There is increasing interest in how digitalisation variously impacts different socio-economic demographics’ ability to access, and realise benefits from, public services. Centring citizens’ lived experience in the identification of harms and benefits is critical for the evaluation of digital services, and more broadly for responsible innovation. Yet this poses significant challenges, particularly when engaging those living in precarious conditions. This paper reports on a study that engaged citizens living with poverty (n=76) to articulate harms arising from digitalisation in the context of an e-government social protection service. Interviews and surveys supported by speculative scenarios of ongoing changes helped surface and express citizen-centric harm characteristics within wider ecosystems before, during and after access, beyond a narrower service-lifecycle viewpoint. Drawing on the findings, we develop a taxonomy of harms and discuss how this can be utilised by HCI practitioners concerned with responsible innovation in digital welfare contexts.

Technical interventions in socio-technical systems are often portrayed overly positively but can also have undesirable consequences which can directly impact adoption and sustainability. Systematically identifying what might go wrong is not straightforward. This paper presents the iterative development, including an early validation trial, of an HCI-focused collaborative brainstorming approach to identify deviations from design intent that harm people. The established Hazard and Operability Study (HAZOP) guide word based method, not applied before in a HCI context beyond safety-critical systems despite extensive use in other disciplines, has been adapted and applied. Motivated by the need to enumerate impacts of technology on marginalised individuals and their communities, and utilising the lead author's previous experience, a more human-orientated ‘HCI HAZOP’ was investigated. Using two feasibility studies and two pilot studies, the adapted method has been trialled, evaluated and refined. The studies' findings demonstrate the usefulness of the method identifying undesirable consequences, even by novel practitioners without any prior training. The paper presents the adaption as a methodological contribution, an application of ‘HCI HAZOP’ through studies using scenario-based design artifacts identifying limitations and benefits, and guidance materials for use by other researchers.

Smartphones increasingly serve as the source for, or to aggregate, a considerable amount of data that can be relevant in public health emergencies. Hence the sharing and utilisation of mobile health data, for example to help control the spread of communicable diseases, has become a relevant issue, with the COVID-19 pandemic adding a sudden urgency mirrored in debates around contact tracing apps. Building on exploratory work that indicated user perceptions and values around consent, and the notion that smartphones and mobile health data can be perceived as elements of self-embodiment, we present an online study comparing three scenarios of representative diseases undertaken during the first wave lockdown in the UK. Using a mixed-methods analysis of responses from 86 participants, we identify tensions and mitigations in user values and from those present the description of four characteristic user-groups that can inform considerations for design and development activities in this space.

Disability assessment processes are complex and stressful, with claimants finding it challenging to prepare an effective account of their disabilities to support their claim. This project focuses on a disability benefit called Personal Independence Payment (PIP), which is received by millions of people with disabilities in the UK. We present a multi-stage exploratory investigation into how lifelogging could help address the challenges claimants have in accessing disability benefits. In the first study, benefit advisors participated in interviews and workshops to inform the design of PIP Kit, a highly customisable prototype elicitation diary to help disability claimants articulate their experiences. In the second study, PIP Kit was trialled by benefit claimants whilst making their actual PIP claims. We found that PIP Kit helped empower claimants in understanding the claim process and assisted in building arguments for their claims. We also have identified clear principles for supporting disability benefit claimants with technological interventions.