It's Just My History Isn't It? Understanding smart journaling practices

Smart journals are both an emerging class of lifelogging applications and novel digital possessions, which are used to create and curate a personal record of one's life. Through an in-depth interview study of analogue and digital journaling practices, and by drawing on a wide range of research around 'technologies of memory', we address fundamental questions about how people manage and value digital records of the past. Appreciating journaling as deeply idiographic, we map a broad range of user practices and motivations and use this understanding to ground four design considerations: recognizing the motivation to account for one's life; supporting the authoring of a unique perspective and finding a place for passive tracking as a chronicle. Finally, we argue that smart journals signal a maturing orientation to issues of digital archiving

Human values in curating a human rights media archive

Cultural institutions, such as museums, often curate politically and ethically sensitive materials. Increasingly, Internet-enabled, digital technology intersects with these curatorial practices offering new opportunities for public and scholarly engagement. We report on a case study of human rights media archiving at a genocide memorial centre in Rwanda, motivated by interests in ICT support to memorialisation practices. Through an analysis of our discussions with staff about their work, we report on how accounts of the Rwandan Genocide are being captured and curated to support the centre's humanitarian agenda and associated values. We identify transferable curatorial concerns for human rights media communication amongst scholarly networks and public audiences worldwide, elucidating interaction design challenges for supportive ICT and contributing to HCI discourses on value sensitive design and cultural engagement with sensitive materials

Antimicrobial production by Pectobacterium carotovorum subspecies brasiliensis and its role in competitive fitness of the potato pathogen

Pectobacterium carotovorum subspecies brasiliensis (P. c. subsp. brasiliensis), a member of the soft rot Erwinias (SREs), was first described as the causative agent of a stem disease in potato called blackleg. Blackleg describes the blackening, wilting and necrosis of potato stem tissue. Initially detected in Brazil, P. c. subsp. brasiliensis subsequently emerged as a pathogen in temperate regions, although the mechanisms that contributed to its emergence are unknown. A second SRE pathogen, Dickeya solani, also emerged as an aggressive potato pathogen in Europe. Dickeya solani successfully displaced the previously dominant blackleg causing pathogens, such as P. atrosepticum. Comparative genomic studies, using the genome of D. solani plus other SRE genomes such as Pectobacterium, identified some D. solani specific genes. Three of these loci were identified as novel non-ribosomal synthetase/polyketide synthatase (NRPS/PKS) genes, which all encoded previously unknown products. It was predicted that the combination of these novel gene clusters provided the adaptive advantage, which enabled D. solani to successfully emerge as a pathogen. The genome of a P. c. subsp. brasiliensis strain isolated from infected potato plants in New Zealand, P. c. subsp. brasiliensis ICMP 19477, was recently sequenced. The bacterium was found to encode many genes associated with antimicrobial production, including bacteriocin and carbapenem synthesis, as well as a putative novel NRPS locus. A number of the identified loci were not present in the genomes of other SREs. One of these antimicrobial clusters, or a combination of these clusters, may be an important mechanism in the emergence of P. c. subsp. brasiliensis. However, the ecological significance of antimicrobial molecules is not understood. It has previously been reported that, P. c. subsp. brasiliensis PBR1692, is antagonistic to P. atrosepticum SCRI1043 in vitro (Marquez-Villavicencio et al., 2011). However, in planta significance of this interaction appeared minimal during co-inoculation studies in potato stems. Pectobacterium betavasculorum, was also reported to inhibit the growth of other Pectobacterium species when co-inoculated in potato tubers. This study found that P. c. subsp. brasiliensis ICMP 19477 outcompetes P. atrosepticum SCRI1043 in both in vitro plate and in planta competition assays, when co-inoculated in potato tubers. However, this was not observed in in vitro liquid competition assays. This suggested that the antagonistic effect of P. c. subsp. brasiliensis ICMP 19477 on P. atrosepticum SCRI1043 only occurred in structured environments. Functional studies identified that P. c. subsp. brasiliensis ICMP 19477 produces a secreted antimicrobial molecule at late exponential / early stationary phase. A random transposon (Tn5) mutant library of P. c. subsp. brasiliensis ICMP 19477 identified three mutants, within the genes carR, slyA and carI, which were unable to inhibit the growth of P. atrosepticum SCRI1043 in vitro. These mutated genes are known to be involved in carbapenem regulation in P. c. subsp. carotovorum. Furthermore, these mutants also lost the competitive advantage against P. atrosepticum SCRI1043 when co-inoculated in potato tubers. This evidence suggested that a carbapenem molecule, produced by P. c. subsp. brasiliensis ICMP 19477, enhances the competitive fitness of the bacterium in planta. Overall, this study provided novel insights into the ecological significance of antimicrobial production by plant pathogens, thereby, identifying possible mechanisms for pathogen emergence

Authors’ Response: Balancing Openness and Structure in Conference Design to Support a Burgeoning Research Community

We focus on the following issues: our intentions behind establishing the new Research Through Design conference series; epistemological concerns around "research through design"; and how we might find a balance between openness and specificity for the conference series going forward

Creative and collaborative reflective thinking to support policy deliberation and decision making

