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People with intellectual disability are keen users of information technology, but the need for spelling and typing skills often presents a barrier to information and media search and access. The paper presents a study to understand how people with intellectual disabilities can use Voice Activated Interfaces (VAIs) to access information and assist in daily activities. The study involves observations and video analysis of 18 adults with intellectual disability using VAIs and performing 4 tasks: calibrating the VAIs, using voice assistant (Siri or Google) to search images, using voice to query Youtube, and using the voice assistant to perform a daily task (managing calendar, finding directions, etc.). 72% of participants stated that this was their preferred form of input. 50% could perform all four tasks they attempted with successful outcomes, and 55% three of the tasks. We identify the main barriers and opportunities for existing VAIs and suggest future improvements mainly around audio feedback given to participants. Notably, we found that participants’ mental model of the VAIs was that of a person, implications for which include the user having to speak in long polite sentences and expecting voice responses and feedback about the state of the device. We suggest ways that VAIs can be adjusted so that they are more inclusive.

This paper presents findings from a set of co-design workshops aimed at identifying the core values of underbanked women from rural Sri Lanka, associated with their everyday financial practices and experiences. We sought to gain in-depth insights into the aspirations, rationales, and concerns of this demography, where traditionally household finances are handled by men. In collaboration with a Microfinance Institute (MFI), we carried out two co-design workshops involving 17 participants. We used group discussions and various design activities such as persona creation to enable participants to share their experiences related to household finances. From our findings, three central values associated with household finances came out strongly: Supporting Family, Independence, and Spiritual Beliefs. We conclude by reflecting on the values identified while providing suggestions to support those through technology.

Newcomer refugees face enormous challenges on their arrival in host countries to start their new lives. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and volunteers play a vital role in helping newly arrived refugees meet their needs during their process of resettlement. ICT can facilitate social interactions between refugees and NGOs, thus supporting refugees’ connections within the host community. This study focuses on evaluating an initial prototype that has been designed to support social interaction between refugees and NGOs in a host community. We present the findings from a design workshop with seven newcomer refugees from Iraq. Following the workshop, we interviewed the head of an NGO and two volunteers. We found that participants face problems in finding information, getting jobs, and connecting with members from the host community. Based on these results, we offer three main design concepts that will guide us to improve our initial prototype in future work to support the social interaction between refugees and NGOs.

This paper 1 presents lessons learnt from the first stage of participatory and iterative design of an application to support people with intellectual disability to use public transport in a large city. We first present an initial prototype inspired by existing literature, available data and accessibility guidelines. We explored this initial prototype within three sessions, each with a young adult with intellectual disability and one of their carers. Our young adult participants were comfortable using the phone app, though some visuals needed redesign. We found that our participants valued social connectedness and the journey itself more than efficiency. Finally, they shifted the narrative of independence into greater self-determination to choose their own forms of social connectedness and support.

Entrepreneurs and start-up founders using innovation spaces and hubs often find themselves inside a filter bubble or echo chamber, where like-minded people tend to come up with similar ideas and recommend similar approaches to innovation. This trend towards homophily and a polarisation of like-mindedness is aggravated by algorithmic filtering and recommender systems embedded in mobile technology and social media platforms. Yet, genuine innovation thrives on social inclusion fostering a diversity of ideas. To escape these echo chambers, we designed and tested the Skunkworks Finder – an exploratory tool that employs social network analysis to help users discover spaces of difference and otherness in their local urban innovation ecosystem.

We report on an early design concept that focuses on how we en-gage with our contemporary urban environments along with ani-mal companions. The project recognises that dogs and dog walking both contribute to mental and physical health and well-being, and builds on a growing awareness that companion animals and walking in urban localities also fosters community cohesion and social capital. We put these themes together in the context of de-signing for Queeland’s growing senior population with the in-tent of gaining insights into connections made through place-making activities of human and animal companions. The project is currently in its exploratory design phase as ‘grounded’ practice-based work with on-going emerging insights to underpin the development of a design scenario and cultural probe. We begin with insights generated from personal experienc-es and a desire to foster age-friendly, intergenerational ‘slow’ urban environments. This paper offers the background and context, and then considers some of the design dilemmas. We share an early design concept that draws on lessons learned from game design and theories of place-making that has the potential to reveal experience in place (for both humans and our animal companions).

This paper explores how parents use interactive technologies to encourage young children (under the age of 5) to be physically active, as well as how technologies might undermine physical activity. Based on an analysis of 1528 posts made online on Reddit and Quora, we found that many parents regard time spent with technologies as time taken away from physical activity. However, we also identified how parents appropriated technology to promote physical activity, i.e., through rewarding, modelling, facilitating, participating, tracking and documenting. We hope these practices will inspire design work with families to create new exertion interfaces, games, and persuasive technologies. In framing our findings as practices, we hope to expand the focus of future design activities from narrow concerns with health, tracking, and competition, towards broader concerns with what families do in everyday life, how they socialize, and what resources and technologies they have available to flourish.

