{"id":2100,"date":"2019-04-01T17:25:00","date_gmt":"2019-04-01T15:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/retroproject.eu\/?p=2100"},"modified":"2025-12-12T17:35:00","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T16:35:00","slug":"smart-agents-for-empowerment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/retroproject.eu\/en\/smart-agents-for-empowerment\/","title":{"rendered":"Smart agents for empowerment"},"content":{"rendered":"

The increasingly interconnected and smart technological landscape of Internet of Things is currently driven by technological possibilities. Companies interested in data, sensor, or AI technologies produce various smart products, yet in many cases there is not a clear user or business model behind their design decisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clothespins that notify you when the laundry is dry or socks that keep track of how many times they were washed indicate how shortsightedly IoT could be executed. Being smart, however, IoT has a lot more potential if we do not take technology as the starting point of designing. The main argument of this project is that we can create meaningful and empowering smart products through putting users\u2019 needs and context in the center, as well as carefully designing the form, behavior, and intelligence of these products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This project aims to develop a model with its supplementary design tools and methods for designing smart products for human empowerment. By following a research-through-design methodology, the project intends to tackle which forms, intelligence and behaviors respond to the needs of users and contexts, and under which conditions and to what extent the users are willing to delegate control to smart products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Empowerment, in the context of this project, is defined as extending people\u2019s skills and knowledge, adding to their autonomy and self-esteem, allowing for new capabilities (Schneider et al., 2018). Products that \u2018have information processing capabilities and are connected to the internet\u2019 fall under the description of smart products in this proposal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This connectedness and intelligence allow smart products to be situated (recognize the context they are in), personalized (tailor themselves to the users\u2019 needs), adaptive (change from interactions with users), pro-active (anticipate users\u2019 plans), and autonomous (make decisions). In other words, smart products are agents that are capable of action and making an impact on users\u2019 lives; and eventually, empower them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nazli Cila, researcher at the Digital Life Centre and involved in this project, has already made an initial attempt to develop a theoretical angle focusing on the agency of smart products to discuss their design and use (Cila et al., 2017; Giaccardi et al., 2016). Yet more work is needed to develop and validate hands-on guidelines, methods, and tools that designers can use for creating meaningful smart products and designing their agency, as well as good demonstrators on how smart products can empower people. This is the intended outcome of this project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Publications<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Things as Co-ethnographers: Implications of a Thing Perspective for Design and Anthropology<\/h6>\n\n\n\n

(2016 )Elisa Giaccardi, Chris Speed, Nazli Cila & Melissa CaldwellDesign Anthropological Futures<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thing Ethnography: Doing Design Research with Non-Humans<\/h6>\n\n\n\n

(2016 )Elisa Giaccardi, Nazli Cila, Chris Speed & Melissa CaldwellProceedings of the 2016 ACM Conference on Designing Interactive Systems (DIS ’16)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Products as Agents: Metaphors for Designing the Products of the IoT Age<\/h6>\n\n\n\n

(2017 )Nazli Cila, Iskander Smit, Elisa Giaccardi, & Ben Kr\u00f6seProceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Near future cities of things: addressing dilemmas through design fiction<\/h6>\n\n\n\n

(2018 )Maria Luce Lupetti, Nazli Cila & Iskander SmitNordiCHI ’18 Proceedings of the 10th Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Project duration<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

1 Apr 2019 -1 Apr 2021<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Researchers<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

dr Nazli Cila<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

prof. dr Ben Kr\u00f6se<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ben Schouten<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Funding<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Regieorgaan SIA HBO Post Doc<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Partners<\/h3>\n\n\n\n