Yes / This Case Study paper presents the first exploration of Speculative Design as a participatory democracy method for navigating the future of ageing in Malaysia. Speculative Design in the context of Global South is emerging, but without much data on how it is applied within different socio-economic conditions from the Global North countries. This Case Study considers the challenges and opportunities of employing Speculative Design as policy identification and development method from the context of Malaysia, a Global South country with its own unique characteristics. The paper concludes by suggesting that the novelty of Speculative Design as a policy-design approach in Global South countries, such as in Malaysia, requires the right selection of provocations and culturally familiar content to ease introduction of the methodology. Also, the efficacy of this approach as a participatory design application would require further enculturation within targeted communities, as well as sustained engagement through Champions. / This work was supported by the UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council [grant number: AH/S005684/1].

How might computer scientists work with communities in facilitating meaningful social change? In this project, we make a case for an approach that builds upon what the individuals and community already have---their assets---rather than emphasizing "user's needs" as typically postulated by human-centered design. We present details of our four-year-long assets-based engagement with an anti-trafficking organization in Nepal and the sex trafficking survivors supported by the organization. We explored the potential role that socio-technical systems and technology designers can play in assisting the survivors to build on their existing assets towards their vision of "dignified reintegration". The research involves three fieldwork and a remote study, each one leveraging carefully tailored socio-technical systems to investigate a design proposition. We present an operationalizable definition of assets and a framework of action to leverage assets in realizing change at an individual and institutional level. We describe the conditions that influenced the possibilities for our interventions and the factors that guided the design of the socio-technical systems. We further highlight how we adapted our methods to the local resources and practices in order to foster a space that promoted comfort and control to the study participants. The detailed account of our approach aims to provide a justification for undertaking slow, incremental steps with the community. / Doctor of Philosophy / Human trafficking survivors face a myriad of challenges in their reintegration journey. Working with an anti-trafficking organization in Nepal, I explored the potential role that technology and technology designers can play in assisting the survivors in their reintegration journey. The research involved three forays into fieldwork and a remote study, each one leveraging carefully tailored activities to investigate the possibilities for the survivors to be in a position of power once they leave the shelter home. The activities included technology such as a specifically tailored web application contextualized around the survivors' existing strengths but also involved non-digital components such as collectively envisioning broader possibilities and alternative futures and discussing ways in which the survivors could engage with local actors to mitigate societal problems they had seen near their homes. In all these activities, I adapted local practices and materials to promote a safe space for the survivors to participate from within their realm of comfort. This dissertation illuminates a potential pathway to engage in long-term community-based research with vulnerable populations. In particular, it makes a case for an approach that builds upon what the individuals and community already have, that is, their assets. The work illuminates ways to identify and build upon assets to support the survivors. Using the work, we make a case for undertaking slow, incremental steps as part of assets-based engagement with communities. The work emphasizes the need for technology developers to understand their responsibilities and carefully contemplate what elements of a situation or design allow ethical intervention. Finally, the work emphasizes the need for developers to be cognizant of how design of technology is tied up with the larger, multi-level system in which technology use is embedded.

