Abstract:

Human computer interaction researchers engage with people to identify their needs and develop prototypes. Unfortunately, due to multiple resource constraints, populations are typically recruited locally and engaged in activities that do not introduce participants to the possibilities provided by innovative technologies. 

In this talk, I discuss how we have developed two inclusive methods that empower underserved people to participate in the design process. We created the Asynchronous Remote Communities (ARC) method to engage people from all over the world to identify their needs and engage in design brainstorming. Concurrently, we investigated how to empower people to quickly build their own interactive systems with minimal technical knowledge to inform researchers' ideas of what people want in smart environments. I show with case studies in women's health and aging in place how these methods amplify underserved communities’ voices in the design process.  I conclude with insights on how we can iterate on these methods to make them more inclusive and apply them more broadly in computing domains.

Speaker Bio:

Katie Siek is an associate professor in Informatics at Indiana University Bloomington where she is the Informatics Undergraduate Director and the Proactive Health Informatics Director. Her primary research interests are in human computer interaction, health informatics, and ubiquitous computing. More specifically, she is interested in how sociotechnical interventions affect personal health and well being. She has designed, developed, and deployed mobile and sensor systems to empower underserved communities manage their health. Her research is supported by the National Institutes of Health, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the National Science Foundation including a five-year NSF CAREER award. She has been awarded a CRA-W Borg Early Career Award (2012), a Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance Distinguished Visiting Fellowship (2010 & 2015), and CEWiT Outstanding Mentor (2018).