Theme

Citizen Science (CS) is a research approach in which scientists and everyday people collaborate to address a research problem. Advancements in digital technologies have significantly expanded the reach of CS by enabling large-scale data collection and collaboration.

In addition to its scientific benefits, CS enhances participants' science literacy, fosters public engagement, and promotes collaborative problem-solving. Despite this being true, we believe that the true potential of CS has not yet been fully explored as a collaborative practice for transformative change.

With this in mind, we planned a one-day workshop as a forum for critical discussions and reflections on the role of HCI researchers, designers, and practitioners in designing CS-empowered interactive systems for increasing awareness about social good and societal issues and promoting concrete actions and behavioural change, from data to sustainable futures.

Workshop Format

A one-day workshop where participants will have the possibility to reflect on and discuss the main open challenges still affecting the design of CS-empowered interactive systems, and to prototype, exploiting data physicalization and co-design, solutions that focus on a specific real-world challenge as presented by experts of the Madeira Island that offers a unique ecosystem to spark reflections on the interplay between sustainability, technology and CS.

As for the main conference, the workshop will take place as a full in-person event.

Final Schedule

9:00 Welcome and introduction [10 mins] - Catia (agenda of the day, and the idea behind the workshop)

9:10 Madness presentation. We will exploit the "madness presentation" format, allowing all participants (including organizers) to quickly present their research, late-breaking work, concerns, motivations, etc., to inspire discussions in the following phases. A cluster diagram will be created to identify points of contact and shared interests. 5 minutes per participant (including organizers). 40 minutes

09:50 Collaborative keynote speech - Data and Technology. The first “collaborative” keynote speech to spark new insights. During the keynote, some of the organisers will present some inspiring works and open challenges, focusing on two of the four themes presented in the Abstract, such as  “Technology” (Catia and Diego) and “Data” (Neal)  [10/12 mins per organizer, three organizers + Q&A]

10:30 COFFEE BREAK 

11:00 Collaborative keynote speech - Community and Madeira as a design space. The second “collaborative” keynote speech will spark new insights into “community” and Madeira as a unique ecosystem. During the keynote, three of the organisers will present some inspiring works and open challenges about communities (Lizette and Thea) and Madeira (Mara).  [10/12 mins per organizer, three organizers + Q&A].

11:20 Stakeholders issues. We are going to present actual challenges that Madeira is experiencing (mosquitos, electricity, bats, whale/biodiversity, etc.). Mara and Catia

11:30  Hands-on interactive format (brainstorming session to identify two ideas - one per issue). Next, the workshop will transit to an interactive format where participants will be divided into groups based on their interests and the cluster diagram. These groups will discuss specific research issues that arise from the madness presentation session, focusing on two Madeira-related probes. Each group will also create a visual representation of their insights using materials we will provide (stationery material), combining data physicalization and material making. [2 ideas - 30 mins per idea]

12:30 LUNCH (we reserved a place outside the venue)

13:30 Peer-to-peer evaluation session (for getting feedback).  After the first phase of brainstorming, each group will participate in a peer-to-peer evaluation session, where they can present their idea to the other groups to receive feedback, focusing on the main areas addressed in the two keynotes, such as data, technology, communities, and Madeira as design space. 10 mins for describing the idea and receiving feedback, and then, repeat for each group matching. 

14:30 Hands-on interactive format. The group will continue working on their tangible output for the selected idea.

15:30 COFFEE BREAK

16:00 Working on the group presentation.

16:30 Group presentation. Finally, each group will collaboratively present their insights to the others (10 minutes a group).

17:00 Takeaways and goodbye. The workshop will conclude with the organisers summarising the main outcomes and the next steps.

Anticipated outcomes

We envision different outcomes from the workshop, some more research-oriented and others more tangible. First, by leveraging hands-on activities on real issues related to Madeira in a co-design scenario with people from diverse backgrounds, we aim to foster unexpected reflections on the role of Citizen Science as a collaborative practice for transformative change. These new insights and discussions will be collected to shape a research agenda for HCI researchers and practitioners exploring CS that could be published as a white paper. Second, we will gather the tangible outputs, aiming to present the results in a co-created pictorial that could be submitted to DIS 2026. During the workshop, participants will use tangible materials to reflect on Citizen Science challenges and real-world issues in Madeira, creating physical representations of proposed solutions. This process will combine material making—where participants will use available materials to construct a ‘machine’ that addresses the given prompt— with data physicalization, the practice of mapping data to physical form. Finally, we hope to inspire new ways of thinking and exploring Citizen Science while fostering a community of interested individuals for future collaborations and opportunities.

Important Dates

Contributions submission deadline: June 30, 2025 (extended - until full capacity is reached)

Notification of acceptance: notifications are sent upon receiving the contribution.

Workshop (at DIS 2025): July 05, 2025