ALCHIMIA Project’s Experience of Doing Human-Centred Design

By Rachel Hale, Dean Stroud, Martin Weinel and Vinicio Di Iorio

The social science team are writing an academic paper which reflects on their experience of being involved in the human-centered design (HCD) of the ALCHIMIA digital platform. The human-centered design approach proposes that technology will be more acceptable, used more efficiently and effectively, and have less adverse consequences, when the requirements of users and stakeholders are continuously considered during development, implementation and use. While general human-centered design principles and prescriptions are well-established, their translation into practice can be affected by problems which lead to sub-standard outcomes. Iterative, empirical social science research can add to the understanding of such obstacles, and enablers, to human-centered design.

In the paper, we will reflect on our role as social scientists in the human-centered design processes and the development of ethical AI in the ALCHIMIA project and provide project-specific insights that also have wider relevance and application. In so doing, we provide a toolkit for how social scientists (and other academic disciplines and non-academic sectors) can be involved in the human-centered design of digital technologies. This includes describing the process and role of social scientists in:

• defining digital system requirements (technical, social, organizational and environmental requirements)

• doing human-centered design in large, interdisciplinary research consortia

• evaluating human-centered design

We will provide examples of several tools and tables that we used or developed in the project, including:

• a stakeholder/user-engagement matrix

• a table overview of external and organizational requirements (including the legal or policy source or basis of them)

• a table of tools utilized to gain user-centered perspectives

• a table of the self-assessment of the seven requirements for ethical and trustworthy AI (ALTAI)

• a table of the relationship between user acceptance factors of technology and workplace issues identified in the literature and Ethics Guidelines (i.e. ALTAI requirements)

• a table of the digital platform-specific HCD recommendations

• a table of the disciplines integrated into the project and their roles

• a table of the multi-disciplinarity and complementarity of competences of project consortium 

The paper will provide recommendations as to how adherence to and alignment with the principles of human-centered design can be sustained and, where required, be improved. We will also address the challenges that industrial settings and the organisation of research through large inter-disciplinary consortia may pose to the success of human-centered design of technology.