In this talk, I’ll describe a research approach that relies on technology design not as an end in itself but as a way to understand social phenomena, from how artists use new technologies to foster insight and action to how community members engage public space to produce new modes of citizenship. To illustrate this approach I'll focus on a study of walking by drawing with Trace, a mobile mapping application that generates walking routes based on digital sketches people create and annotate without a map. In addition to creating walking paths, Trace enables people to send the paths to others, thus developing a unique form of digital communication. We designed Trace to explore the possibility of emphasizing guided wandering over precise, destination-oriented navigation. Studies of sixteen people’s use of Trace over roughly one week reveal how walkers find Trace both delightful and disorienting, highlighting moments of surprise, frustration, and identification with GIS routing algorithms. I show how design interventions offer possibilities for understanding the work of technology development and how it might be done differently in HCI.

Daniela K. Rosner is an Assistant Professor of Human-Centered Design & Engineering (HCDE) at the University of Washington where she co-directs the Tactile and Tactical Design Lab (TAT lab). Through fieldwork and design, her research reveals and creates surprising connections between technology and creative production, whether digital fabrication or the handwork of amateur electronics repair. She has taught interaction design at the California College of the Arts (CCA) and worked in exhibition design at the Adler Planetarium and Astronomy Museum. She holds a Ph.D. from UC Berkeley's School of Information, a M.S. in Computer Science from the University of Chicago, and a B.F.A. in Graphic Design from the Rhode Island School of Design. Daniela is a regular columnist for Interactions Magazine, a bimonthly publication of ACM SIGCHI.