Active User Engagement Research Articles

Facilitating non-tokenistic user involvement in research

BackgroundWith the increase in user activism in the Western societies in recent years, there has also been an increase in promoting user involvement in research. Hence, is necessary to address the danger of tokenism, a false appearance of inclusiveness, in user involvement, as well as to explore methods for promoting active user involvement. Using a Norwegian research project on the rehabilitation processes following traumatic injuries organised via user involvement, this study reviews ways in which to avoid tokenism in user involvement and how to instead stimulate active user engagement in research.MethodsThe analysis employs an ethnographic approach using participant observations from real life settings involving user involvement during the five years research process. The empirical material includes 472 pages of transcribed audio recordings from meetings between researchers and collaborators discussing personal experiences with traumatic injuries, and 340 pages of documents on the project’s involvement process. This empirical material was examined by thematic analysis, involving processes such as decontextualising, flagging and re-contextualising.ResultsTwo main categories of facilitation emerged as promoting non-tokenistic, active user involvement in research: 1) defining the collaborative arena, (i.e. the setting of collaboration) which entails preparing for participation and promoting active involvement, and 2) designing for research counselling, which involves gathering user perspectives and valuing criticism. Taking into account the existing asymmetric relationships between researchers and collaborators, enabling more evenly distributed power dynamics also proved to be essential.ConclusionsTo achieve active participation that is relevant to the collaborators, two interconnected yet analytically independent themes should be considered: the collaborative arena and counselling. Both prove crucial for curbing power imbalance and stimulating the involvement process. The study indicates that non-tokenistic involvement should be anchored in the respect for participants and their ability to make contributions. This analysis can help researchers who seek active engagement and non-tokenistic involvement in research to find methods for facilitating and organising participation in their fields.

Role of big data and social media analytics for business to business sustainability: A participatory web context

The digital transformation is an accumulation of various digital advancements, such as the transformation of the web phenomenon. The participatory web that allows for active user engagement and gather intelligence has been widely recognised as a value add tool by organisations of all shapes and sizes to improve business productivity and efficiency. However, its ability to facilitate sustainable business-to-business (B2B) activities has lacked focus in the business and management literature to date. This qualitative research is exploratory in nature and fills this gap through findings arising from interviews of managers and by developing taxonomies that highlight the capability of participatory web over passive web to enable different firms to engage in business operations. For this purpose, two important interrelated functions of business i.e. operations and marketing have been mapped against three dimensions of sustainability. Consequently, this research demonstrates the ability of big data and social media analytics within a participatory web environment to enable B2B organisations to become profitable and remain sustainable through strategic operations and marketing related business activities. The research findings will be useful for both academics and managers who are interested in understanding and further developing the business use of participatory web tools to achieve business sustainability. Hence, this may be considered as a distinct way of attaining sustainability.

Multivariate Testing Confirms the Effect of Age-Gender Congruence on Click-Through Rates from Online Social Network Digital Advertisements.

A key benefit of web-based technology is the enhanced computational ability to tailor and personalize content using explicit online user profiles. While some degree of customization has long been regarded as positive, too much personalization to the point of perceived privacy intrusion can be detrimental. This study uses multivariate testing of an advertisement campaign on the online social network Facebook to investigate the extent to which digital advertising, personalized to specific age and gender group demographics (age and gender congruent) influences user engagement and increases click-through rates. The study achieved a total of 659,522 impressions (i.e., number of users who were exposed to the personalized advertisements and had the opportunity to engage). Moreover, a total of 1,733 unique clicks were recorded. Using N-1 χ2 testing, this study found that a combined age and gender congruency yielded statistically significantly greater click-through ratios in comparison to noncongruent (nonpersonalized) online advertisements (p < 0.05). As an example, the click-through rates by younger male users increased by over threefold when a young male model appeared in the imagery. The implication is that online content that is personalized to the user's age and gender demographic increases active user engagement.

Content-Sensitive Characterization of Peer Interactions of Highly Engaged Users in an Online Community for Smoking Cessation: Mixed-Methods Approach for Modeling User Engagement in Health Promotion Interventions

BackgroundOnline communities provide affordable venues for behavior change. However, active user engagement holds the key to the success of these platforms. In order to enhance user engagement and in turn, health outcomes, it is essential to offer targeted interventional and informational support.ObjectiveIn this paper, we describe a content plus frequency framework to enable the characterization of highly engaged users in online communities and study theoretical techniques employed by these users through analysis of exchanged communication.MethodsWe applied the proposed methodology for analysis of peer interactions within QuitNet, an online community for smoking cessation. Firstly, we identified 144 highly engaged users based on communication frequency within QuitNet over a period of 16 years. Secondly, we used the taxonomy of behavior change techniques, text analysis methods from distributional semantics, machine learning, and sentiment analysis to assign theory-driven labels to content. Finally, we extracted content-specific insights from peer interactions (n=159,483 messages) among highly engaged QuitNet users.ResultsStudying user engagement using our proposed framework led to the definition of 3 user categories—conversation initiators, conversation attractors, and frequent posters. Specific behavior change techniques employed by top tier users (threshold set at top 3) within these 3 user groups were found to be goal setting, social support, rewards and threat, and comparison of outcomes. Engagement-specific trends within sentiment manifestations were also identified.ConclusionsUse of content-inclusive analytics has offered deep insight into specific behavior change techniques employed by highly engaged users within QuitNet. Implications for personalization and active user engagement are discussed.

