Reflecting on the usability of research on culture in designing interaction

The concept of culture has been attractive to producers of interactive\ud systems who are willing to design useful and relevant solutions to users\ud increasingly located in culturally diverse contexts. Despite a substantial body of\ud research on culture and technology, interaction designers have not always been\ud able to apply these research outputs to effectively define requirements for\ud culturally diverse users. This paper frames this issue as one of understanding of\ud the different paradigms underpinning the cultural models being applied to\ud interface development and research. Drawing on different social science theories,\ud the authors discuss top-down and bottom-up perspectives in the study of users‟\ud cultural differences and discuss the extent to which each provides usable design\ud knowledge. The case is made for combining bottom-up and top-down perspectives\ud into a sociotechnical approach that can produce knowledge useful and usable by\ud interaction designers. This is illustrated with a case study about the design of\ud interactive systems for farmers in rural Kenya

Exploring sociotechnical gaps in an intercultural, multidisciplinary design project

This paper highlights the need for the creation of artefacts that make\ud visible the gap between social requirements and the technical affordances of\ud technology. Augmenting the visibility of this gap can lead to a better integration\ud of the process and product of interaction design in intercultural and\ud multidisciplinary projects. Sociotechnical matrices are presented as artefacts that\ud can help to explore this gap. This is illustrated with a case study of the design of\ud interactive systems for farmers in rural Kenya. We discuss experiences in the use\ud of these matrices and new challenges that have emerged in using them

Self-tracking modes: reflexive self-monitoring and data practices

The concept of ‘self-tracking’ (also referred to as life-logging, the quantified self, personal analytics and personal informatics) has recently begun to emerge in discussions of ways in which people can voluntarily monitor and record specific features of their lives, often using digital technologies. There is evidence that the personal data that are derived from individuals engaging in such reflexive self-monitoring are now beginning to be used by actors, agencies and organisations beyond the personal and privatised realm. Self-tracking rationales and sites are proliferating as part of a ‘function creep’ of the technology and ethos of self-tracking. The detail offered by these data on individuals and the growing commodification and commercial value of digital data have led government, managerial and commercial enterprises to explore ways of appropriating self-tracking for their own purposes. In some contexts people are encouraged, ‘nudged’, obliged or coerced into using digital devices to produce personal data which are then used by others. This paper examines these issues, outlining five modes of self-tracking that have emerged: private, communal, pushed, imposed and exploited. The analysis draws upon theoretical perspectives on concepts of selfhood, citizenship, biopolitics and data practices and assemblages in discussing the wider sociocultural implications of the emergence and development of these modes of self-tracking

Recruiting hard-to-reach populations to physical activity studies : evidence and experiences

Most researchers who are conducting research with a public health focus face difficulties in recruiting the segments of the population that they really want to reach. This symposium presented evidence and experiences on recruiting participants to physical activity research, including both epidemiological and intervention based studies. Results from a systematic review of recruitment strategies suggested that we know little about how best to recruit and highlighted the need for researchers to report this in more detail, including metrics of reach into the target population such as number, proportion, and representativeness of participants. Specific strategies used to optimise responses to a population-based mail survey were presented such as study promotion, survey design, multiple mailings, and personal engagement. Finally, using place based recruiting via schools or places of worship to target ethnic minority youth were discussed. Overall the symposium presenters suggested that we need to learn more about how best to recruit participants, in particular those typically under-represented, and that researchers need to apportion a similar amount of planning effort to their recruitment strategies as they do the their research design. Finally we made a plea for researchers to report their recruitment processes in detail

Internalizing Data Collection: Personal Analytics as an Investigation of the Self

