Finding a Home for Voice Assistants: A Domestication Calculus Across Three Years and Thirty Households HCI has explored voice assistant (VA) use across various social settings, highlighting their impact on personal and familial dynamics. Yet, the progressive domestication of these devices over time and their longer-term impact on relationships remain underexplored. We present findings from a three-year study of 30 households using interviews and diaries. Our analysis introduces the concept of a domestication calculus that captures how VAs find—or fail to find—a home over time through shifting spatial arrangements, relational roles, and household routines. Domestication unfolded not as a linear sequence of stages but as a dynamic process in which devices were either embedded into routines, withdrawn from use, or repurposed in response to changing circumstances. Across these trajectories, participants attributed four recurring roles to their VAs: (1) negotiators, (2) separators, (3) mediators, and (4) amplifiers of shared life. We conclude with implications for designing VAs that support long-term domestication.2026MAMahla Alizadeh et al.University of SiegenIntelligent Voice Assistants (Alexa, Siri, etc.)Family Collaboration & Communication TechnologyAging-in-Place Assistance SystemsCHI
Living Probes in Place: Exploring More-Than-Human Care Through MycoremediationEnvironmental crises demand HCI to shift from human-centered design to more-than-human (MTH) care. Current MTH care often focuses on singular species, overlooking the role of the place in which these care relations are situated. To address this, we turn to mycoremediation—bioremediation of soil and water with fungi. We present findings from a two-week living probe study where participants (N=12) placed and cared for a living mycelium composite in a place of their choosing. Our findings show that engaging with mycoremediation fostered stewardship, extended noticing of multispecies ecologies, and made distant places proximate. Participants’ relationships evolved from expecting feedback from the fungi (a dyadic model) towards attending to their relations with the broader place (a place-based ecological model). We contribute to Bio-HCI and MTH HCI with: 1) an empirical account of mycoremediation as a situated MTH care practice, and 2) design implications for living artifacts that foster affective, ecological connections in place.2026GOGizem N Oktay et al.Eindhoven University of TechnologyHuman-Nature Relationships (More-than-Human Design)Sustainable HCICHI
Temporal Snapshots: Probing and Designing for Subjective Time in DementiaTime is increasingly researched in HCI, yet design often remains tied to normative temporal constructs, e.g., clocks and calendars. This is especially limiting in dementia contexts, where temporal experience is altered. Existing approaches largely enforce normative time and overlook futures, prioritizing the past for people with dementia. To explore how people with dementia and their partners experience time, we designed the Temporal Snapshots probe for 12 participants to reflect on temporal subjectivity across past and future moments. The probe surfaced layered narratives. Participants articulated fluid temporal associations, anchored narratives to personally meaningful moments, and situated themselves within future and past trajectories. We contribute empirical insights into how couples experience subjective time, a dual temporal lens for HCI, design directions for reframing time in dementia contexts, and methodological reflections on researching temporality. We foreground time as relational and co-constructed, challenging assumptions of linearity and fixed orientation in interaction design.2026RKRucha Khot et al.Eindhoven University of TechnologyElderly Care & Dementia SupportEmpathy & Emotional DesignPrototyping & User TestingCHI
Conversing with Objects toward Fluid Human and Artificial Identities during Life TransitionsPeople's identities change during life transitions (e.g., studying abroad). They bring everyday objects that embody memories and reflect their identities during such moves. To assist in these transitions, we ask how people's human identities could be supported by their objects through an artificial agent. This paper presents an exploratory research-through-design study around how people undergoing life transitions experience conversing with their everyday objects through a chatbot. Drawing on a two-week field deployment of a technology probe and interviews with 12 participants, we contribute (1) a conceptualization of "trans-embodiment" describing the asynchronous imagination of object and human identities on the chatbot, (2) empirical evidence of the resulting trans-embodied emotional and reflective experiences that supported identity processes, and (3) three types of trans-embodied object identities for designing conversational agents for human-object conversations. Our contributions sum up to triangulating human-agent-object identity as trans-embodiment in supporting life transitions.2026YXYuhui Xu et al.Eindhoven University of TechnologyConversational ChatbotsAffective Human-Computer DialogueEmpathy & Emotional DesignCHI
