Participatory design and participatory development: a comparative review

This paper examines literature in the twin domains of participatory interactive systems design and participatory approaches to international development. As interactive systems are increasingly promoted as a possible means of achieving international development goals, designers generally agree that participatory design approaches should be applied. However, review of the literature reveals that these two different traditions have more complex relationships, and questions must be asked about: the aims of participation, the forms of participation that are being advocated, and the skills and strategies required of practitioners. The findings suggest that successful integration of participatory interactive systems design into development will require careful reflection on the nature of development and the approaches adopted.</p

A human-centered design methodology to enhance the usability, human factors, and user experience of connected health systems: a three-phase methodology.

peer-reviewedDesign processes such as human-centered design, which involve the end user throughout the product development and testing process, can be crucial in ensuring that the product meets the needs and capabilities of the user, particularly in terms of safety and user experience. The structured and iterative nature of human-centered design can often present a challenge when design teams are faced with the necessary, rapid, product development life cycles associated with the competitive connected health industry. We wanted to derive a structured methodology that followed the principles of human-centered design that would allow designers and developers to ensure that the needs of the user are taken into account throughout the design process, while maintaining a rapid pace of development. In this paper, we present the methodology and its rationale before outlining how it was applied to assess and enhance the usability, human factors, and user experience of a connected health system known as the Wireless Insole for Independent and Safe Elderly Living (WIISEL) system, a system designed to continuously assess fall risk by measuring gait and balance parameters associated with fall risk. We derived a three-phase methodology. In Phase 1 we emphasized the construction of a use case document. This document can be used to detail the context of use of the system by utilizing storyboarding, paper prototypes, and mock-ups in conjunction with user interviews to gather insightful user feedback on different proposed concepts. In Phase 2 we emphasized the use of expert usability inspections such as heuristic evaluations and cognitive walkthroughs with small multidisciplinary groups to review the prototypes born out of the Phase 1 feedback. Finally, in Phase 3 we emphasized classical user testing with target end users, using various metrics to measure the user experience and improve the final prototypes. We report a successful implementation of the methodology for the design and development of a system for detecting and predicting falls in older adults. We describe in detail what testing and evaluation activities we carried out to effectively test the system and overcome usability and human factors problems. We feel this methodology can be applied to a wide variety of connected health devices and systems. We consider this a methodology that can be scaled to different-sized projects accordingly.PUBLISHEDpeer-reviewe

WATER alert!: disseminating drinking water quality information to South Africans

Drinking water quality, especially in many parts of South Africa, is far below acceptable standards. With an annual estimate of 43,000 deaths from diarrheal diseases, 3 million cases of illness, and treatment costs of over half a billion US dollars, the impact is critical [4]. This research addresses the challenge of reporting complex and critical water quality information in a way that is accessible to all South Africans as required by law. In a country with high illiteracy rates, 11 official languages and limited-to-no access to technology in many areas, this is no easy feat. We describe the details of WATER Alert!, a prototype mobile phone application designed to alert and report critical water quality information to consumers who subscribe to it. Our initial evaluation of this design with users suggests that such an application would help to improve consumers' understanding of water quality information. The symbol-based messages make critical water quality information more accessible to illiterate or low-literate users, or non-native English or Afrikaans speakers. Additionally, the use of a tool and interface design most of our users are familiar with (the mobile phone) lowers the learning curve

Field Testing Mobile Digital Storytelling Software in Rural Kenya

We describe and reflect on a method we used to evaluate usability and give insights on situated use of a mobile digital storytelling prototype. We report on rich data we gained by implementing this method and argue that we were able to learn more about our prototype, users, their needs, and their context, than we would have through other evaluation methods. We look at the usability problems we uncovered and discuss how our flexibility in field- testing allowed us to observe unanticipated usage, from which we were able to motivate future design directions. Finally, we reflect on the importance of spending time in-situ during all stages of design, especially when designing across cultures

