Are smart homes undermining our sense of ‘home’?
CES indicates we're still a far way off seeing technology for the home that genuinely fosters our sense of comfort, wellbeing and community.
Insights curated by Experientia, the international UX consultancy
Insights curated by Experientia, the international UX consultancy
The case for … cities that aren’t dystopian surveillance states
We could decide to treat people as sensors, and not as things to be sensed - to observe Kant's injunction that humans should be "treated as an end in themselves and not as a means to something else".
Tricia Wang on why the big data mentality fails – and what to do about it
Tricia Wang of Sudden Compass pokes holes in big data hype, arguing for the course-correcting power of thick data. I share podcast highlights, such as her dismantling of "data-driven" infatuations.
Human-centred policy? Blending “big data” and “thick data” in national policy
How might policymakers better understand citizens' perspectives when designing policy? Put another way, how should we improve and innovate the way policy is made to ensure it becomes more human-centred?
Experientia launches a training program on “Behavioral Design & Cultural Transformation within the Cottino Social Impact Campus
Experientia is offering a new behavioral design training program within the new Cottino Social Impact Campus, the first center in Europe dedicated to impact education. The “Behavioral Design & Cultural Transformation” course (scheduled 23 to 27 March) is aimed at supporting people who want to…
Experientia lancia un programma di formazione su “Design comportamentale e trasformazione delle culture” entro il Cottino Social Impact Campus
Experientia lancerà un nuovissimo programma di formazione su Design comportamentale e trasformazione delle culture all'interno del Cottino Social Impact Campus, primo centro in Europa dedicato all'impact education, con un nuovo programma di formazione sul design comportamentale.
Anthropology of Smartphones and Smart Ageing
The Anthropology of Smartphones and Smart Ageing, a multi-sited research project based at UCL Anthropology, employs a team of 11 anthropologists conducting simultaneous 16-month ethnographies in Ireland, Italy, Cameroon, Uganda, Brazil, Chile, Al-Quds, China, and Japan.
[Book] All the Ghosts in the Machine
What happens to our data when we die? - A fascinating and really well-written book about digital legacy after death.
Co-design at the BBC
On 5 October Dan Ramsden and Simone Ferraro, resp. creative director and UX architect at the BBC, gave a talk at the 2019 Architecta summit. Simone just published the talk's transcript on enabling collaboration between interdisciplinary teams.
NYTimes Magazine special issue on the future of the internet
In this special issue, the New York Times Magazine has tried to see the internet and its likely future as best as they can, in the hope that - after decades as imagining it as a utopia, and then a few years as seeing it as a dystopia - we might finally begin to see it for what it is, which is a set of powerful technologies in the midst of some serious flux.
User experience as legitimacy trap
The central charge to HCI is to nurture and sustain human dignity and flourishing. Why are HCI researchers and practitioners now on the wrong side of many of the problematic developments in the contemporary technology landscape?
User-Centred Design and Humanitarian Adaptiveness
This case study seeks to explore the utility, applicability and effectiveness of UCD in supporting humanitarian adaptiveness, and to understand whether UCD can enable humanitarian actors to be more adaptive in their responses.
[Report] Shaping Choices in the Digital World
This report addresses the entire digital ecosystem by giving some operational recommendations to strengthen the control and choice to which users are entitled.
Smart City Index that takes citizen engagement into account
A team of researchers from IMD in Switzerland and SUTD in Singapore put together the Smart City Index. For the first time, researchers attempted to assess people’s perceptions of technology – as opposed to the quality of the technology itself – as a way to…
The Design Council’s evolved Double Diamond
At the heart of the Design Council’s framework for innovation, which helps designers and non-designers across the globe tackle some of the most complex social, economic and environmental problems, is its design methodology, the Double Diamond – a clear, comprehensive and visual description of the…
Money’s new abstractions: Apple Pay and the economy of experience
This article draws on insights from digital media theory and design methodology to contribute to sociological and anthropological understandings of money. It postulates the rise of a new money-form, or rather money-forms, referred to (in the plural) as experience money.
[Book] Too Smart
In Too Smart, Jathan Sadowski looks at the proliferation of smart stuff in our lives and asks whether the tradeoff - exchanging our personal data for convenience and connectivity - is worth it. Who benefits from smart technology?
