Co-Designing Future Interactions with Money with Underserved Communities
Lead Research Organisation:
Northumbria University
Department Name: Fac of Arts, Design and Social Sciences
Abstract
The project will explore how underserved groups might be better served by emerging innovations in digital technologies. Specifically, the research will focus on the financial interactions that occur in networks of care, focusing on the experiences of people who care for, or are cared for by, family, friends and volunteers. Prior research has highlighted how financial transactions and interactions within care networks are critically important yet incredibly complex, requiring the informal sharing of money to pay bills on the behalf of those who are housebound, transparency in financial decisions made by family members, and the temporary delegation of powers of spending ones own money to other people.
While many new technologies, such as Distributed Ledgers and crypto-currencies, offer opportunities to support these practices, traditional banks and the underlying technical infrastructures of payment services impede such practices from occurring in a safe and secure way. The research will take a design ethnographic and co-creative and participatory approach to designing new technologies with participants.
While many new technologies, such as Distributed Ledgers and crypto-currencies, offer opportunities to support these practices, traditional banks and the underlying technical infrastructures of payment services impede such practices from occurring in a safe and secure way. The research will take a design ethnographic and co-creative and participatory approach to designing new technologies with participants.
| Description | Financial collaboration for improved wellbeing: controlled pilot of the Toucan mobile app |
| Organisation | Toucan |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | I designed, executed and helped analyse a controlled deployment and diary study to evaluate the first version of the Toucan app. Toucan is a native mobile application for Android and iOS that allows people to receive money management support from someone they know and trust. It has been designed with a focus to improve the financial wellbeing of those living with mental health conditions. The study was done in collaboration with the financial technology startup that designed and developed the mobile application (https://usetoucan.com/); the Money and Mental Health Policy Institute, which assisted with participant recruiment; and with financial support from the Open Banking for Good programme by Nationwide. Fieldwork took place between July and October 2019. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The partner provided incentives for research participants, funded the design and production of research materials (e.g. custom diaries, research report), and professional transcription services of all audio recorded research interviews. |
| Impact | A report targeted to the financial industry and regulators was produced during November 2019 and presented at an event in the Nationwide offices in London on 4th December 2019. |
| Start Year | 2019 |
| Description | Industry placement at Santander UK |
| Organisation | Santander UK Ltd. |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | As recommended by the NPIF funding programme, I undertook a 24-week industry placement with the London-based Santander UK Innovation Team between 28 January and 12 July 2019. During my time at Santander I supported the Innovation Team's qualitative research efforts, helping them plan, run and analyse small-scale user studies. I also provided 6 practical training sessions on the following subjects chosen by the team members: planning qualitative research (25/03/2019), analysing qualitative data (16/04/2019), interviewing techniques (20/05/2019), personas for design (03/06/2019), paper prototyping for software applications (24/06/2019), and introduction to ethnographic methods (09/07/2019). |
| Collaborator Contribution | Santander UK provided the placement opportunity. |
| Impact | As recommended by my supervision team, I requested ethics approval to carry out ethnographic research during my placement at Santander UK. The ethnographic enquiry focused on how human-centred design was interpreted and practiced inside the bank in terms of skills, processes and outcomes. The data collected during my placement will become the basis of a chapter in my doctoral dissertation. |
| Start Year | 2019 |
| Description | GDPR training for older adults |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | In collaboration with the local chapter of the University of the Third Age, and the School of Psychology of Northumbria University, I delivered a training session for older adults about the General Data Protection Regulation, the privacy rights and protections it provides, and how to exercise them. Participants also had an opportunity to discuss and compare the privacy policies of popular websites and institutions such as the BBC, the Home Office and the Met Office. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Participation in Mozilla Festival London 2018 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | I organised two activities for the Mozilla Festival London 2018, an event that targets free / open source software contributors already engaged with Mozilla Foundation initiatives, and the general public in order to disseminate the work of the Foundation and encourage discussion about the future of the Internet. One activity which took place over the 2 days of the festival, invited particpants to reflect on their life experiences of technology, and audio record a personal story about their interactions with technology artifacts. 20 people recorded stories over the weekend. The second session gathered 15 people to discuss 20th century technologies. Participants reflected about the pace of change, the consequences of technological development, and the rich technology life experiences of older people. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Presentation to the CBDC working group at the Central Bank of Canada. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | The Bank of Canada is currently exploring the requirements and possibilities regarding issuance of their own digital fiat currency. Accessibility and inclusive design are a core concern within this work. As part of that process, the CBDC working group inside the Bank of Canada developed an interest on my doctoral research, and requested a presentation to the group that will take place on 1st Mach 2022. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Protect yourself against web third-party tracking: a hands-on training for older adults |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | In collaboration with the local chapter of the University of the Third Age, and the Faculty of Computing in Northumbria University, I organised and imparted a practical training session for older adults about web third-party tracking. Participants learnt about the technical mechanisms used for tracking purposes on the web, and about how to use the tracking protection tools built into the Firefox web browser. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |