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Relevance

Why is it that certain research topics seem relevant than others? How does a topic become important, and who is in a position to make something relevant? Current societal issues and trends, attitudes and opinions may play a contributory role. Emerging technologies embody commitments and biases. These commitments may include the interests of industry, university, university research policies, personal biases or life situations from the designers/researchers working with these technologies themselves.

Reflection questions

  • Whose interests drive our research?
  • What conflicting interests (e.g. financial returns, social responsibility, environmental sustainability) do we perceive in our field of research?
  • Does our project follow current trends or hot topics? What particular areas might need attention?
  • Are there norms embedded in the technology concerning gender roles or what it means to be a “woman”, “transgender” or “man”? How has research considering gender been studied up to now?
  • Might “ people with disabilities” with different experiences be considered as important interest group?
  • What priorities have driven our field of research?
  • Are there norms embedded in the technology concerning gender roles or what it means to be a “woman”, “transgender” or “man”? How has research considering gender been studied up to now?
  • What life domains (e.g., recreation, health care, work) does our current research address? In what ways (negative, positive) will our project change people’s lives?
  • How do we deal with socially marginalised groups in our application area?
  • How do we deal with users, acknowledging their physical characteristics (height, eye colour, weight, etc.), abilities, financial means, or cultural norms?
  • What categories of analysis seem most relevant for our project and why? What additional categories might be interesting?
  • To what extent do we try to meet requirements and include concepts?
  • What efforts do we find acceptable for that?
  • Which aspects from our concept do we leave out during the technical realisation and why?
  • What (and whose) quality criteria do we use for evaluation?
  • To whom do we make our results and products available? Who will not have access and why?
  • How do we prepare and manage the introduction of our product?
  • In what way could we still achieve a broader audience?
  • What aspects could not be realised by our project but might be important for future work?