Contravision

Abstract

How can we best explore the range of users' reactions when developing future technologies that may be controversial, such as personal healthcare systems? Our approach -- ContraVision -- uses futuristic videos, or other narrative forms, that convey either negative or positive aspects of the proposed technology for the same scenarios. We conducted a user study to investigate what range of responses the different versions elicited. Our findings show that the use of two systematically comparable representations of the same technology can elicit a wider spectrum of reactions than a single representation can. We discuss why this is so and the value of obtaining breadth in user feedback for potentially controversial technologies.