Whatfutures: Designing large-scale engagements on Whatsapp

Daniel Lambton-Howard; Robert Anderson; Kyle Montague; Andrew Garbett; Shaun Hazeldine; Carlos Alvarez; John A. Sweeney; Patrick Olivier; Ahmed Kharrufa

doi:10.1145/3290605.3300389

Whatfutures: Designing large-scale engagements on Whatsapp

Daniel Lambton-Howard, Robert Anderson, Kyle Montague, Andrew Garbett, Shaun Hazeldine, Carlos Alvarez, John A. Sweeney, Patrick Olivier, Ahmed Kharrufa

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › peer-review

31 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

WhatsApp, as the world’s most popular messaging application, offers significant opportunities for improving the reach and effectiveness of engagement projects. In collaboration with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) we designed WhatFutures, a collaborative future forecasting engagement for global youth using WhatsApp. WhatFutures was successfully deployed with 487 players across 5 countries (Kenya, Bulgaria, Finland, Australia and Hong Kong) to inform strategic change within the IFRC. Based on our analysis of the activity - including 16,100 messages, 95 multimedia artifacts, and a post-engagement survey - we present a reflection upon the design decisions underpinning WhatFutures and identify how decisions made around group structures, processes and externalization of outputs influenced engagement and data quality. We conclude with the wider implications of our findings for the design of engagements that best utilize the affordances of existing messaging applications.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	CHI 2019 - Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Place of Publication	New York
Publisher	ACM
ISBN (Electronic)	9781450359702
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/3290605.3300389
Publication status	Published - 2 May 2019
Externally published	Yes
Event	2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2019 - Glasgow, United Kingdom Duration: 4 May 2019 → 9 May 2019

Publication series

Name	Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings

Conference

Conference	2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2019
Country/Territory	United Kingdom
City	Glasgow
Period	4/05/19 → 9/05/19

Keywords

Collaborative content creation
Engagement
WhatsApp

Access to Document

10.1145/3290605.3300389

31 Citations
1 Conference contribution

TalkFutures: Supporting Qualitative Practices in Distributed Community Engagements
Rainey, J., Alvarez De La Vega, J., Lambton-Howard, D., Armoush, S., Bartindale, T., Hazeldine, S., Briggs, P., Olivier, P. & Montague, K., 3 Jul 2020, DIS '20: Proceedings of the 2020 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference. New York: ACM, p. 771–784 14 p.
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › peer-review

Open Access
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5 Citations (Scopus)

78 Downloads (Pure)

Cite this

Lambton-Howard, D., Anderson, R., Montague, K., Garbett, A., Hazeldine, S., Alvarez, C., Sweeney, J. A., Olivier, P., & Kharrufa, A. (2019). Whatfutures: Designing large-scale engagements on Whatsapp. In CHI 2019 - Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Article 159 (Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings). ACM. https://doi.org/10.1145/3290605.3300389

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abstract = "WhatsApp, as the world{\textquoteright}s most popular messaging application, offers significant opportunities for improving the reach and effectiveness of engagement projects. In collaboration with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) we designed WhatFutures, a collaborative future forecasting engagement for global youth using WhatsApp. WhatFutures was successfully deployed with 487 players across 5 countries (Kenya, Bulgaria, Finland, Australia and Hong Kong) to inform strategic change within the IFRC. Based on our analysis of the activity - including 16,100 messages, 95 multimedia artifacts, and a post-engagement survey - we present a reflection upon the design decisions underpinning WhatFutures and identify how decisions made around group structures, processes and externalization of outputs influenced engagement and data quality. We conclude with the wider implications of our findings for the design of engagements that best utilize the affordances of existing messaging applications.",

keywords = "Collaborative content creation, Engagement, WhatsApp",

author = "Daniel Lambton-Howard and Robert Anderson and Kyle Montague and Andrew Garbett and Shaun Hazeldine and Carlos Alvarez and Sweeney, {John A.} and Patrick Olivier and Ahmed Kharrufa",

year = "2019",

month = may,

day = "2",

doi = "10.1145/3290605.3300389",

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series = "Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings",

publisher = "ACM",

booktitle = "CHI 2019 - Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems",

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Lambton-Howard, D, Anderson, R, Montague, K, Garbett, A, Hazeldine, S, Alvarez, C, Sweeney, JA, Olivier, P & Kharrufa, A 2019, Whatfutures: Designing large-scale engagements on Whatsapp. in CHI 2019 - Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems., 159, Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings, ACM, New York, 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2019, Glasgow, United Kingdom, 4/05/19. https://doi.org/10.1145/3290605.3300389

Whatfutures: Designing large-scale engagements on Whatsapp. / Lambton-Howard, Daniel; Anderson, Robert; Montague, Kyle et al.
CHI 2019 - Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. New York: ACM, 2019. 159 (Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › peer-review

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AU - Lambton-Howard, Daniel

AU - Anderson, Robert

AU - Montague, Kyle

AU - Garbett, Andrew

AU - Hazeldine, Shaun

AU - Alvarez, Carlos

AU - Sweeney, John A.

AU - Olivier, Patrick

AU - Kharrufa, Ahmed

PY - 2019/5/2

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N2 - WhatsApp, as the world’s most popular messaging application, offers significant opportunities for improving the reach and effectiveness of engagement projects. In collaboration with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) we designed WhatFutures, a collaborative future forecasting engagement for global youth using WhatsApp. WhatFutures was successfully deployed with 487 players across 5 countries (Kenya, Bulgaria, Finland, Australia and Hong Kong) to inform strategic change within the IFRC. Based on our analysis of the activity - including 16,100 messages, 95 multimedia artifacts, and a post-engagement survey - we present a reflection upon the design decisions underpinning WhatFutures and identify how decisions made around group structures, processes and externalization of outputs influenced engagement and data quality. We conclude with the wider implications of our findings for the design of engagements that best utilize the affordances of existing messaging applications.

AB - WhatsApp, as the world’s most popular messaging application, offers significant opportunities for improving the reach and effectiveness of engagement projects. In collaboration with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) we designed WhatFutures, a collaborative future forecasting engagement for global youth using WhatsApp. WhatFutures was successfully deployed with 487 players across 5 countries (Kenya, Bulgaria, Finland, Australia and Hong Kong) to inform strategic change within the IFRC. Based on our analysis of the activity - including 16,100 messages, 95 multimedia artifacts, and a post-engagement survey - we present a reflection upon the design decisions underpinning WhatFutures and identify how decisions made around group structures, processes and externalization of outputs influenced engagement and data quality. We conclude with the wider implications of our findings for the design of engagements that best utilize the affordances of existing messaging applications.

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ER -

Whatfutures: Designing large-scale engagements on Whatsapp

Abstract

Publication series

Conference

Keywords

Access to Document

Fingerprint

Research output

TalkFutures: Supporting Qualitative Practices in Distributed Community Engagements

Cite this