Towards an Organic Participatory Approach to Design for Digital Inclusion
Year: 2011
Editor: Chakrabarti, A.
Author: Kundu,Saikat; McKay, Alison; Holt,Raymond; Valentine,Elizabeth; Bobrowicz, Ania; Coleman,Graeme; Gibson,Lorna; Hanson,Vicki
Section: Design for X
Page(s): 220-227
Abstract
While emerging digital technologies are pervading many aspects of modern life and large portions of society are benefiting, a substantial minority remains digitally disengaged. The problem of digital disengagement is compounded by the fact that developments of new technologies tend not to address the needs of disengaged users. In this paper, a virtual participatory design approach is proposed. The approach has been evaluated in live student design projects to establish its feasibility. Aspirations, needs and voices of individuals from digitally disengaged communities, in the form of social stories were captured through interviews. The interviews werethematically analysed and argument maps produced to explore reasons behind individual problem-owners’ digital disengagement, and motivational factors that might lead to engagement of individual problem-owners with digital technologies. The focus of this paper lies on the analyses of the interviews; early results are presented and outcomes from the different analysis methods discussed.
Keywords: Digital inclusion, Thematic analysis, Technology, Users.