C. A. Le Dantec. Exploring Mobile Technologies for the Urban Homeless. In Doctoral Colloquia at the ACM Conference on Computer-human Interaction (CHI 2010), Atlanta, Georgia, USA, April 10–15 2010.

Abstract

My research examines the practical and social impact of technology on the urban homeless. To accomplish this, I have conducted interviews with the homeless to understand how technology—from mobile phones to bus passes—affects their lives. I have also conducted ethnographic fieldwork at care providers to understand how technology figures into the provision of care for the homeless. These formative studies have motivated the design of a set of information sharing services that aggregate information available in the community and provide it to the homeless via mobile phones. I will deploy this system to diverse set of homeless individuals to better understand how such technologies fit within the social and economic constraints of the homeless community. I expect my research to result in theoretical contributions and guidelines for designing for uncommon users, like the homeless.