Translations and Boundaries in the Gap Between HCI Theory and Design Practice

Velt, Raphael; Benford, Steve; Reeves, Stuart

Abstract

The gap between research and design practice has long been a concern for the HCI community. In this article, we explore how different translations of HCI knowledge might bridge this gap. A literature review characterizes the gap as having two key dimensions - one between general theory and particular artefacts and a second between academic HCI research and professional UX design practice. We report on a 5-year engagement between HCI researchers and a major media company to explore how a particular piece of HCI research, the trajectories conceptual framework, might be translated for and with UX practitioners. We present various translations of this framework and fit them into the gap we previously identified. This leads us to refine the idea of translations, suggesting that they may be led by researchers, by practitioners or co-produced by both as boundary objects. We consider the benefits of each approach.

Citation

Velt, R., Benford, S., & Reeves, S. (2020). Translations and Boundaries in the Gap Between HCI Theory and Design Practice. ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction, 27(4), 1-28. https://doi.org/10.1145/3386247

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Feb 29, 2020
• Online Publication Date: Sep 12, 2020
• Publication Date: Sep 12, 2020
• Deposit Date: Dec 9, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 10, 2021
• Journal: ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction
• Print ISSN: 1073-0516
• Electronic ISSN: 1557-7325
• Publisher: Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 27
• Issue: 4
• Article Number: 29
• Pages: 1-28
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3386247
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/5129882
• Publisher URL: https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3386247
• Additional Information: ©ACM, 2020. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here for your personal use. Not for redistribution. The definitive Version of Record was published in ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction, https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3386247