PROBING ELDERLY PEOPLE’S DAILY LIFE: AN EXPLORATORY PATH TOWARD THE PRACTICAL DIMENSION OF HOSPITAL MOOD

The paper describes the use of cultural probes in a design process that involves elderly people and it explores some their implications and effects. We describe a project where probes were used in a different way compared to their first description by Gaver. We show the way we build our probes and our use of them and we highlight some interesting effects that we expirienced in the field. This expirience suggests that Cultural probes might help in establishing a proper hospital mood in the adoption and acceptance of new technologies yet to be implemented. This point help us look at the concept of hospitality in a much practical way and it suggests the idea that hospital mood can be – if not engineered – at least favoured, triggered and established by diluting the “visit of the stranger”

Towards Future Health Social Networking: Patient Generated Content And The Role Of Community Pharmacists

In this paper we aim to develop a patient centered perspective that puts at the centre of our focus patient practices and their appropriation of medical information, prescribed use of drugs and of health-care technology. Within this frame, we will initially discuss evidence from a qualitative case study on the role of community pharmacists in patients dealing with their problems. In line with the 2.0 revolution, we then suggest a technological architecture based on patient generated content and their health social networking – as many Health 2.0 platforms already do – that focuses on local relation and take into account the empirically assessed role of pharmacists and investing them with an interesting local task. Future challenges and initial reflections of the proposed approach will be discussed at the end

Rethinking the role of users in ICT design: Reflections for the internet

This paper reports on work from an interdisciplinary project exploring the design of future telecommunications services, networks and applications, particularly focusing on the Internet1. A starting point for this work is our contention that users and technology are co-constructed in the design process and that in some cases it is difficult to distinguish between designers and users since users may play a variety of roles. Some academics argue that the future of the Internet depends on controlling and limiting what users do. Others argue that the future of the Internet will depend on maintaining its openness and enabling users. In our project we seek to critically explore these assertions and empirically examine the role of the user in internet design. This paper outlines some key concepts and presents two case studies to support our approach

The sociology of trusted systems: the episteme and judgment of a technology (NIRSA) Working Paper Series. No.46

The goal of this paper is that of taking a first step toward a socio-technical conceptualization of trusted systems. In our view this might help in overcoming interdisciplinary differences and enhancing a common vocabulary for discussing trust issues for the Future of the Internet. In particular our main research question is to understand “to what extent and in which forms existing trusted systems embody social assumptions?” In order to answer this question we propose a new definition of Trusted Systems as situated Episteme: an apparatus of devices that set the conditions of possibility of certain practices while denying other practices. The conceptualization is augmented using the concept of technological mediation taken from the approach known as Actor-Network Theory (ANT). Our approach takes at its starting point the idea that it is possible to use sociological (from ANT) concepts to analyse and investigate the basic elements of Trusted Systems. This analysis opens up new possibilities for the sociological enquiry of Trust on a more micro, socio-technical level. In particular the paper puts forward the idea of Trust as result of the system design

The sociology of trusted systems: the episteme and judgment of a technology (NIRSA) Working Paper Series. No.46

The goal of this paper is that of taking a first step toward a socio-technical conceptualization of trusted systems. In our view this might help in overcoming interdisciplinary differences and enhancing a common vocabulary for discussing trust issues for the Future of the Internet. In particular our main research question is to understand “to what extent and in which forms existing trusted systems embody social assumptions?” In order to answer this question we propose a new definition of Trusted Systems as situated Episteme: an apparatus of devices that set the conditions of possibility of certain practices while denying other practices. The conceptualization is augmented using the concept of technological mediation taken from the approach known as Actor-Network Theory (ANT). Our approach takes at its starting point the idea that it is possible to use sociological (from ANT) concepts to analyse and investigate the basic elements of Trusted Systems. This analysis opens up new possibilities for the sociological enquiry of Trust on a more micro, socio-technical level. In particular the paper puts forward the idea of Trust as result of the system design

