Portfolio Juho-Pekka Mäkipää

PORTFOLIO

Juho-Pekka Mäkipää

1/2024

SHORT BIOGRAPHY

Juho-Pekka Mäkipää, PhD is a University Lecturer in Information Systems at the School of Technology and Innovations at the University of Vaasa, Finland. His research interest is in human factors (bio, psycho, social) in socio-technical human-computer interaction and information systems/ human-computer interact artefact design. He is keenly interested in multi-disciplinary research in the research areas of accessibility, user experience, co-creative innovation, and digital artefact design.

RESEARCH ACHIEVEMENTS

Peer-reviewed journals and conference articles:

1. Mäkipää, Juho-Pekka. 2023.” Explaining Accessibility: Possible Variables in Users’ Abilities, Tasks and Contexts in IT Artefact Use”. AIS Transactions on Human-Computer Interaction 15(4).
2. Mäkipää, Juho-Pekka and Tero Vartiainen. “How to Incorporate Accessibility to Design Principles for IS Artefacts?” Proceedings of the 33rd International Conference on Information Modelling and Knowledge Bases EJC 2023.
3. Mäkipää, Juho-Pekka and Tero Vartiainen. “Understanding Motivations and Challenges in Accessibility Development”. 14th Scandinavian Conference on Information Systems. 13.
4. Mäkipää, Juho-Pekka, Johanna Norrgård, and Tero Vartiainen. “Factors Affecting the Accessibility of IT Artifacts: A Systematic Review.” Communications of the Association for Information Systems 51:666–702. doi: 10.17705/1CAIS.05129.
5. Dang, Duong, Juho-Pekka Mäkipää, Teemu Mäenpää, and Tomi Pasanen. “Exploration of Ideas for Sustaining Digital Innovation Management: A Case Study in the Ostrobothnia Region of Finland”. AMCIS 2022 Proceedings.
6. Mäkipää, Juho-Pekka, and Suvi Isohella. “Designing Heuristics for Accessible Online Text Production.” Scandinavian Journal of Information Systems 34(1):35.
7. Dang, Duong, Teemu Mäenpää, Juho-Pekka Mäkipää, and Tomi Pasanen. “The Anatomy of Citizen Science Projects in Information Systems.” First Monday 27(10). doi: 10.5210/fm.v27i10.12698.
8. Mäkipää, Juho-Pekka, Duong Dang, Teemu Mäenpää, and Tomi Pasanen. “Citizen Science in Information Systems Research: Evidence From a Systematic Literature Review.” Proceedings of the 53rd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. https://hdl.handle.net/10125/64311

Peer-reviewed book chapters:

1. Mäkipää, Juho-Pekka and Isohella, Suvi. 2023. “Implementation of the Online Text Accessibility Heuristics” in Carmen Pena-Díaz (Eds.), The Making of Accessible Audiovisual Translation, (pp.127-143) Peter Lang. Lausanne, Berlin, Bruxelles, Chennai, New York, Oxford.
2. Mäkipää, Juho-Pekka and Paloneva, Marja-Sisko. 2019. “Oppimateriaalien ja lukiapuvälineiden saavutettavuus” in Takala, Marjatta and Leila Kairaluoma (Eds.), Lukivaikeudesta lukitukeen, (pp. 176-197) Gaudeamus.

Other publications intended for professional communities:

1. Mäkipää, Juho-Pekka. 2023. “Accessibility of self-service technologies in Japan and Finland” https://blogs.uwasa.fi/visitingscholars/accessibility-of-self-service-technologies-in-japan-and-finland/
2. Mäkipää, Juho-Pekka. 2023. ”Saavutettavuus on kaikkien asia” [Accessibility Concerns All]. Datero blogi. https://www.datero.fi/saavutettavuus-on-kaikkien-asia/
3. Mäkipää, Juho-Pekka. 2020. “Kansalaistiedettä edistämässä Havaijilla” [Promoting Citizen Science in Hawaii]. Tivia News. https://tietotekniikantutkimussaatio.fi/2020/08/06/kansalaistiedetta-edistamassa-havaijilla/

Presentations:

