Reviewing a Decade of Human-Computer Interaction for Development (HCI4D) Research, as One of Best's "Grand Challenges"

Judy Van Biljon,Karen Renaud

doi:10.23962/10539/31368

Abstract

The human-computer interaction for development (HCI4D) field emerged at the intersection of the fields of information and communication technology for development (ICT4D) and human-computer interaction (HCI). In 2010, Michael Best nominated HCI4D as one of ICT4D's "grand challenges". This HCI4D field is now entering its second decade, and it is important to reflect on the research that has been conducted, and to consider how HCI4D researchers have addressed the challenge that constitutes the raison d'etre of HCI4D's existence. Best provided four guidelines to inform researchers embracing this challenge. This study commences by identifying the primary HCI4D-specific themes, and then carries out a systematic literature review of the HCI4D literature to build a corpus to support the analysis. The corpus is analysed to reflect on how well the field's practices align with Best's guidelines. The overall finding is that HCI4D researchers have largely been following Best's guidelines and that the HCI4D field is demonstrating encouraging signs of emerging maturity.

Highlights

In 2010, Michael Best, the internationally recognised computer scientist and scholar of information and communication technology for development (ICT4D), contemplated the necessities facing the ICT4D field
In a brief theoretical contribution published in the Information Technologies & International Development (ITID) journal, Best (2010) enumerated four “grand challenges” that the ICT4D field needs to address to prove itself a progressive intellectual enterprise (2010, p. 52): (1) sustainability, (2) post-conflict and disaster computing, (3) HCI4D, and (4) appliances
The HCI4D field, like its parent fields—information and communication technology for development (ICT4D) and human–computer interaction (HCI)—has enjoyed much attention, as evidenced by the significant and burgeoning number of research publications that have appeared since Best (2010) posed the challenges

Summary

Introduction

In 2010, Michael Best, the internationally recognised computer scientist and scholar of information and communication technology for development (ICT4D), contemplated the necessities facing the ICT4D field. The HCI4D field, like its parent fields—information and communication technology for development (ICT4D) and human–computer interaction (HCI)—has enjoyed much attention, as evidenced by the significant and burgeoning number of research publications that have appeared since Best (2010) posed the challenges. That produced 230 publications, which included items—proceedings of workshops and symposiums, abstracts from books, and bulletins published as conference proceedings—in which the format was condensed and not comparable to the other pieces of literature. Removing these items, 176 publications remained to support analysis: 171 conference publications and five journal articles.. Given that Best’s (2010) grand challenge refers to HCI4D, it was decided that only this single keyword should be used

Findings When

Analysis in terms of Best’s guidelines

Conclusion