Doing probes diary with children in reporting social networking behaviour

This paper describes the qualitative technique approach in an attempt to understand child personality with regards to social networking sites.It was applied during the user requirement phase.We used a probes diary approach to collect qualitative data from selected children.Seven children from 10-13 years old participated in the study and completed the diary.In this paper, we describe about our probes diary approach with young children participants.We have identified seven important elements in designing diaries for children. We believe that the work presented in this paper might help other researchers to design children's diary for their own research

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

Exploration der Lernsituation von Studierenden mit Cultural Probes

Die Konzeption von Curricula und Lehrveranstaltungen sowie die Erwartungen an die Lerntätigkeiten in Selbstlernphasen basieren unter anderem auf Kenntnissen und Annahmen zur Lernsituation von Studierenden. Daher wurde in einer Studie der Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel ein co-evolutionärer Prozess durchgeführt, der sowohl die Untersuchung der Lernsituation und kontextuellen Bedingungen von Studierenden als auch die Entwicklung von Handlungsempfehlungen umfasst. Der Beitrag behandelt den Einsatz von Cultural Probes, einer Methode zur Erhebung latenter Bedürfnisse, im pädagogischen Umfeld, wobei insbesondere der forschungsmethodische Ablauf beschrieben wird. 10.08.2011 | S. Reisas, R. Schaller, H. Allert, C. Richter & F.-W. Lehmhau

Design, implementation and evaluation of a gamified digital cultural probe in the context of energy consumption

Treballs Finals de Grau d'Enginyeria Informàtica, Facultat de Matemàtiques, Universitat de Barcelona, Any: 2017, Director: Inmaculada Rodríguez Santiago[en] Cultural Probes (CP) is a HCI technique used to gather data about people (feelings, thoughts, interactions, knowledge, etc) in order to inspire the design of applications. It consists in giving participants a series of tasks to perform, which they return after some time so the information can be analyzed by the design team. This project proposes the design and implementation (as a mobile application) of a gamified Cultural Probe in the context of energy consumption. Given that one of the drawbacks of CP is the low completion rate and, therefore, the lack of data gathered, the use of gamification is believed to enhance the participation of users by motivating them to complete the tasks. The particular approach of this CP is that participants not only provide data about themselves, but also about other people. Specifically, it is designed to be completed by children, who have to perform four different tasks taking the role of a psychologist, a detective, an electrician and a journalist (depending on what the task is about) to gather information about their own and also their families’ electric consumption. Additionally, the realization of the CP might raise awareness on them about energy and environmental related issues. After the implementation of the proposed design as an Android app, the CP has been evaluated with children from two primary schools in Barcelona, who have interacted with two different versions (gamified and non gamified) of the app, to test the hypothesis that gamified Cultural Probes may show better results than non gamified ones. Even though the evaluation showed slightly better results for the non gamified CP, the difference is not statistically significant, opening a door to do more research on the subject

Familien Robot kommer forbi – robotter som legevæsner og legemedier i børns teknologiske legekultur

Begreber som STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics), Computational Thinking, Digital Dannelse, Teknologiforståelse og ’læring’ om teknologier samt ’lære at’ benytte teknologier er centrale i forhold til forskningen i, indsatserne for og forståelsen af børns teknologipraksis i børnehaver og skoler. Med et forskningsmæssigt afsæt forsøger denne artikel at udvide feltet og forståelsen gennem at anskue børns teknologipraksis dels i en legekulturel optik, dels med et fokus på mellemmenneskelige og humanistiske dimensioner inden for 21st Century Learning Skills. Med udgangspunkt i et 4 måneder langt Design Based Research feltarbejde i 3 børnehaver, udført af Mads Bønløkke Pedersen, ser artiklen på, hvordan forskellige robotter som Ozobot, BlueBot, Dash-and-Dot og Edison ’kommer på besøg’ i børnehaver og bliver til legevæsner og legemedier i børnenes legepraksisser på egen hånd og sammen med pædagoger. I artiklen forstås børnehavens robotkultur som børnenes egen kultur og samtidig undersøges det, hvordan børn og pædagoger gennem etableringen af en sådan kultur opøver og udfolder teknologisk forestillingskraft og deltagende fællesskaber, faciliteret af robotter og teknologisk mod. Gennem artiklen fremskrives et rammeværk for at begribe en sådan legekulturel tilgang til børns teknologipraksis samt en analyse af et feltarbejde, der fremhæver, hvad et sådant rammeværk bidrager med, når vi forsker i og praktiserer teknologiske lege- og lærings-kulturer med børn i børnehaver.&nbsp

