Carolynne Lord
Oliver Bates
Adrian Friday
ABSTRACT
Decision-making algorithms can be obscure and fast-moving. This is especially the case in the context of the algorithm that mediates the work of Deliveroo riders. Forming a critical part of the food delivery platform, the algorithm’s obscurity and shifting nature is a part of its design. In this paper we argue that adapting usability techniques like the Critical Incident Technique (CIT) may provide one way to better understand algorithms and platform work. Though there are many methods to understand algorithms like this, asking people about negative or positive interactions with them and what they think provoked them can produce fruitful avenues for HCI research into the impacts of platforms on gig-economy work. We argue that despite the results being an assumption, assumptions from the algorithmically managed are interesting materials to challenge the researchers’ own assumptions about their context, and to, therefore, better scope out contexts and iterate future research.
Supplemental Material
Available for Download
- David Akers, Matthew Simpson, Robin Jeffries, and Terry Winograd. 2009. Undo and Erase Events as Indicators of Usability Problems. In Proceedings of the 2009 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. 659–668.Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Ana Alacovska, Eliane Bucher, and Christian Fieseler. 2019. Imagination Gone Rampant or Paranoia Deserved?: An Account of Folk Tales of Algorithmic Control Among Creative Freelancers. (2019).Google Scholar
- Ali Alkhatib, Michael S Bernstein, and Margaret Levi. 2017. Examining Crowd Work and Gig Work Through the Historical Lens of Piecework. In Proceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. 4599–4616.Google ScholarDigital Library
- Oliver Bates, Carolynne Lord, Hayley Alter, Adrian Friday, and Ben Kirman. 2022. Lessons from One Future of Work: Opportunities to Flip the Gig Economy. IEEE Pervasive Computing 20, 4 (2022), 26–34.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Anders Bruun, Peter Gull, Lene Hofmeister, and Jan Stage. 2009. Let Your Users Do the Testing: A Comparison of Three Remote Asynchronous Usability Testing Methods. In Proceedings of the 2009 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. 1619–1628.Google ScholarDigital Library
- Melissa Renau Cano, Ricard Espelt, and Mayo Fuster Morell. 2021. Flexibility and Freedom for Whom? Precarity, Freedom and Flexibility in On-Demand Food Delivery. Work Organisation, Labour & Globalisation 15, 1 (2021), 46–68.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Callum Cant. 2019. Riding for Deliveroo: Resistance in the New Economy. John Wiley & Sons.Google Scholar
- Juan Carlos Alvarez de la Vega, Marta E. Cecchinato, and John Rooksby. 2021. “Why Lose Control?” A Study of Freelancers’ Experiences with Gig Economy Platforms. In Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. 1–14.Google ScholarDigital Library
- Deliveroo. n.d. About Deliveroo - The Story of Deliveroo. Retrieved January 7, 2022 from Available: https://deliveroo.co.uk/about-us#storyGoogle Scholar
- Michael A DeVito, Jeffrey T Hancock, Megan French, Jeremy Birnholtz, Judd Antin, Karrie Karahalios, Stephanie Tong, and Irina Shklovski. 2018. The Algorithm and the User: How can HCI use Lay Understandings of Algorithmic Systems?. In CHI’18 Extended Abstracts on Human factors in Computing Systems. 1–6.Google Scholar
- Laura Dove, Stephen Reinach, and Irwin Kwan. 2016. Lightweight Journey Mapping: The Integration of Marketing and User Experience Through Customer Driven Narratives. In CHI’16 Extended Abstracts on Human factors in Computing Systems. 880–888.Google Scholar
- Motahhare Eslami, Karrie Karahalios, Christian Sandvig, Kristen Vaccaro, Aimee Rickman, Kevin Hamilton, and Alex Kirlik. 2016. First I” like” it, then I Hide It: Folk Theories of Social Feeds. In Proceedings of the 2016 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. 2371–2382.Google ScholarDigital Library
- Motahhare Eslami, Aimee Rickman, Kristen Vaccaro, Amirhossein Aleyasen, Andy Vuong, Karrie Karahalios, Kevin Hamilton, and Christian Sandvig. 2015. ” I Always Assumed that I Wasn’t Really that Close to [her]” Reasoning about Invisible Algorithms in News Feeds. In Proceedings of the 2015 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. 153–162.Google Scholar
- John C Flanagan. 1954. The Critical Incident Technique.Psychological Bulletin 51, 4 (1954), 327.Google Scholar
- Karen Gregory. 2021. ‘My Life is More Valuable than this’: Understanding Risk Among On-Demand Food Couriers in Edinburgh. Work, Employment and Society 35, 2 (2021), 316–331.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Karen Gregory and Miguel Paredes Maldonado. 2020. Delivering Edinburgh: Uncovering the Digital Geography of Platform Labour in the City. Information, Communication & Society 23, 8 (2020), 1187–1202.Google ScholarCross Ref
- H Rex Hartson, José C Castillo, John Kelso, and Wayne C Neale. 1996. Remote Evaluation: The Network as an Extension of the Usability Laboratory. In Proceedings of the 1996 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. 228–235.Google ScholarDigital Library
- Ursula Huws. 2020. The Algorithm and the City: Platform Labour and the Urban Environment. Work Organisation, Labour & Globalisation 14, 1 (2020), 7–14.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Mohammad Hossein Jarrahi and Will Sutherland. 2019. Algorithmic Management and Algorithmic Competencies: Understanding and Appropriating Algorithms in Gig Work. In International Conference On Information. Springer, 578–589.Google Scholar
