(Cornell University)
![\"sengers\"](\"http:\/\/muc2013.mensch-und-computer.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2013\/04\/sengers.gif\")
\nFrom the mainstream to the center: Using niche perspectives to reframe designs<\/small><\/h2>\n
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Abstract:<\/strong> This talk describes joint work with Maria Hakansson, Hronn Holmer, and\u00a0Kaiton Williams.<\/p>\n http:\/\/www.cs.cornell.edu\/people\/sengers\/<\/a><\/p>\n Bio:<\/strong> Related publications:<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Phoebe Sengers (Cornell University) From the mainstream to the center: Using niche perspectives to reframe designs Abstract: The targets of IT design are frequently “typical users” – ordinary\u00a0individuals who we would expect to use our system. Framed this way,\u00a0system design … Continue reading
\nThe targets of IT design are frequently “typical users” – ordinary\u00a0individuals who we would expect to use our system. Framed this way,\u00a0system design often builds in particular conceptions of who is\u00a0“ordinary,” such as white-collar office workers or upwardly mobile,\u00a0urban 20-somethings. Such ideas of what it means to be “normal” can greatly constrain our design spaces and the interventions we can\u00a0imagine making as designers. In this talk, I will argue that\u00a0consideration of the values, perspectives, and experiences of people\u00a0outside of the technological mainstream can open up valuable new opportunities for design for everyone. I will describe how\u00a0understanding traditional Newfoundland villagers, Icelandic fishermen,\u00a0families focused on simple living, and Jamaican mobile phone adopters\u00a0leads to new ways of thinking about the potential role for technology\u00a0in “ordinary” users’ lives.<\/p>\n
\nPhoebe Sengers is an associate professor of Information Science and Science & Technology Studies at Cornell University, where she runs the Culturally Embedded Computing Group. She uses insights from cultural analysis of IT to identify and rethink the assumptions underlying technologies, to build new applications for computing, and to develop new techniques for designing and evaluating technologies. She received her PhD in Artificial Intelligence & Cultural Theory in 1998 from CMU, was a Fulbright Scholar at the Zentrum fuer Kunst und Medientechnologie in Karlsruhe, and was a postdoctoral researcher at
\nthe GMD. She was a recipient of best paper awards or nominations at CHI \u201907, \u201908, \u201909, \u201910, and \u201911. Sengers\u2019s research is supported by the Intel Science & Technology Center for Social Computing and by the National Science Foundation.<\/p>\n\n