Designing palaver tree online: supporting social roles in a community of oral history

As a more diverse population of users moves online, understanding how to help those groups work together and leverage their diverse skills poses a significant challenge for human-computer interaction. This paper presents a case study of the design of an online community that supports kids interviewing elders to build up a shared database of oral history. Two pilot studies with existing technology are presented, and a software design based on those studies is described. In addition, a formative evaluation of the software is discussed, along with future work. This work shows the value of prototyping with existing technology in order to uncover user needs in an online environment. Keywords CSCL, online community, children, user-centered design

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2001
• Where: CHI
• Authors: Jason B. Ellis, Amy Bruckman
• Keywords: CHI 2001, Diverse Population, Human Computer Interaction, Kids Interviewing Elders, Online Community