What do volunteers want from citizen science technologies? A systematic literature review and best practice guidelines

Abstract

Although hundreds of citizen science applications exist, there is lack of detailed analysis of volunteers' needs and requirements, common usability mistakes and the kinds of user experiences that citizen science applications generate. Due to the limited number of studies that reflect on these issues, it is not always possible to develop interactions that are beneficial and enjoyable. In this paper we perform a systematic literature review to identify relevant articles which discuss user issues in environmental digital citizen science and we develop a set of design guidelines, which we evaluate using cooperative evaluation. The proposed research can assist scientists and practitioners with the design and development of easy to use citizen science applications and sets the basis to inform future Human-Computer Interaction research in the context of citizen science.

Storytelling for narrative approaches in citizen science: towards a generalized model

“…Tools of storytelling and narratives have been applied in citizen science, i.e. to better understand the needs and requirements of the users regarding citizen science technologies [Skarlatidou et al, 2019]. Yet, it is applied without the intention of telling a story but also as a tool to evaluate citizen science research [Constant and Roberts, 2017], i.e.…”

Smart Cities and Healthcare: A Systematic Review

“…These studies reported on smart city applications to support population surveillance, active ageing, healthy lifestyles, disabled people, response to emergencies, care services organization, and socialization. Conclusions: Most of the included articles were either of a descriptive and conceptual nature or in an early stage of development, which means that a major barrier for their dissemination is their lack of concreteness.Technologies 2019, 7, 58 2 of 16 mindedness; and smart living-quality of life of the individuals, namely health conditions, cultural and education facilities, housing quality, and touristic attractiveness.Although there is a significant number of systematic reviews related to healthcare provision supported by IT (e.g.,[6][7][8][9][10]), to the best of the authors' knowledge, systematic reviews of the literature related to the implementation of smart cities are scarce and address specific aspects (e.g., [11][12][13]). Since systematic evidence is required to inform smart city stakeholders and researchers about state of the art solutions, the systematic review reported by the present article aimed to identify the most relevant applications supported by smart city infrastructure with an impact in the provision of healthcare, which is a relevant component of smart living.…”

“…Although there is a significant number of systematic reviews related to healthcare provision supported by IT (e.g.,[6][7][8][9][10]), to the best of the authors' knowledge, systematic reviews of the literature related to the implementation of smart cities are scarce and address specific aspects (e.g., [11][12][13]). Since systematic evidence is required to inform smart city stakeholders and researchers about state of the art solutions, the systematic review reported by the present article aimed to identify the most relevant applications supported by smart city infrastructure with an impact in the provision of healthcare, which is a relevant component of smart living.…”

Maps in Citizen Science: A Preliminary Analysis of Use and User Issues

“…At present, there are hundreds of citizen science applications available which engage thousands of volunteers in the disciplines of astronomy, environmental conservation, biology, marine science, geography and many others. A relatively recent analysis of 388 citizen science projects revealed that they have been used to engage 1.3 million volunteers, contributing up to US$2.5 billion in-kind annually (Theobald et al 2015).Web 2.0 and its associated technologies, which have existed for almost 15 years now, have enabled the development of websites which supported content generation by their end users (aka crowdsourcing; Howe, 2008) and multiple interactions amongst them. Examples include web-based communities, social-networking sites, wikis, mashups, and others (Batty et al, 2010).…”

“…At present, there are hundreds of citizen science applications available which engage thousands of volunteers in the disciplines of astronomy, environmental conservation, biology, marine science, geography and many others. A relatively recent analysis of 388 citizen science projects revealed that they have been used to engage 1.3 million volunteers, contributing up to US$2.5 billion in-kind annually (Theobald et al 2015).…”