AI’s social sciences deficit
To create less harmful technologies and ignite positive social change, AI engineers need to enlist ideas and expertise from a broad range of social science disciplines, including those embracing qualitative methods, say Mona Sloane and Emanuel Moss in a comment piece in Nature. Technologists are…
Better care in the age of automation
Doteveryone, a UK charity focused on how technology is changing society, has published a report “Better care in the age of automation” that sets out how technology can support a sustainable, effective and fair social care system. It does not prescribe tech solutions but describes…
The anthropologist of Artificial Intelligence
The algorithms that underlie much of the modern world have grown so complex that we always can’t predict what they’ll do. Iyad Rahwan, who directs the Center for Humans and Machines at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, proposes a radical idea: the best…
[Book] The Costs of Connection
The Costs of Connection: How Data Is Colonizing Human Life and Appropriating It for Capitalism by Nick Couldry and Ulises A. Mejias Stanford University Press August 2019, 352 pages Just about any social need is now met with an opportunity to “connect” through digital means.…
End user perceptions of smart home device data practices and risks
“I don’t own the data”: End User Perceptions of Smart Home Device Data Practices and Risks Madiha Tabassum, University of North Carolina at Charlotte; Tomasz Kosinski, Chalmers University of Technology; Heather Lipford, University of North Carolina at Charlotte Paper included in the Proceedings of the…
Digital service teams in government
Digital service teams in government Ines Mergel, Professor of Public Administration, University of Konstanz, Germany Government Information Quarterly August 2019 National governments are setting up digital service teams (DST) – IT units outside the centralized CIO’s office – to respond to complex governmental and societal…
[Book] Behavioural macroeconomics
Behavioural Macroeconomics: Theory and Policy Paul De Grauwe and Yuemei Ji Oxford University Press October 2019, 256 pages Modern macroeconomics has been based on the paradigm of the rational individual capable of understanding the complexity of the world. This has created a very shallow theory…
The digital lives of refugees [Research report]
There is growing recognition among donors and humanitarian organisations that mobile technology and mobile network operators (MNOs) have an important role to play in the delivery of dignified aid. This includes providing digital tools that help people affected by crisis become more self-sufficient, especially those…
Experientia on addressing vaccine hesitancy
Vaccine hesitancy is a top10 global health threat. Dealing with it successfully requires understanding it as a behaviour and generating a holistic view of people’s perspectives & ecosystems. This way we can identify the best opportunities for intervention. Here is Experientia’s position on vaccine hesitancy…
MacArthur Foundation’s “100&Change” competition now calling for applications
100&Change is a MacArthur Foundation competition for a $100 million grant to fund a single proposal that will make measurable progress toward solving a significant problem. 100&Change will select a bold proposal that promises real progress toward solving a critical problem of our time. And…
The story of Spotify personas
Spotify’s product designer Mady Torres de Souza and senior user researchers Olga Hörding and Sohit Karol explain how they developed their personas tool, how they use it today and why it’s so useful for an autonomous, cross-functional organisation like Spotify. Here at Spotify, we often…
When ethnography becomes a joke
For a number of years, we have witnessed a diminishing appetite for ethnographic work among commercial clients, writes Patricia Sunderland, PhD and founder of Cultural Research and Analysis, on the site of the Qualitative Research Consultants Association (QRCA). Competition and challenges from new methodologies are…
Old, online, and fed on lies: How an aging population will reshape the internet
Although many older Americans have, like the rest of us, embraced the tools and playthings of the technology industry, a growing body of research shows they have disproportionately fallen prey to the dangers of internet misinformation and risk being further polarized by their online habits.…
Research findings send automated sentiment analysis to the trash bin
The age of social media has opened up exciting opportunities for researchers to investigate people’s emotional states on a massive scale. For example, one study found that tweets contain more positive emotional words in the morning, which was interpreted as showing that most people are…
Time Change: How the UX of Time Begins Below the UI
The user experience of most web-based applications begins well below the interface, all the way down to fields in a database. Examining how systems and users experience time prove this point dramatically. Think about how messy time can be – time zones, leap years, recurring…
Interested in a career with us?
Then we are interested in hearing from you. We have several positions available for talented UX/UI and service designers who are passionate about creating world-class user experiences. Please see the job descriptions on our website for more information, and send us your CV with a…
Ten arguments against algorithmic decision making
Against the Dehumanisation of Decision-Making – Algorithmic Decisions at the Crossroads of Intellectual Property, Data Protection, and Freedom of Information by Dr Guido Noto La Diega, Senior Lecturer in Law at the Northumbria University Law School Published in JIPITEC (Journal of Intellectual Property, Information Technology…
[Book] The Next Billion Users: Digital Life Beyond the West
The Next Billion Users: Digital Life Beyond the West by Payal Arora Harvard University Press, 2019 280 pages A digital anthropologist examines the online lives of millions of people in China, India, Brazil, and across the Middle East – home to most of the world’s…
Papers on behaviour, design and the circular economy
Consumer insights into the circular economy Report of stakeholder meeting, 25 October 2018, 14 pages The “Stakeholder Meeting: Consumer Insights into the Circular Economy” in Brussels on 25 October 2018, was co-organised by the Collaborating Centre on Sustainable Consumption (CSCP) with the support of the…
[Book] The Age of Surveillance Capitalism
The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for the Future at the New Frontier of Power Shoshana Zuboff Profile Books, 31 January 2019 704 pages The challenges to humanity posed by the digital future, the first detailed examination of the unprecedented form of power called…
[Book] Left to Our Own Devices
Left to Our Own Devices: Outsmarting Smart Technology to Reclaim Our Relationships, Health, and Focus Margaret E. Morris MIT Press, 2018 192 pages Unexpected ways that individuals adapt technology to reclaim what matters to them, from working through conflict with smart lights to celebrating gender…
Why data is never raw
“Except in divine revelation, data is never simply given, nor should it be accepted on faith,” writes Nick Barrowman in The New Atlantis. “How data are construed, recorded, and collected is the result of human decisions – decisions about what exactly to measure, when and…
Daniel Kahneman on cutting through the noise
You might be surprised by what occupies Daniel Kahneman’s thoughts. “You seem to think that I think of bias all the time,” he tells esteemed economist Tyler Cowen. “I really don’t think of bias that much”. These days, noise might be the concept most on…