Business strategies need to be communicated and internalized by employees to make a difference. In this chapter we explore how balanced scorecards and strategy maps can facilitate such communication and dialogue among employees. We build on references from the field of strategic management control and a well-grounded overview of the concept of storytelling from the field of cinema studies. In addition to this, we offer an in-depth case description of how the Swedish €100+ million amusement park group, Parks and Resorts Scandinavia, has deigned their strategy map visually, to engage their employees in talking about the strategy and measuring its execution. Our recommendation is that designers of scorecards and strategy maps should take the learnings from motion-picture storytellers into account and apply these experiences in their effort to make the strategy everyone’s job. We especially highlight the two concepts (1) simple design that creates intense content, and (2) “suspension of disbelief”, i.e. how the designer of the strategy map can strike a deal with the viewers (the employees in the organisation) such that they interpret and trust the content in the strategy map.
Researchers in Human-Computer Interaction have worked together with physicians to specify and create prototypes of a system to be used primarily during multi-disciplinary team meetings. Physicians will use the system to aggregate and present relevant patient information during discussions on diagnosis and treatment, and also to coordinate the cases during the patient care pathway. In this paper we present the cooperative design process and activities conducted within the project. The results are two-fold; we report on the progress of creating the decision-supportive system, and describe how the physicians experience the design process. The design activities have made the physicians reflect on: the lack or loss of patient information, how patient information can be improved, break-downs in their work process, how they learn from each other, and the design methodology itself.
Gathering health-related data is quite easy, but visualizing them in a meaningful way remains challenging, especially when the application domain is very complex. Research suggests that empathy can facilitate the design process and that narratives can help to create an empathic encounter between designers and the prospective users. We conducted an exploratory quasi-experiment in order to explore whether narratives in form of online reviews are able to evoke designer’s empathy when developing an online platform for a direct-to-consumer genetic testing service. The results suggest that the narratives can help designers to engage with and take the perspective of the prospective user, who is then represented in more detail. Lacking narratives from real people leaves the designers to their own imagination, which can lead to the use of rather abstract stereotypes that do not enable an understanding of the user, but affect the subsequent design decisions.
eHealth indicators are needed to measure defined aspects of national eHealth implementations. However, until now, eHealth indicators are ambiguous or unclear. Therefore, an expert workshop "Towards an International Minimum Dataset for Monitoring National Health Information System Implementations" was organized. The objective was to develop ideas for a minimum eHealth indicator set. The proposed ideas for indicators were classified based on EUnetHTA and De-Lone & McClean, and classification was compared with health IT evaluation criteria classification by Ammenwerth & Keizer. Analysis of the workshop results emphasized the need for a common methodological framework for defining and classifying eHealth indicators. It also showed the importance of setting the indicators into context. The results will benefit policy makers, developers and researchers in pursuit of provision and use of evidence in management of eHealth systems.
Digital networking technology has helped to bring about the platform economy, in which online networking sites mediate between individual freelance workers and their temporary employers. However, the digital platform economy undermines traditional forms of collective action, particularly trade unions. Following reflections on 15 years of trade union software quality assurance initiatives, particularly the Swedish UserAward program, we realize that there are potential benefits in combining aspects of cooperative, guild, and trade union models in the context of the platform economy. We examine the role that these models could play in enabling new forms of collective action and we bring them together in the form of a conceptual model which we have called the Platform Review Alliance Board. We articulate the Platform Review Alliance model as a set of design patterns, which we invite stakeholders to comment on, refine, and ultimately subscribe to. We then apply these design patterns in the domain of transport. In this domain, we show how software producers, users of the software, and other stakeholders, including individual transport providers, can participate in a Review Alliance Board for the commissioning, production, and review of software platforms for transport systems. The contribution we make is to propose how membership in a Review Alliance Board can be an alternative strategy for both software producers and trade union representatives in taking collective action to assure the quality of workplace software in the context of the growing platform economy.
This monograph lays out a discussion framework for understanding the role of human-computer interaction (HCI) in public policymaking. We take an international view, discussing potential areas for research and application, and their potential for impact. Little has been written about the intersection of HCI and public policy; existing reports typically focus on one specific policy issue or incident. To date, there has been no overarching view of the areas of existing impact and potential impact. We have begun that analysis and argue here that such a global view is needed. Our aims are to provide a solid foundation for discussion, cooperation and collaborative interaction, and to outline future programs of activity. The five sections of this report provide relevant background along with a preliminary version of what we expect to be an evolving framework. Sections 1 and 2 provides an introduction to HCI and public policy. Section 3 discusses how HCI already informs public policy, with representative examples. Section 4 discusses how public policy influences HCI and provides representative public policy areas relevant to HCI, where HCI could have even more impact in the future: (i) laws, regulations, and guidelines for HCI research, (ii) HCI research assessments, (iii) research funding, (iv) laws for interface design - accessibility and language, (v) data privacy laws and regulations, (vi) intellectual property, and (vii) laws and regulations in specific sectors. There is a striking difference between where the HCI community has had impact (Section 3) and the many areas of potential involvement (Section 4). Section 5 a framework for action by the HCI community in public policy internationally. This monograph summarizes the observations and recommendations from a daylong workshop at the CHI 2013 conference in Paris, France. The workshop invited the community's perspectives regarding the intersection of governmental policies, international and domestic standards, recent HCI research discoveries, and emergent considerations and challenges. It also incorporates contributions made after the workshop by workshop participants and by individuals who were unable to participate in the workshop but whose work and interests were highly related and relevant.
