NWT RESEARCH DATABASE

Regions: Inuvialuit Settlement Region

Tags: digital storytelling, digital storytelling, mobile application, intergenerational storytelling

Objective(s): The overarching objective of this study is to investigate, co-create, and evaluate an intergenerational digital storytelling mobile application for the Inuvialuit Settlement communities in order to facilitate Indigenous intergenerational knowledge exchange, preservation, and access among the Inuvialuit Elders and youth and to support digital literacy and inclusion, and language learning and revitalization.

Project Description: This licence has been issued for the scientific research application No. 6063. The overarching objective of this study is to investigate, co-create, and evaluate an intergenerational digital storytelling mobile application for the Inuvialuit Settlement communities in order to facilitate Indigenous intergenerational knowledge exchange, preservation, and access among the Inuvialuit Elders and youth and to support digital literacy and inclusion, and language learning and revitalization. Specific objectives of this project will include: Firstly, it will establish a novel community-driven participatory design methodology involving Inuvialuit Elders and youth for developing a mobile intergenerational digital storytelling application, Secondly, co-designing, prototyping, and co-developing said application, Thirdly, conducting a community-driven usability evaluation of the mobile intergenerational digital storytelling application and its audio-video functionalities with Elders and youth, Finally, gaining insight into the perspectives and experiences of Elders and youth in intergenerational digital storytelling Informed by Indigenous and community-based research methodologies, this study will adopt ethnography and participatory design to investigate, co-create, and evaluate an intergenerational digital storytelling (DST) mobile application for the Inuvialuit Settlement communities. Ethnography will be employed to conduct observation and interviews, and open houses in the Inuvialuit Cultural Centre (ICC) in Inuvik. Specific ethnographic and participatory research tools include: interviews and conversations, focus groups, oral histories, participant observation, and site visits. These methods will be agreed upon and adjusted in collaboration with community collaborators, and as such, will be used to understand complex cultural information and issues in local context. Co-design, which is a type of participatory design methodology, requires that design processes be generally iterative in nature. The research team will use a variety of methods to increase opportunities for community input. Participatory design will be adopted in three stages, namely: a) Initial development of the conceptual design behind the mobile application, b) Discovery process to clarify user goals and agree on the outcome of the project, c) Prototyping, to iteratively shape and co-design the mobile application with youth and elders in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region (ISR) community members, and to conduct a user-centered evaluation of the resulting application. At an early stage of the project, an open-house event followed by a number of focus group conversations will be held in close collaboration with the ICC in Inuvik. The purpose is to engage specially Elders and youth community members in order to gather and analyze user needs and requirements, to elicit information about the idea of a digital storytelling (DST) mobile application, and how audio-visual capabilities can be designed to capture stories. As part of this multi-method community consultation process, community members will be shown items in the Inuvialuit Digital Library (https://inuvialuitdigitallibrary.ca/) to evaluate various mobile applications. Given that the ISR communities are already familiar with and make regular use of the Digital Library, specific oral and family history and language materials will be shown to community members to encourage and provide storytelling opportunities and informal conversations. Situational observation of their interactions within the natural setting will be conducted and cultural and interactive nuances of Indigenous intergenerational storytelling will be recorded by researchers. In particular, community Elders, youth and the IRC language instructors will be involved to suggest DST features and functionalities as a basis for designing a prototype mobile application. Following community consultation and input, the project team will create a prototype mobile application to use as a basis for the discussion and gathering feedback. The prototyping stage will ensure the iterative and inclusive design and evaluation of the user interface in close collaboration with community members. The prototype will be designed using both paper-based and digital techniques to allow the Elders and youth to comfortably comment, critique, and evaluate the suitability of the mobile application features and functionalities. Widgets, text fields, and textual elements of the application will be translated into Inuvialuktun language dialects through collaboration with, and employment of, local translators (such as Inuvialuit elders). Evaluation is an iterative and ongoing part of participatory user interface design and development. The user-centered design and agile mobile application development framework will be used to ensure dynamic and incremental development of the mobile application and its flexibility for making changes and improvement. Evaluation of various mobile applications from participants will give the foundations to create a prototype of the mobile application. This prototype of the application will be designed to allow the Elders and youth to comfortably comment, critique, and evaluate the suitability of the mobile application features and functionalities in later workshops. To maximize the participation of members from all ISR communities, workshops will be held in conjunction with ICC language revitalization and trades workshops, and community events such as Inuvialuit Summer Literacy camps and Inuvialuit Day. Participants will complete a number of storytelling and commenting user tasks that will contribute to the usability of the prototype mobile application. They will be asked to record short (2-5 minutes) and medium-length (10-20 minutes) stories to test the performance and functionality of mobile applications. They will be asked to comment about their interaction experience, the ease of learning, the ease of use of the application, and possible improvements that need to be made. Observation notes will be recorded during the user interaction with the mobile application. Based on user input and observations, final improvements will be made to the application to complete the development process. Another open-house community workshop will be held to evaluate the final iteration of the mobile application using a select number of individuals that would consist of elders, college students, Inuvialuit language teachers, and ICC staff members. Results will be communicated iteratively during the project through community presentations, open houses, and workshops in the communities. Pre-prints of academic publications will be uploaded to an open repository (ERA at the University of Alberta Library) and linked to the project website. The real-time audio-recording digital mobile application will be available to the community and be available to be accessed publicly. The Inuvialuit Cultural Centre will have long term control of the mobile application, and though publicly available, unrestricted access will be determined by the ICC. The fieldwork for this study will be conducted from: December 31 - December 31, 2025