Hilary Davis

Swinburne University of Technology · Centre for Social Impact

This report is about the role of online mental health peer support forums in supporting rural resilience.

Caring for people living with dementia often leads to social isolation and decreased support for caregivers. This study investigated the effect of a Virtual Dementia-Friendly Rural Communities (Verily Connect) model on social support and demand for caregivers of people living with dementia. The co-designed intervention entailed an integrated websit...

During the COVID-19 pandemic, government directives for health and community services focused on building capacity for COVID-19 safe behaviors. During 2020-2021, there was mounting pressure to increase vaccination numbers to boost population-wide immunity, thereby enabling the lessening of pandemic response restrictions. The Australian population,...

Poor sleep has significant impacts on both mental and physical well-being. This is especially the case for shift workers who rely on good sleep practices to manage the disruption caused by their working conditions. In recent years there has been a proliferation of sleep-focused mobile phone applications, some of which may be suitable for use by shi...

Introduction Inaccessibility of mental health services in rural Australia is widely reported. Community co-produced mental health and well-being initiatives could fill gaps and complement other services. Objective This scoping review summarises findings from peer-reviewed articles to identify the key features of co-produced Australian rural mental...

There is great potential for human-centred technologies to enhance wellbeing for people living with dementia and their carers. The Virtual Dementia Friendly Rural Communities (Verily Connect) project aimed to increase access to information, support, and connection for carers of rural people living with dementia, via a co-designed, integrated websit...

One of the issues limiting prevention of elder abuse in Australia is lack of a strong evidence base to target social drivers of abuse, particularly ageism. This evidence gap is exacerbated by social discourses that perpetuate negative representations of older age as a time of vulnerability and physical decline, often in opposition to people’s actua...

The Tales from Yarriambiack Shire web-series, is a collection of mobile stories showcasing five rural communities from Victoria, Australia. These tales were commissioned by Yarriambiack Shire Council with the intention to provide small communities with a platform to raise awareness of local attractions. The mobile-mentaries (mobile documentaries) s...

Digital technology has become a frequent companion of daily food practices, shaping the ways we produce, consume, and interact with food. Smart kitchenware, diet tracking apps, and other techno-solutions carry promise for healthy and sustainable food futures but are often problematic in their impact on food cultures. We conducted four Human-Food In...

According to EAT-Lancet: Food is the single strongest lever to optimize human health and environmental sustainability on Earth. However, current food practices are threatening both people and planet. Digital food technologies offer potential for efficient food lifestyles but they present limited opportunity for imagining ‘fantastic’ food futures. I...

Delivering dementia care in rural Australia remains a challenge. Large geographical area, small population, and lack of skilled workforce cause inequity in health outcomes for people living in rural areas. While a third of older people live outside metropolitan areas, the proportion of older people is higher and 40% of people with dementia reside i...

As the number of people affected by dementia continues to rise, this is the first in-depth examination of related services dedicated to the unique demands of remote and rural settings. Contributors from the UK, Australia, North America and Europe explore the experiences and requirements of those living with dementia and those caring for them in per...

From cooking and growing to shopping and dining, digital technology has become a frequent companion in our everyday food practices. Smart food technologies such as online diet personalization services and AI-based kitchenware offer promises of better data-driven food futures. Yet, human-food automation presents certain risks, both to end consumers...

Food and wine are an important part of our everyday lives, not just for sustenance, but for the enjoyment and human interactions it invokes. "If food is the body of good living, wine is its soul" (Clifton Faddiman, Author). In our workshop, On and Off the Table: Re-Imagining Food and Wine Interactions, we will examine the ways in which current huma...

Cooking has the potential to bring joy, a sense of achievement and social presence to individuals and groups. Food properties (food cues) such as scent, sound and taste are rich cues to the state of the cooking process, as well as, providing memories evoking emotions attached to social situations and people from the past. Thus, optimal methods to c...

Seniors are amongst the most digitally excluded in Australia. Despite the increasing popularity of social media, seniors often lack access to technology and to basic digital skills. Thus many seniors do not derive the social benefits and service realisation that arise from online forms of communication and engagement. One barrier to digital inclusi...

Digital inclusion and its implications for social participation is emerging as a key issue for researchers, designers, educators, industry and communities, as contemporary society shifts from top-down decision-making to a more inclusive process that collaborates with a variety of demographics. Yet, this shift tends to predominantly focus on mainstr...