Most computer scientistsand practitioners assume that we live in a world of possibilities and that inexorable forces of technological development will help bring us a future of increased wellbeing and of growing economic prosperity. An increasing number of scientists however point at the triple crisis(ecology, economy, energy) and imagine radically different futures based not on expansion and possibilities, but on limitations and/or decline. We propose that a broad program should be formulated that takes biophysical and economic limitations as its starting point and outline some areas that are paramount for HCI to come to grips with.
Life for older people with dementia tends to be inactive. This paper reports on two case studies in which exercise games (exergames) were introduced in dementia special care units with a focus on patients’ well-being. The first case used a participatory design (PD) approach to engage the patients as users in the process. The results highlight the patients’ enjoyment in playing these games in a socially encouraging environment. We have found that exergames in dementia care provide patients with the well-documented health benefits of physical activity and also result in social and cognitive benefits. The results indicate that the notions of games/competition, social interaction, physical activity and challenges are valuable ingredients when designing for the well-being of older people who suffer from moderate to severe dementia.
Information exchange and communication in large, distributed organizations is a research project aimed at designing and testing shared, 3-D exhibition environments for geographically dispersed organizations. The research is associated with a long-term project sponsored by the National Swedish Trade Union Confederation (LO) in which a network for the exchange of organizational skills is created. The research project has tested the usefulness of 3-D environments as an extension of other communication services used in the LO-network, such as regional conferences, printed newsletters, email, electronic discussion forums, and websites. Two design workshops have been arranged in which 17 network members have learned how to build and navigate in the 3-D environment. The workshops resulted in the construction of an exhibition area where different design ideas were tested. Feedback from members was documented in videotaped interviews and an indication of the positive response is given through the groups ongoing additions to the exhibition site.
A core activity promoted by the value sensitive design approach is the iterative and integrative performance of conceptual, empirical and technical investigations. In this essay, I will contribute and reflect on a method for conceptual mapping through which such tripartite investigations can be supported in ways that are open to stakeholder participation.
This position paper presents a small set of organizational design patterns formulated within a long-term R&D program on how to enhance the quality of the digital work environment of Swedish industry and public agencies. It then relates the patterns to two of the “next steps” that the Silberman et al. article, referred to in the CFP, concludes with. This amounts to an operationalization of possible next steps for HCI sustainability research aiming for enhancing the social sustainability of business critical workplace systems. The paper argues that these steps would not only benefit the long term social sustainability of tomorrow’s working life. They may also be regarded as facilitators for harnessing the innovative potential of employees, consumers and citizenry that is needed in the slow, ongoing transformation to a more sustainable society.
The goal of the UsersAward (UA) programme is to develop and maintain a strategy for enhancing the quality of workplace software through on-going user-driven quality assessment. Key activities are development of sets of quality criteria, as the USER CERTIFIED 2002 and 2006 instruments, and performing large domain specific user satisfaction surveys building on these quality criteria. In 2005 we performed a first analysis of the values that inform the criteria and procedure making up the 2002 instrument, using the Value Sensitive Design methodology. This paper is a follow-up of that study. We report on new types of stakeholders having engaged with the UA programme and reflect on how the conceptual considerations and explicit values of the programme have shifted as a consequence.
We propose the collaborative activity of mapping design patterns against stakeholder values as a viable method for grounding conceptual design of information and communication technology (ICT) services for heterogeneous sets of stakeholders. Preliminary experiences from designing a case book service for video-mediated gastro-medical team meetings are presented. A diverse set of stakeholders and the challenge to apply novel technologies in a demanding environment have placed more responsibility on the Human Computer Interaction (HCI) team to conceptualise new work practices and their expected effects than what traditional participatory design projects typically entail. By combining the methodologies of genre analysis and pattern languages, design pattern maps have been used to conceptualise solutions that span both work and interface aspects of the solution and that match declared values of the stakeholders concerned. A series of mapping sessions with different stakeholders helped the inter-disciplinary project team to better define, what stakeholder values called for what new work patterns and what kind of supporting interaction design patterns these new work patterns in turn called for.