Haptic Biosignals Affect Proxemics Toward Virtual Reality AgentsEncounters with virtual agents currently lack the haptic viscerality of human contact. While digital biosignal communication can mediate such virtual social interactions, how artificial haptic biosignals influence users’ personal space during Virtual Reality (VR) experiences is unknown. Designing vibrotactile heartbeats and thermally-actuated body temperature, we ran a within-subjects study (N=31) to investigate feedback (Thermal, Vibration, Thermal+Vibration, None) and agent stories (Negative, Neutral, Positive) on objective and subjective interpersonal distance (IPD), perceived arousal and comfort, presence, and post-experience responses. Findings showed that thermal feedback decreased objective but not subjective IPD, whereas vibrotactile heartbeats (signaling agent's closeness) increased both while heightening arousal and discomfort. Agents' stories did not affect IPD, arousal, or comfort. Our qualitative findings shed light on signal ambiguity and presence constructs within VR-based haptic stimulation. We contribute insights into artificial biosignals and their influence on VR proxemics, with cautionary considerations should the boundaries blur between physical and virtual touch.2025SOSimone Ooms et al.Utrecht University, Human-Centred Computing; Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica, Distributed & Interactive SystemsVibrotactile Feedback & Skin StimulationSocial & Collaborative VRImmersion & Presence ResearchCHI
Challenging Futures: Using Chatbots to Reflect on Aging and DementiaIntertemporal reflection, flexibly thinking forward and backward in time, is vital for one's future planning. Yet, cultivating intertemporal reflection about encountering difficult futures, e.g., developing a progressive cognitive condition like dementia, can be challenging. We assessed people's attitudes towards dementia following conversing with a chatbot presented as either neurotypical or simulating dementia symptoms. While neither the chatbot’s presentation nor the framing of participants’ future selves impacted attitudes toward dementia, it influenced participants' experiences. When framed as future selves, the chatbot evoked a strong emotional connection, leading to reflection on aging, particularly with the chatbot simulating dementia symptoms. Participants interacting with the chatbot framed as a stranger with simulated symptoms often felt frustrated, especially when they had a task-oriented mindset. Chatbots can be promising tools for prompting reflections on challenging futures, such as dementia, although their effectiveness varies due to the tensions between simulated cognitive decline and expectations for effective communication.2025RKRucha Khot et al.Eindhoven University of Technology, Industrial DesignAugmentative & Alternative Communication (AAC)Mental Health Apps & Online Support CommunitiesEmpowerment of Marginalized GroupsCHI
Seeking Truth, Comfort, and Connection: How Conversational User Interfaces can help Couples with Dementia Manage Reality DisjunctionReality disjunction, when people present contradicting worldviews as true, frequently occurs in conversations between people with dementia and their partners due to memory gaps, distortions, fabrications, or unsuccessful communication. These couples can feel isolated and frustrated when trying to reconcile their memories or diverging perceptions of the world. Conversational User Interfaces (CUIs) can be used to help people with dementia with their cognitive needs, but their role in helping with reality disjunction is unexplored. Through semi-structured interviews, we examined how six couples (composed of people with dementia and their partners) experience reality disjunction and explored CUIs' potential roles in mediating these situations through speculative designs. We found that addressing reality disjunction depended on what couples valued in their interaction. Each person may value the truth of what happened, but may let go of this when aiming for comfort, and empathise with their partner when pursuing connection. Potential roles for CUIs to help couples explore these values include helping them check and explain their memories, reducing their distress during reality disjunction, and helping people practice different responses to reality disjunction.2024YRYvon Ruitenburg et al.Conversational ChatbotsCognitive Impairment & Neurodiversity (Autism, ADHD, Dyslexia)Augmentative & Alternative Communication (AAC)CUI
Voice Assistants' Accountability through Explanatory Dialogues As voice assistants (VAs) become more advanced leveraging Large Language Models (LLMs) and natural language processing, their potential for accountable behavior expands. Yet, the long-term situational effectiveness of VAs’ accounts when errors occur remains unclear. In our 19-month exploratory study with 19 households, we investigated the impact of an Alexa feature that allows users to inquire about the reasons behind its actions. Our findings indicate that Alexa’s accounts are often single, decontextualized responses that led to users’ alternative repair strategies over the long term, such as turning off the device, rather than initiating a dialogue about what went wrong. Through role-playing workshops, we demonstrate that VA interactions should facilitate explanatory dialogues as dynamic exchanges that consider a range of speech acts, recognizing users’ emotional states and the context of interaction. We conclude by discussing the implications of our findings for the design of accountable VAs.2024FAFatemeh Alizadeh et al.Intelligent Voice Assistants (Alexa, Siri, etc.)Multilingual & Cross-Cultural Voice InteractionExplainable AI (XAI)CUI
