HealthBand:campaigning for an open and ethical Internet of Things through an applied process of design fiction

This paper discusses the creation of a design fiction that seeks to embody Sterling’s (2005) spimes concept – near future, Internet-connected, manufactured objects. HealthBand is a fictional open-source wearable device born in a future where public healthcare has become increasingly privatised. Social equity and citizen empowerment sit at the forefront of its design – the product is the culmination of crowd-sourced expertise and production capital. We contextualise the fictional device in relation to current proprietary Internet of Things products, democratised and open technological practices like the Maker Movement, and two previously identified design criteria for spimes – synchronicity and wrangling. We assert that the fiction can help to begin to establish spimes as a useful rhetorical lens through which product designers can speculate upon more socially responsible and ethical technological product futures that offer plausible alternatives to the homogenised, unsustainable and profit driven product design cultures of today

HealthBand:campaigning for an open and ethical Internet of Things through an applied process of design fiction

This paper discusses the creation of a design fiction that seeks to embody Sterling’s (2005) spimes concept – near future, Internet-connected, manufactured objects. HealthBand is a fictional open-source wearable device born in a future where public healthcare has become increasingly privatised. Social equity and citizen empowerment sit at the forefront of its design – the product is the culmination of crowd-sourced expertise and production capital. We contextualise the fictional device in relation to current proprietary Internet of Things products, democratised and open technological practices like the Maker Movement, and two previously identified design criteria for spimes – synchronicity and wrangling. We assert that the fiction can help to begin to establish spimes as a useful rhetorical lens through which product designers can speculate upon more socially responsible and ethical technological product futures that offer plausible alternatives to the homogenised, unsustainable and profit driven product design cultures of today

Old, Sick And No Health Insurance:Will You Need A Permit To Use Your Homemade Health Wearable?

We posit that as aging populations grow, so too will the demand for wearable devices that help people manage their chronic health conditions autonomously, at home, without medical supervision. Although healthcare providers are now integrating wearables into frontline services, the regulatory journey from consumer use to patient use for these devices is complex and oft protracted due to strict legislation. Through the creation of a design fiction – HealthBand - we explore how open source and crowd-funded wearables might impact future health product legislation. We argue that the generated artefacts co-construct a world in which HealthBand could plausibly exist, and in turn can help audiences engage more explicitly with the fiction’s broader debates. Further, if future health wearables are to be adopted, HCI and design researchers must not focus solely on creating prototypes but also engage with regulatory change. We assert design fictions that build worlds like HealthBand have a role in highlighting the changes required

Old, Sick And No Health Insurance:Will You Need A Permit To Use Your Homemade Health Wearable?

We posit that as aging populations grow, so too will the demand for wearable devices that help people manage their chronic health conditions autonomously, at home, without medical supervision. Although healthcare providers are now integrating wearables into frontline services, the regulatory journey from consumer use to patient use for these devices is complex and oft protracted due to strict legislation. Through the creation of a design fiction – HealthBand - we explore how open source and crowd-funded wearables might impact future health product legislation. We argue that the generated artefacts co-construct a world in which HealthBand could plausibly exist, and in turn can help audiences engage more explicitly with the fiction’s broader debates. Further, if future health wearables are to be adopted, HCI and design researchers must not focus solely on creating prototypes but also engage with regulatory change. We assert design fictions that build worlds like HealthBand have a role in highlighting the changes required

Emerging technologies for learning (volume 1)

Collection of 5 articles on emerging technologies and trend

Student Navigation Through Computer-Based Simulations: What Predicts Success?

Clinical simulations, in a variety of forms, is a viable educational tool, allowing CSD students to acquire professional competencies and skills. Simucase is a computer-based simulation program designed for this objective. The goal of this study was to determine what elements of simulation engagement predicted success on a student\u27s overall ability to make the correct recommendation for patient care, and what those predictors can tell us about how students navigate computer-based simulations. The data set used for this study comprised 149 graduate students in communication sciences and disorders (CSD) programs who completed a computer-based assessment simulation for a patient with aphasia. To determine which areas of the simulation predicted student success, a logistic regression was performed to determine which of the 12 types of decision points offered predictive data for making the correct final recommendation. The 12 types of decisions used comprised case history, collaborator, assessment, and diagnosis sections with reflective, acceptable, and rejected options in each. Results indicate that student patterns of case engagement can predict overall case success. The overall model was significant and individual predictors were significantly responsible for predicting which students would choose the correct outcome at the end of the case. This study revealed that students who engage in more careful navigation of preliminary assessment steps such as case history and collaborators were more likely to reach the correct recommendation at the end of the case. This finding has implications for the implementation of computer-based simulations for clinical education

Edge of Tomorrow:Designing Sustainable Edge Computing

Vaunted as the next frontier within the scope of the Internet of Things (IoT), Edge Computing (EC) is seen as a means to improve efficiency and privacy across IoT infrastructures. This is because it enables data to be processed where it originates, that is, at the so-called ‘edge’ of the network, this being within, or close to, individual Internet-connected devices. Consequently, EC is considered more secure than conventional processing methods as data need not travel over networks to and from the centralised ‘Cloud’. We argue that EC optimisation might also offer credible benefits for environmental sustainability, particularly regarding decarbonisation by minimising data-distribution. To make this case, we outline the creation of two integrated design fictions which highlight environmental harms resulting from widespread Cloud data management, as well as envisioning potential future sustainability advantages of Edge-based processing. Based upon our process, we put forward an initial model for Sustainable Edge Computing

Design fiction as world building

Design Fiction has garnered considerable attention during recent years yet still remains pre-paradigmatic. Put differently there are concurrent,but incongruent, perspectives on what Design Fiction is and how to use it. Acknowledging this immaturity, we assert that the best way to contribute to the establishment of an evidence-based first paradigm, is by adopting a research through design approach. Thus, in this paper we describe ‘research into design fiction, done through design fiction’. This paper describes the creation of two Design Fictions through which we consider the relationship between narrative and Design Fiction and argue that links between the two are often drawn erroneously. We posit that Design Fiction is in fact a ‘world building’ activity, with no inherent link to ‘narrative’ or ‘storytelling’. The first Design Fiction explores a near future world containing a system for gamified drone-based civic enforcement and the second is based on a distant future in which hardware and algorithms capable of detecting empathy are used as part of everyday communications. By arguing it is world building, we aim to contribute towards the disambiguation of current Design Fiction discourse and the promotion of genre conventions, and, in doing so to reinforce the foundations upon which a first stable paradigm can be constructed