Are digital IDs a “digital road to hell”?
A report by researchers at New York University warns that biometric and other digital ID systems that are increasingly linked to large-scale human rights violations, especially in the Global South.
Insights curated by Experientia, the international UX consultancy
Insights curated by Experientia, the international UX consultancy
[Book] Everyday Automation
The first book to take an interdisciplinary and international approach to understanding how our everyday lives are being affected by automated decision-making.
[Book] Emerging Technologies / Life at the Edge of the Future
Emerging Technologies / Life at the Edge of the Future invites us to think forward from our present moment of planetary, public and everyday crisis, through the prism of emerging technologies.
[Book] Design Ethnography
This book advances the practice and theory of design ethnography. It presents a methodologically adventurous and conceptually robust approach to interventional and ethical research design, practice and engagement.
Special issue on machine anthropology
Bringing together a motley crew of social scientists and data scientists, the aim of this special theme issue of Big Data & Society is to explore what an integration or even fusion between anthropology and data science might look like.
Qualitative humanities research is crucial to AI
“All research is qualitative; some is also quantitative”
Harvard Social Scientist and Statistician Gary King
Global Happiness and Well-being Policy Report
In the three years since the last Global Happiness and Well-Being Policy Report, governments have faced a cascade of challenges to the well-being of their populations.
The search engine for UX research
The people behind Research Bookmark, a vast online collection of UX research resources, have - after months of researching and experimenting - released a search engine built just for UX Researchers.
Peter Merholz speaking in Torino
Peter Merholz will be speaking in Torino (Turin, Italy) on Wednesday 8 June. The 9am morning talk will take place in the courtyard of the Circle of Design.
[Book] Expand: Stretching the Future By Design
From transforming the ways we do business and reimagining health care, to creating planet-restoring housing and humanizing our digital lives in an age of AI, Expand explores how expansive thinking across six key areas—time, proximity, value, life, dimensions, and sectors—can provide radical, useful solutions to a whole host of current problems around the globe.
Systems thinking for public servants
How to use systems thinking to drive improved outcomes in complex situations.
[Book] Human-Centered Data Science: An Introduction
Best practices for addressing the bias and inequality that may result from the automated collection, analysis, and distribution of large datasets.
[Book] Behavioral Insights
The definitive introduction to the behavioral insights approach, which applies evidence about human behavior to practical problems.
Behavioral science driven public policy “led astray”
Many behavioral scientists propose and test interventions that attack policy problems by seeking to change individual behavior (adopting an “i-frame”) rather than the system in which they operate (an “s-frame”). Such i-frame interventions, which typically have small or null effects, reduce support from more effective systemic actions (such as regulation and taxation). For this reason, researchers advocating i-frame solutions may have unwittingly helped promote the interests of corporations who oppose systemic change.
Privacy is a collective concern
It’s easy to assume that because some data is “personal”, protecting it is a private matter. But privacy is both a personal and a collective affair, because data is rarely used on an individual basis, writes Carissa Véliz in the New Statesman.
Radical user-centricity, a key RegTech success factor
One of the key success factors of Regulatory Technology ("RegTech") is a commitment to radical user-centricity, according to a new white paper by the World Economic Forum.
System 1 vs. System 2 thinking: Why it isn’t strategic to always be rational
People believe that slow and deliberative thinking is inherently superior to fast and intuitive thinking. The truth is more complicated.
Internet users are ‘poisoning’ their personal data in the fight against online surveillance
With 'obfuscation' or 'data poisoning,' they are redoubling their efforts to prevent companies from tracking them online, writes Aurélien Defer in Le Monde. But these time-consuming and sometimes very complex methods of resistance have not become widespread.
[Book] Livable Proximity
Ezio Manzini's ideas for the city that cares.
Three interviews on UX research and anthropology
The Response-ability Summit, formerly known as the Anthropology + Technology Conference, is a unique two-day event that brings social scientists and technologists together to foster interdisciplinary conversations on the important topic of socially-responsible tech.
Behavioral sciences in the latest IPCC report on the Mitigation of Climate Change
The latest IPCC report on the Mitigation of Climate Change has a lot of meat in it for those engaged in human-centered design, behavioral change strategies, and behavioral sciences.