Evolving Presentation of Self: The Influence of Dementia Communication Challenges on Everyday InteractionsCommunication can become challenging for people with dementia due to language, speech, discourse, and memory impairments. Although recent developments in Human-Computer Interaction have addressed some of these communication challenges, little is known about how they affect the self-presentation of people with dementia in everyday interactions. To understand this connection, we conducted interviews with sixteen people with dementia, six spouses, and fourteen formal caregivers. Our qualitative data revealed that people with dementia's presentation of competence, politeness, engagement, and reality are altered by communication challenges, which can impact their self-esteem, interactions, and relationships. Our study highlights the need for developing technologies that can enhance mutual understanding and acceptance of people with dementia's evolving presentation of self. Additionally, policy changes are required to reduce the stigma associated with communication challenges to foster social inclusion.2024YRYvon Ruitenburg et al.Eindhoven University of TechnologyAging-Friendly Technology DesignElderly Care & Dementia SupportCHI
Conversational Futures: Emancipating Conversational Interactions for Futures Worth WantingWe present a vision for conversational user interfaces (CUIs) as probes for speculating with, rather than as objects to speculate about. Popular CUIs, e.g., Alexa, are changing the way we converse, narrate, and imagine the world(s) to come. Yet, current conversational interactions normatively may promote non-desirable ends, delivering a restricted range of request-response interactions with sexist and digital colonialist tendencies. Our critical design approach envisions alternatives by considering how future voices can reside in CUIs as enabling probes. We present novel explorations that illustrate the potential of CUIs as critical design material, by critiquing present norms and conversing with imaginary species. As micro-level interventions, we show that conversations with diverse futures through CUIs can persuade us to critically shape our discourse on macro-scale concerns of the present, e.g., sustainability. We reflect on how conversational interactions with pluralistic, imagined futures can contribute to how being human stands to change.2021MLMinha Lee et al.Eindhoven University of TechnologyMultilingual & Cross-Cultural Voice InteractionAgent Personality & AnthropomorphismTechnology Ethics & Critical HCICHI
People May Punish, Not Blame, RobotsAs robots may take a greater part in our moral decision-making processes, whether people hold them accountable for moral harm becomes critical to explore. Blame and punishment signify moral accountability, often involving emotions. We quantitatively looked into people’s willingness to blame or punish an emotional vs. non-emotional robot that admits to its wrongdoing. Studies 1 and 2 (online video interaction) showed that people may punish a robot due to its lack of perceived emotional capacity than its perceived agency. Study 3 (in the lab) demonstrated that people were neither willing to blame nor punish the robot. Punishing non-emotional robots seems more likely than blaming them, yet punishment towards robots is more likely to arise online than offline. We reflect on if and why victimized humans (and those who care for them) may seek out retributive justice against robot scapegoats when there are no humans to hold accountable for moral harm.2021MLMinha Lee et al.Eindhoven University of TechnologySocial Robot InteractionTechnology Ethics & Critical HCICHI
Caring for Vincent: A Chatbot for Self-CompassionThe digitization of mental health care holds promises of affordable and ubiquitously available treatment, e.g., with conversational agents (chatbots). While technology can guide people to care for themselves, we examined how people can care for another being as a way to care for themselves. We created a self-compassion chatbot (Vincent) and compared between caregiving and care-receiving conditions. Care-giving Vincent asked participants to partake in self-compassion exercises. Care-receiving Vincent shared its foibles, e.g., embarrassingly arriving late at an IP address, and sought out advice. While self-compassion increased for both conditions, only those with care-receiving Vincent significantly improved. In tandem, we offer qualitative data on how participants interacted with Vincent. Our exploratory research shows that when a person cares for a chatbot, the person's self-compassion can be enhanced. We further reflect on design implications for strengthening mental health with chatbots.2019MLMinha Lee et al.Technical University of EindhovenConversational ChatbotsCHI