Open Lab Posts

Story Inspiration Station: tell your story at the Great North Museum

2023-07-25T08:54:38Z

Step into the interactive Story Inspiration Station at the Great North Museum: Hancock's Living Planet Gallery. Pull the lever to reveal fascinating objects from our collection of over 600,000. We want to know more about these objects, their journey to the museum and the people who made them. They hold stories that can tell us about the world we live in. To help with this we want to hear YOUR stories and discover what these objects mean to you.

We will use your unique perspective to share the wonders of our collections with all by adding your information to our records, making them easier to search.

People using the Story Inspiration Story to tell their stories.

Dive into stories written by fellow visitors and create your own webpage to share online. Together, let's ignite curiosity and continue the story.

Story Inspiration Station is a collaboration between Open Lab at Newcastle University, Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums, the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, and the Centre for Climate Change and Social Transformations. It was funded by a Museums Association Digital Innovation and Engagement grant.

My internship experience: Being an Online Conference Content Creator at Open Lab for PDC2022

2022-11-16T11:27:01Z

In my third and final year at Newcastle University I had a great opportunity to work as a paid intern for Open Lab in the School of Computing. Between June and September 2022, my role was preparing for and then publishing online content for the Participatory Design Conference 2022. As an international business student, who had not done a full-length internship before, this was an entirely new, exciting and sometimes challenging experience for me. In this blog post, I will share some ‘behind the scenes’ insights from my internship.

Why did you apply for this role?

What caught my eye was the title of the role which made me interested to find out more about it. As I already had some experience from roles involving content creation throughout and before university, it made me think that I could potentially be a good fit. What additionally sparked my interest was the conference format, which I had never tackled before, as well as the academic world of participatory design.

I was based in the Business School for my whole university journey, so this role presented an entry point to an entirely new world for me. It was an exciting challenge, since it offered an opportunity to combine some of the skills that I developed in the past, but in an entirely new setting and taken to another level! On top of that, I was really excited to be able to use my creativity in this role. I am a very visual and imaginative person and I didn’t feel like I had much opportunity to express that quality in previous jobs.

And lastly, the area of participatory design, largely focuses on serving and considering all stakeholders involved in a service or product. This felt really close to me as my dissertation research was about sustainable entrepreneurship, looking at business activities through the lens of different actors involved. Just like in participatory design, I explored how we can use these different perspectives of stakeholders to create a better world and society.

What kinds of things were you working on in your role? Was there anything in particular you enjoyed?

There were so many big and small jobs that I had a chance to do throughout the internship. I really liked it that way as it eliminated the mundanity of doing the same things and challenged me to be flexible. Some of the things that I have done include designing and creating video submission guidelines for the authors whose papers were accepted to the conference, also designing branded slides and templates for the conference sessions, as well as posters and a visual schedule for the in-person event in Newcastle. Additionally it involved a lot of administrative tasks such as setting up different pages and copying information into Notion that would later appear on the PDC website, setting up a PDC Youtube channel, collecting videos from the authors and uploading them onto Youtube, producing closed captions for the videos to aid accessibility, supporting language interpreters in Zoom, or sending out Outlook invites for the online events taking place throughout the conference.

Paulina (on the right) with other PDC student volunteers.

I liked the fact that the role was very flexible and I could do it both from the office and home which gave me a sense of freedom and independence and allowed me to organise my day myself to a certain degree. One of the things that I enjoyed the most in this position was being able to see very tangible effects of my work - the designs that were later printed out, all the content that was collected and put into one place, which later created a whole library of resources.

I felt like I was contributing to something bigger and also learning so much along the way. From video and graphics editing software like Adobe InDesign or Premiere Pro, through project management tools like Notion or Miro, to perhaps even more important, soft skills. Good communication and problem-solving were some of the most important ones. Being able to ask for help if needed or clarify anything that I wasn’t sure about, and sometimes there were plenty of questions! At the same time, being resourceful and figuring things out on my own and finding solutions that would be the most efficient for the project. And lastly, not getting overwhelmed by all of this!

One of the things that really surprised me when working for the PDC2022 conference was that I have never in my life realised how much work and how many people work behind the scenes of organising something like this. Another level of challenge and complexity was the hybrid character of this year’s conference which meant not only was part of the conference set up in Newcastle, but also online in many countries all over the world with different time zones and sessions that would also take place simultaneously. Even though it took months (before I even started to work there) to plan out the schedule and all the logistics, there were times that something unexpected would come up in the process and some things had to be changed to adjust to the new situation. There was quite a lot of uncertainty that we had to figure out as we went along.

Was there anything that you learned about yourself?

I think that the internship helped me realise that I am more capable than I thought I was. There were a lot of little challenges that I had to overcome along the way and situations, where I didn’t perhaps feel so confident about the task - but eventually I managed to achieve set goals and get the issue resolved. It gave me a little boost of confidence when it comes to professional work. It also reassured me that I need to utilise my creativity and have a feeling that I’m actually creating something with my work to be fully satisfied with a job. Additionally, it also confirmed that I am not a big office person ;)!

I like having flexibility and some degree of autonomy in my work as only then I feel like I am the most productive and creative. And lastly, it made me realise how crucial having good, supportive management and a good team really is! That’s perhaps the most important element that made my internship so fulfilling and successful.

Paulina and PDC Student Volunteers out at dinner.

All of this has also contributed to me progressing towards my biggest dream and project of all - starting my own company, which I set up with my friend from university. Based on the things that I’ve learned about myself after the work for PDC2022, it’s giving me the satisfaction of building and creating, as well as the flexibility needed. I am able to actively implement the skills that I developed whilst working for the conference as well as the software (Miro is probably one of my favourites for visually planning out a strategy or project for my new digital marketing agency!). I feel like now, I am able to fully use my business education with some technical skills and experience gained from the tech world.

The Participatory Design Conference (PDC) takes place biannually. It is an important venue for international debate on the collaborative, social, and political dimensions of technology production and use. The Conference welcomes researchers and practitioners working on PD across multiple fields including; HCI (Human-Computer Interaction), CSCW (Computer Supported Cooperative Work), CSCL (Computer Supported Collaborative Learning), ICT4D (Information and Communication Technology for Development), Science and Technology Studies (STS), Social and Community Informatics, Development Studies, Media Studies, Anthropology, Sociology, Design, Architecture, Spatial Planning, and Arts.

In 2022, the 17th Biennial PDC was hosted in the UK for the first time in Newcastle upon Tyne, at Open Lab, Newcastle University. Due to the ongoing global Covid-19 pandemic, the conference was also globally distributed, with provision of online participation and by establishing multiple PDC Places, smaller gatherings of PD researchers and practitioners in 16 different locations across the world. PDC2024 will be held at the University of Technology, Sarawak, Malaysia. To find out more go to https://schedule.pdc2022.org

Paulina’s internship was organised and funded through the JobsOC summer internship scheme at Newcastle University for the first month of employment. Her role was later funded through conference fees and Newcastle University’s Global Conference Fund with support from ACM SIGCHI’s Development Fund.

The JobsOC team within the Careers Service can provide funding for roles that offer graduate level work experience and a minimum of 60 hours of work. They can also provide support recruiting student workers, including advertising roles and setting assignments up on the payment app on behalf of departments. For more information about funding and the recruitment support they can offer, please visit the JobsOC webpage, or email jobsoc@ncl.ac.uk with any questions.

New consultation gives customers a chance to shape the future of Metro

2022-11-07T13:49:06Z

Nexus, the public body which owns and manages Metro, has teamed up with Newcastle University’s Open Lab to give people a say on all aspects of life on Metro - fares, timetables, ticketing options, accessibility, security and new features that the technology and data offered by the forthcoming new Metro train fleet will enable.

It builds on the award-winning public consultation carried out in 2020 that honed the design of the new Meto train fleet.

The new consultation will generate ideas for improved people-centred services aimed at restoring customer confidence, developing new journey trends , and encouraging more environmentally sustainable travel.

A social media campaign will ask people how their Metro journeys have changed since the pandemic, and what their priorities are for new Metro services.

Special interactive posters with embedded electronics will appear at Metro stations, allowing customers to cast votes and input their feedback at the touch of a button.

And the public will be invited to take part in workshops with Nexus and the Open Lab team. Participants will work with design, technology, and data science experts to create ideas for new and improved Metro services.

Head of Corporate Planning at Nexus, Helen Mathews, said: “We’re delighted to be doing another major public consultation to shape the future of the Tyne and Wear Metro.