1. Mäkipää, Juho-Pekka. “Information Accessibility in Learning”. International Conference on ICT for Information Accessibility in Learning (ICT4IAL), Riga, Latvian. Video presentation. https://www.ict4ial.eu/presentation-juho-pekka-m%C3%A4kip%C3%A4%C3%A4
2. Mäkipää, Juho-Pekka. “Understanding Motivations and Challenges in Accessibility Development”. 14th Scandinavian Conference on Information Systems. Porvoo, Finland. 2023.
3. Mäkipää, Juho-Pekka. “Accessibility of self-service technologies in Japan and Finland”. VME Interaction Design Environment community. Vaasa, Finland. 2023.
4. Isohella, Suvi. and Mäkipää, Juho-Pekka. ”Applying accessibility heuristics in university teaching”. 11th Université Paris Cité International Conference on Technical Communication. Paris, France. 2023.
5. Mäkipää, Juho-Pekka. “Citizen Science in Information Systems Research: Evidence From a Systematic Literature Review.” 53rd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. Maui, USA. 2020.
6. Mäkipää, Juho-Pekka. “Kognitiivinen saavutettavuus [Cognitive Accessibility]”. Finland Association for Computing Machinery Special Interest Group on Human-Computer Interaction – SIGCHI Finland, annual seminar. Online. 2020 (Invited Speaker)
7. Mäkipää, Juho-Pekka. ”Information Accessibility”. Tampere University of Applied Sciences. Tampere, Finland. 2016. (Invited Speaker)
8. Mäkipää, Juho-Pekka. ”Information Accessibility”. Kokkola University Consortium Chydenius. Kokkola, Finland. 2016. (Invited Speaker)
9. Mäkipää, Juho-Pekka. ”e-Business for Pharmacy Industry”. Helsinki, Finland. 2016. (Invited Speaker)

List of research grants:

 Research funding received from external organizations as principal investigator:

1. Visiting Researcher, Tokyo University of Science, 1.6-30.6.2023, The Scandinavia Japan Sasakawa Foundation
2. AIKO CS3-Innovation (Citizens as innovators in smart specialization and open innovation, CS3-Innovation), 1.9.2017-30.10.2018 The Regional Council of Ostrobothnia
3. Research observation project, ICT in Education at KEIO Futsubu School, Yokohama, Japan. 2014. The Scandinavia Japan Sasakawa Foundation

Committee activity in academic society or government:

• Member of Programme Coordination Committee, International Conference on Information Modelling and Knowledge Bases EJC
• Member of Accessibility Working Group, University of Vaasa
• Member of W3C Nordic Accessibility Community Group
• Member of Association for Information Systems
• Mentoring teacher, the School of Technology and Innovation, University of Vaasa. 2023
• Digimentor, the School of Technology and Innovation, University of Vaasa. 2019
• Reviewer, Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences 2019- ongoing
• Reviewer, Information systems research seminar in Scandinavia IRIS2019. 2019

DESIGN CONTRIBUTIONS

Collaboration with industry:

• Nominated as Accessibility Specialist, Datero association – ICT-center for people with special needs, Vaasa, Finland. 2018
• Design and development of MOOC course platform for ReadAloud tools and teaching for Finnish compulsory school teachers, Applying and management funding from Finnish National Agency for Education. Datero association – ICT-center for people with special needs. Vaasa, Finland. 2021-2022 https://www.datero.fi/smaly-fi/
• Design and development of MOOC course platform for Accessible learning materials, Training for Finnish vocational school teachers. Applying and management funding from Finnish National Agency for Education. Datero association – ICT-center for people with special needs. Vaasa, Finland. 2020-2021 https://www.datero.fi/smaly-fi/lukimooc
• Design and development of short-course and accessible learning material platform for Finnish compulsory school teachers. Applying and management funding from Finnish National Agency for Education. Datero association – ICT-center for people with special needs. Vaasa, Finland. 2019-2020 https://www.somat.fi/
• Training for special teachers of development of ICT-accessibility and accessible learning. Digital Horisont (EU). Applying and management funding from European Social Fund. Datero association – ICT-center for people with special needs. Vaasa, Finland. 2015-2018
• Design of Finland Japan Culture and Education Website. 2013 https://www.fjce.fi/

Collaboration with government:

• Vice member of Rights of Learning Advisory Board. The Finnish Diverse Learners´ Association
• 2015 Representative in ICT for Information Accessibility in Learning – conference in Riga, Latvian. Nominated by Finnish National Agency for Education

LABS

My teaching includes leading labs, course design, learning design, creation and development of learning materials, and lecturing the following courses.

