Connecting the Dots: User-centred & Collaborative Inclusive Technology Design

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Speaker: Dr. Monica Landoni

Abstract:
Designing technology to support everyday tasks like reading, searching for online information, or learning, is complex. Intentionally adopting a collaborative approach that puts diverse users at the centre makes it even more so.  In this brief talk, I will describe the research projects I am currently involved with and how, jointly, they provide a foundation for designing technology that puts users with different backgrounds and widely varying skills first.  I start from SNSF project BEST, as that is how I became intrigued by the mental shift necessary when designing with and for users with diverse abilities. BEST emphasises the value of inclusion and diversity, which are core to the EU Cost Action EUGAIN—advocating for gender balance in Informatics—where I co-lead the school-to-university working group. Finally, within the SNSF-COST funded project TADAA I explore how to use technology to teach Informatics in a manner that is appealing to girls and non-technologically savvy students at large. I hope you will see how these three projects “connect the dots”, and will come to appreciate how serendipity and fun do contribute to advancing research on practical areas of interest!

Biography:
Dr Monica Landoni is a senior researcher at the Faculty of Informatics since January 2007. Previously, she was a lecturer in the Department of Computer and Information Sciences of the University of Strathclyde since 1997. She holds a PhD from the Department of Computer and Information Science, University of Strathclyde, and a Laurea in Scienze dell´Informazione from Università degli Studi of Milan. Since at USI she has received funds from SNSF for projects DEDUCE, HEBE, BEST and TADAA, while Hasler funded project PADS. She is also member of the EUGAIN COST ACTION: European Network for gender balance in Informatics where she leads the from School to University working group. Her research spans across Human Computer Interaction, Information Retrieval and Electronic Publishing.  She is an active member of the Child Computer Interaction community and this year General Co-Chair for the ACM Interaction Design and Children (IDC) conference.