We Did It Right, But It Was Still Wrong

Abstract

HCI interventions often fall short of delivering lasting impact in resource-constrained contexts. We reflect on a project where we followed the "right" steps of needs-based, human-centered design, yet failed to deliver impact to the community. We introduce a framework that evaluates an intervention's potential for sustainable impact by maximizing use of assets in the community and minimizing novelty. We propose assets-based design as an approach that starts with what a community has, leveraging those assets in a design, as opposed to a needs-based approach that focuses on adding what a community lacks.

Re-defining Characteristics of a Design Protagonist – Elements of Children’s Design Capital

“…It is also in line with the recent introduction of the asset-based approach that emphasizes the existing resources and strengths in the support of communities (see e.g. Cho et al 2019;Irani et al 2018;Karusala et al 2019;Pei and Nardi 2019;Wong-Villacres et al 2020). However, we acknowledge that the concept of capital has not yet received a lot of attention in CCI and there is a clear need to continue this conceptual work: to clarify the different characteristics of design capital, and its dynamics, evolution and consequences in time.…”

“…(Wong-Villacres et al 2020). The basis for this work is in 'asset-based design', a recent shift in HCI research highlighting communities' competences for sustainable development (Cho et al 2019;Irani et al 2018;Karusala et al 2019;Pei and Nardi 2019;Wong-Villacres et al 2020), the term asset being used to identify communities' existing strengths, skills and competences-rather than their shortages and needs. However, identifying these assets or varying kinds of FoK within the context of children's design capital requires work.…”

Not Another School Resource Map: Meeting Underserved Families' Information Needs Requires Trusting Relationships and Personalized Care

“…Our findings underscore the importance of recognizing the work that already happens in communities to support people's access to information and resources in order to understand where technology could play a useful role. We advocate for an assets-based design approach to information support, prioritizing interventions that amplify and utilize assets already present in the community [67,86]. Viewing parent advocates' practices and relationships as assets, an assets-based design approach would ask not how we can design interventions that reduce or replace the work of advocates, but how we can support and amplify it [18,47,67].…”

“…We advocate for an assets-based design approach to information support, prioritizing interventions that amplify and utilize assets already present in the community [67,86]. Viewing parent advocates' practices and relationships as assets, an assets-based design approach would ask not how we can design interventions that reduce or replace the work of advocates, but how we can support and amplify it [18,47,67].…”

HCI - H is also for Hazard: Using HAZOP to Identify Undesirable Consequences in Socio-Technical Systems

“…Wong et al [54] describe how "relations and practice" around artifacts contribute to variability in the benefits and harms which themselves are co-constructed in socio-technical systems. Such harms may be distractions [37], burdens of varying degrees [38], affect health and assets [21], and can extend to malicious abuse [16,23,46]. Despite agreement on the importance of identifying harm, doing this in practice is very challenging and the topic of developing systematic methods to address this during early-stage design has not received sufficient attention in HCI.…”