Participatory Design Workshops Research Articles

Design-led solutions for reducing airline food waste: A participatory approach to develop behaviour change interventions

Airline food waste is a critical issue which is affected by passenger behaviour. In parallel with the unexpected advent of COVID-19, passengers have exhibited changes in eating behaviour, generating more food waste during flights. In this paper, the authors explore and reflect on the use of participatory design workshops conducted with designers and airline passengers with the aim to develop behaviour change interventions towards reducing airline food waste. This paper identifies seven types of behaviour change intervention, whilst empirically evidencing the effectiveness of participatory design in facilitating the development of behaviour change interventions, towards achieving airline food waste reduction.

Scoping user needs for an online nutrition education resource for older adults

As the global population continues to age, strategies that promote health and wellbeing among older adults are urgently required. This demographic faces an increasing burden of chronic diseases linked to inflammation(1), often associated with diets that are energy dense and nutrient poor(2). Importantly, the impact of these conditions can be minimised by adopting an anti-inflammatory dietary pattern, such as the Mediterranean diet(3). While there are numerous predictors of behaviour and an individual’s capacity for behaviour change, nutrition knowledge is a fundamental influencer of eating behaviours(4). However, knowledge of anti-inflammatory diets generally and the Mediterranean diet specifically is lacking among older adults(5), highlighting the need for effective educational programs targeting this group. Digital health technologies have the potential to provide cost-effective and accessible nutrition education, however, few technologies have been developed to meet older adults unique needs and preferences. To address this gap, this study aimed to explore the specific needs and design preferences of older adults for an online nutrition education resource. A total of 20 adults aged 55 years and older participated in one of four 2-hour participatory design workshops, where prompted discussion questions were used to explore their use of technology and scope their needs and preferences for an online nutrition education resource. All participants were regularly using a range of different devices (e.g., smartphones, tablets, and computers) and reported being comfortable doing so. Participants wanted a website that could be accessed across devices (i.e., desktop and mobile friendly) that provided practical nutrition advice, recipes, and information on the link between diet and disease. A number of design principles were identified as essential to optimise the user experience, including large and simple fonts, use of dark type on a light background, and clear categories for easy navigation. To enhance engagement, participants sought a personalised resource that could be adjusted to suit their needs, provided up-to-date information, and allowed for easy content sharing with others, such as by exporting information as a PDF. Participatory design methods offer new knowledge for developing and refining existing and future digital health technologies that are appropriate and useful for the target audience. Specifically, the older adult participants were motivated to access a user-friendly web-based nutrition resource provided it was able to be personalised to their health and nutrition needs, offered practical solutions such as adaptations to portion size or in relation to cost, and was easily shareable with others. Given the limited availability of online, self-directed and evidence-based nutrition education resources for older adults, these findings provide valuable insights to shape digital health resources that cater to the needs and preferences of this population and have the potential to support healthy eating habits and contribute to reducing diet-related chronic disease burden.

Touchless Interaction for Smart Glasses in Emergency Medical Services: User Needs and Experiences

The application of smart glasses in healthcare, particularly for providers engaged in hands-on patient care tasks, presents unique design challenges. This study combines participatory design and usability testing to assess the user experiences of touchless interaction methods for smart glasses in the context of Emergency Medical Services (EMS). The participatory design workshops with 16 EMS providers reveal a preference for touchless interaction methods such as voice commands and pinch hand gestures, driven by the need to keep hands free and minimize cross-contamination risk. Despite this preference, the laboratory-based usability testing with 16 EMS providers indicates that both voice commands and hand gestures fall short in task performance compared to the default tangible buttons on smart glasses, primarily due to software limitations and EMS providers’ unfamiliarity with touchless techniques. Our findings reveal specific issues associated with using different interaction methods when operating smart glasses. Building on these insights, we discuss design implications for smart glasses to better align with the dynamic and unique characteristics of fast-paced medical work.

Online education in design disciplines: factors influencing the interactive experience of group learning

AbstractThere has been much previous research into online group learning, but they have not been aware of or focused on the challenges that design disciplines encounter in terms of interaction when moving to online delivery. This qualitative study comprised 3 participatory design workshops and 22 one-to-one interviews that included a total of 34 teachers and students from the School of Design at the University of Leeds. Participants reported the challenges and feelings they encountered in online group learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study found that the interactive experience of group learning is mainly influenced by the size of the group, the layout of the platform interface, the teacher’s management style and the conflict within the group, with more far-reaching discussions providing specific questions and subtle suggestions. The article’s findings can inform future strategies for online group learning for students and teachers of design disciplines in design higher education institutions.

