Reflexivity, as conceived by feminist epistemologies, is essential to advancing social justice design practice. Reflexivity is thus critical for CSCW and HCI scholars and practitioners who seek to build equitable technological futures, as it allows for a critical examination of explicit and implicit values and politics in design and research processes. In this paper, we put forth a participatory walking method grounded in feminist ethos for cultivating reflexivity by engaging with the theme of boundaries in space. We outline this method through three integrated place-based strategies, including an activity in the home, a data walk in the city, and making and sharing visualizations for collaborative understandings of place. We argue that engaging with place is critical to foregrounding positionality and cultivating reflexivity in research. We share our findings from two workshops where we examined the efficacy of this method. We outline how the method deepens the understandings of the built environment, self, and others; welcomes vulnerability and fosters openness to change; scaffolds practices of critical self questioning. In doing so, it leads to a recognition of the entanglement of socio-political values in design and data creation, revealing uncertainties and ambiguities that can open up new areas for inquiry and design.

Marginalized groups often face situations in which their knowledge and experiences are dismissed due to prejudice or bias-a phenomenon identified and theorized as epistemic injustice in feminist philosophy. These circumstances frequently compel individuals to produce additional evidence to support their claims, ranging from paper documentation to data generated by technologies such as location logs. This paper examines the case of Heat Seek, an internet-connected temperature sensor designed to provide tenants in New York City with ''objective and reliable data'' when filing heating complaints and appearing in housing court. We present findings from a qualitative study, supplemented by document review and artifact analysis, to illuminate the tool's functions and uses. Drawing on this case, we introduce a class of civic technologies-credibility boosters. We find that these technologies aim to overcome credibility deficits by: (1) backing individual and collective claims with objective data, (2) materializing intangible experiences as tangible evidence with aesthetic reliability, and (3) shifting epistemic authority to perceived neutral third parties. We conclude by demonstrating the institutional and social impacts of such technologies and call for greater attention to epistemic injustices within CSCW research, advocating for the design of institutional, legal, and social systems that confront biased systems and empower marginalized communities.

Through an autoethnographic account of designing, exhibiting, and maintaining an interactive bioart installation with plants, we trace intersections between more-than-human design, disability theory, and lived experiences of chronic illness. Specifically, we deconstruct three "polished" exhibits of our installation through stories of breakdowns and failures, organized in three main themes: maintenance and care, buggy biodata, and collective resistance to purification and control. Our reflections show how plants, technologies, and a chronically ill body became entangled with each other conceptually and materially, surfacing new sites for more-than-human relationalities. In our discussion, we unpack how disability perspectives can expand more-than-human design practices, highlight opportunities for re-imagining exhibition spaces, and offer adaptation as a strategy for design in HCI.

Sensing Bodies is an interactive installation that integrates plants, biosensors, and data displays in a series of tangible embodied encounters to facilitate reflection on the complex sociopolitical entanglements of plants. The triptych installation incorporates different forms of biodata and three plantation plants of the U.S. South to highlight reciprocal people-plant relationships while fostering a deeper sensibility toward colonial histories of local landscapes. In this paper, we put forth three design provocations for engaging with postcolonial perspectives in more-than-human interactions: materializing tensions to trouble multi-species relationships, embracing ambiguities and multiple relationalities, and highlighting geographic and cultural situatedness. In doing so, we contribute to how TEI might facilitate postcolonial understandings and sensibilities.

How do we make sense of the promises of digital technologies for safe mobility? Drawing on a case analysis of Safetipin, a mobile app that has garnered much praise in India, this paper examines the assumptions and promises of technologies designed for safe mobility. The contribution of this paper is twofold. First, we draw on feminist criticisms of safety technologies, defined broadly, to identify the main issues in their framing and efficacy. Second, we build upon initial interviews with users and makers of Safetipin to examine how the app addresses, or fails to address, the criticisms received by other safety technologies. We conclude by foregrounding key questions that ICTD designers can consider when designing for safe mobility in India and beyond.

Ridesharing services have been viewed as heralding the next generation of mobility and recognized for their potential to provide an alternate and more flexible model of work. These services have also been critiqued for their treatment of employees, low wages, and other concerns. In this paper, we present a qualitative investigation of the introduction of Uber in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Using interview data from drivers and riders, and content analysis of riders' Facebook posts, we highlight how Uber's introduction into Dhaka's existing transportation infrastructure influenced experiences and practices of mobility in the city. Drawing on Iris Marion Young's theory of justice, we demonstrate how the introduction of Uber in Dhaka reinforces existing modes of oppression and introduces new ones, even as it generates room for creative modes of resistance. Finally, we underline algorithms' opacity and veneer of objectivity as a potential source of oppression, call for deepening the postcolonial computing perspective, and make a case for stronger connections between technology interventions and policy.

It is widely accepted within the fields of Design and Human-Computer Interaction that designing products in collaboration with end users can lead to more useful, usable, and desirable products. Less explored is the co-design process's potential to change organizational culture through introduction and illustration of its central principles at work: such as prioritizing participants needs and experiences; mutual learning; and sustainability into organizations' practices and processes. This poster presents a case study on how the process of co-designing a collaborative digital application introduced change within the processes and practices of an autism support service organization in the US towards a human-centered approach.

This article presents an analysis of participation patterns in an Alternate Reality Game, World Without Oil. This game aims to bring people together in an online environment to reflect on how an oil crisis might affect their lives and communities as a way to both counter such a crisis and to build collective intelligence about responding to it. We present a series of participation profiles based on a quantitative analysis of 1554 contributions to the game narrative made by 322 players. We further qualitatively analyze a sample of these contributions. We outline the dominant themes, the majority of which engage the global oil crisis for its effects on commute options and present micro-sustainability solutions in response. We further draw on the quantitative and qualitative analysis of this space to discuss how the design of the game, specifically its framing of the problem, feedback mechanism, and absence of subject-matter expertise, counter its aim of generating collective intelligence, making it conducive to groupthink.

Work in Progress: The theory of Quantum Mechanics (QM) provides a foundation for many fields of science and engineering; however, its abstract nature and technical difficulty make QM a challenging subject for students to approach and grasp. This is partly because complex mathematical concepts involved in QM are difficult to visualize for students and the existing visualization are minimal and limited. We propose that many of these concepts can be communicated and experienced through interactive visualizations and games, drawing on the strengths and affordances of digital media. A game environment can make QM concepts more accessible and understandable by immersing students in nano-sized worlds governed by unique QM rules. Furthermore, replayability of games allows students to experience the probabilistic nature of QM concepts. In this paper, we present a game and a series of interactive visualizations that we are developing to provide students with an experiential environment to learn quantum mechanics. We will discuss how these visualizations and games can enable students to experiment with QM concepts, compare QM with classical physics, and get accustomed to the often counterintuitive laws of QM.

This article presents an analysis of participation patterns of an Alternate Reality game World Without Oil. This game aims to bring people together in an online environment to reflect and share insights about oil dependence. We present a series of participation profiles based on a quantitative analysis of 1554 contributions to the game narrative made by 322 players. We build on these profiles to suggest a preliminary outline of design challenges for building effective interactive learning environments that foster meaningful participation.