Towards user centric regulation: exploring the interface between information technology law and human computer interaction

This thesis investigates the role of technology designers in regulation. Emerging information technologies are complex to regulate. They require new strategies to support traditional approaches. We focus on the use of technology design as a regulatory tool. Whilst this solution has significant conce...

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Main Author: Urquhart, Lachlan
Format: Thesis (University of Nottingham only)
Language:English
Published: 2017
Online Access:http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/41787/
http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/41787/1/2_PDF_Final_April_Lachlan_Urquhart_Thesis_Final_29_Sept_2016.pdf
id nottingham-41787
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spelling nottingham-417872018-02-19T10:09:16Z http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/41787/ Towards user centric regulation: exploring the interface between information technology law and human computer interaction Urquhart, Lachlan This thesis investigates the role of technology designers in regulation. Emerging information technologies are complex to regulate. They require new strategies to support traditional approaches. We focus on the use of technology design as a regulatory tool. Whilst this solution has significant conceptual traction, what it means in practice is not clear. Deeper investigation of the role of the design community in regulation is necessary to move these strategies from theory into practice. We structure our analysis by asking: how can we understand the role of designers in regulation of emerging technologies? We answer this question from four primary perspectives: conceptual, legal, practical and design. We situate our investigation within the context of the domestic internet of things and information privacy by design. We adopt an overtly multidisciplinary approach, critically assessing how to bring together the human computer interaction and information technology law communities. To do this, we utilise a range of qualitative methods, including case studies, documental and legal analysis, semi structured expert interviews, questionnaires, focus groups, workshops, and development, testing and evaluation of a design tool. Our contributions are as follows: Conceptually, we provide a critical investigation of the role of technology designers in regulation by consolidating, evaluating and aligning a range of theoretical perspectives from human computer interaction (HCI) and information technology (IT) law. We draw these together through the concept of user centric regulation. This concept advocates a user focused, interaction led approach to position the role of designers in regulation. It draws on the turn to human values and societal issues in HCI, and the increasing reliance in IT law on design for regulation of emerging technologies. Legally, we present two detailed case studies of emerging technologies (domestic internet of things and smart metering) mapping the emerging legal landscape and challenges therein. We situate the role of designers, as regulators, within this space, and show how they can respond accordingly through their user centric focus. Practically, we analyse experiences from leading experts in technology design and regulation to understand the challenges of doing information privacy by design (PbD) for the IoT. We present our findings within the framing of technological, business and regulatory perspectives. Lastly, we present a design tool, ‘information privacy by design cards’, to support designers in doing PbD. This tool has been designed, tested and refined, providing us with a practical approach to doing user centric regulation. Based on our findings from using the cards, we provide the concept of regulatory literacy to clearly conceptualise the role of designers in regulation. 2017-07-18 Thesis (University of Nottingham only) NonPeerReviewed application/pdf en cc_by_nc_nd http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/41787/1/2_PDF_Final_April_Lachlan_Urquhart_Thesis_Final_29_Sept_2016.pdf Urquhart, Lachlan (2017) Towards user centric regulation: exploring the interface between information technology law and human computer interaction. PhD thesis, University of Nottingham.
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Local University
institution University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
language English
description This thesis investigates the role of technology designers in regulation. Emerging information technologies are complex to regulate. They require new strategies to support traditional approaches. We focus on the use of technology design as a regulatory tool. Whilst this solution has significant conceptual traction, what it means in practice is not clear. Deeper investigation of the role of the design community in regulation is necessary to move these strategies from theory into practice. We structure our analysis by asking: how can we understand the role of designers in regulation of emerging technologies? We answer this question from four primary perspectives: conceptual, legal, practical and design. We situate our investigation within the context of the domestic internet of things and information privacy by design. We adopt an overtly multidisciplinary approach, critically assessing how to bring together the human computer interaction and information technology law communities. To do this, we utilise a range of qualitative methods, including case studies, documental and legal analysis, semi structured expert interviews, questionnaires, focus groups, workshops, and development, testing and evaluation of a design tool. Our contributions are as follows: Conceptually, we provide a critical investigation of the role of technology designers in regulation by consolidating, evaluating and aligning a range of theoretical perspectives from human computer interaction (HCI) and information technology (IT) law. We draw these together through the concept of user centric regulation. This concept advocates a user focused, interaction led approach to position the role of designers in regulation. It draws on the turn to human values and societal issues in HCI, and the increasing reliance in IT law on design for regulation of emerging technologies. Legally, we present two detailed case studies of emerging technologies (domestic internet of things and smart metering) mapping the emerging legal landscape and challenges therein. We situate the role of designers, as regulators, within this space, and show how they can respond accordingly through their user centric focus. Practically, we analyse experiences from leading experts in technology design and regulation to understand the challenges of doing information privacy by design (PbD) for the IoT. We present our findings within the framing of technological, business and regulatory perspectives. Lastly, we present a design tool, ‘information privacy by design cards’, to support designers in doing PbD. This tool has been designed, tested and refined, providing us with a practical approach to doing user centric regulation. Based on our findings from using the cards, we provide the concept of regulatory literacy to clearly conceptualise the role of designers in regulation.
format Thesis (University of Nottingham only)
author Urquhart, Lachlan
spellingShingle Urquhart, Lachlan
Towards user centric regulation: exploring the interface between information technology law and human computer interaction
author_facet Urquhart, Lachlan
author_sort Urquhart, Lachlan
title Towards user centric regulation: exploring the interface between information technology law and human computer interaction
title_short Towards user centric regulation: exploring the interface between information technology law and human computer interaction
title_full Towards user centric regulation: exploring the interface between information technology law and human computer interaction
title_fullStr Towards user centric regulation: exploring the interface between information technology law and human computer interaction
title_full_unstemmed Towards user centric regulation: exploring the interface between information technology law and human computer interaction
title_sort towards user centric regulation: exploring the interface between information technology law and human computer interaction
publishDate 2017
url http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/41787/
http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/41787/1/2_PDF_Final_April_Lachlan_Urquhart_Thesis_Final_29_Sept_2016.pdf
first_indexed 2018-09-06T13:15:40Z
last_indexed 2018-09-06T13:15:40Z
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