Post from Tanvi Vats.
I flew up to a lovely little town called Uppsala in Sweden to attend my first ever academic conference in October. I presented our work highlighting the need to extend the Right to Repair to IoT technologies.
Have you thought about why you change your phone every 2 years? Now imagine if that happens to perhaps your TV or refrigerator?
Our paper draws attention to how internet-connectedness and software are being used to prematurely brick IoT devices and add to an ever-increasing pile of e-waste globally, but especially in the Global South.
In the paper, we have explored how general users in the UK cope with these scenarios of premature obsolescence, understand the kind of support they need to tackle it and the challenges they could face when attempting to repair and reuse these devices.
You can read more about it here: https://doi.org/10.1145/3679318.3685383
Reflections on Attending NordiCHI’24
NordiCHI was my first-ever academic conference, and it gave me a glimpse into the part of academia I’ve come to love—the freedom to explore, experiment, and play with new ideas. Being surrounded by researchers who think creatively and critically about technology was inspiring.
Sessions and Insights
I attended three sessions at the conference, each offering something new.
The first was the opening talk by Marc Hassenzahl, who shared his work on designing for human connection through technology. He showed some fascinating artifacts—some, like Pillowtalk, were very on the nose, but others, like BeenThere, felt deeply connected to people’s everyday lives. His approach to designing with tangible objects got me thinking about how powerful simple tools can be when they’re rooted in daily experiences. I was especially drawn to how he documents his work with short films, which I’d love to explore in my own work. It felt like a new way to tell stories and communicate research.
Next, I attended a tutorial on ethical experience design with Veronica and Anne from Germany, where we did a modified Lego-Play session to explore psychological needs and values tied to online privacy. I was joined by researchers and practitioners from the US, Denmark, and Sweden, and we each shared our perspectives. The last part of the session, where we used systems thinking to consider the broader impacts of our design, was the crucial bit. It made us think about all the stakeholders we may have overlooked when we were designing for our intended user. This session left me rethinking some of my own assumptions about design ethics. But mostly, I thought that the study design was interesting, and had fun participating in the tutorial.
In the afternoon, I joined a session on Makerspaces, and my favourite paper from this session was Zinography: A Community-Based Research-through-Design Method of Zine Making for Unequal Contexts by Ms. Hay and her team. Two things really stood out: her energy (she livened up the room!) and her commitment to co-creation and pluralistic narratives. Although the paper could have done a bit more to assess the effectiveness of this methodology, I’m intrigued to explore zine-making as a participatory tool. Another highlight from this session was Ms. Lin’s presentation on AI-mediated textile design. She explained how they used oscilloscopes to code the textile design process and linked it to debugging practices in software development—a connection I would never have made myself. While I didn’t grasp all the details, I left that session feeling amazed and inspired by the creativity of the people around me.
Presenting Our Research
The next day was our presentation, and I was admittedly nervous. I scoped out the room we’d be presenting in beforehand, but then decided to retreat to my own room for a quiet evening before my talk. When I got back the next afternoon, I arrived early to test the tech setup, meet the Chair, Mareike Glöss, and wish the other presenters good luck. When I introduced myself as the last presenter, there was a funny moment where she initially mistook me for a student representative—Katie quickly corrected her and told her I’d be presenting. A small, lighthearted moment that helped ease my nerves.
Our session had four papers, each presenter getting 15 minutes to talk and 5 minutes for questions. Dr. Lachlan opened the session, and it felt like a mini Fixing the Future party seeing him up there—he set a great tone for the session. It really helped to have supportive faces like Namrata, Anna, and my partner in the audience, which made me feel more comfortable when it was finally my turn to present.
The presentation itself went well! I think it’s because Dr. Neelima had Fabiana and me practice it so many times in front of different people, testing different formats and setups. We’d just done a run-through in Berwick, which helped us fine-tune the presentation based on feedback about what worked and what didn’t. When Chair Glöss asked who should read our paper and what we were working on next, I was able to clearly explain that our work speaks to the HCI community—especially researchers in CSCW, usable privacy and security, and human-data interaction (HDI)—and that it includes user-centred recommendations for manufacturers and regulators around IoT repair. To top it off, I connected with a researcher from the US after the session, and we’re already talking about a potential collaboration in this space! Katie, who had presented before me, too admitted that they hadn’t thought about the lifecycle of the smart fridge in their work and it was indeed something that she might go back and look at in her work.
Connecting and Celebrating
In the evening, we had an amazing dinner at the Uppsala Palace, hosted by the mayor. I was seated next to strangers, and after some initial awkwardness and a glass of wine, I ended up having a great conversation with a researcher across the table who uses behavioral design to promote green behaviors in Germany. She even connected me with someone who works with makerspaces there. The night ended on a high note with some traditional Swedish music and good company—definitely a memorable way to wrap up the day.
Reflections and Takeaways
Leaving Uppsala, I brought back more than just a coffee addiction and a stash of biskvi. I left with new ideas, a renewed passion for my research, and a lot more self-confidence. NordiCHI showed me that academia isn’t just about intellectual rigor—it’s about building connections, learning from others’ perspectives, and finding joy in the creative process. I’m excited to see where this journey takes me next.
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