Experientia seeking a senior business development manager
Experientia is looking for a Senior Business Development Manager with specific experience in either healthcare, energy, consumer goods, and/or the mobility industry, to drive business development in Italy.
Experientia seeking a senior service designer
Experientia is looking for an outstanding Senior Service Designer with specific experience in either healthcare, energy, circular economy and/or the mobility industry.
[Book] Human-Centered AI
In Human-Centered AI, Professor Ben Shneiderman offers an optimistic realist's guide to how artificial intelligence can be used to augment and enhance humans' lives.
The data revolution in social science needs qualitative research
Although large-scale data are increasingly used to study human behaviour, researchers now recognize their limits for producing sound social science. Qualitative research can prevent some of these problems. Such methods can help to understand data quality, inform design and analysis decisions and guide interpretation of results.
Haptics devices cannot replicate physical contact
Haptics devices probably won’t ever live up to their promise to replicate physical contact, writes David Parisi (associate professor, College of Charleston) in the online Real Life magazine.
[Book] Prototype Nation
A vivid look at China’s shifting place in the global political economy of technology production by ethnographer Silvia M. Lindtner
One year on, has the French repair index kept its promises?
Analysis of the outcomes of the French repairability index, how it affects repairers and how consumers feel about it.
Do we need to change our behaviour to reach net zero by 2050?
Behavioural changes which affect the way people use energy are an important part of the toolkit for reaching net zero emissions by 2050.
[Report] Applying Behavioural Science to Advance Environmental Sustainability
Applying behavioural science to environmental challenges can help policymakers better target and redirect unsustainable behaviours. This report draws on published work to provide an overview of behaviourally informed interventions, why they should be considered by governments and how they can be devised and applied.
[Report] Consumers and the Climate Crisis: The Key to Unlocking Behavioral Change
For the world to reach net zero, consumers everywhere will have to make fundamental changes to how they travel, heat, cool and power their homes, the food they eat and the products they buy.
[Report] Changing our Ways? Behaviour Change and the Climate Crisis
This report of the Cambridge Sustainability Commission on Scaling Sustainable Behaviour Change draws on research syntheses about the potential contributions of behaviour change towards climate and sustainability goals to attain the goals of the Paris Agreement.
Mind the gaps: how experience data can help fight climate change
A study by the World Economic Forum, Qualtrics and SAP suggests we are far from reaching a consensus about who is responsible for taking action on climate change and who is trusted to do so
Results suggest 81% of people say businesses are primarily responsible for taking action on climate change, yet only 28% trust businesses’ claims about sustainable practices.
Results suggest 81% of people say businesses are primarily responsible for taking action on climate change, yet only 28% trust businesses’ claims about sustainable practices.
[Book] Modern Socio-Technical Perspectives on Privacy
Provides a foundational understanding of technical and social aspects related to online privacy
Covers modern application areas as well as underexplored issues (e.g., privacy accessibility, cross-cultural privacy)
Includes a dedicated part on forward-looking approaches to privacy that move beyond one-size-fits-all solutions.
Covers modern application areas as well as underexplored issues (e.g., privacy accessibility, cross-cultural privacy)
Includes a dedicated part on forward-looking approaches to privacy that move beyond one-size-fits-all solutions.
[Book] Experiments of the Mind
An inside view of the experimental practices of cognitive psychology—and their influence on the addictive nature of social media
Designing for new forms of governance
ToNite project presented at Milan conference on design-led approaches to renewing public management and governance
A Balanced Place: IKEA’s Life at Home Report 2021
Global research released by IKEA Retail (Ingka Group) reveals the vital role that home has played in meeting people’s mental wellbeing needs during the pandemic.
Misinformation is a pandemic that doesn’t have a vaccine
Conspiracy theories and misinformation about QAnon, COVID-19 and 2020 election fraud took a deadly turn in 2021. As bad as things were last year, experts worry it'll get worse in 2022.
An ethnographic study of Eindhoven’s Smart City project
This article explore the promises of security that are embedded in the smart city technologies and algorithms and their potential implications for creating social inequality and discrimination, through an ethnographic study of the Living Lab Stratumseind, a popular nightlife street in Eindhoven.
Systemic design toolkit
Free to download systemic design toolkit