Toward an Actionable Socioeconomic-Aware HCI

TL;DR

This paper synthesizes research on socioeconomic status (SES) in HCI, identifying key SES facets affecting user experience and proposing a new structured method, SocioeconomicMag, to incorporate socioeconomic awareness into HCI practices.

Contribution

It introduces six evidence-based SES facets affecting user experience and presents SocioeconomicMag, a novel structured method for integrating socioeconomic awareness into HCI.

Findings

Identified six SES facets influencing user experience.

Developed SocioeconomicMag, a structured method for SES integration.

Provided actionable guidelines for socioeconomic-aware HCI practices.

Abstract

Although inequities for individuals in different socioeconomic situations are starting to capture widespread attention, less attention has been given to the socioeconomic inequities that saturate socioeconomic-diverse individuals' user experiences. To enable HCI practitioners to attend to such inequities and avoid unwittingly introducing them, in this paper we consider a wide body of research relevant to how an individual's socioeconomic status (SES) can affect their user experiences with technology. We synthesize this foundational research to produce a core set of 6 evidence-based SES "facets" (attribute types and value ranges) that directly relate to user experiences for individuals in different SES strata. We then harness these SES facets to produce actionable paths forward -- including a new structured method we call SocioeconomicMag -- by which HCI researchers and practitioners can bring new socioeconomic-aware practices into their everyday HCI work.