Designing for sustainable behaviour in cross-cultural contexts: a design framework

This thesis investigates the influence that cultural differences have in the designing of products and services that encourage sustainable lifestyles. This was researched through a case study of dishwashing practices in Mexico and the UK, and the development of a methodological framework for supporting designers working in cross-cultural contexts. Designers can shift user behaviour to be more responsible, and by doing this, reduce a product s impact on the use phase of its lifecycle. Nevertheless, designing products that successfully drive behaviour towards a more sustainable path can only be accomplished if they are conceived to fit the user and the specific context of interaction. In order to do so, designers must truly understand the users, and take into account the complex web of factors that lay behind individual behaviour. A comprehensive review of the literature established an understanding of human behaviour and the emergence and evolution of practices and routines. This brought to light the diverse behavioural patterns in different contexts; and was further investigated with a scoping study in two different locations (Mexico and the UK), exploring general water consuming practices in the home, specifically manual dishwashing practices. The preliminary findings shaped a study that aimed to deepen the understanding of these practices in the selected sites, involving the use of Cultural Probes and videoing people in their common kitchen environment. A robust and clear image of washing-up practices emerged with rich and detailed data presented in different media, ideal to be implemented in a design process. To this end, a series of multicultural Personas were created as the direct outcome of the Cultural Probes and the scoping study, giving way to the design studies phase of the project, carried out with industrial design students in Mexico and the UK. A design brief for sustainable washing up practices was delivered. Design experiments were used to provide interesting evidence of the influence in the design process of the designers understanding of the target user. The findings indicate that designers benefit from exploration and creativity tools tailored directly from the user-research findings in the early design process. This increases the level of empathy towards the user, particularly making it easier to design for users with different needs and contexts than the designers themselves. It also helps designers to better apply design for sustainable behaviour framework to their concept designs

The patient experience of children expressed by themselves - Applicability of video diaries as a data gathering method