Innovation for zero-deforestation sustainable supply chain management services: a performance measurement and management approach

Purpose Food sector supply chains have significant negative environmental impacts, including the expansion of global food commodity production, which is driving tropical deforestation – a major climate and biodiversity problem. Innovative supply chain monitoring services promise to address such impacts. Legislation also designates “forest-risk commodities”, demanding supply chain due diligence of their provenance. But such data alone does not produce change. This study investigates how theory in performance measurement and management (PMM) can combine with sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) and decision theory (DT) via case study research that addresses paradoxes of simplicity and complexity. Design/methodology/approach Given existing relevant theory but the nascent nature of the topic, theory elaboration via abductive case study research is conducted. Data collection involves interviews and participatory design workshops with supply chain actors across two supply chains (coffee and soy), exploring the potential opportunities and challenges of new deforestation monitoring services for food supply chains. Findings Two archetypal food supply chain structures (short food supply chains with high transparency and direct links between farmer and consumer and complex food supply chains with highly disaggregated and opaque links) provide a dichotomy akin to the known/unknown, structured/unstructured contexts in DT, enabling novel theoretical elaboration of the performance alignment matrix model in PMM, resulting in implications for practice and a future research agenda. Originality/value The novel conceptual synthesis of PMM, SSCM and DT highlights the importance of context specificity in developing PMM tools for SSCM and the challenge of achieving the general solutions needed to ensure that PMM, paradoxically, is both flexible to client needs and capable of replicable application to deliver economies of scale. To advance understanding of these paradoxes to develop network-level PMM systems to address deforestation impacts of food supply chains and respond to legislation, a future research agenda is presented.

Imagining inclusive technological futures through participatory board game design

In 2021, we conducted a series of experimental participatory design workshops that brought diverse groups of participants together to create a board game. The purpose of this project was to use participatory game design as a provocative medium for exploring questions about and ideas for more inclusive and desirable technological futures. This paper presents a report of our experiences conducting this project, reflecting on critical aspects of its creation, facilitation, and outcomes. Through reporting on this reflective practice, we present three key findings that were instrumental in fostering a space for imaginaries of more inclusive and desirable technological futures to emerge. Firstly, through an experimental participatory design structure that promotes polyvocality in the project. Secondly, through applying a critical framework that allowed the game design activities to serve as means for reflecting on social and technological topics. Lastly, by using the affordances of game design to collectively explore ideas for more desirable technological futures. In conclusion, this paper provides methodological insights and possible practical applications of participatory game design for bringing more inclusivity into discussions about, decision-making around, and possibly even the design of future technologies.

Abstract C109: Identifying implementation strategies to support cervical cancer screening programs in resource-limited countries through participatory action research

Abstract Background: Improving the adoption and integration of cervical cancer screening programs in resource-limited countries requires engaging with many local health system actors. We hypothesize that participatory design workshops co-developed by researchers, health system practitioners, and policy makers, facilitate rapid engagement to identify context-specific priorities and tailor strategies to improve implementation processes. Methods: With the Peruvian Ministry of Health (MOH), we co-designed a week-long workshop with health system actors (planners, providers, lab technicians) from the North District of Lima city. Through facilitated dialogue, participants engaged in self-reflection to map the cervical cancer screening and follow-up system, visualize system barriers, and identify potential solutions. As research partners, we analyzed findings from the workshop using the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research, a framework from implementation science that identifies multilevel contextual factors that influence program implementation and guides the tailoring of strategies for improvement. Results: We identified three key context-specific challenges including 1) power hierarchies between specialists and midwives that obstruct the efficiency of screening services, 2) the complexities around communicating screening results, appointments, and referrals, are burdensome for patients and cause loss to follow up, and 3) implementation plans are not adequately matched to resources and workforce capacity. We identified feasible implementation strategies to address these challenges including 1) develop relationships between midwives and specialists through facilitated discussions to surface assumptions and align screening goals, 2) co-create counseling tools to help patients understand results and follow up steps for early detection and treatment of precancerous lesion that also reduce patients’ burden, and 3) Apply design workshops with key actors to develop an implementation plans to guide processes, acceptable adaptations, clinical workflows, and planning (ordering tests, supplies, training human resources, etc.) to align goals to prevention objectives and resources. Conclusions: Engaging with health systems actors through participatory action research is a strategy that enables collective learning, identifying context-specific priorities, and developing tailored implementation strategies that are likely to accelerate integration of sustainable cervical cancer screening programs globally. Citation Format: Margarita Correa-Mendez. Identifying implementation strategies to support cervical cancer screening programs in resource-limited countries through participatory action research [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 16th AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2023 Sep 29-Oct 2;Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2023;32(12 Suppl):Abstract nr C109.

