Moving HCI Outdoors: Lessons Learned from Conducting Research in the Wild

Researchers are increasingly adopting ‘research in the wild’ approaches to design and evaluate prototypes in public spaces and to understand how city dwellers interact with them. Although ‘in the wild’ studies can provide more ecologically valid findings compared with typical performance measures collected in the lab, there are challenges associated with designing for and deploying in emergent contexts. A huge amount of work is involved, especially navigating the range of pragmatic and logistical concerns that inevitably arise. It is messy, expensive, time consuming, and unpredictable where often things don’t go according to plan. However, such practicalities are rarely discussed in published studies. The importance of the ‘behind the scenes’ work in making research in the wild happen should not be underestimated. In this chapter, we focus on three case studies where technology prototypes were evaluated in the wild. These are discussed in terms of: technology and design, space and place, social factors, and sustainability. Finally, we provide a set of practical recommendations for researchers and practitioners in the field.