"We are once again working with the team at Newcastle University’s Open Lab to give our customers their say on all things Metro, from safety and security to ticketing and timetables.

“We want to hear from as many customers as possible. This is a chance for people to have a real say on how we run Metro and how we can make it better as we look to a bright future with a new fleet of trains just around the corner.

“The consultation will be multi-layered. Customers will be able to provide feedback at stations using interactive technology.

“There will also be workshops, run by Nexus and Open Lab, where customers can come along and give us their views and ideas.

“This is vital public consultation work in the post pandemic era, given that journey trends have changed. We need to build back our customer numbers. Metro is an attractive and sustainable mode of travel, but we want to what the people who use service think – and how we can make it better.

“As with the hugely successful public consultation we conducted for the new Metro fleet, customers can be assured their views will be taken into account and they can genuinely help to shape the future of Metro by taking part.”

This new collaboration is a follow up to the major consultation on the new Metro train fleet that was carried out by Nexus and the team at Open Lab.

That consultation, among the most far-reaching ever carried out on a new train fleet, gave people the opportunity to shape the final interior design through a special website, interactive webinars and workshops and online polls.

Dr Simon Bowen, Lecturer in Human-Computer Interaction, who is leading the consultation for Open Lab at Newcastle University, said: “Open Lab is thrilled to be collaborating on another landmark public consultation with Nexus. The consultations we collaborated on in 2016 and 2020 were both significant in enabling people across Tyne and Wear to influence the design of the forthcoming new Metro trains, which was a first for light rail design.

"And now we are continuing this commitment by giving passengers a voice in the development of new and improved services based around the opportunities offered by the new trains and responding to how people’s journeys and priorities have changed since the Covid-19 pandemic.”

“As we did in 2016 and 2020, we will again use interactive media, social media and workshops to enable people to imagine and explore what new and improved Metro services might look and feel like.

“In 2016 and 2020, it was rewarding to see public suggestions and comments being reflected in the final designs of the new train fleet. In 2022, we are excited to see what ideas for new services people develop with us for future development.”

Participatory Design Conference: Embracing Cosmologies

2022-08-02T10:46:55Z

The main PDC conference will be taking place in Newcastle Upon Tyne at the Urban Sciences Building, Newcastle University. However, there will be activities in Austraila, Brazil, East Africa, Portugal and Puerto Rico to name a few.

Not only that, but the conference will be a hybrid using the Open Lab designed Deconf platform. Deconf was designed to host the International Red Cross’s virtual Climate:red conference in 2019, it is a de-centralised conference platform that integrates several video platforms, and chat for the full conference experience. Check out the conference platform here.

Check out our conferecning platform for PDC, so people can attend from around the world.

The main conference will take place between 19 Aug - 1 Sept. You can register here until the start of the conference.

What is PDC 2022?

PDC invites researchers and practitioners working on participatory design in areas such as, but not limited to, HCI (Human-Computer Interaction), CSCW (Computer Supported Cooperative Work), Design, Architecture and Anthropology.

The theme for the 2022 conference is Embracing Cosmologies: Expanding Worlds of Participatory Design. Through invoking a hopeful design of social justice that responds to multiplicity and relational interdependence, the conference will explore what it means to embrace cosmological approaches to participatory design.

Newcastle and beyond

Attendees will have the opportunity to see more of the North East as the Situated Actions and Exhibition space will be at Shieldfield Art Works and even have the opportunity to visit the coast as part of the conference dinner.

Join a creative photographic exchange that moves from visualising local to global. as part of our Situated Actions programme

With the Situated Actions people will have the opportunity to do things in-person or online, such as KN(eat)TING - crafting while eating, and sharing knowledge, and going on 1 hour open forest walks through the Ouseburn valley, Newcastle.

PDC in numbers

So far, we’ve had over 200 people sign up to the conference, as well as 92 articles in our proceedings, 50 events organised by PDC Places, 32 Exploratory papers, 20 Full Papers, 16 Online Paper sessions, 13 Workshops, 8 Situated Actions, 5 PDC Places panel & showcases, 4 Keynotes, 3 Beyond Academia Panels, 3 Social Events and 1 Exhibition.

We are also lucky to have four fantastic keynote speakers at PDC – two for the online conference, and two for the in-person event in Newcastle upon Tyne.

At the online conference we have Professor Ahmed Ansari (he/him), Industry Assistant Professor at New York University and Professor Catherine D'Ignazio (she/her),

Associate Professor of Urban Science and Planning in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at MIT.

In Newcastle upon Tyne , we have Professor Lilly Irani (she/her), Associate Professor of Communication & Science Studies at University of California, San Diego and Professor Ann Light (she/her), Professor of Design and Creative Technology, University of Sussex, UK and Professor of Interaction Design, Social Change and Sustainability at Malmö University, Sweden.

We can’t wait to see you there!

Two CDTs, a hotel and a lot of writing

2022-06-10T14:40:13Z

Following on from the success of our writing retreat last September at Slaley Hall, we took our CDT cohort to Ramside Hall in Durham.

Sean finishing up some writing at Ramside.

For the first time we were joined by the CDT in Cloud Computing, our neighbors upstairs in the Urban Sciences Building, so it was a fantastic opportunity for the two groups to get to know each other, sharing coffee or lunch by the fountain or taking part in the quiz last on the night.

As our Digital Civics CDT started all the way back in 2014, many of our students are now coming to the end of their time in Open Lab. The writing retreat gave them a chance to dedicate some time finishing up their thesis, working on finishing chapters or literature reviews.

Deep in concentration in the writing room.

Meanwhile the newer cohorts are just starting their thesis journeys, so it was great to create a collaborative environment for our students, where the newer cohort can get some perspective of what they have ahead, get advice on bumps along the way and bounce ideas off of the more experienced students. Other students took the opportunity to work on presentations, and book chapters.

Since the pandemic we’ve seen more people working from home, going off on internships or working on different schedules, as well as saying goodbye to several of our cohort who have finished and graduated.

It was great to get lots of the CDT together again, including some of our students who have gone part time as they finish their studies alongside working and one who travelled from abroad to be with us.

Students really valued the chance to work either quietly or in small groups, followed by periods of rest and relaxation, exploring the grounds around the hotel, relaxing in the spa, hitting a few balls down the driving range.

There was time for relaxing as well.

We had great feedback from the group and we’re already exploring options for our next retreat…

Engagement and Place Awards: another win for Open Lab

2022-05-30T13:58:17Z

The awards recognise many innovative collaborations between the University and its external partners. These bring value to the social, cultural and economic wellbeing in our city, region and across the globe.

Up in the running in the Postgraduate Student Award was Peter Glick for his PhD project, My Care Budget, a wiki co-designed with people with experience of running a care budget, in the Newcastle University Engagement and Place Awards.

And in the Professional Services category Rob Anderson for his work on Deconf (de-centralised conference), an Open Source library that builds virtual conference platforms.

For the second year in a running Open Lab has had two projects shortlisted in the Engagement and Place Awards!

Congratulations Peter!

The Postgraduate Student Award was the first category up, and as soon as they started reading out the description we knew Peter had won. We bursted with pride as he took the stage for My Care Budget.

The wiki was designed by people with lived experience of running their own Personal Health Budgets. It provides resources for anyone who employs Personal Assistants (PAs) or carers.

The VC Chris Day presented Peter with his award.

MyCareBudget is a wiki designed by people with lived experience of running their own Personal Health Budgets. It provides resources for anyone who employs Personal Assistants (PAs) or carers.

It has over 3,000 members and is still growing, gaining more than 200 users per month. MyCareBudget was born out of Peter Glick’s PhD research at Newcastle University. He co-designed it with a community of people who run a care budget either for themselves, their children, or a close relative.

Unfortunately Rob’s Deconf platform lost out to the Multiverse Lab, however we know it was still an amazing achievement to be nominated for the award. They explained that they had received an overwhelming response to the call for nominations.

Deconf (de-centralised conference) is an Open Source library that builds virtual conference platforms. Open Lab, the Human Computer-Interaction research group at Newcastle University, developed the library. It has run several online conferences since 2020. This includes the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Society’s (IFRC) climate:red conference, Mozilla’s Mozfest 2021 and 2022, and the IFRC’s planet:red conference.

Peter and MyCareBudget has followed the footsteps of PhD Student Arlind Reuter and Content Creator, Daniel Parry and the Later Life Audio Radio Co-operative, which won last year.

