The Challenges of Working with Specific Populations

An activity of IFIP TC13 (Human Computer Interaction), Working Groups 13.3 (Human Computer Interaction, Disability and Ageing) and 13.9 (Interaction Design and Children)

We are organizing a series of one day online courses for PhD students and early career researchers in HCI, UX and related areas. The courses will provide an introduction to research methods in HCI and in particular working with specific user populations, for example children, people with disabilities and older people. The courses also provide an opportunity to meet other students and researchers in HCI and related areas and exchange ideas. We will set up a Slack channel to continue discussions after the courses.

HCI researchers have a long tradition of working with a wide range of different user groups, including children, people with disabilities, older people and people from different cultures. Working with a different population from yourselves can present many challenges to researchers. The ability to work positively with diverse groups of people is a core requirement for successful research. This includes how to recruit appropriate participants, how to work with participants in respectful and successful ways, how to write respectfully about different groups and how to ensure ethical and legal considerations are followed in all cases. In this course, you will cover a wide range of concepts for conducting research with specific populations including ethics and good practice of working with children, people with disabilities and older people. In many cases standard research methods in HCI are applicable to different groups, but care needs to be taken in applying them and some adjustments may be needed to meet the differing needs of different groups. The course will provide you with theoretical underpinnings as well practical advice on how best to work with different user groups in running studies of different kinds. The course is designed for PhD students interested in working with specific user groups to encourage you to critique your approaches and practices.

Note: Please ensure that you register with a university email address.

Organisers

Helen Petrie, University of York (helen.petrie@york.ac.uk)

Gavin Sim, University of Central Lancashire (GRSim@uclan.ac.uk)