Article by University of Borås
While grounded in real experienced needs, MuseIT aims to broaden access to cultural assets and to facilitate cultural engagement for all, through conducting research, development of cutting edge technologies, raising awareness, and contributing to improved policies. A core component of all our efforts is participatory co-design with the intended users.
Participatory co-design approaches and early user involvement are essential in technological development to ensure that the resulting products and systems are inclusive, equitable, and responsive to the needs of diverse communities. When users, particularly from marginalised groups, are involved from the outset, their lived experiences, challenges, and aspirations directly inform the design process. This not only leads to more accessible and user-centred technologies but also limits the risks of bias, exclusion, or harmful assumptions embedded in data-driven systems. Co-design empowers users to take an active role in shaping technology that impacts their lives. It also results in innovations that not only meet different needs but also promote inclusion, agency, and long-term social impact.
In MuseIT we have established a vibrant network of collaborators who generously share their insights and actively participate in various ideation co-design workshops. The most recent participatory activities organised by the project’s coordinating partner HB (University of Borås, Sweden) included a 2-day participatory co-design workshop, user-study, and a public seminar at the Swedish Book Fair comprising a panel discussion involving representatives from multiple sectors.
Participatory co-design workshop and user-study
Over the course of two days (September, 25-26, 2024), we held a participatory co-design workshop that brought together a diverse group of individuals representing cultural institutions, organisations providing services to people with disabilities, and people living with disabilities. This workshop aimed to share recent developments within the project and generate feedback for our ongoing development work, particularly focused on multimodal digital objects and haptic technologies.
Exploring Haptic Technologies for Communication and Enrichment of Multimodal Digital Objects
An introduction to the workshop, its overarching goals, and highlighting the importance of user involvement in developing accessible technologies set the stage for the presentations and discussions that followed, emphasising co-design as a foundation for our continued work.
The first session presented recent work on Multimodal Digital Objects, focusing on the multisensory enrichment of paintings. HB members shared our approach to haptic encoding of image content. This presentation updated the participants about the status of development so far, inviting them to hands-on exploration of the online version. By this we received valuable feedback and ideas for further development. The ideation session included a demonstration of how an art piece such as the Mona Lisa could be conveyed to a person with deafblindness using human touch messages through Social Haptic Communication. The session opened up reflections on how this could potentially be emulated in digi-haptic communication, if at all. Another point of conversation was the type of information that professional curators may wish to convey to the audience regarding an art piece, e.g., the conversation about Mona Lisa’s smile, and to what extent other information such as the painting’s colours or boundaries may be of interest. This sparked valuable discussions on the potential of haptic technologies to enhance cultural engagement. The discussions will be reviewed, analysed and reported in due course.
A key part of the workshop was also dedicated to the demo and discussions on the HaptiDesigner, a tool for designing haptic patterns for conveyance of semantic contents. First, it was highlighted that HaptiDesigner is mainly a tool to transfer information (which is received by other means e.g., in textual format) into a haptic format. Once this point was clarified, further discussions pursued and participants provided feedback on the functionality of the tool. No additional features were suggested, but alternative scalable uses of the tool were discussed, such as using it to convey musical notes to users with visual impairments or alerts that are frequently missed when conveyed in other formats. The features enabling personalisation were of interest and the levels and types of personalisations were reflected on and discussed. Furthermore, the potential areas of use of this tool by organisations providing support services was discussed. In addition to this the participants tested the in-house built haptic vest and experimented with the real-time feature, sparking ideas for further design decisions, formation of various interfaces formats, and new areas of use for the tool.
Invited guests and close collaborators from Eikholt introduced a project focused on co-creation with individuals with combined vision and hearing impairments (Deafblindness). This project aimed to (a) improve a haptic communication tool that enhances communication for people with visual impairments for sensing potential obstacles and their surroundings, (b) develop improved knowledge about co-creation in collaborative projects. In this session the presenters shared their experiences of their participatory co-design usability study and the insights gained through collaboration with the tech company that has developed this tool. Among others they had identified a strong wish on the part of the study participants to test and evaluate the tool independently, rather than being guided and helped by the developers. Another interesting element in their experience had been the users active involvement, not only in the design of the usability study, testing, and data collection, but also in data analysis and identifying the key findings.
We also introduced the project partner Actronika’s Skinetic vest and their sound-to-haptic technology, particularly the haptification of music. Participants had the opportunity to experience and test these emerging technologies firsthand and discuss how these could enhance accessibility for people with sensory impairments.