Older adults'needs and preferences for a nutrition education digital health solution: A participatory design study.

The global population is ageing rapidly and there is a need for strategies to promote health and wellbeing among older adults. Nutrition knowledge is a key predictor of dietary intake; therefore, effective educational programmes are urgently required to rectify poor dietary patterns. Digital health technologies provide a viable option for delivering nutrition education that is cost-effective and widely accessible. However, few technologies have been developed to meet the unique needs and preferences of older adults. The aim of this study was to explore technology use among older adults and qualitatively determine the content needs and design preferences for an online nutrition education resource tailored to older adult consumers in Australia. Twenty adult participants aged 55 years and older (95% female) participated in one of four 2-h participatory design workshops. In each workshop, prompted discussion questions were used to explore participants' technology use and preferencesand to explore content needs and design preferences for an online nutrition education resource specific to older adults. All participants were regularly using a range of different devices (e.g., smartphones, tabletsand computers) and reported being comfortable doing so. Participants wanted a website that provided general nutrition information, practical adviceand recipes. To enhance engagement, they sought a personalised resource that could be adjusted to suit their needs, included up-to-date informationand allowed for easy sharing with others by exporting information as a PDF. Participatory design methods generate new knowledge for designing and tailoring digital health technologies to be appropriate and useful for the target audience. Specifically, older adults seek an online resource that has large and simple fonts with clear categories, providing them with practical advice and general nutrition information that can be personalised to suit their own needs and health concerns, with the option to export and print information into a paper-based format. Older adults actively participated in the development and evaluation process to generate ideas about potential features, functionalities, uses and practicalities of an online nutrition education resource.

Designing Multi-Modal Conversational Agents for the Kitchen with Older Adults: A Participatory Design Study

AbstractConversational agents (CA) are increasingly used to manage and coordinate household chores and everyday activities at home. However, these technologies should be adaptive to age-specific characteristics in order to be considered beneficial for the ageing population. This study presents a participatory design of a conversational agent to provide cognitive support in recipe following and nutrition advice for adults aged 65 and over. Through a qualitative thematic analysis, the study explores older adults’ expectations, interactions and experiences with the agent in order to identify age-specific challenges of interacting with CAs. Data consists of a participatory design workshop with eight older adults (aged 65 and over), followed by a Wizard of Oz study with ten older adults interacting with the agent in the kitchen environment in a laboratory setting. Results demonstrate that older adults consider conversational agents as beneficial for providing personalised recipe recommendations, advising the user to choose appropriate ingredients and reminding them of their dietary intake. When interacting with the agent older adults displayed challenges with confirmation and repetition, questioning and correcting, the lack of conversational responses, and difficulties in hearing and understanding the multi-modal interaction. Older adults experience agents as collaborators, but not as conversational partners. The study concludes that the accessibility and inclusiveness of conversational agents regarding voice interaction could be improved by further developing participatory methods with older adults.

Thinking Participatory Design work-shops in the presence of cosmopolitics

This paper is a written version of a presentation held at DASTS 2022 as part of a panel session organized by Mike Michael, Alex Wilkie, Michael Guggenheim and the author. The idea behind the panel, inspired by laboratory studies in STS, was to propose a focus on workshops as ‘worldbuilding’ events, which implies a close scrutiny of how workshops are constructed and carried out and to what effect. Along the lines of Annemarie Mol’s ontological politics and Isabelle Stengers’ cosmopolitics, workshops are not just spaces in which we explore and experiment with ideas and concepts that may or may not be realized at some point: they shape reality from the get-go. In the paper, I thus discuss Participatory Design (PD) workshops by way of Isabelle Stengers’ cosmopolitical and constructivist thinking. My discussion is based on a few but key publications from the field of PD such as the Handbook of Participatory Design (Simonsen & Robertson, 2012).