Photo credit: Simon Veit-Wilson

From Digital Economy to Digital Citizens: the end of Digital Economy Research Centre

2021-12-07T14:16:35Z

Open Lab at Newcastle University and Northumbria University are celebrating the end of the Digital Economy Research Centre (DERC), which began in 2015.

DERC was initiated Patrick Olivier and Pete Wright and engaged a huge number of researchers across both universities.

Dave Kirk, the director of Open Lab explained: “The footprint of DERC has been enormous. From this one large project we have produced dozens of smaller projects, supported the careers of over 80 researchers from early-career to more seasoned academics and through the engagements themselves connected with tens of thousands of members of the public across the region and internationally.”

What is the Digital Economy Research Centre? Dave Kirk, Director of Open Lab, explains

The aim of the Digital Economy Research Centre

The Digital Economy Research Centre has aimed to design, develop, and evaluate new digitally-mediated models of citizen participation. DERC engaged with communities, the third sector, local government and industry in developing the future of local service provision and local democracy.

Starting the DERC programme, the overarching challenges were significant. From considering how to develop new technologies using open and citizen-generated data to developing participatory methods to support citizen-led public services, the backbone of this research was a commitment to social inclusion.

The main research themes of DERC address the development of models of digitally-enabled citizen participation in local democracy, planning, public health, social care and education, and we explored new civic media to support these.

The research methods were participatory, action-based, and embedded in the real world.

Highlights from the DERC projects

From receiving over 23,000 public responses to shape the new Tyne and Wear Metro to building an online dietary capture and analysis tool used in at least 158 individual research studies across the world – DERC’s has pioneered new models of ‘digital civics’ research.

Working with around 20 community and industry partners, DERC had an extensive programme of research, knowledge exchange and public engagement activities.

Find out more about the projects from DERC in this booklet.

Through this we’ve explored new ways of empowering communities and engaging citizens in the digital economy.

From Digital Economy to Digital Citizens

“Following the success of DERC we have launched our EPSRC Next Stage Digital Economy Centre for Digital Citizens. We are taking the core themes investigated within DERC and are using that knowledge to foster further digital social innovations with communities. In doing this we are continuing our journey to change discourses from a focus on ‘smart cities’ to supporting smart(er) citizens, in urban, rural and coastal places;” said Dave Kirk.

The Centre for Digital Citizens will take an inclusive, participatory approach to the design and evaluation of new technologies and services that support ‘smart’, ‘data-rich’ living in urban, rural and coastal communities.

Core to the Centre’s work will be the incubation of sustainable ‘Digital Social Innovations’ (DSI) that will ensure digital technologies support diverse communities and will have long-lasting social value and impact beyond the life of the Centre.

Watch the full livestream from the end of DERC event held on 8 December at the Catalyst in Newcastle featuring talks from Jenny Nelson, Newcastle City Council, Mark Tewdwr-Jones, UCL, Shaun Hazeldine, IFRC, Austin Toombs and Colin Gray, Purdue University and Sarah McManus and Huw Lewis, NEXUS.

From the Digital Economy to Digital Citizens

Lose control to gain knowledge: participatory design

2021-11-08T13:51:24Z

Participatory Design. Co-production. Co-design.

‘Go to’ words for research these days. They can be used to label a wide range of interactions, perhaps to describe a workshop where the participants participate, leave, never to be called on again. So how about when your participants continue to be involved with your research for over two years? When your participants decide when the next meeting should be and who should be invited? When your participants suggest an intervention and they then design, test, and promote it?

Welcome to www.mycarebudget.org. A wiki conceived, designed, structured and populated by the participants as part of my PhD project. It contains over 75 essential documents for running a care budget, especially those that are used to employ Personal Assistants or carers.

What is a Personal Health Budget?

A Personal Health Budget (PHB) or care budget allows people to manage their healthcare and support such as treatments, equipment and personal care. This means for example employing their own carers and personal assistants. However, for many people once they are given the budget, they don’t receive any guidance on how to spend it. They are left with the responsibility of employing people, writing staff contracts, and practically running a business. This can be a daunting task.

As described by one of the participants, My Care Budget is an “online peer support community platform that enables PHB users to share useful policies, documents and templates that have helped them manage their PHB for the benefit of other PHB users.” Launched in September 2021, it has over a thousand active users after just 6 weeks, predominantly in the UK but also Europe, US and Australia.

Playing a key role in the research

So how did the project’s participants come to play such a key role? Well one reason is they had a vested interest in the project. They were not passing through the research, instead, they were passionate about how it could help them to virtually mentor those newcomers to a life of care. They are not interested in my research per se, but are avid for its outcomes. I also see my role in this research as an active facilitator, in that I support and engineer the project and its engagements, I code, I project manage. I also prompt, cajole and act when I feel it’s time to act. I endeavour to be sensitive around the participants’ lives of 24/7 care, their priorities and to treat them as individuals - they might not have time to write the content for webpages, and they may have little interest in learning how to build a wiki, but they do want to help others.

Handing over control of my research

However. . . handing over control of ‘my’ research can be hard. After all, I’m the one putting in all the months of organising and writing, I know where I want the research to aim at. Allowing the project’s participants to dictate otherwise generated mixed emotions. For example, one meeting with the citizen participants and their healthcare authorities was especially key to me, as I saw it being an opportunity to hear the antagonism on both sides being vented, but the participants were adamant that I was not to seek consent from their authorities’ as “…if they knew we were taking notes and analysing what they were saying they would not say anything”. Of course, they were correct. Yes, I felt I lost valuable data, but the participants had experience of recording meetings and the authorities walking away when they found out.

In another example, I wanted the wiki to be completely open, so no one needed to register to download its content. The majority of the project’s participants disagreed, saying that it would devalue the content, so I created a registration process. Through handing control of the wiki to the participants, they gained a sense of ownership, as they could see their suggestions being incorporated into its design. Once launched, they were quick to spread the word about it, posting blogs that discussed it, wrote tweets about it, talked about it in meetings with their healthcare authorities.

So yes, I lost control with aspects of my research by handing it over to the participants, but I gained knowledge from them. They had experienced this domain of research in ways I never had and never would. I found myself trusting their views, the research turning in directions that I would not have planned by myself.

Addressing changes that matter

I’m hardly alone with this stance. Eminent authors such as Bødker & Kyng lament Participatory Design being used as a tool that begins and ends its deployment within a project (Bødker & Kyng, 2018), lacking consideration for sustainment of relationships after the research closes. They see its focus turned to the design process and the participation itself, rather than its original democratic consideration for the learning and empowerment of the worker/user.

The authors argue that Participatory Design “that matters should address changes that matter”, with the researchers as activists “working for a vision that they believe in, a vision of great importance to them, and of great importance to their partners”. This extends to their further concerns that Participatory Design is turning its back on groups immersed in conflict and tensions, resulting in a focus on outcomes formed out of co-creation, not a focus that “exposes differences and profound conflict”.

I’m with the authors on this. I have made a personal commitment to continue to offer the research’s artefacts such as www.mycarebudget.org past the end of the research. Hearing the participants’ stories of their struggles with authorities can be distressing, but it affirms that aspect of my own personal life and continues to drive me forward to make positive change, no matter how small, where I can.

Website: https://mycarebudget.org/

Twitter: @mycarebudget

Email: p.glick2@newcastle.ac.uk

Getting back together at the CDT Writing Retreat at Slaley Hall

2021-09-29T14:22:16Z

In September, ten Open Lab students and staff members from the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) in Digital Civics visited Slaley Hall to undertake a three-day writing retreat.

Set within 1000 acres of Northumberland woodland and moorland, Slaley Hall was the ideal place for our group to reconnect with one another, work on some writing and relax back into in-person working.

Hazel and Kieran after a long time out of the Lab.

In the Priestman Room, named after one of Slaley Hall’s two impressive golf courses, the group greeted each other warmly after months of not being together. Everyone got set-up, plugged in laptops, opened notebooks, found pens, got teas and coffees - the usual hustle and bustle at a conference centre that we’ve all missed - and settled down to start working.

We wanted the writing retreat to be as flexible and self-directed as possible, led by the students' needs and what they’re working on. The group decided to start off with a focused one hour writing sprint - they went around the table and shared what they’d be working on and what their ideal outcome was. A few people were working on turning CHI papers into chapters, others were reviewing field-recordings from research expeditions and some were doing design work or starting papers.

The students said it was a good balance between working time and fun time.

