This article examines digital communication in the workplace and its association with wellbeing at work. The analysis is based mainly on workshop discussions and is complemented with log data (N = 36). Content analysis was applied to the workshop discussions, while the log data were analyzed by quantifying frequencies. Six themes were found to affect wellbeing at work: the volume of digital communication, expectations of constant connectivity, the quality of the messages, adaptation of new tools, technical problems, and flexibility in communication. In relation to wellbeing at work, digital communication was mostly perceived as demanding. However, some of the factors perceived as demanding could also provide flexibility, which was seen as enhancing wellbeing by increasing autonomy and control. Social factors, such as work habits, practices, and conventions in the workplace, seem to play an important role in the manifestation and management of the digital communication-induced load at work.
20 December 2021 in Interaction Design and Architecture(s)
2020 marks the beginning of a new era as the pandemic catapulted us into new digital and virtual ways of everyday life. As the world changes, we reimagine empowering, equitable, accessible, diverse, and inclusive digital futures, through a series of projects and workshops with a diverse set of participants - children in schools and Child Computer Interaction researchers. We conducted one long-term project with two schools in Finland and two one-day workshops with an international set of participants. Through an analysis of participants’ experiences and outcomes in the project and workshops, we build a case for diversity and inclusionthrough design fiction in the context of children’s education. In addition, through an analysis of the process we as researchers took for developing the project and workshops, we showcase the support of diversity and inclusion in design fiction.
As children's everyday interaction with emerging technologies increases, they need to develop criticality to navigate ethical impacts of technology and when imagining futures with technology. We explore how design futuring can facilitate children's criticality through four different workshops with children from India, Finland, and the USA. Participants imagined futures with technologies while critically considering ethical impacts. In the findings, themes related to empowerment and ethics emerged in children's imagined futures. We discuss promoting criticality and empowerment with children's imagined futures, and how these futures can respond to diverse, local issues based on their lived experiences. Our work diversifies design research by highlighting local futures, and the criticality of those imagined futures, from children across the world.