- Katherine C Kellogg, Melissa A Valentine, and Angele Christin. 2020. Algorithms at Work: The New Contested Terrain of Control. Academy of Management Annals 14, 1 (2020), 366–410.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Elizabeth A Kensinger. 2009. Remembering the Details: Effects of Emotion. Emotion Review 1, 2 (2009), 99–113.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Rob Kitchin. 2017. Thinking Critically About and Researching Algorithms. Information, Communication & Society 20, 1 (2017), 14–29.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Min Kyung Lee, Daniel Kusbit, Evan Metsky, and Laura Dabbish. 2015. Working with Machines: The Impact of Algorithmic and Data-Driven Management on Human Workers. In Proceedings of the 2015 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. 1603–1612.Google ScholarDigital Library
- Caitlin Lustig, Katie Pine, Bonnie Nardi, Lilly Irani, Min Kyung Lee, Dawn Nafus, and Christian Sandvig. 2016. Algorithmic Authority: The Ethics, Politics, and Economics of Algorithms that Interpret, Decide, and Manage. In CHI’16 Extended Abstracts on Human factors in Computing Systems. 1057–1062.Google ScholarDigital Library
- Wendy E Mackay and Anne Laure Fayard. 1999. Video Brainstorming and Prototyping: Techniques for Participatory Design. In CHI’99 Extended Abstracts on Human factors in Computing Systems. 118–119.Google Scholar
- Bella Martin and Bruce Hanington. 2012. Universal Methods of Design: 100 Ways to Research Complex Problems. Develop Innovative Ideas, and Design Effective Solutions (2012), 12–13.Google Scholar
- Julie B Morrison, Peter Pirolli, and Stuart K Card. 2001. A Taxonomic Analysis of What World Wide Web Activities Significantly Impact People’s Decisions and Actions. In CHI’01 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems. 163–164.Google Scholar
- Jeremias Prassl. 2018. Humans as a Service: The Promise and Perils of Work in the Gig Economy. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
- Emilee Rader and Rebecca Gray. 2015. Understanding User Beliefs about Algorithmic Curation in the Facebook News Feed. In Proceedings of the 2015 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. 173–182.Google ScholarDigital Library
- Janice Redish, Randolph G Bias, Robert Bailey, Rolf Molich, Joe Dumas, and Jared M Spool. 2002. Usability in Practice: Formative Usability Evaluations – Evolution and Revolution. In CHI’02 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems. 885–890.Google Scholar
- Lizzie Richardson. 2020. Platforms, Markets, and Contingent Calculation: The Flexible Arrangement of the Delivered Meal. Antipode 52, 3 (2020), 619–636.Google Scholar
- Matthew Taylor, Greg Marsh, Diane Nicol, and Paul Broadbent. 2017. Good Work: The Taylor Review of Modern Working Practices. Technical Report. Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. Retrieved January 7, 2022 from Available: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/627671/good-work-taylor-review-modern-working-practices-rg.pdfGoogle Scholar
- Peter Timko and Rianne van Melik. 2021. Being a Deliveroo Rider: Practices of Platform Labor in Nijmegen and Berlin. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 50, 4 (2021), 497–523.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Geke Van Dijk, Shailey Minocha, and Angus Laing. 2006. Multi-Channel Consumer Behavior: Online and Offline Travel Preparations. In CHI’06 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems. 1457–1462.Google Scholar
- Julie Wagner and Wendy Mackay. 2010. Exploring Sustainable Design with Reusable Paper. In Proceedings of the 2010 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. 1871–1874.Google ScholarDigital Library
- Facility Waters and Jamie Woodcock. 2017. Far From Seamless: a Workers’ Inquiry at Deliveroo. Viewpoint Magazine (Sep 2017).Google Scholar
- Martin Wiener, W Cram, and Alexander Benlian. 2021. Algorithmic Control and Gig Workers: A Legitimacy Perspective of Uber Drivers. European Journal of Information Systems(2021), 1–23.Google Scholar
- Jamie Woodcock. 2020. The Algorithmic Panopticon at Deliveroo: Measurement, Precarity, and the Illusion of Control. Ephemera 20, 3 (2020), 67–95.Google Scholar
Recommendations
The use of interface agents for email notification in critical incidents
This study reports on several typical scenarios of the use of email notification interface agents under the influence of critical incidents. An interface agent is a reactive, collaborative, and autonomous visual computational system, which communicates ...
Motivated to Work or Working to Stay Motivated: A Diary and Interview Study on Working From Home
CSCWWorking from home has become common practice for many, especially since the global pandemic has forced many office workers to relocate their work spaces to a home environment. While working from home can have benefits, it requires self-discipline and ...
An Exploration of the User Experience of Mobile Mental Health Apps Using the Critical Incident Technique
Although mobile applications are increasingly being used as a viable option for improving individuals' psychological health, there is a lack of research in this area. This qualitative study analysed user experiences of mobile mental health ...
Comments