Background: Involving consumers in producing health services is mandated in many countries. Evidence indicates consumer partnerships lead to improved service design, quality and innovation. Involving participants from minority groups is crucial because poor understanding of distinctive needs affects individuals' service experiences and outcomes. F...

Rural health services are challenging to manage, a situation perhaps exacerbated by necessity to comply with one-size-fits-all performance frameworks designed for larger services. This raises the questions: do we know what rural health services are doing that is valuable and how should that be evaluated? Twenty-eight qualitative interviews with CEO...

Digital food technologies such as diet trackers, food sharing apps, and 'smart' kitchenware offer promising yet debatable food futures. While proponents suggest its potential to prompt efficient food lifestyles, critics highlight the underlying technosolutionism of digital food innovation and limitations related to health safety and data privacy. T...

While many older Australians are embracing the social and health benefits of digital life, there is a disproportionate number who do not have an understanding of, access to, or experience with, newer digital and online technologies. Swinburne Social Innovation Research Institute researchers partnered with Telstra and two Melbourne Councils – Boroon...

Digital participation is fast becoming a core issue for researchers, designers, educators, industry and the government. Yet, academic research, industry practices and government policies still tend to focus predominantly on mainstream communities of highly urbanized settlements, often neglecting smaller cities, regional areas, suburbia and disadvan...

Digital participation is emerging as a key issue for researchers, designers, educators, industry and others as government policy increasingly seeks to include people in decision-making about all aspects of their lives. Yet, that tends to focus predominantly on mainstream communities of highly urbanized settlements, often neglecting segments of soci...

This pictorial aims to demonstrate the power of video for fostering creative personal storytelling among people who normally have limited opportunities to share their experiences. We discuss two video stories, created in collaboration with participants in a project that aimed to enable housebound people to share their stories within the local commu...

This paper presents findings from a small ethnographic study of children's use of technology in family-friendly restaurants during dinnertime. We explore children's use of a range of devices (iPad, mobile phone, laptop, etc.) in terms of the layout of the table, the juxtaposition of artefacts, the timing of interaction around eating, and the manage...

This workshop builds on the success of prior workshops that brought together HCI researchers to share stories about ethical challenges faced when conducting research in sensitive settings. There is growing recognition that reflective and empathetic approaches are needed to conduct ethical research in settings involving people who might be considere...

While the idea of "celebratory technologies" during family mealtimes to support positive interactions at the dinner table is promising, there are few studies that investigate how these technologies can be meaningfully integrated into family practices. This paper presents the deployment of Chorus - a mealtime technology that orchestrates the sharing...

This article examines familial interactions, which are mediated through information and communication technologies, during domestic mealtimes. We seek to understand how technologies are used and negotiated among family members and the influence of technology on commensality. We conducted an observational study of six families. The findings showed h...

Digital participation is emerging as a key issue for HCI researchers as government and others seek to include people in decision-making about all aspects of their lives. However digital participation is still most effectively utilized by particular sections of society. Socially excluded, diverse and marginalized people, such as people living with d...

Amongst industry today, construction managers have some of the highest level of work-family conflict (WFC) primarily due to long work hours, tight deadlines and a masculine working culture. Despite this, there is a paucity of research about the impact of ICT on the work-life balance (WLB) of construction managers. We employed an online survey and c...

The work-life balance of construction managers is precarious due to long work hours and high levels of work-family conflict (WFC). The impact of mobile communication technologies (MCT), such as the mobile phones and tablets, on WFC has not been researched in construction. Research suggests that their use contributes to the blurring of work and non-...

This paper joins the ubiquitous computing scholarship that investigates the use of technologies in collocated shared settings like family mealtime. Family mealtimes are an important site for fostering togetherness, sharing everyday experiences, and nurturing familial ties. While technologies, especially television and personal devices are often cri...

This article reflects on the process of conducting a project that involved creating digital stories with people who are predominately housebound, and sharing the stories on a public display at a community event. The project aimed to ‘give voice’ to people who are normally invisible in their community, and to explore the role of digital technologies...

In the HCI community, there is growing recognition that a reflective and empathetic approach is needed to conduct ethical research in sensitive settings with people who might be considered vulnerable or marginalized. At our CHI 2015 workshop on ethical encounters, researchers shared personal stories of the challenges and tensions they have faced wh...