Over the three days of the retreat, we combined morning and afternoon writing sessions with time to relax and catch up. CDT students went on walks in the late September sunshine around the Slaley Hall grounds, tried their hand at golf at Slaley Hall’s driving range and putting green, and used the swimming and spa facilities. We also had dinner together as a group each night in the Brasserie.

Our researchers really appreciated “the opportunity to reconnect with other CDT students, a focused space to get my writing done, and an opportunity to relax whilst doing focused work”. Another found that “the social interaction and opportunity to work in a different environment” was the most beneficial thing about the writing retreat, and others commented that there “was a good balance between working time and fun time”.

And it’s unanimous: we all want to go on a similar writing retreat in the future. So, we’d better get started on planning our next one...

Tentative steps in the right direction to end violence against women, but not a victory yet

2021-03-16T16:09:24Z

It has been a long and challenging few weeks for women and girls in England after the deeply unsettling case of Sarah Everard’s abduction and murder that has made international headlines. It has also been a jointly frustrating week for the violence against women and girls’ sector who have long been campaigning for law and policy change for vulnerable populations to not only live their lives without being subject violence, but also experience the freedoms of living without threat of it.

Despite figures of authority attempting to relay fears that the abduction and murder from public places are ‘incredibly rare’ and acts as an ‘isolated incident’, the reality for many women and minoritized identities is anything but. If anything, scholars have long critiqued that understanding violence as isolated and ‘one off’s uses the same harmful language that people who use violence use to justify and excuse their behaviours. It is indeed easier to overlook an odd act of abuse if the situation is unprecedented or unusual without exploring the wider structural factors that led to its existence.

It is for this reason that many activists, practitioners and researchers in the gender-based violence sector view violence as existing along a continuum, where it is conceptualised as different manifestations of similar harmful behaviour. This behaviour is disproportionately perpetrated by men.

One of the most prominent patterns of violence that people encounter in their lives is domestic abuse or intimate partner violence. Last year in 2020 approximately 5.5% of the adult population, composed of 1.6 million women and 757,000 men in the United Kingdom were subject to it.

Despite the severity of its impact, the government has been criticised for being slow to respond to this devastating societal problem through primary legislation with significant delays to improve the Domestic Abuse Bill by two general elections. At the time where it was first introduced to parliament there were some critical and notable exclusions from the legislation. This included completely excluding migrant women with no recourse to public funds from the bill and a notable lack of intervention for those who harm their current or former intimate partner.

When a responsible individual for harm and abuse is excluded from the solution, there can be a greater application and expectation that the victim of such harm has to be held responsible, or improve other factors unrelated to violence such as the context where violence might take place. In returning to Sarah Everard’s case, we can see this narrative in Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s announcement of doubling of the size of the Safer Streets fund that aims to improve local measures such as better lighting and CCTV in public spaces.

Yet no campaigner against violence and abuse sees such measures as genuinely increasing the safety of women – dark parks and alleyways themselves do not cause violence to women, and they are not the only place that they are abused or intimated. To have a meaningful impact on preventing domestic violence we need to challenge the individuals who feel it is justified, appropriate or acceptable to use these harmful behaviours in the first place.

At the start of 2020 A Call to Action was launched by Respect, SafeLives and Social Finance that originally represented over 80 organisations including academics, activists, police forces, health and social care, support services and health practitioners. Open Lab was also included in this call, signed by both I and the director of Open Lab, Professor David Kirk. I signed this call as I had noticed a tendency within the design of digital technologies space to follow the same false narrative, that to tackle domestic violence we had to equip victims with better safety devices to alert others in emergency situations.

It has only been recently that understanding perpetrators are users that we need to challenge directly, and provide them means to understand the unacceptability of their behaviour and to choose non-violent alternatives. The Call for Action outlined the growing body of research that indicated a positive reduction of violence and safer lives for victims was possible through quality-assured interventions that directly worked with the perpetrator of abuse. However, despite this growing body of evidence, something that was desperately needed was a Domestic Abuse Perpetrator Strategy for England and Wales that was to be underpinned and supported by statutory support by the government. On 10 February this call was explicitly addressed through Amendment 167 in the House of Lords by a group of determined Lords and Baronesses recognising that:

"Now is the time for the government to turn the tide on domestic abuse where it is perpetrators who are asked to make changes in their lives rather than their victims."

On Monday 15 March after several months of campaigning and calls by the domestic violence sector, a small indication that change could be possible was achieved after a vote in the House of Lords on three influential amendments relating to the inclusion of migrant women and a national perpetrator strategy.

A resounding number of those in favour of the amendments agreed that government should release a perpetrator strategy within one year of the Bill accepted into law. As the Bill returns to the House of Commons for its final reading, the sector can only await with bated breath that such amendments will not be removed and remain intact. For now, all eyes are on the government as to what this strategy will look like, what kind of funding it may demand and indeed who is included in the conversation that helps to shape it.

Rosie Bellini's research focuses on technology, domestic abuse and violence prevention.

New Centre for Digital Citizens to address challenges of digital citizenship

2020-12-08T09:11:36Z

The Centre for Digital Citizens (CDC), led by Newcastle and Northumbria Universities, will explore how digital technologies can support areas such as public health and wellbeing, community engagement, citizen safety and technology-enhanced lifelong learning.

The project has been funded with £3.7m from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), with matched funding from the universities and industry partners.

Led by Professor David Kirk, Director of Newcastle University’s Open Lab, the new centre will bring together 28 academics and 18 post-doctoral researchers across the two universities.

The CDC will work with citizens to co-design technologies to support and evaluate ‘smart’ and ‘data-rich’ living in urban, rural and coastal areas across the North East of England and beyond.

The technological innovations will be co-created between a network of academic, industrial, public and third sector partners, with citizens supporting the co-creation and delivery of research.

The project will be working in partnership with local and global organisations including Newcastle City Council, NHS Digital, International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and BBC R&D.

What are digital citizens?

The Centre for Digital Citizens will focus on four critical Citizen Challenge areas:

The Well Citizen: Looking at how we can use shared and publicly available data to inform our personal health and wellbeing.
The Safe Citizen: Examining the role of algorithms and other data technology to support fair and secure societies.
The Connected Citizen: Designing ideas for next-generation of citizen-led digital public services.
The Ageless Citizen: Looking at the life-long role technology can play supporting learning opportunities for people young to old.

“As the world becomes more digital, it is vital that people feel supported by the technology around them,” explained Professor Kirk. “The Centre for Digital Citizens will allow us to explore how citizens and communities can be a part of the design of innovative technologies that work better for them, from finding ways to use shared personal data to creating citizen-led digital public services.

“Both Newcastle and Northumbria have expertise in participatory design and co-creative research, allowing us to work with people to deliver these technologies and create new innovations for the Digital Economy that empower citizens.”

Inclusive digital public services

Professor Pam Briggs of Northumbria University added: “This new Centre illustrates both institutions’ commitments to being Civic Universities, where our projects will take a place-based approach and be responsive to the needs of communities across the North East.

“The North East is a region where people experience wide-ranging disparities in terms of socio-economic status, geographical and social connectivity, health outcomes and care needs, and evidence suggests reliance on digital services can amplify such divides further. Our Centre aims to build technologies that carefully considers these issues and create digital services that enfranchise communities instead.”

Cllr Joyce McCarty, Deputy Leader, Newcastle City Council said: "It's great to see two universities in Newcastle collaborating on this programme around how emerging technologies can support citizens. The coronavirus pandemic has accelerated digital transformation in the North East, and we need to make sure that digital public services are inclusive and designed with the people using them in mind.

"As one of the partners to the Centre for Digital Citizens, we're looking forward to exploring some new and innovative approaches to digital citizenship with the research team, the other organisations involved, and with communities."

EPSRC Executive Chair, Dame Professor Lynn Gladden, said: “New and emerging digital technologies will have a profound impact on many aspects of our lives, from our health and wellbeing to our work and leisure time.

“The investment announced today will not only support new ways of capitalizing on this opportunity but will also help to ensure that those using these new technologies are safe while doing so.”

The project aims to act as a catalyst for future innovation-focused Digital Economy activity, as there are plans to develop the pilot projects into further collaborative bids, venture capital pitches, spin-outs and social enterprises.

New investment

The Centre for Digital Citizens is one of six centres announced today as part of a £29m investment from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), the body which incorporates the EPSRC.

Minister for Digital and Culture Caroline Dinenage said: “The UK’s world-renowned universities and fast-growing safety tech sector are coming up with answers to the important questions of the digital age - around privacy, security and online wellbeing.