Accessibility Labs: heuristics evaluation, accessibility development, information accessibility

• 2020-2023 Web Content Accessibility, 5 ECTS Course, University of Vaasa, Finland
• 2022-2023 Digital Communication in Dispersed Working Environment, 5 ECTS, University of Vaasa, Finland

Usability Labs: heuristics evaluation, user studies, eye-tracking studies

• 2014-2023 Introduction to Human Computer Interaction, 5 ECTS
• 2017 Analysis and Design of Human Computer Interaction, 5 ECTS, University of Vaasa, Finland

User Experience Labs: co-creation workshops, UX evaluation and development

• 2020-2023 User Experience (UX), 5 ECTS Course, University of Vaasa, Finland
• 2018-2020 Service Design, 5 ECTS Course, University of Vaasa, Finland

System Design and Development Labs: System Design Life Cycle, Design of e-Commerce platforms/Websites

• 2014-2023 Development of Information System, 5 ECTS, University of Vaasa, Finland
• 2014-2019 Introduction to E-business, 5 ECTS, University of Vaasa, Finland

Other teaching experience:

As an educator, I have received 75 ECTS credits in pedagogical education. Before current university lecturer position, I worked as a university teacher for nine years gaining teaching experience in the field of information systems, computer science, and human-computer interaction. I have supervised around 30 master’s theses in information systems and technical communication. I have specialized in human factors in computing systems, information technology artifact design and development, and accessible content and information design. I have been a responsible person and lecturer of the following bachelor, and master-level courses: Web Content Accessibility, User Experience (UX), Introduction to Human Computer Interaction, Development of Information System, Digital Communication in Dispersed Working Environment, Service Design, Analysis and Design of Human Computer Interaction, Course in e-Commerce, Web Analytics, Software testing, Bachelor’s Thesis Seminar, Using computer, Introduction to E-business, Advanced Spreadsheet Systems, Data Processing, Theory, Propositional Logic, Management Information Systems, Databases, Information Security. Open University Courses (University of Vaasa): 2019 Introduction to Human Computer Interaction, 5 ECTS, 2018 Introduction to E-business, 5 ECTS, 2017 Development of Information System, 5 ECTS.

Visitor lectures: 2016 Information Accessibility. Tampere University of Applied Sciences, Finland. 2016 Information Accessibility. Kokkola University Consortium Chydenius, Finland. 2015-2016 Word, Excel, Powerpoint courses, Laihia High School, Laihia town. Finland. 2015 e-Business for pharmacy. University of Helsinki, Finland

Training for practitioners: 10.-18.3.2021 ‘Accessibility’, Audience: staff of study and teaching services (n=20), University of Vaasa. 16.9.2021 ‘Accessibility in education’, Audience: teachers (n=173), Vamia vocational school, Vaasa. 2.11.2021 ’Accessibility’, Audience: staff of study and teaching services (n=28), Novia University of Applied Science, Vaasa. 4.11.2021 ’Learning materials for all – Accessibility and assistive technologies for reading and writing’, Audience: teachers in pre-primary and basic education (n=52), Regional State of Administrative Agency, Online. 11.11.2021 ’Learning materials for all – Accessibility and assistive technologies for reading and writing’, Audience: teachers in secondary education (n=63), Regional State of Administrative Agency, Online. 10.12.2021 ’Accessible learning environments’ Audience: Library workers (n=17), Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences, Online. 2015-2018 Training for special teachers of development of ICT-accessibility and accessible learning. Digital Horisont (EU). Pietarsaari.

SUMMARY OF PREVIOUS RESEARCH AND FUTURE PLAN

My long-term research interest is to gain an in-depth understanding of human factors (bio, psycho, social) in socio-technical human-computer interaction and information systems artifact design c.f. ‘digital accessibility’. My research stands for ‘digital accessibility’ which is defined as a human right (United Nations, 2006) that describes the extent to which users, regardless of their limits on human abilities, can use information technology (IT) artifacts such as applications, user interfaces, and websites. The complex nature of human abilities, a complex concept of accessibility including the interaction and access between human and computer offers an interesting and meaningful research area that still aims to a simple extent: IT artifacts should be built such that people can use them. Due to assistive technology, potential accessibility barriers become even more complex to understand because in these cases human natural senses are augmented. Furthermore, the features of the users’ task, and the context of use affect user’s abilities.

My research interest lies in a cross-section of human-computer interaction, information systems, computer science, psychology, cognitive science, and human factors engineering. I am keenly interested in multi-disciplinary research drawing different aspects to build an accessible and inclusive digital world.

In a high-level my research interest focuses on the following areas:

• Development of fundamental theories of human-computer/technology interaction with a focus on human abilities
• Factors related to the design of an accessible IT artifact
• Development of co-creative methods, techniques, and design processes related to accessibility development

In this research statement, I briefly present my prior and current research and express my future research directions.

