Talks by Obrien Sim and Gisela Reyes Cruz

In this digital lab meeting, Obrien will give an update on his PhD and Gisela will present her CHI 2020 paper.

Obrien Sim - Smart Packaging, Engagement, and Fast-Moving Consumer Goods

Smart packaging is becoming increasingly used within the fast-moving consumer goods industry but relatively little academic work has been done in exploring what consumers think of it. What value propositions do smart packaging offers and what factors affect how consumers engage with them? In this talk I will give a quick summary of the findings of a case study with smart packaged coffee.

Gisela Reyes Cruz - Reframing Disability as Competency: Unpacking Everyday Technology Practices of People with Visual Impairments

In this talk, I will present a CHI 2020 paper about some of my PhD work.

More than a billion people in the world live with some form of visual impairment, and a wide variety of technologies are now routinely used by them in the course of ‘getting on’ in everyday life. However, little is known about the ways in which assistive and non-assistive technologies are brought to bear on material practices. We present findings from a four-month ethnographic study facilitated by a local branch of a UK charity that supports people with visual impairments. Our study explores mainstream and assistive technology use within their everyday lives. We identify three main sites for technology use: social relations and communication practices, textual reading practices, and mobility practices. Via an ethnographic approach we contribute to understanding how people accomplish such practices, and in doing so, uncover the practical competencies that enable people with visual impairments to conduct their everyday activities. Thus we investigate how disability can be thought of in terms of competencies, arguing that understanding of competencies can enrich the design of technologies that fit the needs of people with visual impairments.