app purchasing possibilities. Consequently, they encounter digital currency even before cash. However, there is no service on the Finnish market that would enhance children’s learning and understanding of digital currency. The current practice is that children acquire their weekly allowance as cash. The aim of this thesis was to plan and execute a user-centered co-design concept design process with children in the context of mobile payment. The methods were suitable co-design methods for children based on literature review implemented in a concept creation project. The target group is children aged 7 to 14 years. The empirical study was conducted in a primary school with a school class of eight sixth graders and fourteen second graders. In addition, moodboard interviews were conducted with four families. The results of this thesis are threefold: (1) description of children’s needs relating to mobile payments, (2) a suggestion and illustrations for a new financial mobile concept, (3) evaluation of the chosen methods and a recommendation for the co-design practice with children. Young children seem to have difficulties in understanding the concept of money; for example, they make accidental in-app purchases. Children desire to make online and mobile purchases, but they mainly have only cash. In addition, saving and games are important to children in the context of payments. However, it was found that second graders and sixth graders have rather different needs for the financial mobile concept, and families differ in their practices related to money. The developed concept reflects the presented results. The chosen co-methods were suitable for the process. This thesis suggests considering the age and role of the child in the process, orienting the children to the activities with their own examples, and interpreting the results with great caution. In addition, flexibility is needed from the researcher. Nonetheless, children are creative and talented designers, especially in the mobile field.Yhä nuoremmilla lapsilla on älypuhelin, jossa on sovelluskauppa ja mahdollisuus tehdä ostoja sovelluksissa. Näin ollen he tutustuvat digitaaliseen rahaan jopa ennen käteistä. Suomen markkinoilla ei kuitenkaan ole palvelua, jonka avulla lapsille voitaisiin opettaa digitaalisen rahan ymmärrystä ja oppimista. Nykyinen käytäntö on, että lapset saavat viikkorahansa käteisenä. Tämän diplomityön tarkoituksena oli suunnitella ja toteuttaa käyttäjäkeskeinen osallistava konseptisuunnitteluprosessi lasten kanssa mobiilimaksamisen kontekstissa. Metodina käytettiin sopivia kirjallisuuskatsaukseen pohjautuvia osallistavan suunnittelun työkalun menetelmiä lapsille. Käyttäjäryhmäksi määritettiin 7–14-vuotiaat lapset. Empiirinen tutkimus suoritettiin ala-asteella sellaisen ryhmän kanssa, jossa oli sekä tokaluokkalaisia että kuudesluokkalaisia lapsia. Tämän lisäksi suoritettiin tunnelmatauluhaastatteluita neljän perheen kanssa. Työn tulokset ovat kolmijakoiset: (1) Kuvaus lasten tarpeista mobiilimaksamiseen liittyen, (2) visuaalinen ehdotus uudesta rahankonseptista, (3) valittujen menetelmien arviointi ja suositus osallistavan suunnittelun menetelmien käytöstä lasten kanssa. Nuorilla lapsilla näyttää olevan vaikeuksia ymmärtää rahan käsitettä. He tekevät esimerkiksi vahinko-ostoja sovelluksissa. Lapsilla on halu tehdä ostoksia tietokoneella ja puhelimissa, mutta heillä on yleensä vain käteistä. Tämän lisäksi säästäminen ja pelit olivat tärkeitä mobiilimaksamisen kontekstissa. Tokaluokkalaisilla ja kuudesluokkalaisilla näytti kuitenkin olevan aika erilaiset tarpeet mobiilimaksamisen konseptille, minkä lisäksi perheillä on erilaisia käytäntöjä rahan suhteen. Konseptiehdotuksessa otetaan huomioon nämä löydökset. Valitut osallistavan suunnittelun menetelmät olivat sopivia tälle tutkimukselle. Tämä diplomityö ehdottaa lapsen iän ja roolin huomioimista prosessissa, lasten orientoimista aktiviteetteihin heidän omilla esimerkeillään ja tulosten tulkitsemista harkiten. Tämän lisäksi tutkijalta vaaditaan erityistä joustavuutta. Lapset ovat kuitenkin luovia ja lahjakkaita suunnittelijoita, erityisesti mobiilialalla

Making Representations Matter: Understanding Practitioner Experience in Participatory Sensemaking