Background: Co-creation in policymaking is of increasing interest to national governments, and designers play a significant role in its introduction. Aims and objectives: We discuss instances from our fieldwork that demonstrated how UK Policy Lab used design methods to gain insight into the design-oriented methods introduced to policymakers’ practices, and how these may influence conventional policy design processes. Methods: This paper reports on the learnings from a two-month participant observation at UK Policy Lab conducted in early 2019. Findings: We found that, beyond human-centred and future-oriented practices, the designers working at this unit appropriate design as a reflective practice for the context of policymaking. We discuss how the use of visual and creative methods of design are utilised by policy designers to facilitate co-creative reflective practices, and how these make a valuable contribution to policymaking practices in UK Government. Discussion and conclusions: As deliberation and decision making is influenced both by what is thought about as well as who is doing the thinking, reflective practices allow notions and assumptions to be unpicked. Moreover, when done as a group activity, reflection leads to a co-production of a deepened understanding of policy challenges.Consequently, we argue, the reflective practices introduced by Policy Lab are an essential contribution to developing a co-creation tradition in evidence-informed policymaking processes Key messages Beyond human-centred and future-oriented methods, UK Policy Lab appropriates design as a reflective practice, to contribute to policymaking by supporting deliberation and decision making. Creative and visual methods from design enable collaborative policymaking processes, as they externalise thinking and surface overlaps and differences among policymakers’ perspectives. We argue that design can support the reflective practice of policymakers, highlighting explicit and implicit frames structuring decision making

The value of designers' creative practice within complex collaborations

This paper reports a case study investigating the productive value of designers' creative practice within complex academic-industrial collaborations in which a designer's practice had a formative role. Adopting a pragmatic approach, collaborators' experiences of this project were reconstructed through interviews and ‘annotated timelines.’ Collaborators were found to value the designer's work in responding to their particular concerns whilst also opening up new possibilities. This paper discusses how such benefit is attributable to the ‘designerly thinking’ of skilled designers, shifting the focus of work from problem-solving to problematisation and enabling participants to collectively formulate concerns, roles, and potentialities. The paper concludes that designers' creative practice can enable collaborative projects to build upon and transcend participants' expertise and expectations through ‘creative exchange.

Communicative Openness within Adoptive Families: The Role of Photos and Visual Communication

HCI has a long history of designing to support family life, despite this little is known about the unique needs of adoptive families. Though work has explored the role of photos, and photo sharing in the family home, this does not take account of the essential role of photos in supporting the well-being of adopted children. We report on a Research through Design (RtD) project investigating how adoptive parents communicate life story, which is essential to a child's sense of identity. In this pictorial we show the role of photos and visual communication in enabling core aspects of communicative openness between parent and child, as derived from interviews with adopters about their child's life story book. We conclude by discussing the need for visual guidelines and tools to support a more nuanced use of photos and illustrations

Domestic Widgets: Leveraging Household Creativity in Co-Creating Data Physicalisations

The home environment is a complex design space, especially when it has multiple inhabitants. As such, the home presents challenges for the design of smart products. Householders may be different ages and have differing interests, needs, and attitudes towards technology. We pursued a research-through-design study with family households to envision and ‘co-create’ the future of data-enabled artifacts for their homes. We have iteratively developed domestic research artefacts for these households that are open, data-enabled, physical visualizations. These artefacts - called Domestic Widgets - are customisable in their design and functionality throughout their lifespan. The development process highlights design challenges for sustained co-creation and the leveraging of household creativity in (co-creation) research toolkits. These include the need to allow and inspire iterative customization, the need to accommodate changing roles within the home ecology, and the aim that such design should be inclusive for all family members (irrespective of age and technical proficiency), whilst maintaining a role and purpose in the home. We invite the RTD community to critically discuss our, and other, open and iterative end-user designs for sustained co-creation. By presenting unbuilt and interactive pre-built Domestic Widgets, we interactively foster engagement with practises of sustained co-creation

Health stigma on Twitter:investigating the prevalence and type of stigma communication in tweets about different conditions and disorders

Background: Health-related stigma can act as a barrier to seeking treatment and can negatively impact wellbeing. Comparing stigma communication across different conditions may generate insights previously lacking from condition-specific approaches and help to broaden our understanding of health stigma as a whole.Method: A sequential explanatory mixed-methods approach was used to investigate the prevalence and type of health-related stigma on Twitter by extracting 1.8 million tweets referring to five potentially stigmatized health conditions and disorders (PSHCDs): Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)/Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS), Diabetes, Eating Disorders, Alcoholism, and Substance Use Disorders (SUD). Firstly, 1,500 tweets were manually coded by stigma communication type, followed by a larger sentiment analysis (n = 250,000). Finally, the most prevalent category of tweets, “Anti-Stigma and Advice” (n = 273), was thematically analyzed to contextualize and explain its prevalence.Results: We found differences in stigma communication between PSHCDs. Tweets referring to substance use disorders were frequently accompanied by messages of societal peril. Whereas, HIV/AIDS related tweets were most associated with potential labels of stigma communication. We found consistencies between automatic tools for sentiment analysis and manual coding of stigma communication. Finally, the themes identified by our thematic analysis of anti-stigma and advice were Social Understanding, Need for Change, Encouragement and Support, and Information and Advice.Conclusions: Despite one third of health-related tweets being manually coded as potentially stigmatizing, the notable presence of anti-stigma suggests that efforts are being made by users to counter online health stigma. The negative sentiment and societal peril associated with substance use disorders reflects recent suggestions that, though attitudes have improved toward physical diseases in recent years, stigma around addiction has seen little decline. Finally, consistencies between our manual coding and automatic tools for identifying language features of harmful content, suggest that machine learning approaches may be a reasonable next step for identifying general health-related stigma online