Another topic for in-depth ideation and discussion was the terminology used within haptic communication contexts, inviting feedback on a set of terms we plan to introduce in a forthcoming paper. We also examined the correspondence of these terms with existing terminology used in discussions of social haptics communication (SHC). Furthermore, one of the participants, Ray Holt who is on the project advisory board, introduced some of the relevant research questions that have already to some extent been addressed and proposed a number of other topics for a systematic study of haptic primitives that remain under-studied and which would benefit the whole community of researchers working with haptic technologies. These primitives, if agreed upon, would provide a universal context in which to express semantic haptics and non semantic haptics.
Additionally, on the first day of the workshop, several interviews were conducted with participants living with disabilities. The questions focused on their experiences and interactions with cultural institutions, resources and activities. The primary goal of these conversations was to gather information about lived experiences and informed feedback from potential users of the technologies being developed as part of the project. However, the interviews contain information that also address the wider context of accessibility in cultural institutions, such as light conditions, spatial acoustics and orientation/wayfinding. Further insights will be collected and fed into a list of guidelines to be shared with cultural institutions, to enhance the overall experience of people living with disabilities, e.g. deafblindness.
Concluding Remarks
Throughout the workshop, participants provided invaluable feedback on our projects and shared innovative ideas for future work. This participatory co-design approach proved useful in furthering our reflections and refining our tools, ensuring they genuinely are informed by and meet the needs of users. The diverse perspectives enriched our discussions and will be put to good use in the continuation of our work.
From the engineering side, valuable insights were gained regarding how to best emulate existing social haptic signs that would reflect on the complexity that human touch offers but is difficult to duplicate digitally. Lastly, the discussion regarding primitives was thought provoking and interesting, albeit elementary at present - the proposed abstract model must be verified between more integrators & users before it can be embraced and explained further.
As we wrapped up, it became clear that user involvement from the start is key to the success of these technologies. This workshop was an important step in ensuring that the technologies we are developing are co-created with the intended users. We look forward to continuing this collaborative journey and integrating the feedback we received into the next phases of our projects.
The participants from HB were Nasrine Olson (Associate Professor in Information Science - MuseIT Project Coordinator), Svenja Keune (PhD - Researcher in Textile Design), Sándor Darányi (Professor Emeritus in Knowledge Organisation) Thomas van Erven (Developer, Software Engineer), Jonas Jarvoll (Electronics Engineer), Sofia Lindström Sol (PhD, with expertise in Cultural Policy), Renata Sadula (MuseIT Project Manager).
External participants (among others) included Ray Holt (PhD, Mechanical Engineer active at the University of Leeds), Femke Krijger, (LL.M. MSc; holistic therapist, writer and researcher on sensory and tactile processing for people with acquired deafblindness), Riitta Lahtinen, (PhD, with expertise in social-haptic communication and haptic exploration, writer)), Russ Palmer,(PhD, h.c., FBIS, International Music Therapist, Vibroacoustic Therapy Practitioner, expertise in social-haptic communication and vibro-sensoric experiences with dual sensory people, writer), Rolf Lund (Ed.D., M.Sc., CLVT and researcher), Kari Jokstad (PhD, with expertise in person centred research, Norway), Erik Nilsen (Professional with lived experience), Moa Johansson (Member of MuseIT and Teamleader at ShareMusic and Performing Arts) Tina Weidelt (Accessibility Adviser, Cultural Administration, Region Västra Götaland), Peter Larsson (Musician and lyricist with speciality in music technology).
Participatory Panel Discussion Seminar at the Bookfair
On September 27, 2024 we organised a seminar which was held at the Gothenburg Book Fair, titled: Fusing Technology and Inclusion to Amplify Diverse Voices and Cultures.
This book fair typically attracts a very diverse group of visitors and the constellation of the audiences at each seminar are not known in advance. Hence the seminar was designed in a way to be meaningful regardless of the attendees. The aim of the seminar was to raise awareness both about the project and its aims but also issues of inclusion and accessibility of cultural heritage. The panel discussed the transformative potential of technologies for broadening access to, and richer engagement with, cultural heritage. Researchers from the project together with representatives from cultural institutions, members of the disability community, and others working with accessibility and inclusion discussed practices and designs that lead to marginalisation of different groups. They also explored alternative perspectives on inclusion and methodologies that enable broader cultural engagements.
Participants were: Nasrine Olson (Associate Professor at the University of Borås and the project coordinator); Gunnar Ardelius (General Secretary Swedish Museums Association); Alex Bergström (Chairman of the Culture Committee in Region Västra Götaland); Femke Krijger (LL.M. MSc, holistic shiatsu therapist and researcher on sensory processing within acquired deafblind people, and member of MuseIT Project Advisory Board); Peter Larsson, (Musician and lyricist with speciality in music technology); and Raymond Holt (PhD, Senior researcher at the University of Leeds and member of MuseIT Project Advisory Board).
Pictures credits: ShareMusic and Performing Arts & University of Borås.
Comments