One comment I hear from the HCI and design communities–from students and senior researchers alike–is the assumption that criticality is negative, that the role of a critique is to “destroy” something, or that critics just dump on the hard work of others. I want to push back against this idea, and I will explain why…
In a 2017 paper, Forlizzi, Koskinen, Hekkert, and Zimmerman called for a “divorce” between “pragmatic” and “critical” threads of “constructive design research” or CDR. At DIS 2018, they have a workshop around the theme of the paper. (Full disclosure: they invited me and my frequent coauthor Shaowen Bardzell to co-organize it, which we would have…
Read more Design Researchers Need a Shared Program, Not a Divorce
Why do we as researchers turn away from accepted knowledge, theory, and/or research? I don’t mean rejecting a given paper or objecting to a presentation. I am referring to categorically rejecting a whole knowledge practice, on account that it uses some method or epistemology or (fill in the blank) that one doesn’t like. This turning…
This is a quickie today. Recently (readers might have noticed) I have been reflecting a lot on my research practice. I have been trying to find those moments when I got things right and better recognize when I did not. And I am sharing this reflective process publicly in hopes of helping others find ways…
I have noticed a dark pattern among papers that align themselves with critical or humanistic approaches to HCI. I myself have been guilty of contributing to that pattern (though I am trying to reform). But I still see it all the time as a peer reviewer and also as a Ph.D. supervisor. And since I spend so…
UPDATE 30 September 2015: This blog post has been expanded and developed in Shaowen Bardzell and my book, Humanistic HCI (Morgan & Claypool, 2015), in “Chapter 4: Enacting the Struggle for Truth in Full View: Writing and Reviewing Humanistic HCI Research.” * * * * * * Here is my thesis, so if you skip the rest…
This post is continued from two earlier parts: In Part 1 I offer a broad rationale for my position In Part 2 I offer specific recommendations for ACs and reviewers In this part, I offer my own recommendations for the research community moving forward. I stress from the outset that this is a position. I…
This post follows on from my previous post, in which I outline my position on peer reviewing and my reasoning for it. In this post, I offer four observations in the form of a guide to serving as a good Associate Chair (AC). [1] A CHI paper submission typically represents 12-24 months of a research…
HCI is continuing a trend towards using conferences, rather than journals or books, as the premier venue for published work. The speed of the submission-decision cycle often means that decisions are fast and binary: one shot and you’re in or you’re out. And in this process, a very small number of people hold a lot…
Interaction Culture 