The strengthening of community care and the development of co-managed telehealth systems are vital components in addressing growing critical healthcare issues encountered worldwide. The global COVID pandemic highlights the challenges in providing appropriate co-managed home-based care in a systemic and financially viable way at scale. To develop practical and sustainable solutions it is important to understand the individual, institutional, and socio-technical opportunities and barriers potentially encountered when attempting to design and implement telehealth systems as part of a broader social healthcare network. In this thesis, I describe my work assessing the feasibility of deploying telehealth systems within the context of home based physical rehabilitation. I conducted an online survey and in-depth interviews with occupational and physical therapists to determine the issues impacting their current practices and the likelihood that a telehealth rehabilitation system might support or hinder their practice. Findings from this qualitative work highlighted the importance of maintaining the patient/therapist relationship, the need to empower the caregiver, and the potential for telehealth systems to provide quantitative and qualitative proof of care and patient progress. Building on these insights, I designed an interactive tablet application to assist therapists with the efficient and seamless installation and calibration of a telehealth system for stroke rehabilitation in the home. The application was evaluated in two studies with non-expert and expert users. The results from these studies indicate the efficiency of the application resulting from this design approach and the rich potential for integration of the system into clinical practice. / Master of Science / The movement away from traditional medical establishments and the development of virtual health systems designed to be placed in the home are vital components in addressing growing critical healthcare issues encountered worldwide. The global COVID-19 pandemic highlights the challenges in providing appropriate home-based care in a scaleable and financially viable way. To develop practical and sustainable solutions, it is important to understand the individual, institutional, and socio-technical opportunities and barriers potentially encountered when attempting to design and implement them. In this thesis, I describe my work assessing the feasibility of deploying home-based health systems designed to assist stroke patients with physical rehabilitation. I conducted an online survey and in-depth interviews with occupational and physical therapists to determine the issues impacting them and the likelihood that a home-based rehabilitation system might support or hinder their work. Findings from this qualitative work highlighted the importance of maintaining the patient/therapist relationship, the need to support the caregiver, and the potential for home-based systems to provide proof of patient improvement. Building on these insights, I designed a tablet application to assist therapists with the efficient and seamless set up and calibration of a home-based system for stroke rehabilitation. The application was evaluated in two studies with non-expert and expert users. The results from these studies indicate the effectiveness of the application resulting from this design approach and the potential for integration of the system into the lives of therapists.

For over 70 years, researchers have been attempting to unravel the complexities associated with enhancing student success in higher education (Berger & Lyon, 2005). This research has resulted in a better understanding of why some students decide to leave while others persist on to graduation. Despite a sizable body of knowledge that has identified the various factors associated with student success in higher education, little work has been devoted to translating the various theoretical findings into specific strategies that will guide institutions in improving student success outcomes (Tinto, 2005; Tinto & Pusser, 2006). This study, therefore, represents a unique attempt to bridge the gap between research and practice. Specifically, it integrates relevant findings on student success with a growing body of knowledge on system design and performance improvement in order to address the following pressing need: How can institutional leaders in higher education translate theoretical concepts into actionable solutions that will facilitate student success? In order to provide a concrete course of action for institutional leaders to design practices that meaningfully impact student success, this dissertation describes the development, application, and evaluation of a Student Success-Oriented System Design (S2OSD) methodology. The proposed methodology shifts the focus from trying to understand why students leave or stay, which is a well-researched topic in the literature, to examining how to satisfy student needs in ways that will improve student success outcomes. By doing so, this study focuses on assessing, understanding, and satisfying student needs within the context of student success theoretical perspectives. Moreover, this research proposes a methodology that institutions can use to tailor their practices to fit the unique needs of their students (Berger & Lyon, 2005). In summary, this research study was devised to achieve the following goals: • Develop a research process that combines empirical and design methods in order to create, apply, and evaluate a system design methodology; • Develop a guiding framework that provides practitioners with a set of mutually reinforcing principles, which is supported by a methodology designed to meet student needs; • Develop a participatory design method and supporting tools to execute each phase of the methodology; • Develop a performance-based evaluation framework to evaluate the usability of the S2OSD methodology; and • Develop a validated questionnaire to assess engineering student success needs. / Ph. D.

Kandidatarbete inom medieteknik med målsättning att förbättra det befintliga begreppet Community utveckling. Detta kandidatarbete visar hur definitionen av Community utvecklats och förändrats med hjälp av modern teknik. Det är inte alltid positiv med nya definitioner. Nya problem uppstår inom communities med management, etikfrågor och underhåll. Detta Kandidatarbetet analyserar dessa problem och strävar efter att lösa dem i en modern standard, med hjälp av rhizomatic och participatory design. Eftersom Community rör sig mot online definitionen, så användes de senaste verktygen som finns tillgängliga inom webbteknik, till att bygga en produkt som använder sig av situated kunskap som ledord och kombinerar participatory design och rhizomatic. Detta för att lösa de pågående problemen som online-Communities stöter på gällande underhållsmässighet och etik. / Bachelors level thesis in Media Technology that aims to improve an existing concept of community development. The thesis shows how the definition of Community has advanced and changed its meanings with the help of modern technology. It is not always positive with new definitions. New problems arise within the community regarding management, ethics, and maintenance. This thesis analyses these problems and aim to solve them in a modern standard, with help of rhizomatic and participatory design. With the community shifting towards an online definition, the thesis uses the latest tools available in web technology, to build a product that uses situated knowledge as a mindset and combines participatory design and rhizomatic. This to solve the ongoing problems that online communities face with maintainability and ethics.