Past research

My past studies are conducted with qualitative approaches including narrative and systematic literature reviews, and a design science research methodology comprising a participatory design and interviews. I contributed to the research streams including the theory development of the accessibility concept; an accessible text; and methodology concerning design science and citizen science. I am interested in citizen science because I see it as a potential co-creation approach to develop accessibility as it gains understanding of practical issues perceived by citizens. My studies contributed mostly to descriptive and prescriptive theory types. As an example, I developed an explaining theory of accessibility to gain an understanding of the construct of accessibility, showing possible variables of human abilities, tasks, and contexts and their relationships in IT use (Published in AIS Transactions on Human-Computer Interaction). With my co-authors, we illustrated the factors in management, development, user, and IT artifact features, including the roles and actions, and how they affect the realization of accessibility (Published in Communications of the Association for Information Systems).

I contributed to accessibility guidance to improve and support content creators’ text production and writing process of accessible online text in the web context by designing heuristics for accessible online text production (Published in Scandinavian Journal of Information Systems; and as a Book chapter in Peter Lang). For a methodological stream, I contributed improvements for design principles so that they are more adaptable to accessibility-related design science research. Studies related to citizen science developed a model for establishment and conduction of a successful citizen science project in information system development.

Current research

My current research focuses on the development of digital accessibility in the areas of theories, methodology, design, ethics, and management. I aim to contribute to sustainability and ethics in accessibility design management by investigating Web developers’ motivators and challenges, construction of social contracts in accessibility design, and ethical matters in involving users with disabilities in the accessibility design process. This stream also aims to enhance the accessibility design including an inspection of the current state of accessibility of self-service technologies in Japan and Finland and an exploration of cross-cultural differences in self-service technologies user interface design (Japan and Finland). Research focusing on the design process (participatory design) explores observed issues in user experience which extract users’ self-identified issues and self-redesigned layout that satisfy users. The stream for the development of accessibility curricula in the field of computing sciences, information systems, and HCI in higher education. This stream aims to reveal the factors that increase students’ interest in and intention to promote accessibility in their future careers, and furthermore to propose the inclusion of those in the curricula. The study demonstrates how accessibility can be integrated into the curricula and suggest a learning path on the topic of accessibility as a response to the inclusion of accessibility in the competency area of user interface design.

Further evaluation and development of accessibility heuristics developed in the past. The current study continues prior work of Mäkipää & Isohella 2022 and evaluates the proof-of-value of the presented heuristics as this is still vague. We examine and ask what the added value of the heuristics in the accessibility audit of textual web content is compared to the use of well-known WCAG guidelines.

Future research

“Human Factors in Digital Artifact Design”  My future research continues to gain an in-depth understanding of humanity (abilities and disabilities) in human-computer interaction but takes it further to human-technology symbiosis, moreover relationship, including the interaction with physical IT artifacts (augmentations) as well as artificial IT artifacts (artificial augmentations) in the digitalized world. I based my research on biopsychosocial theories for modeling human abilities, disabilities, their variations, and severities in the socio-technical context. I am also interested in examining accessibility factors in human-environment interaction (digital environment) since interaction with technology can be more than interaction with a single IT artifact. Technological augmentations, smart and autonomous environments compose a digital environment where the interaction between humans and technology becomes naturally implicit. This should be, however, designed concerning diversity in human functional operations. In the case of human-technology symbiosis and human-environment interaction there is an emerging need to investigate how should computer output media be formalized to match users’ varying abilities in sensory perception, how should computer input modalities be designed to match users’ varying abilities in functional operation channels, and how should information be expressed through computer output media so that users with varying abilities, especially cognitive abilities can understand and use it.

The next venue for accessibility and multimodality research should address the level of abilities and how far technology can be developed to support users with severe disabilities and their autonomous IT use. This should be examined by mapping the human into socio-technical contexts including human abilities, tasks, cultural (as well as cross-cultural) factors, and interaction to investigate how the design solutions for a target audience influence others. Do the solutions that benefit some target groups always benefit other target groups, as it is argued, or are there any contradictions? The creation of accessible IT artifacts requires more than prior knowledge. This is because every IT artifact has certain tasks and contexts of use. Approaches to eliciting user requirements such as user participation contain also more than just eliciting users’ actual needs. It involves the possibility of detecting innovations to tackle accessibility problems and identifying new realistic possibilities to create a better experience for actual use. Citizen science refers to a process whereby individuals with various backgrounds participate in research projects. These participants, or citizen scientists, who may not have any professional training, are volunteers who take part in research activities in various phases of the IT artifact design project life cycle. They may participate in resource gathering, research question definition, and various forms of data collation including categorization or transcription, data analysis, dissemination of results, and evaluation of the success of a project. Therefore, citizen science can be seen as a potential co-creation approach, yet less studied, for designing accessibility as it also contributes to the development of design processes, innovations, and understanding of cross-cultural factors. Quite often citizen science can be a vehicle to make citizens more scientifically literate, thereby it advances to life-long learning, which is highly valued in our modern society.