Ahmadi, Michael
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Publication Access status: Open Access , Feminist living labs as research infrastructures for HCI: a socio-informatics approach(2023)Many IT organizations still struggle to integrate female professionals, and masculinity influences their cultures as well as the operations of design teams. As a result, technology design not uncommonly excludes users or reinforces gender stereotypes. Feminist HCI as a theoretical orientation to HCI research sensitizes researchers regarding questions such as whose concerns and interests are considered, whose voices are heard, and how stereotypes are inscribed into technology artifacts. However, academic debates did not impact IT practice to a substantial degree. Ergo, how to translate the broad commitments of feminist HCI into a pragmatic, context-sensitive research infrastructure in real-life environments remains to debate. This thesis contributes to present debates on feminist HCI, giving methodological guidance for analyzing and sharing gendered practices in IT organizations, promoting long-term reflection on women’s experiences regarding technology usage and production in the process. It argues that practice theory, expressed in a Practice-Based Design notion, offers a suitable solution to engage with such issues in real-life environments and proposes feminist Livings Labs as research infrastructures. Living Labs in the tradition of the PRAXLABS approach of the ‘Siegen School,’ where feminist HCI informs the research activities, offers unique qualities to do engaged research for and with women. They provide long-term collaboration, a broader picture from a range of stakeholders, grounds for exchange, and co-design possibilities for organizational change. I will report from experiences of setting up and managing a long-lasting feminist Living Lab in Germany during a three-year project called ‘GEWINN.’ Collaborating with six male-dominated IT organizations and additional stakeholders, the lab allowed to engage with everyday gender practices and effectively co-design possible solutions for problems rooted in real-life practice. Throughout this thesis, I will lay out how a feminist epistemology and methodology shaped the setup of the feminist Living Lab to match ambitions for emancipation and social change. Concrete (design) case studies will present how the activities in the lab were established and maintained. My experiences shed light on the unique characteristics of a feminist Living Lab as well as the opportunities and challenges that arise when conducting such engaged, value-driven research. Opportunities involve engaging with gender practices and building trustful relationships over a longer period of time, as well as fueling emancipatory actions. Challenges mainly include managing participation, addressing the sensitivity of the context and power hierarchies by cultivating safe spaces, the role of the researcher, and sustainability issues. In addition, based upon cross-comparisons with other Living Lab projects, I will show how my experiences can, at least partially, be transferred to other sensitive research settings concerned with so-called marginalized, potentially vulnerable, or less privileged populations, and vice versa. I will also offer reflections regarding applying the PRAXLABS framework as an infrastructural and analytical orientation. My insights might serve other scholars as guidance to conduct value-driven Living Lab work with marginalized populations in sensitive contexts in general and with an explicit feminist stance in particular.Source Type:Doctoral Thesis4 11 - Some of the metrics are blocked by yourconsent settings
Publication Access status: Metadata only , Fridolin: participatory design and evaluation of a nutrition chatbot for older adultsIn recent years, emerging approaches to chatbot-guided food coaching and dietary management, while innovative and promising in nature, have often lacked long-term studies. Therefore, with this work, we pursued a participatory approach within a design case study to the co-design and development of a nutrition chatbot for elderly people. Overall, 15 participants were directly involved in the study, of which 12 participated in the initial co-design phase, seven in the first real-world evaluation study over four weeks, and three in the second evaluation study over seven weeks. We contribute to the fields of Human-Computer Interaction by showing how the long-term use of such a chatbot in the area of nutrition looks like, which design implications arise for the development of nutrition chatbots, and how a participatory design approach can be realized to design, evaluate and develop nutrition chatbots.Source Type:Article4 - Some of the metrics are blocked by yourconsent settings
Publication Access status: Metadata only , Navigating gender dynamics: a male researcher's experiences on conducting feminist HCI research(2023)In this perspective Article, I invite readers to accompany me on a personal journey of self-discovery and transformation as a male researcher within the field of feminist Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). I will delve into the specific topic of gender-opposite research in socio-technical environments and reflect on my experiences, especially the associated challenges and opportunities. My journey exposed me to critical literature and engaged me in long-term fieldwork simultaneously, expanding my understanding of the dynamics that shape our society. My perspectives, sensitization, and awareness of gender-related issues evolved significantly over the course of more than 3 years of being dedicated to a feminist research project. By sharing this narrative, I hope to promote critical discussions about the significance of both, personal growth, and transformation as well as the need for reflexivity in the pursuit of feminist research (with a focus on the specific context of gender-opposite research in socio-technical environments). I will dive into the complexities that I encountered in the settings and compromises I felt obliged to make which were influenced by the embodied nature of my research. As I will furthermore show, there had been an impact on my research practices in terms of planning, observation, analysis, and writing.Source Type:Article1