Video-sharing sites such as YouTube and Vimeo have been used to share videos that describe difficult life experiences, and provide a forum for people living with adversity to express themselves and connect with others. This may not benefit those who require support in building local connections, however, as audiences are unknown and may not be supp...

Recent research about technology during mealtime has been mostly concerned with developing technology rather than creating a deeper understanding of the context of family mealtimes and associated practices. In this paper, we present a two-phase study discussing how the temporal, social, and food related features are intertwined with technology use...

This paper reports on the outcomes of a collaborative industry project which designed and deployed a novel communication systems for older adults. We outline a gap between the goals of our industry partner and the needs and experiences of our participants. We highlight the need to carefully consider the location of set-up, the training needs of old...

Ethics is emerging as a key issue for HCI researchers working in increasingly sensitive and complex settings. New technologies are now designed and evaluated in settings with vulnerable or marginalised participants, which can be emotionally challenging for researchers and give rise to complex ethical dilemmas that are highly contextualized and diff...

With HCI researchers conducting studies in increasingly sensitive and difficult settings, ethics is emerging as a key concern for the HCI community. New technologies are now being designed and evaluated in settings that involve vulnerable or marginalized participants and that can be emotionally challenging for researchers. Research in these setting...

The purpose of this article is to consider how ethical principles can inform the effective design and implementation of technology-based interventions that aim to promote the well-being of socially isolated older adults. We evaluated a new iPad application with small groups of older adults. In this article, we reflect on the ethical issues encounte...

Social technologies offer potential for enhancing aged care, but research on their use has largely focused on formalized care settings, rather than supporting informal care and wellbeing in the home. We examine the use of a novel social technology 'PictureFrame' to support the provision of wellbeing check use for older adults living at home. We con...

HCI research and practice have moved into the kitchen, and alongside screen-based technologies, a number of tangible interaction designs are emerging to support home cooking. However, we note that the designs of tangible technologies for kitchens have, to date, emphasized the work of cooking rather than the social significance or context in which i...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine how pregnant women with type 1 diabetes integrate new information technology (IT) into their health management activities, using activity theory as an analytical framework. Design/methodology/approach – The research is a multiple case design, based on interviews with 15 women with type 1 diabetes w...

In this paper we contribute to the growing body of research into the use and design of technology in the kitchen. This research aims to identify opportunities for designing technologies that may augment existing cooking traditions and in particular familial recipe sharing practices. Using ethnographic techniques, we identify the homemade cookbook a...

In this paper we examine the use of a novel social technology to support the provision of formal aged care services to clients who live in their own homes. Social technologies offer enormous potential for enhancing aged care, but research on their use in aged care has largely focused on institutional or informal care settings, rather than formal ca...

Despite research showing that interaction between the elderly and young people is beneficial to the health and well-being of both, little is known about the grandparent–grandchild relationship. Consequently, it is difficult to make informed design decisions about technologies to support their intergenerational interactions. This paper investigates...

Studies from around the world show how the social media tools of Web 2.0 are shaping engagement with cities, communities, and spaces. Web 2.0 tools, including blogs, wikis, and photo sharing and social networking sites, have made possible a more participatory Internet experience. Much of this technology is available for mobile phones, where it can...

Extending research into material, media, and cultural geographies of the home, our interest turns to the spatiotemporality of dwelling with information and communication technologies. We pose a number of questions: how do inhabitants and their media stuff adapt to the more rigid physical spaces of a building? How does the building respond to the mo...

ICT can play a vital role in facilitating quality care and support for people living with chronic illness. Recently, there has been a proliferation of ICT-enabled consumer health devices. These devices can enable individual patients more precise monitoring and control of chronic conditions, and can generate information and statistics for analysis b...

In this paper we explore the implications of new technologies for performances in relation to work, family time, leisure and other everyday activities. Importantly, we mobilize our analysis around temporal patterns of daily life, rather than deploying cartographic metaphors and the `boundaries' they produce. Through fieldwork informed by five famil...

The research reported here draws upon four homes in Melbourne, Australia, where variable practices and strategies in the use of information and communication technologies are adopted in negotiating the temporal and spatial dynamics of the working-home. Informed by theories from Science and Technology Studies, we argue that these strategies arise in...

