Digital cultural probes. Indagare il quotidiano, progettare tecnologie

Journal title SALUTE E SOCIETÀ
Author/s Enrico Maria Piras
Publishing Year 2023 Issue 2023/2
Language Italian Pages 12 P. 80-91 File size 425 KB
DOI 10.3280/SES2023-002008
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Cultural Probes are a qualitative research technique developed in the field of Human Com- puter Interaction to design technologies by entrusting participants with tools to capture fragments of everyday experience. Here, a revisitation of the technique is proposed to sup- port the investigation of the experience of health and illness, which are areas removed from direct observation and difficult to recall with a richness of detail by means of the most common investigation techniques. The most visible feature of the methodological innova- tion lies in the use of an instant messaging system (WhatsApp) as a "probe", on the one hand allowing participants to share their respective fragments of experience with each other and, on the other hand, granting researchers the possibility of guiding participants with re- spect to the objects of observation. Here I present a use case of the technique and a reflec- tion on epistemic assumptions, limitations and possible areas of application in health re- search.

Keywords: Cultural probes; design; daily life; experience of illness; digital cultural probes; cre- ative methods.

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Enrico Maria Piras, Digital cultural probes. Indagare il quotidiano, progettare tecnologie in "SALUTE E SOCIETÀ" 2/2023, pp 80-91, DOI: 10.3280/SES2023-002008