Seven papers focusing on "design standards", "design methods" and "user experience in the physical and digital world" explore how citizen science volunteers interact with digital tools, what they expect from them, and why these technologies succeed or fail.
Focusing on a recent standard (BS ISO 27500:2016 “The human-centred organisation”) which encourages the adoption of a sociotechnical systems perspective across a wide range of businesses, organizations and ventures, authors discuss its potential application to virtual citizen science.
Although hundreds of citizen science applications exist, there is lack of detailed analysis of volunteers' needs and requirements, usability mistakes and user experiences. Authors perform a literature review to identify articles which discuss user issues and develop a set of design guidelines.
“In citizen science, user-centred development is often emphasised for its potential to involve participants in the development of technology. We describe the development process of the mobile app ‘Naturblick’ as an example of a user-centred design in citizen science.”
The analysis of volunteer interaction with 63 projects demonstrates how project design changes can influence who and how participates. Findings highlight the tension between designing for social good and broad community engagement, versus optimizing for scientific and analytical efficiency
An analysis of the multi-touch interface for the citizen science video game Foldit, comparing multi-touch and mouse interfaces in a 41-subject user study, indicates that for tasks involving guided movement, subjects using the multi-touch interface completed tasks more accurately.
This paper compares the practices of one particular online creative community (webcomics) with current practices in citizen science, showing how each are engaging with digital technologies in different ways to complicate and blur the professional-amateur divide.
Identifying private gardens in the U.K. as key sites of environmental engagement, authors look at how a longer-term online citizen science programme facilitate the development of new attachments of nature, renewed interest in wildlife, friendly gardening practices and attitudinal shifts.
The PCST 2018 sessions on “Communicating science across cultures”: an overview by the session chairs
The 15th international conference of the Public Communication of Science and Technology network took place from April 4–6, 2018. Given its location in Dunedin, New Zealand/Ōtepoti, Aotearoa, it was a natural venue for two sessions on communicating science across cultures.
This paper presents the first study ever conducted on the profile of visitors to the Museum of Human Evolution of Burgos, which exhibits the finds of the Atapuerca archaeo-paleontological sites. Findings reveal a positive perception of the museum and are placed in the context of similar research.