Potilaat odottavat yhä enemmän terveydenhuollon palveluilta, jolloin terveydenhuoltoala muuttuu kohti perinteistä palvelualaa. Terveydenhuollon tarjoajat ovatkin alkaneet kiinnittää huomiota potilaskokemukseen ja käyttävät potilaskokemuksen vertailua enenevissä määrin toimintansa arvioimiseen. Myös Suomessa terveydenhuoltosektorin kiinnostus käyttäjien osallistumista ja potilaskokemuksen syvempää ymmärrystä kohtaan on kasvanut Uusi Lastensairaala 2017 -projektin myötä. Aalto-yliopisto on mukana Lapsus-tutkimushankkeessa, jonka tarkoituksena on selvittää lapsipotilaiden ja heidän perheittensä näkemyksiä sairaalakäynneistä, saadusta hoidosta ja jokapäiväisestä elämästä sairauden kanssa. Projektin aikana selvisi, että Helsingin ja Uudenmaan sairaanhoitopiiriltä (HUS) puuttuu tällä hetkellä toimiva palautekanava lasten potilaskokemuksen selvittämiseksi. Tässä diplomityössä selvitettiin, mitä ja miten lapset kertovat omin sanoin potilaskokemuksestaan. Menetelmäksi valittiin videopäiväkirja, koska sen koettiin motivoivan lapsia osallistumaan ja paljastamaan asioita, joita ei muilla tutkimusmenetelmillä saisi selville. Mukaan valikoituivat 10–16-vuotiaat lapset, joilla on pitkäaikaissairautena joko reuma, suolistosairaus tai diabetes. Diplomityön päätavoitteena oli tutkia, miten videopäiväkirjamenetelmä soveltuu aineiston keruutavaksi lasten potilaskokemuksen selvittämiseksi sekä arvioida, voisiko HUS jatkossa käyttää sitä itsenäisesti jatkuvan palvelukehityksen perustana. Lapsille vietiin lainaan tablettitietokone, jolla he kuvasivat 9–10 päivän ajan videopäiväkirjaa annettujen tehtävien pohjalta. Tehtävät oli laadittu mukaillen McCarthy & Wright:n mallia käyttäjäkokemuksesta. 1–2 viikkoa videopäiväkirjan palautumisen jälkeen osallistujat haastateltiin. Laadullinen aineisto analysoitiin käyttämällä Atlas.ti-ohjelmaa. Videopäiväkirjoilla saatiin kerätyksi visuaalisesti ja verbaalisesti rikasta aineistoa, mutta myös puutteita havaittiin. Teinien, varsinkin poikien, motivointi osallistua tutkimukseen osoittautui hankalaksi ja kieltäytymisprosentti oli korkea, 59 %. Jotta HUS voisi käyttää menetelmää palautekanavanaan, tulisi nuorten motivointiin kiinnittää enemmän huomiota lisäämällä menetelmän leikillisyyttä, tarjoamalla vaihtoehtoisia suoritustapoja sekä ottamalla lapsen ikä ja yksilöllinen elämäntilanne paremmin huomioon. Myös muita kommunikointikanavia kuten WhatsApp:ia, Snapchat:ia tai Skype-puheluita voisi tutkia vaihtoehtoisina suoritustapoina.Patients set increasingly higher demands for healthcare services, shifting the healthcare sector towards the traditional service sector. Healthcare providers have begun to pay attention to the patient experience (PX), and use it to compare and evaluate their performance. In Finland the interest of the healthcare sector towards user participation and better understanding of PX has increased during the “New Children’s Hospital 2017” project. Aalto University is involved in the Lapsus research project which tries to find out the perspectives of children and their families about their visits to the hospital, the given treatment and care, and their everyday life with the illness. During the project The Hospital District of Helsinki and Uusimaa (HUS) stated that they currently lack a practical tool for gathering information about the PX of children. The focus of this thesis was to investigate how and what children tell about their PX. Video diaries were chosen as the method, since the hypothesis was that it would motivate the children to participate and reveal otherwise hidden facts. The participants were children in the age range of 10-16 years with a chronic illness: rheumatism, gastrointestinal disease or diabetes. The main aim of this thesis was to evaluate the applicability of video diaries for gathering information about the PX of children. Video diaries were also considered as a potential standalone method for the public healthcare sector as a basis for continuous service development. The children received tablet computers and were asked to complete given daily tasks and record video clips or diaries on the given themes during the following 9-10 days. The tasks were constructed based on the McCarthy and Wright’s perspectives of experience. 1-2 weeks after the probe package returned the participants were interviewed. The qualitative data was analyzed with Atlas.ti using the analysis framework. Video diaries produced very rich data about the PX of children, both visually and verbally, but shortcomings were also identified. Motivating teenagers, especially boys, was found to be difficult and the rejection rate was considerably high, 59%. In order for HUS to use this method as their feedback channel, more attention should be paid on motivating teenagers. This can be done by increasing the playfulness of the method, by offering alternative ways of conducting the tasks and by taking the age and individual situation of the child better into account. The use of other communication channels like WhatsApp, Snapchat or Skype should also be investigated

Thinking through the Design of Workspaces: A Participatory Design Tool for Space-creation in Offices

Architects often rely on verbal narratives of spatial needs to curate and design the spaces we see today. However, our needs and ways of living and working are rapidly changing, especially now. The pandemic has created paradigm shifts in professional setups, where there lies a need for flexible and multi-purpose spaces- A space once serving as a home now serves as a home office, and so on. There is also gravitation towards online tools for spatial visualization and the need to alter our existing working environments. This investigation aims to identify how a participatory design tool can help users break down the elements of a workspace and create spaces for specific activities in an office. The tool includes a physical probe⸻ comprising movable modular furniture elements seen in the 21st century office and a mobile application. The mobile app gathers user inputs on the type of space they need and provides sample activity-based-working (ABW) configurations for the user to choose from for their ideal space. Some examples of these configurations include spaces for brainstorming an idea, creating, hosting an event/meeting etc. Users can plan their spaces in advance with this tool. The research-creation combines the transforming capacity of spaces with flexibility and becomes a blueprint for end-users to become designers themselves. The physical probe facilitates personalization, model-making and scaling, and quick visualization while the mobile application serves as a user-manual and database for future community design practice