Stress Alleviation Methods for community-Based Health ActiVists (SAMBHAV): Development of a digital program for stress reduction for community health workers in rural India

BackgroundCommunity health workers (CHWs) face high levels of stress (both professional and personal) and risk of burnout, highlighting the need for efforts to promote their mental health and well-being. This study seeks to develop a digital stress reduction program for CHWs in rural India. MethodsA stepwise design process was employed to adapt and digitize the evidence-based World Health Organization's Self-Help Plus (SH+) intervention for addressing psychological distress among CHWs in Madhya Pradesh, India. This involved participatory design workshops with CHWs to ensure that the digital stress reduction intervention would be relevant for their needs and the local culture and context. Small groups of CHWs reviewed the adapted program content, allowing the research team to make refinements such as simplifying language, tailoring content to the local setting, and ensuring that program materials are both interesting and relevant. Simultaneously, the research team digitized the content, leveraging a combination of video and graphical content, and uploaded it to the Sangath Learning Management System, a digital platform accessible on a smartphone app. ResultsIn total, 18 CHWs contributed to the adaptation of the SH+ content and digital intervention development. Participants commented on finding some terms difficult to follow and recommended simplifying the language and providing detailed explanations. Participants offered positive feedback on the adapted content, expressing that they found the examples covered in the material both relatable and relevant to their own personal experiences at home and in the workplace. By combining participants’ insights and comments with feedback from content experts, it was possible to finalize a digital Hindi version of the SH+ intervention for CHWs in rural India. ConclusionsThis study is timely given the continued detrimental impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, and offers a promising and potentially scalable digital program to alleviate psychological distress among frontline health workers.

Connecting citizens through participatory design activities: Lessons from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Construction of affordable housing in Malaysia has been one of the national objectives set by its government, ensuring low-income families have access to adequate housing. This paper discusses the perceptions and the needs of residents for the development of single-family housing units for low-income families in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia based on the outcomes from participatory design activities in the city. As part of these activities, a series of six focus groups and participatory design workshops were conducted in Kuala Lumpur. The findings from these interactive sessions are to be used in the development of proposals for new housing in the city built for low-income families, advocating for consideration of the views of the residents in the design process.

Participatory Design Workshops: Interdisciplinary Encounters within a Collaborative Digital Heritage Project

This article aims to investigate how participatory design influences interdisciplinary relationships in digital heritage projects. In particular, the article reflects on opportunities and challenges of interdisciplinary encounters in participatory design, with the cross-border project “Terra Mosana” as a case study, which aims to investigate, digitalize, and communicate the shared heritage of the Meuse–Rhine Euregion (EMR). Terra Mosana is a collaboration between multiple partners from municipalities, museums, cultural heritage sites, and universities in different EMR cities. Partners of the project have different backgrounds that vary from archaeologists, historians, and heritage professionals to computer scientists, developers, and communication specialists. My role in this project focused on designing and organizing several participatory design workshops with citizens of the EMR, aiming to empower and enable them to share their views about their shared history, and what they want from museums and other cultural institutions. Those workshops play a crucial role in the project by creating meaningful connections across the different disciplines involved in the project. In this article, I focus on the negotiation processes between the partners involved: What challenges were they confronted with? How did they arrive at creative solutions, and which issues remained unresolved? My analysis does not draw only on my participatory observation of workshops, but also on a focus group discussion that invited the partners to reflect on and assess the collaborative process.

Wrist-Worn devices to encourage affected upper limb movement in unilateral cerebral palsy: Participatory design workshops.

Unilateral (Hemiplegic) cerebral palsy (UCP) causes weakness and stiffness affecting one sided of the body, often impacting activities of daily living. Upper limb therapy at effective intensity is not accessible to most. To determine stakeholder views on design of an approach using wrist-worn devices and a smartphone application to encourage use of the affected upper limb for children with hemiplegia. Four participatory design workshops and one young people's advisory group workshop incorporating views of five young people with hemiplegia, 13 typically developing peers aged 8-18 years, four parents, three occupational therapists, one teacher and two paediatricians. Two special educational needs co-ordinators were consulted separately. Peers were included to explore a study design whereby each child with hemiplegia would have a participating "buddy". Topics included views on an acceptable wrist-worn device and smartphone application, participant age range, involvement of a buddy, and barriers to using the technology in a school setting. Ethical/welfare considerations included data security, and potential risks around providing smartphones to young children. Children wanted a comfortable, conventional-appearing wristband incorporating a watch face and a secure, well-fitting strap. They were prepared to wear a band on each wrist. They wanted support with explaining the study to schoolteachers. Most schools restricted smartphone use during the school day: the study design accommodated this. Children agreed with a game as reward but had different views on an acceptable game; direct access to feedback data was preferred by some. Parents commented on the lack of access to upper limb therapy for children with UCP; therapists concurred. The proposed participant age range was widened based on feedback. Typically developing children were prepared to be buddies to help a friend with CP. Stakeholders were reassured by data security explanations and plans to provide internet safety information to participants. The participatory design process informed plans for the proof-of-concept stage of the study, hopefully leading to an approach that will be fun, easy to integrate into everyday life, and have the capacity to increase use of the affected arm and hand.