Self-Care Technologies in HCI: Trends, Tensions, and Opportunities

Many studies show that self-care technologies can support patients with chronic conditions and their carers in understanding the ill body and increasing control of their condition. However, many of these studies have largely privileged a medical perspective and thus overlooked how patients and carers integrate self-care into their daily lives and mediate their conditions through technology. In this review, we focus on how patients and carers use and experience self-care technology through a Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) lens. We analyse studies of self-care published in key HCI journals and conferences using the Grounded Theory Literature Review (GTLR) method and identify research trends and design tensions. We then draw out opportunities for advancing HCI research in self-care, namely, focusing further on patients' everyday life experience, considering existing collaborations in self-care, and increasing the influence on medical research and practice around self-care technology

Proceedings of Designing Self-care for Everyday Life. Workshop in conjunction with NordiCHI 2014, 27th October.

Managing chronic conditions can be challenging. People in such conditions, and the people around them, have to, for example: deal with symptoms, adapt to the resulting disability, manage emotions, and change habits to keep the condition under control. Self-care technologies have the potential to support self-care, however they often disregard the complexity of the settings in which they are used and fail to become integrated in everyday life.The present collection of papers forms the Proceedings of the Workshop “Designing Selfcare for Everyday Life” conducted last October 27th, 2014 in Helsinki, where 14 participants from 7 different countries spent the day discussing how to design self-care technologies that are in harmony with people’s everyday life. During the morning, discussions were driven by poster presentations focused on the participants’ work. In the afternoon, we engaged in aparticipatory design exercise focused on the self-care of Parkinson’s disease. Our discussions were driven by the experience of two people living with Parkinson’s that participated in our workshop. At the end of the exercise, each group presented the different insights, concepts and problems that each patient experiences in their everyday life with the disease. Last, we all engaged in a broader discussion with a mapping exercise of issues and challenges in relation to self-care.The contributions featured in the proceedings have been peer-reviewed by the members of the Workshop Program Committee and selected on the basis of their quality, alignment with the workshop theme, and the extent (and diversity) of their backgrounds in design. They express points of view of researchers from both Academia and Industry and provide relevant insights in the design and development use of technologies for self-care.We want to thank all the participants and co-authors for contributing to the Workshop. We are particularly grateful to the two patients, members of the Finnish Parkinson’s Association, who accepted to participate in the workshop and enabled researchers to get aperspective on the challenges of their lives. We also want to thank all the Programme Committee members for all their work during the reviewing process as well as the organisers of NordiCHI 2014 for providing useful facilities

PDC Places: Landscapes of participatory design in Ireland

Ireland has many established participatory design experts and enthusiasts, and a rich landscape of practice. PDC Place Ireland comprises of a series of panels, exhibitions, and workshops, and will bring together academics, research students and practitioners to explore current practices in participatory design enacted in Ireland and internationally. These events will map participatory research across a number of contemporary contexts including public health, architecture, policymaking, and disability

STEPS TO A LOCALIZATION OF A STUDENT CENTRED IS AN EXPLORATORY APPROACH

In this exploratory paper we propose a particular interpretation of what “localization” and “centring” could represent within a n-fold approach, aimed to question the reality to raise analytic and methodological issues. This concern a discussion on a project of localization of an information system addressed to student\u27s needs. Our subject of analysis is the student of Trento University (Italy) that stands for the pivoting point of the comprehension and knowledge of the situated context we study. Adopting a scenario-based design we try to give the researchers and designers a useful tool embodying the questions and problems of a complex reality such student\u27s life is

Reworlding: participatory design capabilities to tackle socio-environmental challenges

Rising societal polarisations around health and climate crises have brought more attention to the close relations between social and environmental challenges. These polarisations triggered an interest in the participatory design (PD) field in developing approaches that enhance connections between diverse actors operating across societal and environmental sectors. However, the capabilities needed for these approaches have not been sufficiently articulated in PD research and education. To fill in this gap, we define 'reworlding' as an operation of self-critique within PD that engages with capabilities needed to reveal and articulate radical interdependencies between humans and more-than-humans, across social and environmental worlds, and within situated contexts. We propose both the redefinition of the design capabilities needed for (re)connecting these worlds (retracing, reconnecting, reimagining and reinstitutioning), as well as a reconsideration of learning environments where these capabilities can be tested and enhanced