Titulo Estágio
Dyad - Design research methods to understand and promote inclusive dyad communication in sexual health
Local do Estágio
Rua Alfredo Allen 455/461, 4200-135 Porto, Portugal
Enquadramento
Background and motivation:
Although sexual health is an integral component of quality of life(1), it is often neglected, especially in relation to vulnerable user groups, amongst others due to its being a taboo topic. Among sexual partners, good intimate communication is one of the promoters of good sexual health, but there has been a dearth of research and technologies to support this type of communication.
Design research on taboos around sexual health has recently started to mature with researchers proposing new methods on self-care and self-knowledge(2), on working with adolescent groups(3), or with older adults(4). However, there is still a lack of research with dyads and on where these methods intersect with inclusive design(5).
The paradigm change that is happening within sexual health – which is starting to accommodate the dimensions of sexual justice, sexual wellbeing and sexual pleasure – stems from a biopsychosocial-cultural lens on sexuality(6), a lens which has also been claimed by the disability community and already partly inscribed in the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health(7). Another concomitant development has is taking place within the digital health field, that is seeking ways in which digital technology can promote sexual health(8), with the scientific community growing more sensitive to idiosyncratic aspects of patients’ health and to the potential use of digital technology in everyday life interactions for, amongst others, self-knowledge and pleasure seeking(9).
Therefore, there is a timely opportunity to bring together sexual health and interaction design research to promote sexual health in the light of these new developments and make sure that the tools being developed are usable to the widest possible range of people, regardless of age or abilities.
Objetivo
Objectives:
This thesis has two main goals:
- To investigate methods that facilitate user research around taboo topics with vulnerable populations – in this case older and disabled adults regardless of gender expression, gender identity or sexual orientation);
- To codesign and test a proof of concept to promote inclusive sexual health communication between dyads.
Innovative aspects:
This small research project will build into the growing design research community interested in designing for taboo by contributing with new research methods. Furthermore, it will deliver a proof of concept which can be tested by AICOS’ partners and support further research.
Plano de Trabalhos - Semestre 1
Workplan:
1. SOA on designing for taboo, and intimate partner communication;
2. Preparing and submitting package for ethics committee;
3. User research with dyads including older and disabled adults – through a diary study (preferably) or through interviews – to understand narratives of unmet needs, existing appropriations and opportunities for design;
4. Codesign, prototyping and testing using socio-technical experiments(10).
Plano de Trabalhos - Semestre 2
Workplan (cont):
1. SOA on designing for taboo, and intimate partner communication;
2. Preparing and submitting package for ethics committee;
3. User research with dyads including older and disabled adults – through a diary study (preferably) or through interviews – to understand narratives of unmet needs, existing appropriations and opportunities for design;
4. Codesign, prototyping and testing using socio-technical experiments(10).
Condições
Student profile:
- Inquisitive, curious and open mind;
- Interest – and, ideally, experience – in working with vulnerable user groups;
- Ability to build interaction design prototypes;
- Willingness to perform field work in user research- co-creation and prototype assessment;
- Proficiency in English and good domain of Portuguese for field work.
Observações
References
(1) World Health Organization (2006). Defining sexual health. Report of a technical consultation on sexual health. Geneva: World Health Organization (Sexual health document series).
(2) Almeida, T, Comber, R, Wood, G, Saraf, D, & Balaam, M (2016). On Looking at the Vagina through Labella. Proceedings of the 2016 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 1810–1821. https://doi.org/10.1145/2858036.2858119
(3) Wood, M, Wood, G, & Balaam, M (2017). Sex Talk: Designing for Sexual Health with Adolescents. Proceedings of the 2017 Conference on Interaction Design and Children, 137–147. https://doi.org/10.1145/3078072.3079747
(4) Schulte, B F, Morrissey, K, Søndergaard, M L J, & Brankaert, R (2020). Don’t Blush: Sexuality, Aging & Design. Companion Publication of the 2020 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference, 405–408. https://doi.org/10.1145/3393914.3395915
(5) Correia de Barros, A, Couto da Silva, J, Ramadani, N, Mendes Santos, C (2022). Towards the inclusive design of a digital sexual health promotion programme. In Proceedings of 11th Inclusive Design Conference (Include 2022). Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design, Royal College of Art, pp. 18-34.
(6) Mitchell K R, Lewis R, O’Sullivan L F, Fortenberry J D. (2021) What is sexual wellbeing and why does it matter for public health? Lancet Public Health. 2021 Aug 1;6(8):e608–13.
(7) World Health Organization (2001) International classification of functioning, disability and health: ICF [Internet]. World Health Organization. https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/42407
(8) Kannabiran G, Hoggan E, Koefoed Hansen L. (2000) Somehow They Are Never Horny! In: Companion Publication of the 2020 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference. New York, NY, USA: Association for Computing Machinery; p. 131–7. https://doi.org/10.1145/3393914.3395877
(9) Bødker S (2015) Third-wave HCI, 10 years later—-participation and sharing. Interactions. 28;22(5):24–31.
(10) Buur J, Bødker S (2000). From usability lab to “design collaboratorium”: reframing usability practice. In: Proceedings of the 3rd conference on Designing interactive systems: processes, practices, methods, and techniques [Internet]. New York, NY, USA: Association for Computing Machinery; p. 297–307. https://doi.org/10.1145/347642.347768
Orientador
Ana Maria Vieira Rebelo Correia de Barros
ana.barros@aicos.fraunhofer.pt 📩