Playful Probing: Towards Understanding the Interaction with Machine Learning in the Design of Maintenance Planning Tools

In the context of understanding interaction with artificial intelligence algorithms in a decision support system, this study addresses the use of a playful probe as a potential speculative design approach. We describe the process of researching a new machine learning (ML)-based planning tool for maintenance based on aircraft conditions and the challenge of investigating how playful probes can enable end-user participation during the process of design. Using a design science research approach, we designed a playful probe protocol and materials and evaluated results by running a participatory design workshop. With this approach, participants facilitated speculative design insights into understandable interactions, especially with ML interaction. The article contributes with a design of a playful probe exercise to collaboratively study the adjustment of practices for CBM and a set of concrete insights on understandable interactions with CBM.

LGBTQ Futures and Participatory Design

This paper presents the findings from a series of participatory design workshops with LGBTQ people living in the rural Midwestern United States. Using future workshops as a method, we seek to understand contemporary problems facing rural LGBTQ people and leverage design exercises to facilitate community members to come up with creative solutions. What we find are people grappling with the complexities of visibility, safety, and resource access in their rural communities; people who wanted to be able to use and create sociotechnical solutions that could help them navigate these complexities. Drawing on these findings, we argue for further exploration of design that experiments with the tension between visibility and safety for LGBTQ people. Further, we argue that future workshops and participatory design are well-positioned for continued work with marginalized communities, but that we need to maintain political orientations towards liberation and justice.?

Enhancing Youth Self-Regulation Through Wearable Apps: Increasing Usage Through Participatory Design in Low Income Youth

Managing attention, progressing towards goals, and monitoring behaviors are elements of self-regulation (SR). SR applications based on contemplative practices such as breath counting have demonstrated gains in field studies but have failed to engage youth without coercion. Prior research generated behavioral and neurological changes, but was disliked by youth. This three-part study includes a participatory design workshop, application redesign, and subsequent field deployment to understand how wearable devices can support self-regulation. Twenty-seven youth designed activities that revealed interest in and models of self-regulation that became part of a smartwatch app. Researchers revisited and redesign the application based on youth feedback, and then released the redesigned application (some of whom participated in workshops, some of whom did not). Redesigning the application to be responsive to youth needs resulted in higher levels of satisfaction than previously observed. Youth also used this application more often and reported higher use. Three design tensions persisted: (1) Breath counting applications as attention grabbing vs. attention cultivating and (2) breath counting activities as a relaxation activity vs. a mental workout, and (3) exposing youth to meditation and breath counting as a strategy for developing healthy minds vs. an institutionalized or compulsory required action. Activity occupied positions along these continua, which creates associated challenges for researchers. A fruitful design space exists for researchers to integrate attention focusing into activities that youth value, which can include stress reduction or mindfulness training, but also could be simply to improve their academic work.

Socially facilitative robots for older adults to alleviate social isolation: A participatory design workshop approach in the US and Japan.

Social technology can improve the quality of older adults' social lives and mitigate negative mental and physical health outcomes associated with loneliness, but it should be designed collaboratively with this population. In this paper, we used participatory design (PD) methods to investigate how robots might be used as social facilitators for middle-aged and older adults (age 50+) in both the US and Japan. We conducted PD workshops in the US and Japan because both countries are concerned about the social isolation of these older adults due to their rapidly aging populations. We developed a novel approach to participatory design of future technologies that spends 2/3 of the PD session asking participants about their own life experiences as a foundation. This grounds the conversation in reality, creates rapport among the participants, and engages them in creative critical thinking. Then, we build upon this foundation, pose an abstract topic, and ask participants to brainstorm on the topic based on their previous discussion. In both countries, participants were eager to actively discuss design ideas for socially facilitative robots and imagine how they might improve their social lives. US participants suggested design ideas for telepresence robots, social distancing robots, and social skills artificial intelligence programs, while Japanese participants suggested ideas for pet robots, robots for sharing experiences, and easy-to-operate instructor robots. Comparing these two countries, we found that US participants saw robots as tools to help facilitate their social connections, while Japanese participants envisioned robots to function as surrogate companions for their parents and distract them from loneliness when they were unavailable. With this paper, we contribute to the literature in two main ways, presenting: (1) A novel approach to participatory design of future technologies that grounds participants in their everyday experience, and (2) Results of the study indicating how middle-aged and older adults from the US and Japan wanted technologies to improve their social lives. Although we conducted the workshops during the COVID-19 pandemic, many findings generalized to other situations related to social isolation, such as older adults living alone.

