Off Into the Sunset: Designing for the Inevitable End of Projects

Abstract: Ending projects – in whatever form that takes – is a known area of difficulty for research that involves designing and implementing technologies with and within communities. The ending process is particularly salient to underserved and marginalized communities and populations. This dissertation uses the project ecosystem and power dynamics in which researchers and participants exist to understand ways of ending in order to build a framework for advancing design justice in the ending process.

The first set of empirical studies in this dissertation address the power dynamics and roles within community-based design projects and multigenerational co-design teams. From this work we learn how we can encourage youth and their communities to take ownership of learning technologies through participatory design and involvement in the technology implementation process. Subsequent studies focus on the long-term impacts of such projects and how the community and researchers can begin to transition these technologies to community ownership, while understanding the resource constraints of both the researchers and communities. The final study — a cross case analysis of two long-term projects — extends this work on power dynamics and impacts, using the understanding of systems and infrastructure to frame our understanding of the equitable ending process. Together, these studies provide grounding for a framework to create a more just and equitable ending process, specifically creating guidelines for designing the end of the research cycle in an ethical and practical manner.

This dissertation provides empirical insights on the development and changes within relationships and power dynamics throughout the course of a community-based educational technology design project; the challenges, obstacles, and opportunities at the conclusion of a project life cycle; and the different ways ending a project occurs. The work also has theoretical implications, contributing new perspectives on the meta-design of research processes and the design research cycle. Finally, this work contributes an initial methodological framework for designing projects involving long-term technology development with community groups that plan for and incorporate the ending of the project, derived from the findings in the previous contributions. Through this work I explore the dimensions and considerations in ending a project that involves a long-term partnership with a community, developing ways to discuss, navigate, and plan for the closing process and facilitating less extractive and more mutually beneficial community research partnerships.

Supervisory Committee
Co-chair: Katie Davis, Associate Professor, The Information School, University of Washington
Co-chair: Jason Yip, Associate Professor, The Information School, University of Washington
GSR: Kara Jackson, Associate Professor, College of Education, University of Washington
Member: Katie Headrick Taylor, Associate Professor, College of Education, University of Washington