Abd recently shared his expertise at the Eighth Annual UK System Research Challenges Workshop with a talk titled “Introducing Socio-technical Change in Large-Scale Systems: A Distributed Participatory Design Approach,” sparking curiosity among attendees.  

Abd, a member of the SACHI community and an HCI and Software Engineering Lecturer [1], emphasises the importance of understanding the experiences of those affected before rushing into solutions. Engaging them from the outset helps avoid costly blunders. As Abd puts it: 

“Co-designing with end-users isn’t just savvy—it’s the name of the game!” 

In his talk at the SRCW24, he emphasised the pivotal role of the discovery stage, stressing the need to actively involve end users in shaping system design. Abd cautioned against the pitfalls of jumping right into implementation and creating redundant systems or solving the wrong problems with the best solutions, advocating for a community-centric approach to innovation that resonates deeply with the ethos of SACHI. 

Drawing from his research and practical experiences, Abd urged the UK Systems Research community to explore innovative approaches that prioritise community needs. By aligning system development with real-world challenges, we can take significant steps forward in addressing critical societal issues like digital poverty [2]. 

Abd is giving a talk about socio-technical change at the UK System Research Challenges Workshop.

Abd’s presentation served as a powerful reminder of the human aspect of system design, a core value shared by the SACHI community. It sparked vibrant discussions on how we can integrate community-led solutions into our research and design processes, ultimately leading to more meaningful and impactful outcomes.

Furthermore, Abd highlighted the benefits of participatory design, emphasising how investing time and resources upfront can lead to better outcomes, fewer redesigns, and cost savings in the long run. This underscores the value of prioritising user needs throughout the design process, aligning with the overarching theme of Abd’s presentation.  

As we reflect on Abd’s insights and experiences, let us continue to embrace a collaborative and user-centred approach to HCI research. By prioritising community needs and engaging in responsible innovation, we can create impactful solutions that address the diverse needs of our communities. 

Abd’s PhD thesis that provides more details on the framework:  https://doi.org/10.17630/sta/623 

[1] Eighth Annual UK System Research Challenges Workshop 2024: https://uksystems.org/workshop/2024/ 

[2] UK Parliament’s Communications and Digital Committee Report on Digital Poverty: https://api.parliament.uk/s/8e2afba6 

Many photos of St Andrews are missing from open-access maps. WikiShootMe allows anyone to add an image to places on Wikimedia and Wikipedia that doesn’t already have one. So we took the initiative to take photos of St Andrews’ historic buildings and upload them to Wikicommons using WikiShootMe. However, WikiShootMe is currently only a desktop website and is difficult to use when out and about. Many usability challenges emerged, leading us to turn this into a User-Centred Interaction Design project.

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Understanding How People Approach Constraint Modelling and Solving – University of St Andrews and University of Victoria

Ruth Hoffmann will be presenting the paper on “Understanding How People Approach Constraint Modelling and Solving” at the 28th International Conference on Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming (CP 2022) taking place between July 31 to August 5, 2022 in Haifa, Israel.

This paper is a joint collaboration between SACHI (Human Computer Interaction) and Constraint Programming groups, in both the University of St Andrews, Scotland and the University of Victoria, BC.

Abstract

Research in constraint programming typically focuses on problem solving efficiency. However, the way users conceptualise problems and communicate with constraint programming tools is often sidelined. How humans think about constraint problems can be important for the development of efficient tools that are useful to a broader audience. For example, a system incorporating knowledge on how people think about constraint problems can provide explanations to users and improve the communication between the human and the solver.
We present an initial step towards a better understanding of the human side of the constraint solving process. To our knowledge, this is the first human-centred study addressing how people approach constraint modelling and solving. We observed three sets of ten users each (constraint programmers, computer scientists and non-computer scientists) and analysed how they find solutions for well-known constraint problems. We found regularities offering clues about how to design systems that are more intelligible to humans.

Researchers

• Ruth Hoffmann
• Xu Zhu
• Özgür Akgün
• Miguel Nacenta
  • Personal website: https://nacenta.com/
  • Research website: https://vixi.cs.uvic.ca/

The paper can be found at: https://doi.org/10.4230/LIPIcs.CP.2022.28

Conference

Ruth will be presenting the paper in the main conference and giving an invited talk at ModRef 2022 to raise awareness of the benefits of understanding how people represent, model and solve constraint problems.

CP 2022 Conference link: https://easychair.org/smart-program/FLoC2022/CP-2022-08-03.html#talk:197219

ModRef 2022 link: https://easychair.org/smart-program/FLoC2022/ModRef-2022-07-31.html#talk:197355

More ModRef info: https://modref.github.io/ModRef2022.html#invtalks