Human Systems as Design Tools in Resource-constrained Environments

What does it mean to design for a human system rather than a user? As technology finds new users in developing countries, alternative interactions emerge that challenge traditional HCI assumptions of personal, private, and pervasive access. While most ICTD research seeks to build solutions that address physical resource constraints, such as poor Internet connectivity, there often exist thriving human systems to address or work around these constraints. How can we start with the human system and amplify, modify, or forge it through design to achieve socio-economic development goals? In this talk, I will present my research focusing on designing for human collectives in developing countries, through three examples from prior work based in India.

First, an empirical understanding of how communities socially produce usage in urban slums. Second, how an existing social system was leveraged in the design of an information broadcasting system for urban sex workers. Third, how one of the world’s largest public Wi-Fi networks was designed with human intermediaries. In the final part of the talk, I will present some early results from a field study of emergent decentralized crisis response during the 2015 Chennai floods, and outline future opportunities to design for human collectives for large scale socio-economic issues, including crises, access blackouts, and environmental degradation. Throughout the talk, I discuss my approach of ethnographically-inspired research, design engagements, and empirical evaluations of systems.