Culture-based artefacts to inform ICT design: foundations and practice

Cultural aspects frame our perception of the world and direct the many different ways people interact with things in it. For this reason, these aspects should be considered when designing technology with the purpose to positively impact people in a community. In this paper, we revisit the foundations of culture aiming to bring this concept in dialogue with design. To inform design with cultural aspects, we model reality in three levels of formality: informal, formal, and technical, and subscribe to a systemic vision that considers the technical solution as part of a more complex social system in which people live and interact. In this paper, we instantiate this theoretical and methodological view by presenting two case studies of technology design in which culture-based artefacts were employed to inform the design process. We claim that as important as including issues related to culture in the ICT design agenda—from the conception to the development, evaluation, and adoption of a technology—is the need to support the design process with adequate artefacts that help identifying cultural aspects within communities and translating them into sociotechnical requirements. We argue that a culturally informed perspective on design can go beyond an informative analysis, and can be integrated with the theoretical and methodological framework used to support design, throughout the entire design process

Strategies and Tools to Raise Energy Awareness Collectively

Providing smart meters and technology for feedback on energy consumption have been considered strategic in current energy policies as part of the battle against climate change. However, feedback alone does not always lead to energy savings. Beyond information on their own consumption and generic advices, people usually still need more specific guidance on how to change their behaviour in an effective and sustainable way. This research considers electricity consumption feedback as a learning element for collective knowledge building, and relies mainly on dialogue and collaboration to engage people with energy conservation as a social issue. To this end, a set of artefacts for triggering and mediating discussions on energy consumption within social groups was developed and evaluated with community leaders in the UK. In a series of 3 workshops, participants discussed how this approach and tools could help them in their mission of disseminating the energy conservation message to the community. Our results show that developing knowledge within a social group is an effective approach in raising awareness, and suggest that tangible artefacts can have an important role in engaging people. Also, initiatives aiming at engaging a wide range of the public must consider different degrees of familiarity with technology, as well as the different perceptions people may have relating energy consumption and environmental protection

Clarifying culture in technology design: what, why, and how we think about it

Culture influences our way to perceive the world, to interact with it. To inform technology design with cultural aspects, we model our reality in three levels: technical, where the artefacts are; formal, where existing rules shape our behaviour; and informal, composed by values, beliefs and other aspects that influence how we perceive the world. We can promote a social change, redefining a community, by introducing new technology at the technical level. This is how and why we understand the importance of culture in design. In this paper, we present an overview of our design perspective under the Socially Aware approach, and illustrate this understanding applied to two case studies of design informed by sociocultural aspects

Prospecting Socially-Aware Concepts and Artefacts for Designing for Community Resilience

Defining flexible and consistent methods and artefacts to design for social impact is a current challenge for HCI. The ephemeral and vulnerable conditions of people living as refugees add even more questions about the suitability of design methods to the complexity of real — and many times tough — life . In this position paper we briefly introduce two concepts embraced by the Socially-aware Design Approach, the Semiotic Onion and the Basic Block of Culture. We then reflect about the potential contributions of applying these concepts and artefacts to inform design for boosting community resilience of people living as refugees

A socially inspired energy feedback technology: challenges in a developing scenario

Raising awareness of the environmental impact of energy generation and consumption has been a recent concern of contemporary society worldwide. Underlying the awareness of energy consumption is an intricate network of perception and social interaction that can be mediated by technology. In this paper we argue that issues regarding energy, environment and technology are very much situated and involve tensions of sociocultural nature. This exploratory investigation addresses the subject by introducing the design of a Socially-inspired Energy Eco-Feedback Technology (SEET), which is composed of an interactive system to trigger and mediate collective savings and a tangible device as a public feedback. Results of an evaluation situated in the context of a school in a socially disadvantaged area in Brazil are discussed, shedding light on the sociocultural aspects related to the subject. The role of the SEET to motivate energy awareness collectively among the social group is assessed, as well as the design characteristics that contributed to that. Outcomes bring to light social aspects and dynamics that would hardly have been predicted, evidencing critical factors related to a socially inspired design approach in the energy awareness domain