Using an integrative mock-up simulation approach for evidence-based evaluation of operating room design prototypes

This paper describes the process and tools developed as part of a multidisciplinary collaborative simulation-based approach for iterative design and evaluation of operating room (OR) prototypes. Full-scale physical mock-ups of healthcare spaces offer an opportunity to actively communicate with and to engage multidisciplinary stakeholders in the design process. While mock-ups are increasingly being used in healthcare facility design projects, they are rarely evaluated in a manner to support active user feedback and engagement. Researchers and architecture students worked closely with clinicians and architects to develop OR design prototypes and engaged clinical end-users in simulated scenarios. An evaluation toolkit was developed to compare design prototypes. The mock-up evaluation helped the team make key decisions about room size, location of OR table, intra-room zoning, and doors location. Structured simulation based mock-up evaluations conducted in the design process can help stakeholders visualize their future workspace and provide active feedback.

Online Discussion Boards: The Practice of Building Community for Adult Learners

Online education continues to grow, and the application of theory to practice becomes increasingly important as practitioners examine the impact technology has on e-classroom interaction. Adult students, in particular, look for interaction that is collaborative and student-centered. A common area for dialogue within the online classroom is the discussion board or forum, yet despite the large amount of research that has been conducted on the use of discussion boards, many online classrooms fail to effectively use the board to encourage social interaction and learning. This review of literature summarizes the research around best practices and strategies within the practice of online learning, specific to the roles of the instructor, the student, and the course design of the discussion board. Constructivist techniques used to foster communication and a sense of community help administrators and educators build environments for active user engagement. This literature review assists the practitioner to apply research-based techniques to improve the online discussion board.

Using Twitter for foresight: An opportunity?

Twitter is a popular micro-blogging service and platform for public real-time communication. Concerning foresight, the value of Twitter has not been discussed or examined yet. Here this article concentrates on and considers different applications to examine how to use Twitter in foresight exercises. First, Twitter is discussed as a data source for retrieving input to roadmapping or scenarios. Therefore, an analysis framework is introduced and illustrated for the case of #quantifiedself. Second, options are outlined how to interact with a global network of people using Twitter as communication platform, e.g., for being used during foresight workshops or receiving input for scenario development. As the results show, both, the monitoring of topics and technologies, but also the active user engagement, are supported. In summary, Twitter is an opportunity to extend the considered data sources and to increase the number of involved stakeholder views. While the reliability of Twitter data still requires critical reflection, this article implies many new research opportunities.

Social innovation with open source software: User engagement and development challenges in India

A diverse range of innovative solutions based on Free-and-Open-Source Software (FOSS) have been developed for marginalized communities in developing countries. It has been suggested that such small-scale and home-grown solutions (e.g. mobile phone apps), usually championed by social enterprises (SEs), are more likely to introduce pro-poor change than infrastructure heavy ICT initiatives designed by state and other international actors. In the Indian context, FOSS-based social innovations (SIs) introduced by SEs are helping poor communities tackle previously thought-to-be unresolvable socio-economic problems. An interesting question, therefore, would be: in what ways is the SE model and approach uniquely equipped to develop FOSS-based SIs that deliver pro-poor change? The empirical component of the research attempts to shed light on this question by uncovering the nuts and bolts of the development methodology deployed by an SE during the coding and launch of an FOSS-based SI. Findings highlight the significant role of the founder's social vision; the challenges of accurately capturing and translating to software developers the nature and nuance of social problems; and, the incumbent issues in putting together a methodology that creates active user engagement throughout the software development process, overcoming difficult barriers such as language and culture.

Coping with Information Technology: Mixed Emotions, Vacillation, and Nonconforming Use Patterns

Achieving the promised business benefits of an IT system is intimately tied to the continued incorporation of the system into the work practices it is intended to support. While much is known about different social, cognitive, and technical factors that influence initial adoption and use, less is known about the role of emotional factors in users' behaviors. Through an in-depth field study conducted in two North American universities, we examine the role of emotions in how specific IT use patterns emerge. We find that there are five different characteristics of an IT stimulus event (cues) that, when interacting in a reinforcing manner, elicit a single class of emotions (uniform affective responses) and, when interacting in an oppositional manner, elicit mixed emotions (ambivalent affective responses). While users respond to uniform emotions with clear adaptation strategies, they deal with ambivalent emotions by combining different adaptation behaviors, a vacillating strategy between emphasizing positive and negative aspects of the stimulus. Surprisingly, these ambivalent emotions and vacillating strategies can lead to active and positive user engagement, exhibited in task and tool adaptation behaviors and improvisational use patterns that, despite their nonconformity to terms of use, can have positive organizational implications.