Can you see the commons? The Sense Weaver: visually-driven sense-making

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A Design Anthropology Critique of Active Aging as Ageism

This paper proposes a design anthropology critique of active aging as ageism in the design of information technologies for seniors. With ageism we refer to narratives coalesced around the label “active aging” in European policies and system design that focus on seniors as a homogeneous group of people in need of help. We discuss the findings of two empirical participatory design projects we have been dealing with: 1) a bottom­-up senior organization in a small village in a mountain area and 2) a series of workshops organized with seniors in an urban area. In both cases, the relations between the anthropologist and the people involved, prompted reflexive moments that brought anthropological relocations of the designers' perspective. In conclusion, we stress how such relocations could benefit participatory designs through the concept of design by subtraction and the adoption of a feminist perspective

Ubiquitous technologies for older people

In this paper, we present a close reading of work in ubicomp of applications for older people. Starting from three lines of enquiry defined in the inaugural issue of this journal, we discuss how ubicomp research has presented the relationship between technologies and older users. We base our reasoning on a review of papers published in Personal and Ubiquitous Computing(1997–2014). The lines of enquiry refer to paradigms (functional vs. sociotechnical), users(stereotype and involvement), and contexts (indoor and/or outdoor). These themes address the presentation of SUITCASE project (SUstainable Integrated & Territorial CAre SErvices). This is a two-year research on care services for older citizens within the smart home construct. We develop an initial framework that not only provides a cohesive view of technologies for older people, but also serves as a salient guideline for reflective design which extends beyond the target population. This framework may also address future design projects, funding schemes, and editorial policies

Computing and the common:Learning from Participatory Design in the age of platform capitalism

Digital technologies have an increasing, often debated, role in our world: in this book we are concerned with the relation between technologies and the common, the ensemble of elements connecting human beings. Our motivation lies in the observation that the common is often dispossessed by platform capitalism. Can we, as scholars, help to identify and build digital technologies that nourish the common rather than dispossessing it? To answer this question, we look at Participatory Design (PD) as an inspiring example for other scholarship. In the light of designing viable alternatives, in this book we review and discuss the actual status of PD research taking into account a reinvigorated political perspective. Our goal is to understand, from the most recent literature in PD, how such field can contribute to socio-technical alternatives to platform capitalism. We also point to the limitations of actual PD, in terms of missing elements when looking at the political agenda on nourishing the common that we propose. More specifically, we look at PD literature trying to answer the following research question: “how could PD research contribute to a renewed political research practice in the age of platform capitalism?”. To answer this question, we engaged in a narrative literature review of the last years of activity in the field. This literature review is grounded on the framework, developed by us as a contribution to PD itself, of a Participatory Design promoting commoning practices, or nourishing the common, the ensemble of the material and symbolic elements tying together human beings. Such framework identifies four practical strategies for scholars, professionals, and activists in the field of PD interested in building a contemporary activist agenda: 1) to identify an arena of action that is potentially socially transformative; 2) to clarify how the social groups involved in a specific technological process can connect to commoning; 3) to promote and enact an open ended design process that is facilitated but not strongly lead by the designers themselves; and 4) to discuss and evaluate how people participating in a design project see their material conditions changed by the project itself (four themes we referred to, in our review, with the four labels Transformative; Agency; Open Ended; Gains). Starting from our four strategies framework we approached the literature review, searching for those works that adhere to one or more strategies. We complete the review with a discussion, based on the reviewed literature, on the strategies that can dialogue with other researchers engaging in an activist agenda aimed at social transformations that supports nourishing the common

Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence for Designing Accessible Cultural Heritage

This paper reviews the literature concerning technology used for creating and delivering accessible museum and cultural heritage sites experiences. It highlights the importance of the delivery suited for everyone from different areas of expertise, namely interaction design, pedagogical and participatory design, and it presents how recent and future artificial intelligence (AI) developments can be used for this aim, i.e.,improving and widening online and in situ accessibility. From the literature review analysis, we articulate a conceptual framework that incorporates key elements that constitute museum and cultural heritage online experiences and how these elements are related to each other. Concrete opportunities for future directions empirical research for accessibility of cultural heritage contents are suggested and further discusse

Designing for/with/around Nature: Exploring new frontiers of outdoor-related HCI

open7noShort Paper Proceedings of the Workshop on Designing for/with/around Nature: Exploring new frontiers of outdoor-related HCI Co-located with 14th Biannual Conference of the Italian SIGCHI Chapter (CHItaly 2021)Short Paper Proceedings of the Workshop on Designing for/with/around Nature: Exploring new frontiers of outdoor-related HCI Co-located with 14th Biannual Conference of the Italian SIGCHI Chapter (CHItaly 2021)openEleonora Mencarini, Amon Rapp, Linda Tonolli, Maurizio Teli, Roberto Cibin, Vincanzo D'Andrea, Massimo ZancanaroMencarini, Eleonora; Rapp, Amon; Tonolli, Linda; Teli, Maurizio; Cibin, Roberto; D'Andrea, Vincanzo; Zancanaro, Massim

Designing for/with/around Nature: Exploring new Frontiers of Outdoor-related HCI

Resonating with the CHItaly theme “Frontiers of HCI”, this workshop will explore the frontiers of i) using technology outdoors, in terms of scope, opportunities, and limitations; ii) spaces that are not completely natural nor artificial but hybrid and offer opportunities for remote and asynchronous outdoor experiences; iii) interaction design in accounting for human interests over a variety of non-human ecologies

Relationality, commoning, and designing

Funding Information: The work of one of the authors was supported by Fondazione Caritro (TN, Italy). Publisher Copyright: © 2022 ACM.This workshop explores and reflects upon both how relational ontologies can support design processes that target commons and commoning as outcomes, and how commons and commoning can work as speculative lenses for the understanding of relationality in Participatory Design. Here, we invite the PD community to engage with questions such as: how do we embrace and rely upon relationality when designing collectively and in a participatory manner within more-than-human ensembles? How do we become commoners and what do we nurture in common? What do we lose and what do we gain by considering commons with a keen eye on relationality? Which kind of relational qualities are essential for commoning design and designing commons? In short, "Relationality, commoning, and designing"aims to be a venue for critically supporting alternative and more sustainable futures for all (not only humans) by means of participatory designing and commoning.Peer reviewe