Young Adults with Intellectual Disability (YAID) are interested in participating in social media as it offers opportunities for their social participation and inclusion. However, the literature remains incomplete on the nature of participation across popular social media sites by YAID, and how different social media sites fulfil their participation interests. To explore this, we employed a mixed methods approach involving interviews, participant observation, training workshops, and a survey with YAID. We found that participation interests varied between platforms: all participants used YouTube for entertainment, some participated in Facebook to stay connected with family, whereas Snapchat and Instagram were used for playful interaction with strangers. Awareness of online safety emerged as a key competence, while literacy, authentication, netiquette and disruption from advertising content adversely affected participation. We discuss how to address these issues to support and sustain participation, as well as opportunities for leveraging participation in social media for skills development.

Current surgical procedures need to be properly understood before designing robotic platforms for surgery, so that the strengths of robotic systems can cover and enhance the capabilities of the surgeon, which will create better patient outcomes. The aim of our research is to explore the potential of robotic assistance in arthroscopic knee surgery, which is one of the most common elective surgeries undertaken. We observed and video-recorded 15 arthroscopic knee surgeries performed by four orthopaedic surgeons and conducted interviews with two of these surgeons to gain further insight and clarification. Our findings highlight the challenges experienced by surgeons: (1) frustration with instruments, (2) visibility challenges, and (3) ergonomic, cognitive, social, and cooperative work demands. Furthermore, we identified the following needs: flexible distal end of instruments and better visualisation of instruments. With this knowledge we plan to develop a video card game, which, with the collaboration of orthopaedic surgeons, will be used to design an interface for a robotic surgical assistant to help alleviate these challenges.

This study explores how to move towards designing technologies to enrich the parent-adult child relationship after adult children leave home. This time is a turning point for adult children as they establish an independent life, while it marks a change in responsibilities and freedoms enjoyed by parents. We conducted interviews with 7 parents and 6 adult children to understand how they currently use technologies like Skype and WhatsApp to maintain their relationship. The findings show how parents and adult children's positions raise tensions when balancing independence and closeness, how these tensions affect technology-mediated communication, and that there is limited dialogue about the differences between their positions. Inspired by Position Exchange Theory, we discuss how design methods and technology design can enable parents and adult children to see the world through each other's eyes. This process can contribute to developing a better understanding of how they can renegotiate their new social positions and thus enrich their relationship.

Acoustic sensors offer a promising new tool to detect furtive animals; however, sifting through years of audio data is fraught with challenges. Developing automatic detection software still requires a large dataset of calls that have been accurately annotated by experts. Few studies have explored how people identify species by vocalisations in the wild, and how this skill can be applied to designing technologies for locating and identifying calls in recordings. To explore how birders often find and identify animals by calls and share their observations, we conducted qualitative interviews and a visualization-review activity with nine birders, eliciting insight into their existing practices, knowledge, and visualisation interpretation. We found that visualisations evoked memories demonstrating birder expertise on the natural history, behaviours, and habitats of birds. Birders were curious and learned from exploring the abstract patterns in visualisations of acoustic data, relying on past experiences with nature to interpret acoustic visualisations. Birders often wanted to corroborate findings with other birders by reviewing acoustic recordings and local bird lists. This study demonstrates how qualitative review of visualisations can elicit a nuanced understanding of community practices, knowledge, and sensemaking, which are essential to improve design of future technologies.

Research has identified that people in close relationships value effort that is invested into the creation of digital messages. This paper explores the potential for communication systems to encourage reflection by revealing evidence of effort to message recipients, allowing for it to be appreciated. Focusing on text-based communication, we report findings from an exploratory study of three interface prototypes that probe users’ reactions to the notion of revealing sender effort. We find that information about effort can foster empathy and appreciation by encouraging reflection over meaningful actions. However, designers of communication tools must address the issues of authenticity, controlled disclosure and cost in access if reflection on effort is to be valued. We consider how designers might negotiate these issues in future effort- sensitive communication technologies.

Aim: Understanding patterns and drivers of variation in abundance across full species ranges is crucial in conservation science, but our knowledge of these forms and pro-cesses is limited, especially in the tropics. This study aims to: (1) identify patterns in variation of abundance across sites; (2) examine congruence of abundance hotspots across species and spatial autocorrelation of abundance within species; and (3) assess the nature and strength of environmental correlates of abundance (topography, habi-tat and human pressure).Location: Twenty- six sites across the full ranges of 14 dry forest bird species in north-ern Peru.Methods: Study sites in this patchy habitat were selected within strata derived from species distribution models, while also ensuring geographic representation. Species abundance data from variable- width transects were compared across sites and across range core versus edge; relationships between abundance and environmental varia-bles were examined using GAMs, and spatial autocorrelation was examined with mul-tivariate Mantel tests.Results: Although most species were recorded at most sites, local abundance varied by one or two orders of magnitude. Several species showed a humped rather than the classic skewed abundance distribution, with abundance not necessarily highest at the centre of species’ ranges. Spatial autocorrelation in species’ local abundance was evi-dent only at distances less than 55 km. Sites of maximum abundance for individual species did not coincide—nine different sites held highest densities of at least one species. Relationships between local abundance and almost all environmental corre-lates were non- linear.Main conclusions: The extreme variation in species abundances and the complexity in their relationships with environmental variables have important implications, both for design of conservation- motivated surveys for which we offer some recommendations, and for the need for multiple reserves to capture high local ab