Preparing for the Unexpected: Community Framework for Social Media Use and Social Support by Trail Thru-Hikers

Integrating Social Media into the Design Process

“…We believe social media is a powerful resource to support HCI design and research in the age of remote life, as people use these platforms to keep in touch, update their information, and share their stories/experiences. Although HCI researchers and designers have been using social media to help them in various ways (e.g., preparing for conducting different research methods) and for different purposes (e.g., understanding online communities, exploring users' opinions) [14,21,27], we believe that social media research/analysis should be considered more as a supplement design or research tool through tighter integration with traditional research methods (e.g., interviews, focus groups) to validate, enhance, and guide HCI-related studies. Therefore, a social media analysis tool in design research is worth exploring with stakeholders, practicing designers, researchers, students, and educators.…”

“…Social media platforms are progressively being integrated into people's everyday lives. People use social media platforms for different reasons, including delivering messages [20], collaborating with others on a common interest [15], creating an online community [14], marketing and advertising products [3], sharing and presenting their opinions [19], and so on. As a result, HCI researchers are interested in exploring rich data on a large scale in social media platforms.…”

“…The following sections will provide some driving examples of leveraging social media through designing the research process and discusses the concerns linked with using and analyzing social media data. Social media has been increasingly adopted in outdoor activities such as hiking and camping for planning and preparing, communicating on the trail, and sharing individual experiences [14]. In our ongoing study of technology for sustainable trail management on the Appalachian Trail (AT), a preliminary social media analysis has helped identify various themes of hikers' discussion and understand their priorities and concerns around sustainable practices.…”

“…Organizations might post similar content on different platforms to reach wider audiences, while individual users' posts could be guided by the type of platform. For example, hikers are observed to use Reddit for pre-hike preparation and planning [14] and Instagram to share during-and post-hike experiences. Centralizing the information in the case of organizations is redundant while it could be useful in the case of individuals, although the scale of data processing remains questionable.…”

“…HCI researchers and designers leveraged social media platforms as a rich medium to conduct research, and design practices [2,10]. Prior studies represented the potential of social media in conducting online focus groups [15], influencing topical, emotional, and rhetorical behavior in a broad audience [23], gathering user perceptions and trends [7,14,18], and inspiring ideas for future design [21].…”