The objectives of the Science-Technology Division shall be to draw together those members of the Special Libraries Association having an interest in the role of library and information science as applied to the recording, retrieval and dissemination of knowledge and information in all areas of science and technology, and to promote and improve the...

Development literature emphasizes the importance of parental involvement in both care and play activities, to build secure relationships. The chapter presents five case studies of novel designs that employ diverse mobile technologies to provide provide parents and children with new opportunities to share experiences and have fun together while bein...

The steady proliferation of media and connectivity reconstitutes domestic rhythms in ways that make them emergent, relational, negotiated, and multiple. In an attempt to capture some of the entangled dynamics characteristic of contemporary domestic chronometrics (time-measured), chronaesthetics (time-felt) and chronomanagement (time-ordered), we us...

This paper explores playfulness between grandparents and grandchildren, especially when they are separated by distance, and investigates ideas to bridge this separation. We present the result of a three stage investigation; the first an observational study of collocated intergenerational play groups, the second a cultural probes study of distribute...

In this paper we explore the ways in which young adults with cancer (aged 17-24) build support networks through computer mediated personal networks. The support networks are influenced by technological affordances and the ongoing experiences of living with the illness and treatment regimes. We report a single, in-depth case study of one young adult...

People with cancer have to contend with a variety of physical, emotional and social difficulties. Young people with cancer are often faced with the additional burden of isolation from their peers and social network. This paper outlines early results from a collaborative project seeking to use emerging technologies to develop and evaluate a peer-bas...

It is well documented that ongoing social connection between the young and the elderly increase the sense of well-being of both parties. However it may be difficult to maintain and cultivate intergenerational relationships in which physical, temporal, or social distances exist between grandparents and their grandchildren. This paper outlines findin...

In this paper, we report on a longitudinal study of technology use in the home. We present three case studies of family life that examine shifting patterns of information and communications technologies (ICT) use in the home over a period of four years. The paper documents technological changes that have taken place, addresses new modes of practice...

Mediated intimacy is the phenomenon where humans use technologies to express, share, or communicate intimate feelings with each other. Typically, technologies supporting mediated intimacy encompass different characteristics than technologies designed to solve specific work-oriented tasks. This paper reports on the design, implementation and initial...

This paper explores the nature of intergenerational play and opportunities for technologies to mediate playful activities. We report on a cultural probe study of four extended families and introduce the Magic Box as a new probe for understanding playful engagement at a distance.

Editor—The results of Murray et al's two studies on interactive multimedia decision aids are compatible with the conclusions that both they1,2 and the author of the accompanying editorial3 draw: that such products are generally acceptable; that they lead to a substantial decrease in patients' decisional conflict; that the interactive nature of the...

To determine whether a decision aid on hormone replacement therapy influences decision making and health outcomes. Randomised controlled trial. 26 general practices in the United Kingdom. 205 women considering hormone replacement therapy. Intervention: Patients' decision aid consisting of an interactive multimedia programme with booklet and printed...

To determine whether a decision aid on benign prostatic hypertrophy influences decision making, health outcomes, and resource use. Randomised controlled trial. 33 general practices in the United Kingdom. 112 men with benign prostatic hypertrophy. Intervention: Patients' decision aid consisting of an interactive multimedia programme with booklet and...

Objective To determine whether a decision aid on hormone replacement therapy influences decision making and health outcomes.Design Randomised controlled trial.Setting 26 general practices in the United Kingdom.Participants 205 women considering hormone replacement therapy. Intervention Patients' decision aid consisting of an interactive multimedia...

Researchers working in hospital settings are likely to encounter illness and sudden death. This may be upsetting or threatening, particularly for the novice researcher. This chapter recalls some of my experiences while doing ethnographic fieldwork in an English public hospital setting. In particular, I explore some of the practical problems and emo...

We discuss some of the issues that have arisen during the development and introduction into practice of information materials for health professionals and patients that aim to promote clinical effectiveness and informed patient participation in clinical decision making.

In this paper we present a social constructionist analysis of the nursing informatics literature, analysing the literature in terms of three related rhetorics, that of (re)assurance of access, (re)assurance of competence, and (re)assurance of culture. We argue that these three rhetorics are reflexively constitutive of the deployment of information...