The purpose of this study is to present the importance of user-involvement when designing a system. This is done by using an already implemented design of a digital service platform and analyzing it in order to with the help of user-gathered feedback provide examples of how user-feedback lead to improvements in the design. This is done by implementing user needs and requirements in a suggested new design. By a three-phase design process for a design project, the suggested design is made possible. This process is about creating a suggested design from a concept to a finished idea, where the concept builds on what the stakeholders of the project finds necessary (Arvola, 2014). The stakeholders in this case being end-users, but also representatives from the organization providing the digital service platform in the presented case. As a first step of this design process, a literature search was conducted in order to determine the theoretical framework for the study. This theoretical framework was later used for the final analysis as well as the final discussion of the study. The end-user feedback was collected through interviews and observations through a qualitative approach. This feedback was then analyzed from a qualitative approach in order to find user needs to implement in the suggested design. After completing the analysis, the suggested design was created, applying both end-user needs but also requirements from the organization making the platform available. Also applied were a group of selected design principles. After finalizing the suggested design, an analysis of the design was performed with the help of the theoretical framework in order to show the importance of user-involvement when designing a system. Conclusions have been drawn based on the suggested design and the theoretical framework and strives to answer the purpose of the study. / Syftet med denna studie är att visa på vikten av användarinvolvering vid systemdesign. Detta görs genom att utgå från en redan befintlig design av en digital tjänsteplattform, analysera desamma för att därefter visa exempel på hur användares återkoppling leder till förbättringar i designen. Detta görs genom att implementera användares behov och önskemål direkt i ett framtaget förslag för en ny design. Genom en designprocess i tre faser har designförslaget möjliggjorts. Processen innebär att skapa ett designförslag från ett koncept till en färdig idé, där konceptet bygger på vad projektets intressenter finner önskvärt (Arvola, 2014). Intressenterna är i detta fall slutanvändare, men också representanter från den organisation som tillhandahåller tjänsteplattformen i det presenterade fallet. Som ett första steg i denna designprocess så genomfördes en insamling av teori i syfte att bestämma studiens teoretiska ramverk som sedan användes i studiens analys samt diskussion. Åsikter från slutanvändare samlades in genom intervjuer och observationer med utgångspunkten i en kvalitativ ansats. Dessa åsikter analyserades därefter utifrån en kvalitativ analysmetod i syfte att hitta behov och önskemål att implementera i det sedan framtagna designförslaget. Efter att ha färdigställt analysen så skapades ett designförslag som tillämpar både slutanvändares behov och önskemål men också krav från organisationen som tillhandahåller plattformen. Ett antal valda designprinciper har också tillämpats i designförslaget. Efter att ha färdigställt designförslaget har det analyserats med hjälp av studiens teoretiska ramverk i syfte att visa på vikten av användarinvolvering vid systemdesign. Slutsatser har dragits baserat på det framtagna förslaget samt det teoretiska ramverket och avser att besvara studiens syfte.

