Human centered design of digital assistance systems for disabled people
Trial and evaluation of the workshop program friendlyAI@work
Digital assistance systems provide disabled people enormous opportunities to work in a more self-determined way. Knowledge about human-centered work design is important to realize these benefits of digital assistance technologies.
In the research project “HUMAINE” we developed the workshop concept “friendlyAI@ work” to improve digital design competencies for AI designers and professionals. It is based on action learning and focusses on group learning processes using practical examples. In this article we report our first findings on the program effectiveness collected during a deployment process of assistance systems in a sheltered workshop for people with disabilities.
The evaluation of the 18-month programme as part of an intervention-based case study with between 5 and 11 participants indicates positive effects with regard to both an increase in individual digital design skills and the ability to design human-centred work systems. In addition, the workshop had positive effects in rising sustainable organizational digital design competencies (e.g., deployment of a sociotechnical risk assessment during the planning process of technical systems). The cross-functional composition of the participants, the learning concept based on practical examples and the agile moderation process were identified as crucial factors for learning success. In addition to this, the mixed-method based evaluation design showed, that individual learning capabilities in diverse learning groups are a crucial success factor.
Practical Relevance:
Knowledge about human-centered work design is of great importance to support disabled people with intelligent technologies at work in a sensible way. The design of digital assistance systems should promote the individual resources of the humans and prevent negative consequences, for example strain. The workshop program “friendlyAI@work” enables technical designers and professionals to implement digital assistance systems in a human and user-friendly way in their organizations.
The workshop improves knowledge about the functionalities of artificial intelligence and its application in assistance systems. The participants get an introduction to the principles of human-centered work and technology design. An 18-month trial of the workshop at Iserlohner Werkstätten gGmbH indicates high acceptance of participants and successes in designing human-centered assistance workplaces.