Research in the wild: understanding 'in the wild' approaches to design and development

Chamberlain, Alan; Crabtree, Andy; Rodden, Tom; Jones, Matt; Rogers, Yvonne

Abstract

We are starting to see a paradigm shift within the field of HCI. We are witnessing researchers leaving the safety and security of their controlled, lab-based environments and moving their research out into ‘the wild’. Their studies are carrying out in-situ development and extended engagement, sampling experiences and working with communities in their homes and on the streets. This research has initially focused upon understanding the impacts that technological intervention has upon our day-to-day life and is leading us to explore the ways in which in-situ design, development and evaluation can be used to understand and explore these technological interventions. Is it the case that lab-based studies, taking people out of their natural environment and designing in the lab without long term user engagement are no longer appropriate to properly understand the impacts of technology in the real world?

Our objectives are to bring together people who are researching in the same area so that we might create a forum whereby they can discuss issues relating to this evolving body of work, research methodologies and together understand the true nature of working in the wild. This is vitally important as the methods differ from previous approaches in interaction design by focusing on creating and evaluating new technologies in-situ, rather than observing existing practices and then suggesting general design implications or system requirements.

Tools now exist that have enabled researchers to quickly build highly functioning prototypes that can augment both the user and the
location, but do we need to focus on user requirements in order to appropriately implement these technologies in the wild, or can we simply place these technologies in situations where they have not been designed with specific user needs in mind? There has also been a shift, then, in design thinking. Instead of developing solutions that fit in with existing practices, there is a move towards experimenting with new technological possibilities that can change and even disrupt behavior. A key concern is how people behave, adapt and integrate these technologies into their everyday lives. This timely workshop will aim to further understand some of these issues and in doing so give researchers a forum through which these issues can be debated. We would hope that through running this workshop we would be able to collate a body of work that could inform other practitioners in the field and also act as a platform on which researchers could base their work.

Citation

Chamberlain, A., Crabtree, A., Rodden, T., Jones, M., & Rogers, Y. (2012, June). Research in the wild: understanding 'in the wild' approaches to design and development. Presented at DIS Designing Interactive Systems (ACM), Newcastle, UK

• Presentation Conference Type: Edited Proceedings
• Conference Name: DIS Designing Interactive Systems (ACM)
• Start Date: Jun 11, 2012
• End Date: Jun 15, 2012
• Publication Date: Jun 11, 2012
• Deposit Date: Nov 5, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Dec 4, 2024
• Publisher: Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Pages: 795-796
• Book Title: DIS '12: Proceedings of the Designing Interactive Systems Conference
• ISBN: 9781450312103
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/2317956.2318078
• Keywords: Research in the Wild (Chamberlain, Crabtree, Rodden, Jones, Rogers) HCI CHI CSCW ACM Design
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/23491520
• Publisher URL: https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2317956.2318078