Ethics and Design in the Brazilian Context

Often driven by practical and immediate requirements, more and more people are incorporating technology into a variety of aspects of their lives, often without reflecting on the consequences of using them. On the other hand, studies on interactive system development that lead to behavioral change have been gaining ground on the agenda of large HCI conferences. This movement brings to the forefront the fundamental issues of ethics in design and technology use. A designer’s intentions, when directing certain actions or behaviors, are not always explicit or desired by the stakeholders affected by the use of the technology. Systems that induce an undesired purchase, or even those that use conditioning strategies to cause a behavioral change are examples of such intentions. The challenge proposed is therefore about the relationship between design and personal freedom in a way that these technology users do not become victims, either passively or submissively, of the effects of its use. This advance allows for the redefinition of the relationship between man and technology, and the application of new forms of designing and developing interactive systems that take into account the ethical aspects of this relationship

Shedding lights on human values: an approach to engage families with energy conservation

Changing behaviour related to energy conservation is not an emotionally neutral task. People have to deal with individual and group interests, contextual constraints, eventually trading-off between their values and effective actions in terms of savings. This paper presents a set of dynamics and artefacts for families to raise and share their energy awareness, and transform it into sustainable behaviour. This method based on human values was applied with 7 families to identify critical factors that must be in play when promoting energy conservation within a social group. Preliminary results confirmed that bringing families’ values into discussion and establishing shared commitments and responsibilities are promising approaches for technology design with the purpose to raise awareness collectively and promote effective changes in behaviour towards protecting the natural environment

Talking Climate Change via Social Media: Communication, Engagement and Behaviour

While individual behaviour change is considered a central strategy to mitigate climate change, public engagement is still limited. Aiming to raise awareness, and to promote behaviour change, governments and organisations are conducting multiple pro-environmental campaigns, particularly via social media. However, to the best of our knowledge, these campaigns are neither based on, nor do they take advantage of, the existing theories and studies of behaviour change, to better target and inform users. In this paper we propose an approach for analysing user behaviour towards climate change based on the 5 Doors Theory of behaviour change. Our approach automatically identifies five behavioural stages in which users are based on their social media contributions. This approach has been applied to analyse the online behaviour of participants of the Earth Hour 2015 and COP21 Twitter movements. Results of our analysis are used to provide guidelines on how to improve communication via these campaigns

Opinions, Intentions, Freedom of Expression, ... , and Other Human Aspects of Misinformation Online

As a wicked problem, limiting the harm caused by misinformation requires merging multiple perspectives to the design of digital interventions, including an understanding of human behaviour and motivations in judging and promoting false information, as well as strategies to detect and stop its propagation without unduly infringing on rights or freedoms of expression. Tools and online services are continuously being developed to support different stakeholders in this battle, such as social media users, journalists, and policymakers. As our studies have demonstrated, the expected impact of online solutions is hampered by limitations associated with lack of explainability, complex user interface, limited datasets, restricted accessibility, biased algorithms, among other factors that can confuse, overwhelm, or mislead users in their own ways. These ethical implications are typically neglected when new digital solutions to tackle misinformation are conceived. This hands-on workshop pro- poses to unpack the state-of-the-art on social, societal and political studies and socio-technical solutions to stop misinformation, challenging the participants to first critically refect upon limitations of existing approaches, to then co-create a future with integrating perspectives focusing on ethical aspects and societal impact

Collective intelligence for promoting changes in behaviour: a case study on energy conservation

Climate change is one of the biggest challenges humanity faces today. Despite of high investments in technology, battling climate change is futile without the participation of the public, and changing their perception and habits. Collective intelligence tools can play an important role in translating this “distant” concept that is climate change into practical hints for everyday life. In this paper, we report a case study grounded on collective intelligence tools to collaboratively build knowledge around energy conservation. A preliminary study to raise energy awareness in an academic environment is summarised, setting the scene to a more ambitious initiative based on personal stories to transform energy awareness into behaviour change. The role of the collective intelligence tools and other technical artefacts involved are discussed, suggesting strategies and features that contributed (or not) to users’ engagement and collective awareness. Lessons learned from both studies are reported with a sociotechnical approach as implications for design pursuing behaviour change