“With this investment we are supporting organisations to build trust in the technology of tomorrow so people and businesses can use it to improve their lives and boost the economy.

“Add to that our forthcoming pro-innovation online harms legislation and we will give tech companies the clarity and responsibility to create safer online spaces for future generations to enjoy.”

Minister for Science, Research and Innovation Amanda Solloway said: “We rely on technology for so many things in our lives - from paying our bills and buying our weekly food shop to tackling climate change and finding new treatments for diseases. We must continue investing so we can keep pushing the boundaries of technological developments that improve our daily lives and transform industries.

“The six new research centres announced today will support our ambitious scientists and researchers to develop incredible innovations such as strengthening our online safety and delivering virtual education and healthcare, helping to cement the UK as a science superpower.”

The Centre for Digital Citizens will start on 1 November, and will build on a substantial joint legacy and critical mass of Digital Economy funded research between Newcastle and Northumbria universities, developing the work demonstrated in the highly successful Social Inclusion for the Digital Economy (SIDE) hub, Open Lab’s Digital Civics Centre for Doctoral Training and the former Digital Economy Research Centre (DERC).

Open Lab research recognised by national awards

2020-11-27T11:17:00Z

From Young Digital Leader of the Year to Project of the Year - here's a round-up of some of the awards we've won in 2020.

Digital Leaders 100 awards

Open Lab graduate Reem Talhouk won Young Digital Leader of the year in the Digital Leaders 100 awards in October, not only that but she was one of three nominees from the whole awards who received the most votes.

Reem’s PhD research working with refugees in settlements in Lebanon was highly praised by the judges, as she took the top spot out of 10 other nominees.

Reem graduated from Open Lab this year, receiving the Newcastle University Medical Sciences Doctoral Prize for his thesis. She now works as a Research Fellow at the School of Design and Centre for International Development at Northumbria University.

Escape to the Future, an immersive escape experience Open Lab built with the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies was nominated in the Digital Leaders 100 in the Cross Sector Digital Collaboration category. It was also nominated in the Game for Change awards in the Best XR category.

Get PPE project of the year

The Get PPE project – led by Rachel Pattinson and Tom Nappey in Open Lab – won Project of the Year (NGO) at the Dynamo awards.

As part of the GetPPE project, Newcastle, Northumbria and Sunderland developed the ‘Hannan snap visor’ which could be produced using die cutting technology rather than laser cutting, which meant it could be produced more cost effectively than previous designs.

Almost 6,000 visors were produced and distributed to NHS trusts and the design was made freely available through Open Source Design, so that anyone, anywhere, with the relevant facilities could download it and use it to make the full face visor.

Women in Tech

Rachel Pattinson won a TechWomen100 Award for her work supporting and managing digital research and social innovation programmes at the Lab. From 2020 onwards alongside managing the Digital Civic’s CDT, she will be supporting the brand new Centre for Digital Citizens - £3.7million EPSRC funded project run by Newcastle University and Northumbria with over 30 partners.

Rosie Bellini was nominated in the TechWomen100 Awards for her PhD research including her work with many national domestic violence charities in their work to help support behaviour change for people who use abusive behaviours.

Recent paper awards

That’s not all, Open Lab researchers have also won a number of paper awards at recent conferences.

Rosie won a Best Paper award at CSCW for “So-called privacy breeds evil”: Narrative Justifications for Intimate Partner Surveillance in Online Forums”.

Arlind Reuter won the Stirling Prize for her interactive poster on the Later Life Audio Radio Co-operative at the British Gerontology Conference.

Colin Watson’s PIP Kit won Best Poster at the Faculty of Science, Agriculture and Engineering PGR Conference.

Welcome to the Ministry of Multispecies Communications

2020-08-07T14:18:55Z

In February this year I was in the midst of planning a number of multispecies walks. One in Eindhoven as part of the DIS 2020 conference, the other in London as part of a More-than-Human: data interactions in the smart city project working with City, University of London, Goldsmiths, London School of Communications and Warwick University (part of the EPSRC funded Human Data Interactions Network.)

By the end of March it was clear these walks were not going to happen, at least in the format I had originally intended. Since then I have packed up my office, set-up a new office in the corner of my spare bedroom, moved jobs, and one of my collaborators has headed to Australia to get help with childcare under lockdown. Like many of us, it looked like I was going to have to abandon doing anything at all.

But as a way of forcing myself to think through some of the challenges of social distancing and how I might run these walks differently, I agreed to run a session as part of the HCI Summer Festival at the end of June this year. When I’ve run the walks before the basic premise has been about bringing communities together to reflect on how their urban environments could be improved to benefit other species and not just humans.

The walks are set in the context of a future scenario where creatures have fled the cities to seek refuge elsewhere. With the help of a fictional government agency The Ministry of Multispecies Communications, I invite people to design and wear masks from different creatures adapted with special communication and sensor capabilities. We then walk around with our masks to consider how spaces could be adapted for these plants, animals and insects, and how changes might benefit some species and not others.

The walks were developed as a response to a workshop in a disused mine in Genk and Hasselt, Belgium as part of the Participatory Design Conference in 2018. Here a group of international interdisciplinary researchers came together to explore how participatory design sensibilities could move beyond efficient smart city responses to managing resources for human benefit to the potential catastrophe of mass species loss.

In re-imagining the walk I Initially thought I could just use Zoom. But at the start of June, like many of us, I was starting to get Zoom fatigue. I decided to experiment with WhatsApp as a familiar platform that can manage different kinds of audio-visual content. I designed a training manual for participants to make their masks, set-up a WhatsApp group and sent an orientation video before we started.

My son taking part in the Ministry walk as a hedgehog. We photographed the CCTV camera at the bottom of the lane and he wanted the CCTV to stream a different kind of data for the hedgehog and create a new channel ‘Worm TV’. He said it was really hard to find worms in the concrete back lanes and he was feeling rather peckish.

The jumping zebra spider (pictured left) looked for web structures within their neighbourhood data networks as a platform to search for a mate. The wildflower meadow (message pictured right) found an alarm on a local building and wanted to use this to alert people when they trampled on the flowers.

Everyone who took part created fantastical unique masks of creatures they somehow felt a connection to. For an hour we exchanged ideas about how to make use of the data networks in our neighbourhoods as crows, trees, foxes, hedgehog, butterflies, spiders and wildflowers. It was fun, but also hard. As with many online platforms, creating a sense of togetherness as we wandered the streets with our masks, (feeling slightly strange and embarrassed as we encountered inquisitive neighbours and strangers) was difficult.

Yet, despite this awkwardness, the approach also potentially opened up possibilities for other ways of engaging in these spaces and issues differently. It wasn’t just a case of translating a collective face-to-face experience to a digital platform. The invitation to participate and WhatsApp together seemed to support collegiate, if not fragmented, insights into how people perceive multispecies data in their neighbourhoods, particularly for those who may have to stay indoors due to shielding, care duties or physical abilities. I’m in the process of reflecting on these insights as I work with partners to run these sessions again in the next few months.

Thank you to Sara Heitlinger and Noortje Marres for the initial inspiration for this work. Also Alison Powell for her data walking approach. Further thanks to Ko-Le Chen, Simran Chopra, Dave Clarke-Mason, Hazel Dixon, Cally Gatehouse, Maria Murray, Rebecca and Amber Taylor for their amazing mask making, contributions and discussions.

Here is a link to the ACM paper 'Ministry of Multispecies Communications', and a link to DIS online exhibition.

Not-Equal - Democratising access to digital technology and services

2020-08-07T12:46:49Z

Not-Equal is a UKRI funded NetworkPlus, hosted within Open Lab aiming to foster new collaborations in order to create the conditions for digital technology to support social justice, reaching both academic and non-academic communities, including third sector and community organisations across the country.

Responding to the COVID-19 disruption

Since COVID-19 broke out, Not-Equal has engaged with these organisations to find out what challenges they are facing as they have tried to continue to work with the communities they support.

While these organisations have reacted in remarkable ways in response to the crisis, unsurprisingly, unequal digital access—in terms of skills, access to hardware, data and/or patchy internet connection, for both providers and beneficiaries - was a really significant issue. This was also increased by the sudden lack of the social connections, care and solidarity that play such an important role in enabling digital access, community centres or various spaces of congregation.

The sudden move to using digital meant that while some people disappeared, new people began using particular services, because of the digital offer. Some organisations also spoke about their concerns relating to digital wellbeing; how to ensure the safety and security of both providers and users.