Designing Interactive Systems for the Developing World – Reflections on User- Centred Design

User-centred design (UCD) is a well-accepted and useful design methodology for designing interactive systems. In recent years, developing world researchers have attempted to utilise UCD but with mixed results. The results from two developing world, UCD projects, MuTI Mobile and CyberTracker, have shown that the analysis tools and techniques provided by UCD are useful but difficulties arise when interpreting the analysis findings to produce a requirements specification. In particular, traditional UCD methodologies fail to consider the broader and complex effects of the user’s physical and social environments. The field studies also highlighted the limitations of existing early-stage prototyping techniques, such as paper-prototyping. The authors address these issues by presenting several tools and techniques that they feel are more suited to the developing world and essential components of a candidate ‘UCD4Dev’ methodology. These tools and techniques include the use of ‘4Dev’ frameworks, such as the ‘Real Access/Real Impact’ criteria, to highlight pertinent developing world issues, the use of higher fidelity technology artefacts during early stage prototyping, the importance of developing a motivated user group and the need for a progressive participatory design approach

Implementation of a Fall Prevention Program to Decrease Falls in a Skilled Nursing Unit

Background: Falls among older adults continue to climb in concerning numbers. Purpose: Utilizing the Fall TIPS Poster Toolkit as a communication tool and implementing hourly rounds are two fall prevention interventions designed to decrease the number of falls in a retirement community. Methods: Quality improvement project with Plan Do Study Act (PDSA) Cycle, quantitative statistics using Chi-square test for non-paired variables, average percentages, and 2D column bar charts. Results: Aggregate data resulted in a 13% decline in falls. Recommendations: The safety of older adults in long-term care facilities warrants support in continuing education and staff empowerment to implement fall prevention. Conclusion: The application of the Fall TIPS Poster Toolkit and the implementation of hourly rounds were demonstrated to mitigate the number of falls in a skilled nursing unit

The impact of work seeker support platforms on the development of South Africa's unemployed youth

Youth unemployment remains an enduring and significant challenge in South Africa, with 43.2 % of people aged 15-34 and 59% aged 15-24 remaining unemployed, respectively. Similarly, economic discouragement among young people is on the rise. Micro-level barriers contribute significantly to the inability to access employment opportunities. These include the low skills levels of many young South Africans, the high costs of job-seeking, a lack of social capital, a lack of access to relevant job-seeker information, as well as the adverse mental health impacts of alienation, poverty and unemployment. With the rise of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the rise of ICT for Development (ICT4D) interventions, several digital solutions have been developed in South Africa. These attempt to provide low-cost, scalable solutions to youth unemployment by addressing some of the barriers that young people experience. Despite the increased prevalence of such digital interventions, the degree to which they are capable of engaging and transforming the lives of the unemployed youth they target remains unclear. With increasing investments into 4IR interventions to address youth unemployment, closer examination is required. Accordingly, this study appraises one digital work seeker support platform in South Africa that provides skills matching and development opportunities to unemployed youth. The study focuses specifically on their experience of the platform. It uses post phenomenological constructs to analyse how young unemployed South Africans interpret the digital intervention and examines how these interpretations promote or inhibit their sense of agency and wellbeing. The findings suggest that digital youth employment interventions can inadvertently exacerbate some of the existing barriers, while also providing insight into how ICT4D interventions may be reimagined to address some of the factors that drive economic discouragement among young people

Participatory design of digital innovation in agricultural research-for-development: insights from practice

Digital development is becoming mainstream in research-for-development. Applying participatory design methodologies in digital development projects can help develop more user-centered innovation. But these processes require new skills and methods from researchers, and research-for-development project context can create challenges for participatory design. This article presents lessons learned from practical experiences within participatory design projects for digital solutions

Engajamento do paciente em programas de quedas hospitalares : percurso para a elaboração de um manual

