When facing local environmental issues, maps are a very effective tool. They can help in collecting facts about an area, bring issues to the table, allow for comparison between areas, act as a tool of communication with local decision makers, and identify key issues for action. While the maps on their own do not alter the power relationships within which communities live their lives, many studi...

The role of the human microbiome is the subject of continued investigation resulting in increased understanding. However, current microbiome research has only scratched the surface of the variety of healthy microbiomes. Public participation in science through crowdsourcing and crowdfunding microbiome research provides a novel opportunity for both participants and investigators. However, turning...

This paper uses theatre to frame reflexive discussions on the use of participatory video making for science engagement. The ‘JuxtaLearn’ research project is presented as a case-study that focuses on performance concepts such as audience, purpose, improvisation or final production as a lens for supporting technology-enabled creative exploration. Three different approaches were taken to creative ...

Widely distributed mobile vehicles wherein various sensing devices and wireless communication interfaces are installed bring vehicular participatory sensing into practice. However, the heterogeneity of vehicles in terms of sensing capability and mobility, and the participants' expectations on the incentives blackmake the collection of comprehensive sensing data a challenging task. A sensing dat...

Within Flood Risk Management (FRM) decision making, there is a growing interest in participatory approaches to engage and integrate stakeholder expertise. Decision support tools are becoming common features in the FRM ‘toolkit’, yet there is a limited application of participatory methodologies in the construction of such tools. This paper reports on completed FRMRC research (Flood Risk Manageme...

Accessibility has been one of the major challenges for interface design of Web applications nowadays, especially those involving e-government and e-learning. In this paper we present an inclusive and participatory approach to the Cooperative Evaluation of user interfaces. It was carried out with an interdisciplinary research group that aims to include students with disabilities in the universit...

This is a review of an MIT Press book, Computers and Design in Context, edited by M. Kyng and L. Mathiassen (1997). The contributing authors shape an international research agenda based on conceptual tools forged through more than two decades of workplace computerization. The authors report attempts to extend old models such as end-user computing, end-user tailoring, participatory design, and s...

Emotional-storyboarding is a participatory design method that engages children to tell stories by drawing emotional expressions. This method provides insights into the children’s emotion and overcomes two challenges in participatory design for children—access and verbal communication. We illustrate this method by presenting a case study designing a coloring book about overcoming fear and anger ...

Participatory research relies on stakeholder inputs to obtain its acclaimed benefits of improved social relevance, validity, and actionability of research outcomes. We focus here on participatory research in the context of natural resource management. Participants’ acceptance of participatory research processes is key to their implementation. Our first assumption is that this positive view and ...

The BrOffice.org website, that distributes a free software office suite, was restructured by participatory design with their user community and developers. To involve people that were geographically disperse in the process, Internet communication tools were used with traditional use forms or modified ones. The discussion ́s synthesis leveraged a new strategy for presenting their products and tre...