While the digitalisation of service is an ongoing project, the experience of the pandemic brought a renewed and critical sense of the importance to realise digital access that works for all, and for different people, that enables them to benefit from it. But a Digital Access that works for people, maybe understood as something that is necessarily co-created in ways that respond to the particularities of people’s needs and their circumstances.

Democratising digital access for communities

This session aimed to foster a discussion around ways in which we can democratise digital access and work together and with people across institutions and organisations to create the conditions that enable the adapting, contesting and shaping of our digital futures so that people can benefit from them.

This session was facilitated by the Not-Equal Director Clara Crivellaro, who was joined by three Not-Equal partners to explore some of the insights gained through the Not-Equal conversations and talk about their own experiences through these strange times. The panelists included: Lizzie Coles-Kemp - Royal Holloway University of London, Froilan Legaspi – Citizens UK and James Nicholson – Northumbria University.

Digital security for all

Lizzie is a qualitative researcher who uses creative engagement methods to explore everyday practices of information sharing and protection. Lizzie is currently an EPSRC research fellow with a research programme in everyday security and digital service design.

As a Co-Investigator on the Not-Equal project, Lizzie described Not-Equal’s perspective on ‘digital security for all’ through four principles:

We should design systems for people, not vice versa. The technology needs to resonate with the individual.
The logic for access has to be fair and just. Granting access should be a clear, transparent and accountable process.
Access control, more often the access happens in the background network. Many things need to be in place for someone to gain access, e.g. someone to help understand the systems, but this support is not always available, and it should be.
Issues of access need to be addressed from the user’s point of view, not expert’s.

Lizzie also noted an additional challenge brought about by the pandemic, we need to find new none face to face ways to bring people together to discuss these issues and challenges.

Froilan Legaspi is a community organiser at Citizens UK where he develops social justice campaigns on various issues. Froi is a partner in the Not-Equal funded project, Civic innovation in community: safety, policing, and trust with young people (CinCity).

This project explores smart city technologies and knife crime in collaboration with young people, in order to understand the multiple dimensions of this issue and develop a platform for young people’s voices to influence a public health approach to the problem.

Froi voiced some of the challenges his communities have faced throughout this pandemic and how he is using the Citizens UK ‘5 Steps to Social Change’ to guide his was through this.

The five steps are:

Organise
Listen
Plan
Act
Negotiate

Along this journey he has noticed how life for community groups has been dramatically changed by COVID-19 and many are in crisis. He also noted that many of these communities are trying to innovate with missing pieces, e.g. they need experts to advise them or funds to continue to roll out these alternative activities.

In terms of the five steps, they are currently in between Plan and Act. One of the suggestions for Act, is to campaign for pro-bono hours for local useful companies e.g. tech companies or web designers. These community groups have acted fast but most need assistance to sustain their activities.

Cybersecurity guardians for their local community

James Nicholson is a Lecturer in the School of Computer and Information Sciences at Northumbria University. James is interested in many aspects of cybersecurity and privacy, including usable security, people’s understanding of cybersecurity, everyday surveillance, and inclusive cybersecurity.

James leads the Not-Equal funded project Cyberguardians. This project explores ways to support older digital users in becoming cybersecurity guardians for their local community and to organically train other older users in this practice.

COVID-19 has presented additional challenges to this group, which the Cyberguardians have responded well to. James’ team worked with the Cyberguardians to develop a guide to Zoom for older users, which they have now delivered online to peers in their communities.

This guide has enabled older people to feel confident using this package and they feel safe in doing so. It has also built the confidence of the Cyberguardians themselves and has enabled them to advertise and recruit more people to the original Cyberguardian sessions. Overall, the Cyberguardians have received amazing feedback both through appreciation emails and success stories of trainees using Zoom and feeling comfortable online in general.

These insights sparked much discussion, where attendees explored: how the move to online could be positive for some communities and groups; the challenges of online delivery such as hidden costs, insufficient hardware and use of bandwidth; designing tools and processes with access in mind; adapting to the COVID-19 situation efficiently and effectively, not one size fits all; maintaining relationships with vulnerable groups and; digital access as a right not a privilege.

You can read the overview of the Not-Equal COVID conversations here.

The Not-Equal panel at the HCI Summer festival.

Illustrations are all ©Alice Angus 2020 licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivative 4.0 International Public License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

Running a week long virtual event - the HCI summer festival

2020-08-07T09:52:42Z

If you’d told me a year ago that I would spend a whole week on Zoom, I think I would definitely look a bit confused. Back then I’m not sure I’d ever even used the platform, and yet in a week in July - I not only used it, but hosted more than 20 sessions online from a creative sprint to virtual demos (with a few panels thrown in for good measure).

By March, we knew that the CHI conference had been cancelled, and others were looking either at postponing, cancelling or attempting to put their content all online. We like many research labs across the world were left with a number of papers, but nowhere to show them.

Beyond CHI - the HCI summer festival

We knew we wanted to put on an online event in response to the cancellations, but we were also aware that we could put our own spin on it. Open Lab was keen to showcase it’s CHI work, but also all the other work we have been doing and we wanted to do something a bit different.

Along with a small group of volunteers, we came up with the idea of doing a Summer Festival. We decided it would be good to give people the chance to test out various ideas, run workshops, be creative, run discussions and use it as a platform to share their research in new and interesting ways. We also reflected that it was important to look beyond just CHI papers (something which we are often guilty of) and try to incorporate many different projects at once.

On the other side, we also saw it as a chance to bring people together to discuss research methods and challenges they have faced during the current pandemic. For many researchers working in the HCI field, their study plans have had to shift dramatically due to the pandemic and lockdown; and for some, research conduct was halted completely. The festival provided an online space and new opportunity for people to share the innovations and concerns they had experienced during this time.

We found out that HCID at City University and NORTH Lab at Northumbria University had been planning to run a similar event, so we decided to join forces with them and the HCI summer festival was born.

How we put on the event - the technical stuff

At the beginning, we thought about trying to run sessions that were not just using Zoom, however this ended up being the platform of choice for most people, apart from one that was run using only WhatsApp.

Alongside Zoom - some sessions incorporated other online tools, including shared Google docs, digital art making software (such as Pixlr, Photoshop, and Illustrator), digital whiteboard tools (such as Mural and Miro), and many people used Slidedecks and Youtube if they presented a demo or some work.

We also used Youtube as a way to Livestream the event for people who were not in the Zoom meeting, and we used Google docs and a Google calendar to share details of the programme. On top of this, for some sessions, we used Teams as a back channel for moderators to help session hosts field questions

We decided to make sure that security for the HCI summer festival was tight as we did not want to have any ‘Zoom-bombings’ during the event.

This meant we created a room with a password only sent to participants and we created the role of ‘digital bouncers’ for each session. They could remove people if that was needed, and they were in charge of allowing people into the event via the Waiting Room.

For the room we set up one recurring Zoom room which ran for the whole festival, and this was used for most sessions apart from a couple which required registration beforehand (the organisers for these set up their own rooms).

Setting the stage

We had 24 sessions overall for the festival from panels, to workshops and everything in between. People really seemed to appreciate being given the freedom to try something out, and not only did we have a mixture of sessions, but an array of both academic and non-academic participants.

Alongside bringing the universities together, we also saw this as a chance to bring in people who were not directly connected to academia or HCI - such as UX professionals, non-academic partners, and researchers in other fields. This would not be possible at an event such as CHI in the same way, and while we work often with people outside of the field of HCI and academia - they are often not involved in these types of events.

Ahead of the sessions, we did a bit of housekeeping and set some clear ground rules.

Ask participants to keep their mics on mute during panels/presentations etc
Ask people to use the raise hand function or chat to ask Qs in Q and As.
Ask people to use the hashtag: #HCIsummerfest
Most big sessions will be recorded and livestreamed, so make sure people are aware of that
Make it clear (for organisers) when you close your session and when a new one begins

After all the preparation, too many emails, Zoom practices, chasing people and some final tweaks to the programme - we were off and managed all 24 sessions mostly without a hitch.

HCI Summer Festival introductary session.

What we took away from the event

From talking with people, and through feedback it seems there is an appetite for these types of online events even outside of lockdown.

This appeared to be for three reasons.

There was no travel required

The ability to attend a conference-type event without having to travel was a plus. So far, we know through feedback we had people attending from Denmark, Finland, India, Ireland and other areas of the UK - in fact even the possibility of running an event with a London university was made easier by doing it virtually.

