Software engineering education should balance theoretical concepts with practical application, and many curricula adopt practical skills training organised around project-based learning. In this context, the choice of target software systems becomes critical to the success of the learning experience. Traditional software engineering modules in higher education often provide projects with clearly defined requirements, removing much of the authentic ambiguity found in real world settings - ambiguity that requires engineers to define problems, navigate shifting requirements, and adapt to unforeseen changes. To address these limitations, we introduced an ideation process into our project-based learning approach. This process helps students cope with uncertainty and develop skills needed to operate in scenarios that more accurately mirror professional practice. Analysis of student feedback from reflective reports shows strong appreciation for this approach, particularly regarding guided learning, inclusion of students with diverse backgrounds and skill sets, improved skills development in negotiation, pitching, and presenting, and a stronger sense of project ownership. We also encountered challenges, including balancing project workload with existing commitments, ensuring fairness when the selected project theme does not match available resources, and distributing workload equitably within teams. As future work, we aim to strengthen the ideation process by providing clearer guidance on project scoping and workload estimation.

Cycling continues to grow in popularity, both as a means to commute and for exercise. While there is a plethora of research studying technology use in vehicular travel, cycling remains a relatively understudied area—especially within HCI. We conducted an ethnography, adopting an ethnomethodological lens, to study cyclists as they use their bicycles for routine purposes. Through the use of a handlebar-mounted 360-degree action video camera, we conducted our study longitudinally with participants over a number of weeks. Our analysis explicates our participants accountable use of different electronic technologies while on the go and in this paper we present four fragments of their use of different technologies as exemplars from our corpus. Our paper offers insights into the use of technology on bicycles, including how cyclists select moments of opportunity to use technology for different purposes. We conclude by offering design implications for the design of interactive technologies for cyclists.

Speech-enabled smart speakers are common devices used for numerous tasks in everyday life. While speech-enabled technologies are widespread, using one’s voice as a computing modality introduces new accessibility challenges for people with speech disfluencies such as stammering (also known as stuttering). This paper investigates the smart speaker user experiences of people who stammer over three weeks. We conducted diary studies and semi-structured interviews with 11 individuals to identify their daily routines, difficulties with successful interactions, and strategies to overcome these barriers. Our analysis demonstrates key factors such as device location, its affordances, and the structure of commands had a strong impact on user experience. Participants highlighted different linguistic strategies to try and overcome interaction difficulties and discussed the potential of using smart speakers for speech and language therapy. We emphasise the need to further understand the experiences of people who stammer in smart speaker design to increase their accessibility.

Configuring community technology to ensure its sustainability has proved challenging. We present a 3-year longitudinal study and evaluation of two independent situated community display networks in rural contexts. We describe how the design of the display systems evolved to reflect the needs and desires of the community. We report on the way stakeholders’ perceptions of the displays changed over time, and examine the community dynamics involved in the administration, maintenance and moderation of the systems. Drawing from our findings, we further explore the role of the community champion and their impact on sustainability and scalability. We provide recommendations for the design of community network display technology that supports democratic inter-community politics and governance, and is sensitive to the hidden emotional labor and social resources that are required from communities to fully adopt and sustain display technology.