Understanding and Tooling Translational Research in Human-Computer Interaction

Abstract

Successfully bridging research and practice in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) can lead to better products and services that benefit society, as well as refined research questions and theories. However, groups of HCI practitioners and HCI researchers often fail to benefit from each other’s valuable expertise, which led to the use of a “research-practice gap” metaphor to illustrates the hardships of bridging research and practice. Although the research-practice gap has framed and motivated studies and opinion pieces by HCI academics, there is still much to be understood about the relationships of research and practice in HCI. This dissertation investigates the nuances of the research-practice gap metaphor in HCI, and the knowledge exchange and use by different groups in the HCI community. Informed by such nuances, I design tools to bridge research and practice in HCI.First, I investigate the research-practice gap to expose the complexity underlying the stark separation between two groups. I study HCI community members’ current efforts to engage in Translational Research efforts, with a focus on knowledge consumption and utilization as well as barriers for knowledge to flow across groups. As a result, I propose a Translational Science Model using the concept of a continuum instead of a gap, to represent how knowledge flows in the HCI community through multiple gaps. I define and describe instances of Translational Research in the HCI field. In addition, I propose design considerations regarding the creation of resources and design methods to facilitate the translation of HCI knowledge from scientific findings to design. Through these contributions, the HCI community can better understand current practices around disseminating and translating HCI knowledge, and the challenges and opportunities for Translational Research to impact distinct design activities. Second, to help bridge the research and practice gaps, I design and evaluate tools aimed at tackling specific barriers for Translational Research in HCI. Translational Research tools in HCI have been framed around academics’ knowledge dissemination models and needs. In turn, I propose and evaluate tools focused on practitioners’ needs and workflow. In one tool, I tackled the barrier of language by creating learning modules for HCI practitioners to read and understand theoretical concepts. On another tool, I tackled the barrier of applicability and contribute a design method to facilitate the application of existing theories into the design process. Learnings from these design explorations help to further furnish our knowledge on how to effectively implement Translational Research efforts and provide additional nuance on the barriers for knowledge dissemination and translation in HCI. In summary, this dissertation introduces and defines Translational Research in HCI and provides a foundation for the discipline to investigate and design translational processes and tools. Such contributions will hopefully inspire efforts to consolidate a Translational Science in HCI.