You could choose the level of participation

The aim of the event was to create something where people could drop in and out of sessions, this meant people were not tied to filling their day with a whole day of sessions. This was also less of a time commitment for people - they could attend for an hour each day (or just a day etc) and still do other work alongside this.

Watching it back

People also appreciated the ability to watch the sessions back after they had finished, something that is often not as easily available from real-life conferences. While many conferences do record sessions, there was something about being able to easily re-watch a session afterwards straightaway on Youtube that appealed to people.

What will happen next year?

It looks as if next year the CHI 2020 conference will be looking at a blended model between in-person and online, showing that getting online events right could be an important part of academic and non-academic events in years to come.

And we may put on another one, so keep your eyes peeled.

Interested in reliving the HCI Summer Festival? You can watch many of the videos here, or look at some of our blog posts here.

Thank you to the original Open Lab team who came up with the concept and put in tons of work to get things off the ground: Jen Manuel, Sean Peacock, Rachel Clarke, Colin Watson, Rosie Bellini, and Daniel Parry. Everyone who took part and ran a session (too many to name them all). Alex Taylor from HCID for being a great co-organiser and excellent moderator, and Kyle Montague from North Lab for being the brilliant third organiser and who helped to smooth over any potential technical issues before we even started. And a big congratulations to Pete Wright who had his CHI academy award party on Zoom as part of the event.

Collective reflection on cross-cultural and value-sensitive design

2020-08-07T09:42:37Z

The collective reflection on cross cultural and value sensitive design discussion was divided into three main themes:

Problem definition: How do we ensure our design problems are reflective of real-world problems of the population under study?
Data collection: How do we communicate with informants and elicit their values in a culturally sensitive approach?
Research communication: How do we transfer the cultural insights gained from the fieldwork to the rest of the design team?

The discussion initially revolved around the definition of culture, and the question regarding how to define culture in different cultural contexts, before conducting culturally sensitive work. Some argued for a “contextual” definition of culture, and others pointed at the importance of conceptualizing culture within multiple layers (and sub-cultures).

A frequently raised point was regarding reflexivity on the researcher’s own role and values and how it could affect or hinder their understanding of their participant’s culture. Being an insider or recruiting an insider (community researcher) was suggested as one possibility to facilitate that understanding. Also, the notion of self-disclosure of the researcher’s stance in a more elaborate manner such as writing a monologue was suggested as another potential method to establish a deeper reflexivity practice.

In addition to the researcher’s roles, the participants discussed collaborators including gatekeepers or community researchers. Some argued for avoiding reliance on one party as a gatekeeper to avoid the potential bias in recruiting participants and excluding others from certain groups.

This means collaborating with multiple gatekeepers could help minimize such bias. Others raised the point on making the recruitment process open and transparent such as using social media.

To ensure communicating the user research to the rest of the team, the notion of ‘advocacy’ was suggested as a powerful role the researcher could take to influence the rest of the team and how they perceive the importance of the participants' accounts.

On the other hand, the metaphor of the ‘Chinese whisper’ was referred to as a potential risk in having the meaning of the data lost throughout the communication process between the design researcher and the rest of the design team.

Phone-grown re-purposing obsolete phones

2020-08-07T09:03:29Z

This Creative Sprint is part of a research project that aims to increase involvement with technology within families. It follows creative and craft-based approaches to shift coding focused engagements to pleasurable exploration to promote discussions around technology needs and wishes more equally amongst family members.

Repurposing phones is hereby deemed a motivating ‘do-it-yourself’ approach that doesn’t incur new devices and instead builds upon a household’s own excellent creativity and skills. Find out more about the project here.

The three challenges

We proposed three challenges for the teams. The first revolved around Civic Data and Engagement and asked how public data sources – such as the Urban Observatory – could be linked with ‘obsolete’ smartphones and be represented and used in meaningful ways in our everyday routines.

The second challenge focused on Crafting around Phones and searched for ways to incorporate these powerful little machines into everyday crafts, as if it was a design material.

Lastly, we asked what changes to technological infrastructure and ownership we need to make in order to establish Unplatformed Connectivity for future repurposing of ‘obsolete’ devices.

Whilst each challenge had a set of suggested activities, we allowed for open and flexible approaches to creative discussion.

What the teams came up with

Despite the limited time, the teams presented a breadth of results. Overall, the smartphones’ fitness for a multitude of uses due to its hardware and software design was emphasized. Considering the time and money regularly spent on developing bespoke devices, an ‘obsolete’ phone seems fitting to build upon.

For meaningful engagement with civic data, teams suggested using mobile phones as mobile sensors, enhancing the sensor network on-the-fly, whilst allowing their owners to be in full control of their participation.

It offers a physical and clear boundary of bringing or leaving the phone at home, the ability to monitor and anonymize collected data on its screen before transmission, and even mounting it in risky ways – such as on a bike frame.

These phones could provide localized Wi-Fi hotspots, which allows for unplatformed pre-configured functionality and control (e.g. parental controls) over interconnectivity that you could bring with you where you need it.

When exploring how we could craft around phones, a similar approach as phone cases and accessories was suggested. For example, a phone case could neatly transform a phone into a smart home control panel fitting the current interior.

It was amazing to see what the teams came up with even in the short time we gave them, if you are interested in learning how to repurpose your old smartphone then you can see more about the project here.

Reflecting on design research in the online wild

2020-08-07T09:02:32Z

HCI has a tradition of conducting research in the wild, and of using open and creative approaches to engage people in everyday settings. Such research benefits from serendipitous and naturalistic encounters with those present or passing by. This reality, however, is difficult to achieve in the current circumstances whilst encouraging social distancing and non-essential travel.

To explore this, we ran a workshop during the HCI Summer Festival to engage HCI researchers and practitioners in discussing some potential opportunities.

On Monday, 21 June 2020, we brought together 18 researchers to discuss ‘Research in the Online Wild’. The workshop centred on discussing how we might translate such approaches to a locked-down and socially distanced world where social interactions have moved online whilst retaining the spontaneity and naturalism of in-the-wild sessions?

We did this by encouraging participants to reflect on three questions:

What are the important aspects of "in the wild" face-to-face research activities?
What are the challenges of doing this in the "online wild"?
What opportunities do technology and media (in broadest senses) offer to address this?

We were really pleased to have an enthusiastic group of participants from across the globe bringing a diverse range of projects and research interests.

Through group discussions we came up with three important qualities of ‘in the wildness’: the physicality, materiality and tangibility of design artefacts; place, space, and context of in the wild encounters; and, the value of in-the-wild approaches for engaging with hard to reach people.

From further group discussions, we devised a “manifesto for design research in the online wild” drawing upon the identified qualities.

A manifesto for design research in the online wild.

We propose to run engaging design research activities in the online wild by...

...meeting people where they are, on their terms, in their time but there are also many opportunities that come with this!
...using participants' ready to hand objects and objects sent via post, to enable co-creative activities, taking place both on screen and in participants' physical locations... that make use of the mutability, materiality, and playfulness of physical design materials and do not involve learning new online tools.
...asking potential participants how they would like us to engage with them, and minimising the burden of the research process. We will not design non-physical access barriers into our research projects, and re-examine the power balance between 'professional' researchers and community co-researchers.

Civic tech and making places

2020-08-07T08:20:28Z

Before the workshop, we wanted to share some of the place-based research from Open Lab to spark discussion. We created the A-Z of Place-Based Research, a crowdsourced slide deck to showcase some of the projects and research already going on.

On the day, around 30 people ‘Zoomed in’ from all over the world and the workshop brought together academics, students, practitioners, planners, urban designers, councillors and more, to talk about the potential of civic tech and place. We focused the discussion on ways we had all used civic tech in our place-based work, how we could use it in the future, and attempted to think about some concrete next steps, noting it all in the shared GoogleDoc.

Civic tech in place-based research

The first thing that struck us when looking through the outcomes of the workshop was the amount of civic tech already being used and tested within place-based research. There were projects using existing data to explore the current use of the city, projects using sensor kits for citizen science, and research exploring the security and privacy of data and how citizens could donate their data to support decision making. There were interactive tabletop systems used to design workable neighbourhoods, research to improve Building Information Modelling, using Flickr to gather ideas of what makes place, and video as a way to capture stories of place.

Discussing the good and bad of data

It was interesting to see that an important discussion about data was had in almost all of the groups too. Concerns were expressed about the use or misuse of data by authorities and how data-driven decisions can often tell only one story - and, potentially it could be the wrong story.

Particularly in urban planning, many citizens often feel they aren’t represented in the policy or decisions made. Suggestions of incorporating stories into the use of data, involving citizens to make sense of data and encouraging citizens to use that data themselves were all key ideas for the future of data.

Thinking critically about tech

There was also a lot of emphasis placed on thinking critically about the use of technology to importantly consider issues of access, equality and social justice. Identifying barriers to technology use was seen as essential to reflecting on who benefits from its use and how we can better design and use technology to promote equality and justice.

In our final activity, we asked ideas for next steps, whether individual or collective action, that could be taken. We were excited to see all of those ideas and hope some have the chance to come to fruition. Some said that they will go away and read up on some new ideas and concepts such as ‘place-breaking’ and ‘hybrid spaces’, while others are planning to go back to their colleagues to reflect on the outcomes of the workshop.

We’re excited at the possibility of practitioners linking up more to discuss civic tech and place, something which attendees felt was important but currently lacking. We definitely want to continue this conversation and look forward to exploring the future possibilities.

Digital careers and HCI

2020-08-07T07:52:07Z

Hosted by Rachel Pattinson from Open Lab at Newcastle University, the panel introduced a range of speakers working in different digital companies and roles:

Stephanie Clish, Head of Operations at WordNerds, who provide text analysis and insights software
Helena Hill, Experience Design Strategist at Helena Hill Consulting
Robyn Townsend, Lab Engineer at Barclays UK Ventures
Shaun Allan, CEO at Vector76 XR, a spatial web consultancy

Steph introduced WordNerds, a SaaS platform which helps companies discover the true voice of their customer through real time and historical data sources. WordNerds is a venture-backed start-up but it’s not "all beanbags and ping pong!"

WordNerds work on cutting-edge AI and ML technology and to stay ahead of the curve, research and evidence is crucial. In new hires they’re looking for what they call SWANs: people who are smart, have a strong work ethic, are ambitious and nice!

Helena is a consultant and strategist in UX and service design. In 2020, customers and users are considering their experience as being as important as product and price. As a consultant, Helena works with a wide range of companies, from start-ups to global clients and there is an increasing demand for graduates with UX experience – "the opportunities going forward are going to be massive."

Robyn is the Lab Engineer at TusPark Eagle Labs in Newcastle, part of Barclays UK Ventures. The Eagle Labs provide co-working spaces, business incubation support – and they include makerspaces, which is what Robyn focuses on. Robyn helps people to understand emerging technologies and how new businesses can use them, and she works on digital design and fabrication to help people to prototype new products.

Shaun runs Vector76, which he set up in 2008 as an XR company – in the days before VR headsets! He told us that it was difficult in the early development of the business to sell "something that doesn’t exist", but people now understand what XR can bring to their work. Vector76’s work has massively increased during lockdown, working with large companies on virtual training and events.

Watch the full session on YouTube to hear their top tips on moving from a research career into the digital industry, getting internships, the benefits and challenges of working in a startup, and how COVID-19 is having an impact on the digital sector.

The recording of the Digital Careers in HCI panel.

Using tech to improve collaborative learning for schoolchildren

2019-09-08T23:00:00Z

Creating new cultural engagements

From local parks to lighthouses, the Open Lab app OurPlace allows people to connect with the places they care about the most.

As part of Dan Richardson’s PhD, he created an app designed to allow anyone to create, share and complete fun learning activities in the outdoors.

Offering a wide number of interactions such as photography, video, audio recording, map marking, drawing and location hunting, the app makes it easy to create playful and creative learning activities.

The app, which started its life as ParkLearn. helps people learn while out and about, and provides follow up tasks for in the classroom.

This research was published in the papers 'We are the Greatest Showmen: Configuring a Framework for Project-Based Mobile Learning' at ACM CHI 2020, ‘Parklearn: creating, sharing and engaging with place-based activities for seamless mobile learning’ at the ACM MobileHCI '18 conference, and ‘Exploring Public Places as Infrastructures for Civic M-Learning' at ACM Conference on Communities and Technologies 17.

Since 2016 OurPlace has been used by over 350 schoolchildren across ten different schools, including a summer school for Travelling Showmen - creating a cross-cultural exchange between the pupils.

Outside of schools, the app has been used by a number of heritage organisations, including the Tyne and Wear Heritage Forum, who have applied for funding to create a staff position to design and run OurPlace activities.

Changing the curriculum

Despite computing being part of the National Curriculum in the UK, the number of students studying computing at GCSE has declined year-on-year since 2015.

Working with schools across the North East, PhD student Megan Venn-Wycherley has helped design several projects linking the university with pupils to improve computing education using the BBC micro:bit.

Between 2018 and 2019 six classes of Year eight pupils were given the challenge to create projects using the BBC micro:bit to improve their school environment. From motorised air fresheners to systems for schools to order school lunches - the pupils showcased their projects at Newcastle University and were awarded certificates from the head of the School of Computing.

Through this process 120 students, many from disadvantaged backgrounds, were able to meet researchers at the university, exposing them to higher education and potential career opportunities in the future.

Megan also worked with staff and pupils at Churchill Community College to develop a 12-week computing scheme for Key Stage 3, as part of an overarching education initiative coordinated by the North East Local Enterprise Partnership, The Edge Foundation, and Ford Next Generation Learning.

Children learning how to code during Enterprise Week

Connecting schools with local musicians

Over 60 students from across the North East have been getting to grips with lighting equipment, and gig management as part of Rebecca Nicholson’s PhD project Gig Academy, which she started in 2018. She has worked with three secondary schools to teach students between 11 and 15 how to plan gigs for local bands.

Gig Academy worked with Marsden High students, as part of an extracurricular activity, and at St Thomas More and George Stephenson High School, as part of their BTEC Music courses.

To teach students technical production skills, the Gig Academy team created micro:bit ProtoLamps - small micro:bit lights which replicate and are connected to a large lighting rig.

The ProtoLamps allowed students to practice using lighting equipment and a lighting board, without needing to set up the full rig.

In 2016 PhD student Colin Dodds worked with music students across the country, creating Remix Portal, an online music remixing and sharing application. Students could remix the music of local musicians, who then gave them feedback on their remixes.

Cross-cultural learning across the UK and India

Through her doctoral research, in 2017 Vidya Sarangapani worked with three schools across England and India with over 300 pupils in the two countries, England and India. She explored how digital technologies and cross-cultural contexts impact student learning approaches.

The research has been presented in high impact conferences in the two countries and are available on high impact peer-reviewed ACM publication.

In April 2019, she also received EPSRC Impact Acceleration funding, to work with a middle school in Newcastle to reconceptualize online spaces used by the school and encourage deeper forms of stakeholder engagement. This will be used to develop an online engagement strategy and stakeholder engagement strategy for schools across England.

References

More about the research behind this work can be found in the following papers

Richardson, D. & Kharrufa, A (2020). We are the Greatest Showmen: Configuring a Framework for Project-Based Mobile Learning. In Proceedings of ACM CHI 2020 (to appear)
Richardson, D., Jarusriboonchai, P., Montague, K., & Kharrufa, A. (2018). Parklearn: creating, sharing and engaging with place-based activities for seamless mobile learning. In Proceedings of ACM MobileHCI.
Richardson, D., Crivellaro, C., Kharrufa, A. , Montague, K., and Olivier, P. (2017) Exploring Public Places as Infrastructures for Civic M-Learning. In C&T'17. ACM.
Venn-Wycherley, M., and Kharrufa, A. (2019). HOPE for Computing Education: Towards the Infrastructuring of Support for University-School Partnerships. In Proceedings of CHI’19. ACM.
Venn-Wycherley, M., Bennett, C., Kharrufa, A. (2020) Design Studios for K-12 Computing Education. To appear in the ACM SIG on Computer Science Education Conference (SIGSCE) in March 2020, USA, ACM
Sarangapani, V., Kharrufa, A., Leat, D., Wright, P. (2019) Fostering deep learning in cross-cultural education through use of content-creation tools. In Proceedings of the 10th Indian Conference on Human-Computer Interaction. ACM.
Sarangapani, V., Kharuffa, A., Leat, D., & Wright, P. (2018) Creating interactive digital content: a cross-cultural approach to develop critical peer feedback. In Proceedings of the 32nd International BCS Human Computer Interaction Conference.
Sarangapani, V., Kharrufa, A., Balaam, M., Leat, D., Wright, P. (2016) Virtual.Cultural.Collaboration – Mobile Phones, Video Technology, and Cross-Cultural Learning. In Proceedings of MobileHCI'16. ACM.