7 Grand Challenges of HCI

I was assigned to the 6th Grand Challenge of HCI; Accessibility and Universal Access.

Clay spoke to the table to start conversation. There was not much disagreement on the demographics that were mentioned, with the exception of gender. Personally, I found that my gender does not restrict me from accessing technology that the opposite gender would have seamless access to. It was mentioned that online advertisements would be specifically targeted towards my gender (female), however, I disagree as advertisements are based off what I had previously searched before. For instance, if I had not searched anything, the Google would not be able to assume my gender.

It is important to note that I do use AdBlock, so it was difficult for me to fully resonate with online advertisements (I would only see them on my phone).

On the topic of the ageing population, Clay made an excellent point! I argued that the older population that struggle with technology are so as they are partially ignorant. Clay suggested that rather than ignorance, it may be that the younger generations are more mentally progressive and accepting of technology, in the sense that we were fortunate to grow up with technology and were able to see it evolve.

Ideate

Initially, the Ideate activity was confusing, however, once tutor clarified the activity and gave an example of ideas that were not literal to the sentence, I better understood.

For example, I understood "jump" only as the physical motion. But it turns out that it could be used metaphorically; jump into the holidays.

At the end of the Ideate exercise, I learnt not to take everything as its literal meaning, and rather think critically to ideate on other possible meanings.