9:30AM-10:00AM
Registration & Networking (with Coffees/Teas)
10:00AM-12:30PM
[Talks] DCXplain
Session Chairs: Kyle Montague & Lauren Scott, Northumbria University.
Lightning talks on emerging digital civics and HCI related research.
12:30PM - 2:00PM
Poster Networking Session (Lunch will be provided)
2:00PM-5:00PM
[Talks] DCXplain
Session Chairs: Kyle Montague & Lauren Scott, Northumbria University.
Lightning talks on emerging digital civics and HCI related research.
5:00PM - 5:30PM
Downtime
5:30PM - Onwards
Karaoke Science and Networking
Continue the research discussions and networking and a spot of Karaoke Science over light-bites and drinks. Guests will have the opportunity to sing their research – set to classic karaoke tracks - on our new KaraokAI platform.
10:00AM - 12:30PM
[Workshop] AI for Social Good?: Exploring the challenges and opportunities for AI with VCSEs
Andrew Dow & David Clark, Northumbria University
In this half-day workshop, members of VCSEs and academics will come together to discuss their current knowledge and use of AI tools in their work, exploring the potential for these tools as well as the hidden dangers. Together, we will explore what responsible AI use could and should look like in the VCSE sector, applying its potential to the social good and figuring out what is needed to make it work for people often left behind by the march of digital innovation. Along the way, we will experiment with AI tools like ChatGPT, share best practices for its use and demystify buzzwords like prompt engineering and hallucinations. Come along to find out more and take part in shaping the future of a ‘smart’ 3rd sector.
[Workshop] Building Better Together: Speculating on Collaboration through LEGO and Digital Civics
Anna Carter, Kyle Montague & Lauren Scott, Northumbria University. Colin Gray & Austin Toombs, Indiana University.
This hands-on workshop uses the LEGO Build Together app as a speculative and reflective lens for examining the dynamics of collaborative work in digital civics contexts. Participants will work in small groups to assemble a LEGO set using the app, which distributes building instructions across devices to scaffold teamwork in an interactive and interdependent way. As they build, participants will be prompted to reflect on various aspects of their collaboration—such as task distribution, project management, authorship integration, and communication—using a mix of provocations, rotating reflection prompts, and brief structured pauses for discussion.
By engaging in what we might call a participatory ethnography of their own group’s behavior, participants will generate insight into how lightweight technologies might shape or support more complex collaborations—like co-authoring academic articles, partnering with community stakeholders, or managing distributed design projects. We’ll draw connections between the tangible, embodied experience of collaborative building and the often-invisible logistical labor of coordinating collaborative work in digital civics.
The workshop will culminate in a collective sensemaking session, where we’ll map insights across the groups and speculate on new design directions for tools, practices, and organizational models that better support values-driven collaboration. This workshop aligns with ongoing funded research into digital civics and collaborative infrastructure, and will serve as a generative site for both reflection and design ideation. (LEGO kits will be provided.)
12:30PM - 1:30PM
Lunch
1:30PM - 4:00PM
[Workshop] Exploring Web Accessibility Root Causes: How Web Technologies Shape Accessibility Outcomes
Luis Carvalho, Northumbria University
Studies into the causes of web accessibility have shown that certain web technologies contribute to lower levels of accessibility. While these trends suggest a relationship between the technologies used to build websites and accessibility, the specific nature of this relationship remains unclear due to the complexity of website development and the lack of methodologies that allow us to examine how underlying web technologies might impact web accessibility. This issue has become particularly critical with the rise of legislation requiring websites to conform to specific accessibility standards, where developers must ensure not only that the website is accessible but also that the underlying web technologies they use meet these same accessibility expectations.
This workshop aims to explore how web technology can impact accessibility. In this session, we will critically examine the characteristics of technologies used to build the Web and explore how they can provide insight into potential accessibility issues prior to the development of a website. The overarching goal is to foster discussions that contribute towards creating new practices and methods to tackle the persisting inaccessibility of the Web.
9:00AM - 12:00PM
[Invitation Only] Responsible AI UK Skills Showcase
RAI UK, UKRI
📍By Invitation Only
12:30PM - 1:30PM
Lunch
1:30PM - 4:00PM
[Workshop] Uncovering AI Risk Factors Through an Epigenetic Approach
Luis Carvalho, Northumbria University.
AI technologies do not operate in isolation - they are shaped by multiple underlying factors, from data sources and training methods to deployment environments and real-world interactions. With the increasing inclusion of AI-based features in products and services across a wide variety of contexts, we required a way to understand how these incredibly complex, often opaque, systems might impact our current technological, social, and regulatory landscapes.
This workshop takes an epigenetic-inspired approach to explore potential risks associated with AI. Participants will explore how different factors can shape AI behaviour, how AI systems interact with other technologies, and what risks emerge when AI is applied in various domains. Through interactive discussions and mapping exercises, we will develop a structured way to assess AI risk factors and their broader societal impact.
10:00AM - 12:30PM
[Workshop] Access InContext: Futuring Accessible Prototyping Tools and Methods
Patricia Piedade, University of Lisbon. Peter Hayton, Newcastle University.
The popularity of accessibility research has grown recently, improving digital inclusion for people with disabilities. However, researchers, including those who have disabilities, have attempted to include people with disabilities in all aspects of design, and they have identified a myriad of practical accessibility barriers posed by tools and methods leveraged by human-computer interaction (HCI) researchers during prototyping. To build a more inclusive technological landscape, we must question the effectiveness of existing prototyping tools and methods, repurpose/retrofit existing resources, and build new tools and methods to support the participation of both researchers and people with disabilities within the prototyping design process of novel technologies. This half-day workshop at DCX2025 will provide a platform for HCI researchers, designers, and practitioners to discuss barriers and opportunities for creating accessible prototyping and promote hands-on ideation and fabrication exercises aimed at futuring accessible prototyping.
📍CIS 202, Elison Pl, Northumbria University
12:30PM - 1:30PM
Lunch
1:30PM - 4:00PM
[Presentations] DCX Project Showcase
Session Chairs: Paul Parsons, Purdue University, Colin Gray & Austin Toombs, Indiana University.
4:00PM - Onwards
Closing Discussions & Exploring Newcastle!