Abstract
<p class="first" id="d171096e98">The ubiquity of information and communication technology contributed positively in enhancing lives, mainly in increasing productivity and economic growth, while their impact on life satisfaction and wellbeing has been a hidden cost. Digital media shall empower users to maximise their digital wellbeing, i.e. healthy and regulated relationship with technology. Similar to usability, people differ in their needs to achieve and maintain their digital wellbeing. A technology design shall be inclusive in how it helps users to increase their digital wellbeing and reduce possible harm. Typical inclusivity dimensions in Human-Computer Interaction research include gender, race, physical and cognitive abilities, with the aim of making the product usable by the wider possible user set. However, another range of inclusivity dimensions becomes prominent and that is the diversity in users’ socio-emotional characteristics such as susceptibility to online pressure (technical and social), resilience and others. Such characteristics can be traits, e.g. introversion, or temporal status, e.g. being in a low mood. In this position paper, we are proposing digital wellbeing as a target for an inclusive design where technology designers need to anticipate and reduce the negative impact of their products and services on the wellbeing of users through considering their diverse socio-emotional status.
Highlights
As technology permeates every aspect of our daily lives, having technology that is useful, inclusive and safe is essential
In Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), the relationship between humans and digital products has evolved from a desire for instant and intuitive screen interaction to one where such ubiquity and speed started to impact humans’ wellbeing (Verbeek, 2005)
As information and communication technology (ICT) outputs occur at a rapid pace, it is difficult to predict innovation outcomes in this area compared to other areas of science
Summary
As technology permeates every aspect of our daily lives, having technology that is useful, inclusive and safe is essential. To support more balanced relationship with technology and help users’ mental health and wellbeing, companies started to launch dedicated toolkits such as Google’s Digital Wellbeing (https://wellbeing.google/). These toolkits cover basic wellbeing properties, e.g. minimising distraction, pausing and night mode for quality sleep. For this reason, and to minimise possible mental and cognitive costs triggered by certain interactive design features, digital platforms, services and devices need to anticipate the impact on users’ wellbeing and increase digital wellness to the wider possible set of users and context of use.
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