Appropriating new technologies in order to foster collaboration and participatory engagement is a focus for many fields, but there is relatively little research on the experience of practitioners who do so. The role of technology-use mediators is to help make such technologies amenable and of value to the people who interact with them and each other. When the nature of the technology is to provide textual and visual representations of ideas and discussions, issues of form and shaping arise, along with questions of professional ethics. This thesis examines such participatory representational practice, specifically how practitioners make participatory visual representations (pictures, diagrams, knowledge maps) coherent, engaging and useful for groups tackling complex societal and organizational challenges. This thesis develops and applies a method to analyze, characterize, and compare instances of participatory representational practice in such a way as to highlight experiential aspects such as aesthetics, narrative, improvisation, sensemaking, and ethics. It extends taxonomies of such practices found in related research, and contributes to a critique of functionalist or techno-rationalist approaches to studying professional practice. It studies how fourteen practitioners using a visual hypermedia tool engaged participants with the hypermedia representations, and the ways they made the representations matter to the participants. It focuses on the sensemaking challenges that the practitioners encountered in their sessions, and on the ways that the form they gave the visual representations (aesthetics) related to the service they were trying to provide to their participants. Qualitative research methods such as grounded theory are employed to analyze video recordings of the participatory representational sessions. Analytical tools were developed to provide a multi-perspective view on each session. Conceptual and normative frameworks for understanding the practitioner experience in participatory representational practice in context, especially in terms of aesthetics, ethics, narrative, sensemaking, and improvisation, are proposed. The thesis places these concerns in context of other kinds of facilitative and mediation practices as well as research on reflective practice, aesthetic experience, critical HCI, and participatory design

Artful social engagement :long-term interaction design within an international women's community

PhD ThesisLong-term commitments, a rich understanding of- and sensitivity towards identities are considered of value for researchers working within technology design to support community participation. However, few studies have explicitly discussed how researcher relationships are built and how communities negotiate their technology use around identities over time. This thesis presents the findings and insights from a three-year long, in-depth participatory project at an international women’s centre in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. The thesis contributes to interaction design research, and experience-centred design more specifically within social care communities. The research demonstrates how interdisciplinary approaches, combining critical methodological perspectives from feminist postcolonial studies with narrative inquiry and speculative design, can be used constructively in complex and sensitive community contexts. The thesis outlines how such approaches contribute opportunities for the negotiation and celebration of diverse community identities using technology. This is achieved through exploring how ‘dialogical aesthetics’, as articulated through socially engaged arts, can sustain conceptual resources and practical approaches to reflexively inquire into personal identities within communities. Through ‘space-making’ workshops, involving digital portraits and digital story making and through the design and use of a speculative photo-sharing device, the thesis provides insights into exploring and responding to identities, while engendering inspiration and resonance for sustainable future technical practices within a culturally diverse social care community

Multidisciplinary Aspects of Design. Objects, Processes, Experiences and Narratives

The book addresses the contemporary perspectives of design on a multidisciplinary through 4 key words: objects, processes, experiences, narratives. It aims at further investigating the role of the archive for the design culture reflecting on “Memory and Future” and “The Tools of Design and the Language of Representation”, and also themes that are yet at the center of the multidisciplinary debate on design. The tenets of the conference (OPEN: objects, processes, experiences and narratives) will hence also correspond to the book sections: -Objects. Design as focused on the object, on its functional and symbolic dimension, and at the same time on the object as a tool for representing cultures; -Processes. The designer’s self-reflective moment which is focused on the analysis and on the definition of processes in various contexts, spanning innovation, social engagement, reflection on emergencies or forecasting. -Experiences. Design as a theoretical and practical strategy aimed at facilitating experiential interactions among people, people and objects or environments. -Narratives. Making history, representing through different media, archiving, narrating, and exhibiting design

Talking Plants and a Bug Hotel: Participatory Design of ludic encounters with an urban farming community

Due to environmental concerns, sustainability is a growing field of research in HCI. But utilitarian approaches for individual behaviour change that are typical within HCI have been criticised as being too simplistic and failing to take into account the complexity of people’s lives. This thesis contributes a design approach grounded in community-based Participatory Design, and drawing on ludic design, to expand the design space of sustainable HCI beyond individual behaviour change. The thesis demonstrates how the commitments, practices and values of community based Participatory Design and ludic design can be used effectively with a diverse and non-settled urban agricultural community. The research outlines how this approach can support the values, needs and practices of the community, and allow for holistic understandings of sustainability to emerge. This is achieved through three case studies conducted at Spitalfields City Farm, in inner East London. The first study was a way to get to know the farming community and to ground the subsequent work in the values, practices and needs of the farm. This was followed by two research through design studies to investigate designing ludic encounters with and for the community: i) the Talking Plants, a playful encounter with edible plants to support community engagement and learning, and ii) the Bug Hotel, a large musical sculpture for interspecies living, reflection and relaxation. After describing each case study individually in rich detail I turn to a comparison of their respective processes and the artefacts that each produced in the final chapter. These reflections include a manifesto for community-based sustainable HCI, through a Ludic Participatory Design methdology, as well as strategies and challenges to serve as guidance and inspiration for other researchers wishing to do similar kinds of work with similar kinds of communities