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HCI researchers are increasingly interested in describing the complexity of design practice, including ethical, organizational, and societal concerns. Recent studies have identified individual practitioners as key actors in driving the design process and culture within their respective organizations, and we build upon these efforts to reveal practitioner concerns regarding ethics on their own terms. In this paper, we report on the results of an interview study with eleven UX practitioners, capturing their experiences that highlight dimensions of design practice that impact ethical awareness and action. Using a bottom-up thematic analysis, we identified five dimensions of design complexity that influence ethical outcomes and span individual, collaborative, and methodological framing of UX activity. Based on these findings, we propose a set of implications for the creation of ethically-centered design methods that resonate with this complexity and inform the education of future UX practitioners.
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Transforming Collaborative Governing Bodies for Immigrants’ Authentic Engagement: The Roles of Culture and Influence
Problem, research strategy, and findings: In the Pacific Northwest, immigration has brought about unprecedented demographic changes. In this study we investigated the urban governance practice of including members of the public on collaborative governing bodies (e.g., committees, boards, planning commissions) among first- and second-generation immigrants in Oregon. We conducted 46 semistructured interviews with immigrant members of collaborative governing bodies throughout Oregon and found that the culture of a body has multiple impacts on a participant’s satisfaction and productivity. Evidence of the mitigating role culture plays (related to an individual’s sense of accomplishment and positive association) centered on participants’ reported influence on the body itself and on the practices and policies of the community at large during their service. The findings also suggest that informal activities before, in between, or after official business were equally as important to building a culture of productivity as any formal training that members received. Takeaway for practice: Planners must encourage body members and others in leadership roles to develop a core belief that nurturing the culture of the body is key to enhancing members’ feelings of influence. This approach should include an investment of resources in hosting extensive orientations that acquaint new members with the technical components of the work and with meeting procedures, and existing members with the value of storytelling during deliberation. The results of this study can inform future planners about the intricate qualities that make or break the culture of a governing body, including its members and staff.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2103713
- PAR ID:
- 10579287
- Publisher / Repository:
- Journal of the American Planning Association
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of the American Planning Association
- Volume:
- 89
- Issue:
- 4
- ISSN:
- 0194-4363
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 423 to 437
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Engineering education researchers and practitioners have driven instructional innovation in undergraduate engineering instruction. Much of the research about educational innovation has focused on undergraduate classrooms in large enrollment courses and/or research-intensive institutions. Propagation of innovations across settings, especially those quite unlike the original context, has received less attention in the literature. This includes liberal arts institutions, which collectively educate a large number of undergraduate engineering students in various contexts. Therefore, this study focuses on the implementation of an instructional innovation in a liberal arts institution that started a new engineering program to educate a regional engineering workforce. This qualitative study documented the experiences of one engineering instructor who adopted and adapted a blended learning environment for undergraduate dynamics designed to promote active and collaborative learning in undergraduate engineering courses. We analyzed interviews, documents, artifacts, visual materials, and field notes to examine the propagation of the instructional system in context with cultural features in local institution settings. Our findings show how an engineering instructor orchestrated a culture-aligned adoption and adaptation of an instructional innovation. Using reflective practice, the research participant adapted the implemented innovative instruction to their hands-on institution culture, such as adjusting expectations in content, adapting resources to students’ individual needs, adjusting uncertainty of problem solving, and adapting to a hands-on institution culture. This research highlights the important role of institutional culture in local adaptations of educational innovations, and it provides the community with an expanded way to think about innovation propagation.more » « less
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1080/01944363.2022.2121309
