A traditional kiln, at 50 feet the largest and one of the oldest in the country (built in 1927), in SheYao Park in Shuili, Taiwan. Photographed during field research on craft, culture, and technology.

CRIT (Cultural Research in Technology) is a Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and Interaction Design research group that brings cultural theory to the design of interactive technologies; critiques interactive technologies with regard to their socio-cultural impacts (good and bad); and investigates users, use-situations, and technologies where culture is strongly implicated in the success of the technology.

Past and active HCI research topics include aesthetic interaction, craft, creativity support, critical design, design activism, design theory, divorce, domestic technology design, feminist HCI, HCI for development (HCI4D), intimate and sexual interaction, and virtual world collaboration, among others.

Methodologically, we deploy a critical-empirical design research approach. That is, where possible we collect empirical data using established social scientific methodologies, including content analysis, ethnography, lab-based experimental studies, feminist methodology, and interview studies. We also make use of critical-interpretative strategies from the humanities, including discourse analysis, conceptual analysis, close reading, and social/ideological critique (e.g., feminist, Marxist, postmodernist). Both scientific and critical forms of knowledge production–used together in the same project where possible–are leveraged for design insights, either to support the design of new systems and interaction or as critical design, probe, and/or research through design projects.

The group is co-directed by Jeffrey Bardzell and Shaowen Bardzell, faculty members in Human Computer Interaction Design at the Indiana University School of Informatics and Computing.