Towards User-Centred Climate Services: the Role of Human-Computer Interaction

Title of the Paper

Towards User-Centred Climate Services: the Role of Human-Computer Interaction

Paper Information

• Subject Area: Integration of climate services and human-computer interaction (HCI) and its significance for user-centred climate service design
• Keywords: climate change, climate adaptation, decision support, user-centred design, data visualization, information services, human-computer interaction, user experience, usability evaluation

Research Background and Issues

• Problems and Challenges:

  • Climate services are often used to provide climate and weather information to support responses to climate change and decision-making. However, existing climate services lack sufficient user interaction design, resulting in information that fails to meet user needs effectively, creating a "usability gap."
  • Current climate services are predominantly based on a "supply-driven" model rather than a "demand-driven" model that prioritizes user needs.
  • The HCI community has rarely engaged deeply in the field of climate services, particularly in areas such as user interface design, understanding user needs, and optimizing user experience.

• Significance:

  • Climate change is significantly impacting the global environment and human society, necessitating user-driven climate services to adapt to these changes.
  • Users' inability to access or fully understand climate services in a timely manner may lead to insufficient adaptive capacity, exacerbating social and economic risks.

• Research Motivation and Related Work:

  • Previous research on climate services has primarily focused on data improvement rather than optimizing user decision-making.
  • HCI has demonstrated strong user-centred design capabilities in other fields (e.g., smart cities, sustainable societal development), which can provide valuable insights for climate service design.

Solution

• Proposed Methods and Objectives:

  • Conduct a systematic review of interdisciplinary research between climate services and HCI, exploring the connections and gaps between the two fields through literature retrieval and analysis.
  • Propose and outline areas where HCI scholars can contribute to improving climate services, including user needs analysis, user interface design, data visualization, and the development of decision support tools.

• Innovative Aspects of the Solution:

  • Emphasize applying HCI's user-centred theories and methods to the field of climate services, building more effective user interaction bridges through interdisciplinary collaboration.
  • Propose co-design and participatory design methods tailored to different user groups.

• Specific Steps and Key Techniques:

  1. Literature Retrieval and Analysis: Use multiple databases to retrieve literature related to "HCI" and "climate services," assessing the current state of interdisciplinary research.
  2. Identifying Research Gaps: Analyze shortcomings in existing climate service research and identify the potential applications of HCI in areas such as user experience, visualization design, and decision support.
  3. Proposing Optimization Suggestions:
     • Employ user research methods based on needs (e.g., interviews, focus groups, contextual inquiries).
     • Design and evaluate user-friendly visualization tools and interfaces.
     • Combine cognitive psychology to enhance the ability of climate services to support user decision-making.

Research Outcomes

• Specific Findings:

  • Literature retrieval reveals that research intersections between HCI and climate services are minimal, with only 6 papers mentioning relevant discussions on major HCI publication platforms.
  • The development of climate services remains data-oriented, lacking user needs analysis and user-centred design approaches.

• Advantages and Contributions:

  • Identified specific areas where HCI can contribute to climate service design (e.g., user needs modeling, user interface design, data visualization).
  • Provided concrete recommendations to help interdisciplinary teams collaborate more effectively to address climate change.

• Experimental or Evaluation Results:

  • Systematic literature analysis shows that the scope and depth of current interdisciplinary research are limited, and the practical application of HCI concepts in climate services remains underexplored.

• Limitations and Future Directions:

  • Limitations:
    • Limited communication and collaboration between HCI scholars and climate researchers.
    • Research in the field of climate services focuses more on data development, with insufficient attention to design and user-centred approaches.
  • Future Directions:
    1. Broader promotion and introduction of user-centred design in climate services.
    2. Conduct interdisciplinary collaborative research, combining climate science, social sciences, and HCI.
    3. Explore new media and technologies (e.g., immersive interfaces, haptic interaction) in climate information services.

In summary, this study highlights the significant potential of user-centred design in the field of climate services and calls for active participation from the HCI community to play a practical role in climate change adaptation and mitigation.