We propose the collaborative activity of mapping design patterns against stakeholder values as a viable method for grounding conceptual designs of ICT services for heterogeneous sets of stakeholders. Some preliminary experiences from designing a clinical information workspeace for videomediated gastro medical team meetings are presented. A diverse set of stakeholders and the challenge to apply novel technologies in a demanding environment have placed more responsibility on the HCI team to conceptualize new services and their expected effects than what traditional participatory design project typically entail. With inspiration from the Value Sensitive Design approach, design pattern maps have been used to conceptualize solutions that span both work and interface aspects of the solution and that match the declared values of direct and indirect stakeholders concerned. Preliminary mapping sessions helped the HCI team to better define which values called for what new work routine and interface designs.
As costs for healthcare are rising in society, information systems are often seen as enablers of new cost-saving healthcare processes. But an on-going deployment of a wide range of new kinds of systems requires close attention to interoperability between new and legacy systems. Another challenge is to assure that the healthcare professions are given realistic opportunities to play an active part in designing the new ways of working that the new, integrated systems are designed to support. We argue that a feasible way to approach such a user participation in design of work processes and systems is to extend well known user-survey and strategy-mapping methods with the new value-based healthcare approach which invites health professionals to participate in strategic assessments of health outcome and costs along the care chain in which they work. We also argue that such a combination of practical research methods resonates well with Techno-Anthropology’s foregrounding of ethical considerations to inform the inter-disciplinary cross-fertilization of interactional competencies in health informatics research.
When procuring software, many studies point to the benefits from involving prospective users and reviewing experiences gained by others. Yet focus often is exclusively on price and promised (technical) functionality. What can be done to encourage and assist a greater attention to usability? UsersAward in Sweden has been promoting attention to usability during procurement and revision of software since the late 1990s. In this article, these efforts are seen as attempts to intervene in the functioning of the market for software and how it is deployed in organisations. We report on an initial questionnaire study, which aimed to prioritise among such interventions through collecting views on procurement and revision of software. Although the study only covered usability supporters, our results provide some indications about what may be lacking in today's procurement. We reflect on how methods for studying usability, and promote awareness of usability, could be linked to management tools and concepts such as strategy maps, satisfaction surveys, and risk management in order to achieve increased awareness of its importance for successful and effective ICT use.
This paper summarizes activities and results from the quality assessment project ITQ, "Quality certification of IT support at work", which was performed by Swedish researchers in close co-operation with trade unions in 1999-2002. The ITQ project is part of a network, UsersAward, which continues to work for the goal to develop and maintain a strategy for good software products on the work floor through strong user influence. A main result from ITQ is the first (2002) version of a user satisfaction based certification method, User Certified 2002, which is described in some detail. Other, parallel activities, large surveys of IT use in work places, user conferences, pilot projects, and a yearly IT Prize contest, are described more briefly. Finally implications and plans for the future, especially international spread of the activities, and further development of the certification process, are described and discussed.
This article summarises activities and results from the quality assessment project 'Quality Assurance of IT Support at Work' (ITQ) which has been performed by Swedish researchers in close cooperation with trade unions 1999-2005. The ITQ project is part of a network, UsersAward, which works for the goal to develop and implement a strategy for good software products on the work floor. A main result of the ITQ project is the first version of a software certification programme, User Certified 2002, which is described in some detail. The underlying theoretical arguments for its design and the performed pilot projects which have informed its implementation are also presented. The outcome of performed certifications is discussed in terms of stakeholder response; in terms of whether to certify artefact, processes, or both; and in terms of the relationship between software certification, standardisation, and public procurement agreements. One conclusion from the project is that a viable software certification programme has to cover the software's built-in features, its deployment process, and its actual situated usage. A second conclusion is that the buying organisation has to implement integrative processes in which its organisational development and its implementation of IT systems are coordinated. Conclusions are also drawn with respect to the set of organisational patterns underlying the UsersAward initiative-certifications, user panels, user surveys, user conferences and a yearly IT Prize contest. Finally, implications and plans for the future, especially international research and union cooperation activities, and further development of the certification process are described.
The goal of the UsersAward programme is to develop and maintain a strategy for better workplace software through user-driven quality assessment. One of its key activities is the user-driven certification of workplace software using the USER CERTIFIED 2002 instrument. In this paper we present a preliminary analysis of the values that inform the criteria and procedure making up the USER CERTIFIED 2002 instrument, using the Value Sensitive Design methodology. We then propose a set of empirical investigations with the different UsersAward stakeholders, which should yield a deeper understanding of some of the critical issues concerning user-driven software assessment programmes.