Personal analytics, aka self-tracking, is the practice of using a digital device to track aspects of behavior, such as exercise habits, heart rate, sleep patterns, location, diet, and a host of other data points. This dissertation is an exploration of “self” in self-tracking, informed by theories of subjectivity, autonomy, power and knowledge. As a technological intervention, self-tracking devices change how we experience our own body and behavior. They also serve as methods to digitize human behavior. This data is combined with other data and processed using computational methods. Self-tracking devices are both personal and bureaucratic. They are devices used for self-care and institutional processes. As mediating objects, they occupy a multifaceted position that they share with other forms of mediated experience. Like social media, which is both a form of personal expression and a way to track users’ behavior, self-tracking participates in changing attitudes about surveillance. People are willing to subject themselves to surveillance and are largely unaware or unconcerned with the ways in which self-surveillance is the same thing as institutional surveillance. This study positions self-tracking as a practice of institutional population management, not simply personalized exercise tools. A Fitbit might seem to simply measure a “step,” an identifiable metric that exists regardless of whether it is counted. Yet, how can this metric be considered neutral and objective when its institutional purpose guides its development? Thinking of measurement as neutral ignores the process by which anything comes to be measured. All kinds of decisions—about what to count, how to count it, and what to do with the data—are made prior to the end user’s experience. Measurement is a cultural activity and thus the outcome of this data collection is never neutral with respect to power. By looking at fitness-tracker privacy policies, workplace wellness programs, data sharing practices, and advertising materials, I trace the discursive practices surrounding self-tracking. As we surveil our bodies and behavior, we enact a focused attention upon the self. Understanding the consequence of this focus is crucial to understanding how data operates in today’s economy. My overall critique of data in this dissertation concerns how the focus on self obscures the institutional uses and abuses of data. The epistemic affordances of data flow in multiple directions. Self-tracking devices offer the promise to reveal hidden data about the self. They accomplish something different—they create the means to recraft the self into something else entirely. They make the self into an entity that is knowable and therefore able to be the subject of market transactions and manipulated by institutions

Return of the man-machine interface: violent interactions

This paper presents the design and evaluation of “the man-machine interface” a punchable interface designed to criticise and react against the values inherent in modern systems that tacitly favour one type of user (linguistically and technically gifted) and alienate another (physically gifted). We report a user study, where participants used the device to express their opinions before engaging in a group discussion about the implications of strength-based interactions. We draw connections between our own work and that of evolutionary biologists whose recent findings indicate the shape of the human hand is likely to have been partly evolved for the purpose of punching, and conclude by examining violent force as an appropriate means for expressing thoughts and feelings

Digital transformation in the arts : a case study

This paper considers the interaction between digital technology and cultural organisations and the challenges and opportunities this presents for practice and for policy. The paper is based on one of eight 'digital R&D' projects supported by NESTA, Arts Council England and the AHRC, designed to analyse the effects of digital innovation in UK arts organisations. The paper focuses on a series of residencies in three UK arts organisations. The research aims to identify the cultural conditions which support or prevent short-term digital innovation becoming 'embedded' in the ongoing practice of a cultural organisation. The paper considers differing practices, attitudes and expectations between creative technologists and arts organisations. These differing 'cultures of innovation' may help us to understand why digital innovations often fail to move beyond temporary and pragmatic problem-solving towards more challenging, transformational effects on organisational strategy and culture

Dynamics in atomic signaling games

We study an atomic signaling game under stochastic evolutionary dynamics. There is a finite number of players who repeatedly update from a finite number of available languages/signaling strategies. Players imitate the most fit agents with high probability or mutate with low probability. We analyze the long-run distribution of states and show that, for sufficiently small mutation probability, its support is limited to efficient communication systems. We find that this behavior is insensitive to the particular choice of evolutionary dynamic, a property that is due to the game having a potential structure with a potential function corresponding to average fitness. Consequently, the model supports conclusions similar to those found in the literature on language competition. That is, we show that efficient languages eventually predominate the society while reproducing the empirical phenomenon of linguistic drift. The emergence of efficiency in the atomic case can be contrasted with results for non-atomic signaling games that establish the non-negligible possibility of convergence, under replicator dynamics, to states of unbounded efficiency loss