| dc.description.abstract | In this thesis, I outline how human-centered design can engage in the exploration and understanding of experiences of diabetes in daily life. I investigate the core question of “How can design influence the experience of diabetes in daily life?” in relation to emerging technologies and particularly diabetes self-management apps. In doing so, I trace how human-centered design can explore means of influencing of design through discourses and mediational approaches. Further, this thesis addresses the interrelated issues of self-tracking practices, agency, and discourse that have become emerging issues in human-centered design for chronic illness. These issues are analyzed and developed through an interpretivist/constructivist research approach. The subsequent methodology focused on revealing the relationship between discourse, human-centered design and experience and engages directly with the exploration, understanding, and discussion of self-management apps for diabetes. The results indicate that lived experiences of diabetes can be explored through a combination of linguistic investigations and co-design interventions that are both analytical and productive and which can inform new perspectives on the potential of human-centered design and technology for chronic illness. The new perspectives that emerge as a result of these interventions challenge existing notions of design for successful diabetes self-management and technology.
The main contribution of this thesis is a range of concepts offering cultural, discursive, and co-creational perspectives on design for chronic illness. The study builds a body of knowledge about the lived experience of diabetes, the implication of human-centered design, and the emerging field of apps for self-management, all of which demonstrate the potential applications for these concepts. | en_US |
