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Removal as a Method: A Fourth Wave HCI Approach to Understanding the Experience of Self-Tracking

Authors:

Sarah Homewood,

Amanda Karlsson,

Anna VallgårdaAuthors Info & Claims

DIS '20: Proceedings of the 2020 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference

Pages 1779 - 1791

https://doi.org/10.1145/3357236.3395425

Published: 03 July 2020 Publication History

Abstract

This paper offers first-steps guidance towards the development of a methodology that embodies theoretical proposals for a fourth-wave, 'entanglement' approach to HCI. We propose the removal of technologies and the documenting of their absence as a method. Removal disrupts habitual relationships with our everyday technologies, revealing otherwise hidden knowledges. Removal as a method exemplifies that "you don't know what you've got till it's gone". We apply removal to the case of menstrual cycle tracking in two ways: literally through two autoethnographies, and hypothetically through semi-structured interviews. We show how this method especially facilitates emotional, embodied and cultural knowledge of the lived experience of self-tracking and we unpack some opportunities, implications and limitations in its use. Finally, we present how this method might be adopted by others and propose cases in which removal as a method might be applicable to study of a wider range of technologies beyond self-tracking.

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Cited By

Reed CBenito ACaspe FMcPherson A(2024)Shifting Ambiguity, Collapsing Indeterminacy: Designing with Data as Baradian ApparatusACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction10.1145/368904331:6(1-41)Online publication date: 6-Dec-2024
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Lusi BVallgårda ABewley HMouritzen HLudden G(2024)What We Took From Metaphors: A Case of Designing For Care After AbortionProceedings of the 13th Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/3679318.3685347(1-15)Online publication date: 13-Oct-2024
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Index Terms

Removal as a Method: A Fourth Wave HCI Approach to Understanding the Experience of Self-Tracking
1. Human-centered computing
  1. Interaction design
    1. Interaction design process and methods

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cover image ACM Conferences

DIS '20: Proceedings of the 2020 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference

July 2020

2264 pages

ISBN:9781450369749

DOI:10.1145/3357236

General Chairs:
Ron Wakkary
Simon Fraser University, CA and Eindhoven University of Technology, NL
,
Kristina Andersen
Eindhoven University of Technology, NL
,
Program Chairs:
Will Odom
Simon Fraser University, CA
,
Audrey Desjardins
University of Washington, USA
,
Marianne Graves Petersen
Aarhus University, DK

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Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Published: 03 July 2020

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Cited By

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https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3689043
Patel DWoods ESingh A(2024)Safe and Seen: Codesigning Technology to Address Disparities in Access to Sexual and Reproductive Health by LGBTQ+ People with Uteruses in the UKProceedings of the 13th Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/3679318.3685380(1-14)Online publication date: 13-Oct-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3679318.3685380
Lusi BVallgårda ABewley HMouritzen HLudden G(2024)What We Took From Metaphors: A Case of Designing For Care After AbortionProceedings of the 13th Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/3679318.3685347(1-15)Online publication date: 13-Oct-2024
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