Seven HCI Grand Challenges

In class this week, we explored seven challenges that outline the works of leading researchers in human-computer interaction. In particular, a team and I focused on accessibility and universal access and the challenge of incorporating it into potential solutions. This topic was particularly challenging as we struggled to find any existing technological breakthroughs that allow for universal access. The only example we could come up with was an example not relating to HCI, which was the implementation of ramps to serve the same purpose as stairs, which are not very costly to implement, and can be found globally. Below is an image of what was brainstormed as a team:

Card-Driven Brainstorm Ideation

Round 1

This activity was great fun! It was a really exciting way to generate wacky and unique ideas. The first activity was conducted as a group and we came up with some interesting and unique ideas. One in particular that really stood out to us in the group was mis-directional sound within a museum to have the quality of being nomadic. Below is some of the unique and interesting ideas that we came up with as a group:

Round 2

The second activity required us to do the same, but individually. It was quite challenging to come up with ideas and easy to exhaust ideas, particularly with challenging scenarios, which is why it was handy that we were able to swap a card around with other team members. It was interesting to note that swapping only one of the four cards around could completely change the generation of ideas! Below are some of the ideas I brainstormed during this rapid fire activity.

Round 3

Finally, we regrouped with our team members once again and worked with an idea that stood out to us. In this particular case we were all happy and intrigued with the mis-directional sound idea, however we changed the design aspect of youth to control, which gave us a unique view on ideation. Here is the final set of ideas we came up with:

It was really interesting to see how swapping out an element could completely change the outcome. I really enjoyed this activity and hope to use a similar form of idea generation to create new an exciting ideas for future works.