Orientadora: Profª. Drª. Luciana Schleder GonçalvesDissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal do Paraná, Setor de Ciências da Saúde, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Prática do Cuidado em Saúde. Defesa : Curitiba, 30/07/2021Inclui referências: p. 90-101Resumo: Introdução: Trata-se da elaboração de um manual sobre estratégias de engajamento do paciente e seu acompanhante na identificação do risco de queda e ações de prevenção de quedas em ambiente hospitalar, que faz parte do projeto "Difusão e adoção do programa Fall Tailoring Interventions for Patient Safety - Fall TIPS", que vem sendo desenvolvido em hospital universitário do sul do Brasil. Objetivo: a elaboração de manual sobre estratégias de engajamento do paciente e seu acompanhante em programas de prevenção de queda. Método: Trata-se de uma pesquisa do tipo qualitativa, exploratória, descritiva e de produção tecnológica, composta por duas fases: a) entrevistas com pacientes que apresentaram o evento adverso queda hospitalar durante internação hospitalar, e/ou com seus acompanhantes, analisadas a partir da técnica de análise de conteúdo; e b) produção tecnológica para a elaboração do manual. Resultados: Nas entrevistas realizadas foi possível observar a recorrência de alguns temas principais: "A gente não sabia: dificuldades e inquietações na percepção dos riscos"; "Medo e insegurança: o manejo emocional como ferramenta da clínica no risco de queda"; "Relação da equipe de saúde com os cuidadores como ferramenta de suporte ao engajamento do paciente", que subsidiaram a elaboração do manual. Os resultados evidenciam lacunas na efetividade da comunicação entre os envolvidos no processo de identificação de riscos e manejo das intervenções relacionadas a cuidados seguros e trazem sugestões para superação do desafio por parte dos profissionais da saúde, em desenvolver práticas mais colaborativas. Sem essa abordagem, o paciente desenvolve sentimentos de medo e insegurança, comprometendo o seu cuidado e segurança. Produto e registro: O "Manual sobre Estratégias de Engajamento em Programas de Prevenção de Quedas Hospitalares", registrado na Cãmara Brasileira do Livro. Conclusão: O manual subsidia a adoção de estratégias de prevenção à ocorrência de quedas em ambiente hospitalar, levando em consideração a adesão de uma cultura de segurança que conduza a uma prática assistencial de qualidade e, consequentemente, à redução de quedas.Abstract: Introduction: A manual on strategies for engaging patients and their companions in identifying the risk of falling and actions to prevent falls in the hospital environment was prepared, as a part of the project "Dissemination and adoption of the Fall Tailoring Interventions for program Patient Safety - Fall TIPS", that is being developed in a university hospital in southern Brazil. Objective: the development of a manual on patient and companion engagement strategies in fall prevention programs. Method: A qualitative, exploratory, descriptive and of technological production research was performed, consisting of two phases: a) interviews with patients (and/or their companions), who had experienced a fall during hospitalization. The content analysis technique was used; and b) the production/preparation of the manual. Results: In the interviews results, it was possible to observe the recurrence of the themes: "We didn't know: difficulties and concerns in the perception of risks"; "Fear and insecurity: emotional management as a clinical tool for managing the risk of falling"; "Relationship between the health team and caregivers as a support tool for patient engagement", which supported the preparation of the manual. Also, they showed gaps in communication effectiveness among those involved in the process of identifying risks and managing interventions related to safe care and bring suggestions for overcoming the challenge on the part of health professionals, in developing more collaborative practices. Without this approach, the patient develops feelings of fear and insecurity, compromising their care and safety. Product: The "Manual on Engagement Strategies in Hospital Fall Prevention Programs", it was registered at Câmara Brasileira do Livro. Conclusion: The manual supports the adoption of prevention strategies against the occurrence of falls in the hospital environment, taking into account the adherence of a safety culture that leads to a quality care practice and, consequently, to the reduction of falls