Mobile App Prototype in Older Adults for Postfracture Acute Pain Management: User-Centered Design Approach.

Postfracture acute pain is often inadequately managed in older adults. Mobile health (mHealth) technologies can offer opportunities for self-management of pain; however, insufficient apps exist for acute pain management after a fracture, and none are designed for an older adult population. This study aims to design, develop, and evaluate an mHealth app prototype using a human-centered design approach to support older adults in the self-management of postfracture acute pain. This study used a multidisciplinary and user-centered design approach. Overall, 7 stakeholders (ie, 1 clinician-researcher specialized in internal medicine, 2 user experience designers, 1 computer science researcher, 1 clinical research assistant researcher, and 2 pharmacists) from the project team, together with 355 external stakeholders, were involved throughout our user-centered development process that included surveys, requirement elicitation, participatory design workshops, mobile app design and development, mobile app content development, and usability testing. We completed this study in 3 phases. We analyzed data from prior surveys administered to 305 members of the Canadian Osteoporosis Patient Network and 34 health care professionals to identify requirements for designing a low-fidelity prototype. Next, we facilitated 4 participatory design workshops with 6 participants for feedback on content, presentation, and interaction with our proposed low-fidelity prototype. After analyzing the collected data using thematic analysis, we designed a medium-fidelity prototype. Finally, to evaluate our medium-fidelity prototype, we conducted usability tests with 10 participants. The results informed the design of our high-fidelity prototype. Throughout all the phases of this development study, we incorporated inputs from health professionals to ensure the accuracy and validity of the medical content in our prototypes. We identified 3 categories of functionalities necessary to include in the design of our initial low-fidelity prototype: the need for support resources, diary entries, and access to educational materials. We then conducted a thematic analysis of the data collected in the design workshops, which revealed 4 themes: feedback on the user interface design and usability, requests for additional functionalities, feedback on medical guides and educational materials, and suggestions for additional medical content. On the basis of these results, we designed a medium-fidelity prototype. All the participants in the usability evaluation tests found the medium-fidelity prototype useful and easy to use. On the basis of the feedback and difficulties experienced by participants, we adjusted our design in preparation for the high-fidelity prototype. We designed, developed, and evaluated an mHealth app to support older adults in the self-management of pain after a fracture. The participants found our proposed prototype useful for managing acute pain and easy to interact with and navigate. Assessment of the clinical outcomes and long-term effects of our proposed mHealth app will be evaluated in the future.

Designing and implementing smart glass technology for emergency medical services: a sociotechnical perspective.

This study aims to investigate key considerations and critical factors that influence the implementation and adoption of smart glasses in fast-paced medical settings such as emergency medical services (EMS). We employed a sociotechnical theoretical framework and conducted a set of participatory design workshops with 15 EMS providers to elicit their opinions and concerns about using smart glasses in real practice. Smart glasses were recognized as a useful tool to improve EMS workflow given their hands-free nature and capability of processing and capturing various patient data. Out of the 8 dimensions of the sociotechnical model, we found that hardware and software, human-computer interface, workflow, and external rules and regulations were cited as the major factors that could influence the adoption of this novel technology. EMS participants highlighted several key requirements for the successful implementation of smart glasses in the EMS context, such as durable devices, easy-to-use and minimal interface design, seamless integration with existing systems and workflow, and secure data management. Applications of the sociotechnical model allowed us to identify a range of factors, including not only technical aspects, but also social, organizational, and human factors, that impact the implementation and uptake of smart glasses in EMS. Our work informs design implications for smart glass applications to fulfill EMS providers' needs. The successful implementation of smart glasses in EMS and other dynamic healthcare settings needs careful consideration of sociotechnical issues and close collaboration between different stakeholders.