Denna studie har skett i samarbete med Begripsam genom projektet Våra röster ska höras. Studien har undersökt hur Participatory Design kan understödja en informationsdesignsprocess och vilka element som behövs i ett digitalt tillgängligt författarverktyg för att personer med funktionsnedsättning ska kunna bidra med sin berättelse. Arbetet har genomförts tillsammans med ett designteam bestående av användare och delar ur projektgruppen för Våra röster ska höras. Genom fem workshops har designteamet tillsammans diskuterat och itererat designen för författarverktyget från skiss till klickbar prototyp. Genom aktivt användardeltagande kan man få kvalitativa data från personer med funktionsnedsättning och skapa ett tillgängligt digitalt verktyg som stödjer behov och svårigheter samt minimera hinder vid interaktion i ett författarverktyg. En slutsats i arbetet är att Participatory Design kan understödja en informationsdesignsprocess när personer med funktionsnedsättningar är en berörd målgrupp. / This study has been conducted in cooperation with Begripsam through the project Våra röster ska höras (English: “Our voices should be heard”). The study has investigated how Participatory Design can support an information design process and which elements are needed in a digital accessible authoring tool for people with disabilities to contribute with their story. The study has been carried out together with a design team consisting of users and parts of the project group for Våra röster ska höras. Through five workshops, the design team has collectively discussed and iterated the design of the authoring tool, from sketch to clickable prototype. Through active user participation, qualitative data from people with disabilities can be obtained, and be used to create an accessible digital tool that supports need and difficulties and minimizes interaction barriers. A conclusion from the work is that Participatory Design can support an information design process when people with disabilities are an affected target group.

Abstract In this thesis a new phenomenon called lay participatory design (PD) is described and defined. The work is based on a long-term historical and ethnographic field study in a non-profit community of dog breeders. The case community is committed to the understanding and support of indigenous dogs and their hunting skills through the improvement of breeding knowledge using information technology. This is conceptualized as a user-field-design perspective within a natural cultural historical IT context. The new design mode based on this perspective can be seen as infrastructuring, which integrates the activity, community, and IT. Once in actual use, new knowledge and IT is put into practice in the field, which is the actual focus of the change. As it is practice field-driven, lay PD differs conceptually and theoretically both from conventional and professional IT expertise and IS design models, and from representative-, design- or project-driven approaches to PD and to design ethnography. Because of the traditional division of labour in IS these approaches often take only the professionalized (IT) design as the starting point and ignore the epistemological interests of ordinary people, non-IT-professional users active in their own, everyday domains and in their own participative and collaborative practices in the field of practice. The use-field-design perspective, which is conceptualized in lay PD, is complementing these approaches because it takes seriously ordinary people/users as local designers who are competent with topics, everyday domains, activity and IT located in the related field of practice. The case shows that IT and the core activity of a community can be developed together, and that this co-development is sensible. The results of this study suggest that lay PD concepts can describe essential features of the design process for everyday communities of practice. As a bottom-up form of systems design using everyday knowledge, lay PD can be adopted in other domains and study areas. Thus, lay PD is one new member in the emerging family of Participatory Design, Social Shaping of Technologies, and End User Development-driven systems.

Since 2006, the city of Chihuahua, Mexico has been engulfed in a wave of drug-related violence that has resulted in thousands of murders, kidnappings, and "disappearances." Because bloody headlines sell newspapers, violence dominates the mainstream media, which contributes to residents' sense of hopelessness and helplessness. In response, in my graduate work I have investigated ways in which I can use the persuasive tactics and appearance of mainstream commercial graphic design to effect social change: specifically, to shift Chihuahuans' attitudes about their city. Through three interventions (The Graffiti Workshop, the Riberas school identity, and the Se busca project), I have attempted to encourage civic participation, recognize positive contributions within the community, and build an economic engine around local heroes. By doing so, I hope to reverse the prevailing belief that individuals are powerless to confront large, complex social issues. In addition, I hope these projects demonstrate some of the ways in which graphic designers can effectively apply their design skills to social as well as commercial problems. / text

This practicum is an exploration of the role of the “visionary community designer” described by Randolph Hester in his recommended participatory design process “a refrain with a view.” The question of this practicum is simply this: what lessons can be learned about how to function as Hester’s visionary community designer while conducting a participatory design process as a service learning project? This practicum is both pragmatic and transformative in philosophy. It uses a subjectivist research strategy in which research outcomes are qualitative and the knowledge generated is subjective. This practicum includes a case study comparison of seminal approaches to the participatory design of public spaces in the United States; records a brief participatory design process conducted as a service learning research project in Port Hawkesbury, Nova Scotia; and culminates with lessons learned during the participatory design process with regard to acting as Hester’s visionary community designer. / May 2017