NewsPad: Designing for Collaborative Storytelling in Neighborhoods

This paper introduces design explorations in neighborhood collaborative storytelling. We focus on blogs and citizen journalism, which have been celebrated as a means to meet the reporting needs of small local communities. These bloggers have limited capacity and social media feeds seldom have the context or readability of news stories. We present NewsPad, a content editor that helps communities create structured stories, collaborate in real time, recruit contributors, and syndicate the editing process. We evaluate NewsPad in four pilot deployments and find that the design elicits collaborative story creation.Comment: NewsPad: designing for collaborative storytelling in neighborhoods. In Proceedings of the extended abstracts of the 32nd annual ACM conference on Human factors in computing systems (CHI EA 2014

Individual Values and SME Environmental Engagement

We study the values on which managers of small and medium-sized enterprises draw when constructing their personal and organizational-level engagement with environmental issues, particularly climate change. Values play an important mediating role in business environmental engagement but relatively little research has been conducted on individual values in smaller organizations. Using the Schwartz Value System (SVS) as a framework for a qualitative analysis, we identify four ‘ideal-types’ of SME managers and provide rich descriptions of the ways in which values shape their constructions of environmental engagement. In contrast to previous research, which is framed around a binary divide between self-enhancing and self-transcending values, our typology distinguishes between individuals drawing primarily on Power or on Achievement values, and indicates how a combination of Achievement and Benevolence values is particularly significant in shaping environmental engagement. This demonstrates the theoretical usefulness of focusing on a complete range of values. Implications for policy and practice are discussed

Supporting Worth Mapping with Sentence Completion

Expectations for design and evaluation approaches are set by the development practices within which they are used. Worth Centred Development (WCD) seeks to both shape and fit such practices. We report a study that combined two WCD approaches. Sentence completion gathered credible quantitative data on user values, which were used to identify relevant values and aversions of two player groups for an online gambling site. These values provided human value elements for a complementary WCD approach of worth mapping. Initial worth maps were extended in three workshops, which focused on outcomes and user experiences that could be better addressed in the current product and associated marketing materials. We describe how worth maps were prepared for, and presented in, workshops, and how product owners and associated business roles evaluated the combination of WCD approaches. Based on our experiences, we offer practical advice on this combinination

The mechanism of the Einstellung (set) effect: A pervasive source of cognitive bias

Copyright @ The Authors 2010The eye movements of expert players trying to solve a chess problem show that the first idea that comes to mind directs attention towards sources of information consistent with itself and away from inconsistent information. This bias continues unconsciously even when the player believes he is looking for alternatives. The result is that alternatives to the first idea are ignored. This mechanism for biasing attention ensures a speedy response in familiar situations but it can lead to errors when the first thought that comes to mind is not appropriate. We propose that this mechanism is the source of many cognitive biases from phenomena in problem solving and reasoning, to perceptual errors and failures in memory

Communication Asset Mapping: An Ecological Field Application Toward Building Healthy Communities

Guided by an integrated theoretical approach combining communication infrastructure theory with methods of assets-oriented community field mapping, this study reports the findings of an engaged scholarship project we term communication asset mapping (CAM). Ecological in orientation and participatory in practice, CAM represents a tool for analyzing urban spaces’ potential as mediums for building healthy communities. This article offers two case studies from different low-income neighborhoods in Los Angeles, the first a researcher-directed CAM application and the second undertaken in collaboration with community health promotion workers. Both offer insights for researchers and practitioners interested in the intersecting roles of communication and place in creating positive community change

Taking the customer into account in collaborative design

This article describes the improvement of a model of collaborative design for the ceramic industry. A new stakeholder playing a crucial role is now included in the design process, i.e. the customer. Specifically, we present a pilot validation study for the framework that aims to analyse how the environment, experiences and reference criteria of different types of the customers (commercial dealers, final users, architects and interior designers, etc.) can affect their preferences. Information about these customer preferences could be very useful for designers during the early stages of product development. A multidisciplinary approach to the problem can introduce substantial improvements in defining a truly collaborative design chain

Living apart, losing sympathy? How neighbourhood context affects attitudes to redistribution and to welfare recipients

Rising levels of income inequality have been directly linked to rising levels of spatial segregation. In this paper, we explore whether rising segregation may in turn erode support for the redistributive policies of the welfare state, further increasing levels of inequality – a form of positive feedback. The role of the neighbourhood has been neglected in attitudes research but, building on both political geography and ‘neighbourhood effects’ literatures, we theorise that neighbourhood context may shape attitudes through the transmission of attitudes directly and through the accumulation of relevant knowledge. We test this through multilevel modelling of data from England on individual attitudes to redistribution in general and to welfare benefit recipients in particular. We show that the individual factors shaping these attitudes are quite different and that the influence of neighbourhood context also varies as a result. The findings support the idea that neighbourhood context shapes attitudes, with the knowledge accumulation mechanism likely to be the more important. Rising spatial segregation would appear to erode support for redistribution but to increase support for welfare recipients – at least in a context where the dominant media discourse presents such a stigmatising image of those on welfare benefits

Patient-Perceived Changes in the System of Values After Cancer Diagnosis

A cross-sectional study investigated changes in patients’ value systems following a diagnosis of cancer. Fifty patients at 1 to 6 months following cancer diagnosis, were asked to compare their current values with their recollection of past values. Using the Rokeach Value Survey we obtained statistically significant results showing that twenty-seven out of thirty-six values changed their importance from the patients’ perspective: 16 values significantly increased, while 11 values significantly decreased in importance. Changes with respect to nine values were insignificant. We indentified clusters of values increasing in importance the most: Religious morality (Salvation, Forgiving, Helpful, Clean), Personal orientation (Self-Respect, True Friendship, Happiness), Self-constriction (Self-Controlled, Obedient, Honest), Family security (Family Security, Responsible), and Delayed gratification (Wisdom, Inner Harmony). We also observed that the following value clusters decreased in importance: Immediate gratification (An Exciting Life, Pleasure, A Comfortable Life); Self-expansion (Capable, Ambitious, Broadminded), Competence (A Sense of Accomplishment, Imaginative, Intellectual). The remaining values belonged to clusters that as a group changed slightly or not at all. Practical implications of the study are discussed

Investigating the social value of the Ripon rivers flood alleviation scheme

This paper argues for an approach to flood alleviation design that considers the need not only for technical knowledge, but also a social perspective. It is predicted that more intense rainfall and rising sea levels will result in a greater number of people vulnerable to flood events. Flood alleviation design in the UK is often focused upon technical and cost-effective solutions, and consideration of social impact is seen as secondary. This paper examines how the social value of a UK flood alleviation scheme is perceived and discussed, by the local community and by those responsible for the design of the scheme, and exposes differences in perceptions both between and within these two groups. It recommends a future approach in which an understanding of the social value of a flood alleviation scheme is first co-produced with the community affected, enabling the design of a socially acceptable and successful project.The research presented in this paper is part of a larger study. The research is conducted with the aid of funding from an Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) iCASE doctoral award. Ove Arup and Partners also provide sponsorship as part of the award.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Wiley via http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jfr3.1217